By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 4, 2020 — Around this time last year, I was able to turn on my television and watch my beloved Washington Nationals as they began their quest to eventually become the 2019 World Series champions, but the COVID-19 pandemic – clearly a creation of Satan, also known as the Devil and the Prince of Evil Spirits – has forced an indefinite postponement of the start of the 2020 Major League Season.
With a 24-hour lockdown being strictly enforced here in the District of Columbia, I have been vicariously enjoying memories of some of the games I saw last year, either in person or on television. I posted the photo at left on March 31, 2019, with the following caption: ·
“NATIONALS WIN FIRST GAME OF 2019 SEASON: I can’t believe that we came out of spring training with this terrible group of bullpen pitchers. It was because of our “good for nothing” bullpen last season that we did not make the playoffs. Yesterday the bullpen totally collapsed and today our relief pitchers blew a 5-2 lead. But thanks to Trea Turner, who hit a homer in the bottom of the ninth, we won the game, 6-5. Nonetheless, we are going to need a lot a luck this year to make it to the playoffs. The Philadelphia Phillies come to town Tuesday for a three-game series, and like most of the Nationals fans here in D.C. I surely hope that Bryce Harper, the former Nationals superstar who is now with the Phillies, has an unproductive series. Harper was one of my favourite Nationals players, and I have four of his shirts that I will now only wear around the house. As you can see, I got dressed up to watch us win our first game of the 2019 season.”
I live just six blocks from Nationals Stadium, and when I was able to afford to do so – during my tenure at the Embassy of The Bahamas as Press, Cultural Affairs and Information Manager – I saw as many games as I could live at the stadium. But after the change of government in May of 2017, my diplomatic contract was not renewed and the Embassy stopped paying my rent. That was almost three years ago; hence, one of the reasons why I have been experiencing financial problems over the past year, having not collected a paycheck in almost three years.
When my diplomatic tenure at the Embassy ended, I sent a proposal to the government to continue doing what I did at the Embassy through THE BROWN AGENCY, a public relations company that I started, on a contractual basis. More than a year ago, I was told by Ambassador Sidney Collie that my revised proposal had been approved. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for some reason or the other, has refused to implement it. When I contacted Minister of Foreign Affairs Darren Henfield to find out the status of my proposal, he suggested that I get in touch with Permanent Secretary Peter Deveaux-Isaacs, which I have done over and repeatedly, but he has – again for some inexplicable reason – refused to respond to my emails.
I can’t repeat this story too often because it is the main reason for my current financial difficulties, which have become extremely serious, so much so that I was forced to “bury my pride” and launch a GO FUND ME PAGE about month ago as I faced the possibility of being evicted after receiving a summons from the D.C. Superior Court to appear in Court because I did not live up to a Court-sanctioned agreement I signed during a previous court appearance on November 19, 2019 to pay my past-due rent.
The sad reality now is that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy of The Bahamas has been dealt a devastating blow, and the possibility that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will “do the right thing” and implement my proposal is highly unlikely. Meanwhile, because of the response in the District of Columbia to COVID-19, my Court case has been postponed to June 4, which I hope will give me a long enough “reprieve” to put my financial house in order.
There appears to be some “light at the end of the tunnel,” given the fact that I have a contractual arrangement with the Ministry of Tourism to assist with the overall promotion of The Bahamas, and Sarah St. George, Acting Chairman of the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA), has provided strong support over these past several months. Yet, whether I am able to pull myself out of the financial quagmire I am currently in before June still depends to a great extent to responses to my GO FUND ME APPEAL, which so far have been very disappointing. Contributions can be deposited to my Royal Bank of Canada account: 735-231-3.
