COMMENTARY: BY OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 6, 2021 — With the possibility of eviction from my apartment now a reality as a result of a D.C Superior Court Landlord/Tenant Court ruling on Wednesday, March 17, in favour of my landlord for back rent that I owe, I made an urgent public appeal last week for financial assistance, but so far the response has been woefully disappointing.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Court granted a stay of its judgment until June 1, 2021, which means that no eviction action can be taken by my landlord until after that date. Given my vast experience as a veteran journalist, I have launched a vigorous campaign among the candidates who have been ratified to run in the upcoming general election to assist in promoting their campaigns and, hopefully, I shall be able to “put my financial house in order” before June 1. At the very least, I had hoped that I could pay my monthly rent on time as well as make some sort of payment on my back rent to demonstrate that a concerted effort is being made to reduce the amount of back rent owed.
This past weekend I was mired in a state of deep depression for extended periods as it became obvious that I would miss the April 5 deadline to pay this month’s rent without incurring a late-payment fee. As a naturalized American citizen since 1982, I am eligible to receive the $1,400 stimulus check that was passed by Congress, and I was hoping that it would arrive in time to help pay this month’s rent, but it did not. However, although the response to my public appeal for financial assistance has been very disappointing, I have convinced myself that the lack of responses so far from some “good friends” in The Bahamas is because both last Friday and this past Monday were public holidays and the Royal Bank of Canada, where I have an account that I use for business transactions, was closed.
Given the gravity of my current situation, I again made a personal appeal last week to Minister of Foreign Affairs Darren Henfield to look into the status of a proposal I submitted almost three years ago that I was subsequently told by Ambassador Sidney Collie – and confirmed by Attorney General Carl Bethel – had been approved. The original proposal, which I personally presented to Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis when I was in Nassau in November of 2017 promoting my novel WOES OF LIFE, was for $4,000 a month, but that was subsequently reduced to $2,000 a month, and it is this amount that I was led to believe had been approved.
Why it was never implemented still remains a mystery, but I have been reliably informed that former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest personally blocked its implementation, presumably because of engrained animosity he developed against me as a result of a column I wrote back in 2012, in which I suggested that he made certain economic demands on both the PLP and FNM when he decided to become a political candidate. It therefore did not come as a surprise to me when he was forced to resign as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance last November after being embroiled in an alleged fraud scandal related to his part-ownership of the now defunct Sky Bahamas airline.
I don’t think Mr. Turnquest had anything to do with the Ministry of Tourism’s decision last December to discontinue the year-long contractual agreement for me to assist in promoting The Bahamas for a fee of $1,000 a month, but that decision dealt a “big blow” to my monthly budget. It actually caught me by complete surprise because I thought I was doing an excellent job promoting The Bahamas as one of the world’s leading tourist destinations.
Foreign Affairs Minister Hendfield has not yet responded to my most recent letter. Surely, with the new administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris having restored good governance to one of the world’s most powerful countries, it certainly makes good diplomatic sense that the government of The Bahamas, one of the United States’ closest neighbours, would want to demonstrate among the political elite in Washington, D.C., that although we are a country small in size, we have a stable government that has historically maintained close relations with the United States.
Given my experience as a veteran journalist who was news editor of The Washington Informer, an award-winning Black-owned newspaper for more than 12 years when I previously lived in D.C. for 21 years before returning to The Bahamas in 1996, I continue to cover Embassy-related events as well as promote The Bahamas as a premier tourist destination without monetary compensation because I love the country of my birth with the passion of a true Androsian. However, $2,000 a month on a contractual basis for doing what I did at the Embassy as Press, Cultural Affairs and Information Manager would certainly help me avoid eviction after June 1.
Those of you who have not read my novel WOES OF LIFE and would like to make a contribution by purchasing a copy, it is available on Amazon. For my friends in The Bahamas who may not have seen last week’s commentary appealing for financial assistance, my Royal Bank of Canada account number is: 05285-735-231-3.
