COMMENTARY: BY OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 28. 2024 – I am currently making plans to travel to Nassau in November to be inducted in The Bahamas Sports Hall of Fame for my contributions to the development and growth of baseball in The Bahamas. I was overjoyed when I received the good news of this distinguished honor in an email several weeks ago from Mrs. Kelsie Johnson-Sills, Director of Sports with the Bahamas Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, and immediately started making plans for what I am certain will be a memorable trip back home.
I haven’t been back home for five years, so this will indeed be memorable trip. I plan to stay in Nassau until the end of November and then I go to Freeport, Grand Bahama, where I lived for 12 years before former Prime Minister Perry Goldstone Christie appointed me as Press, Cultural Affairs and Information Manager at the Embassy of the Bahamas in 2013.
I held that position, first under Dr. Elliston Rahming and then under the late Dr. Eugene Newry, until 2017 when the Free National Movement (FNM) Government, led by Dr. Hubert Minnis, ousted the PLP from power in May of 2017 and revoked my diplomatic status.
Of course, I was no stranger to D.C., having initially relocated here in 1975 following my marriage to my first wife, Camille Brannum, a D.C. native who had a master’s degree from Howard University. After our divorce, I decided to remain in D.C. and was News Editor of The Washington Informer, an award -winning Black-owned newspaper for more than 10 years before initially returning to The Bahamas in the early 1990.
I was editor of both The Freeport New and Nassau Guardian, at different times, before being appointed Press, Cultural Affairs and Information Manager by former Prime Minister Christie in 2013, and given my background and diplomatic experience, I was absolutely shocked by the unprofessional diplomatic behavior of the current Bahamas Consul to D.C. Patrick Adderley during my efforts to renew my Bahamas passport in time for my trip to Nassau for the Bahamas Sports Hall of Fame.
When I called to speak with him, the person who answer the phone apparently transferred my call, but came back on the phone and said he said he would call me back later. When he did not call back, I called him the next day, but rather thaqn aq response from him, I received the following email:
Dear Mr. Brown,
This is a follow-up to our conversation today, October 24, 2024, regarding your confirmed passport renewal appointment.
Appointment Details:
Date: Monday 28 October 2024
Time: 2:00 PM
Location: Pillsbury Building, 1200 17th Street NW, Washington, DC
Required Documents:
Completed passport application form
Previous passport
Birth certificate
Three (3) color passport-sized photos
National Insurance Card (NIB)
Fifty (50) dollars cash application processing fee
Please ensure you have all the required documents ready for your appointment.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Kendra McPhee-Rhule (Mrs.)
Vice-Consul
Embassy Consular Annex of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas
1200 17th St. NW
Suite #200
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: 202-734-6578
Email: krhule@consulateofthebahamasdc.com
PERSONAL NOTE: Because I am confined to a wheelchair, I have a neighbor, Veron Grudon, a retired D.C. Police sergeant, who assists me in getting around and Vernon made it possible for me to attend this afternoon’s meeting. Of course, I did not have all of the mandatory items requested, like a birth certificate, but as I explained everyone who has followed my career as a journalist and participaton in in the struggle for majority rule in the 196os kno that I was born at Stanyard Creek, Andros, on March 7, 1942.
In response to my question as to when the new passport would be available, I was told that it could be expedited for $300, which I paid.
I had never met Consul General before he came to D.C., but because we are diplomatic colleagues, I think it was very unprofessional of him to not have the decency to come out of his office, if only briefly, to say hello during the almost two hours I was at the Consul General’s Office this afternoon,
