NASSAU MONTHLY - FEBRUARY 2009

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NASSAU 000133 E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON ETRD PGOV PREL BF SUBJECT: NASSAU MONTHLY - FEBRUARY 2009 ¶1. This is a monthly report on a variety of topics of interest which do not merit full reporting cables. -------------- FOOTBALL AND PAGEANTRY = TOURISM -------------- ¶2. On March 2 Prime Minister Ingraham announced that the 2009 Miss Universe Pageant will be held at the Atlantis Resort in August, bringing in over 80 contestants and their entourages from around the world. In addition, The Bahamas is set to host the 59th Congress of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) at the Atlantis Resort in May/June. The GCOB is hoping the combination of brawn and beauty will bring a much needed tourism boost to the struggling island economy in coming months. -------------- BLOGGING RESULTS IN IGUANA KILLERS ARRESTED -------------- ¶3. Two American citizens were arrested in Exuma on February 3 after authorities discovered they had killed, grilled, and eaten endangered iguanas. To make matters worse, the pair was also caught with undersized conch on their vessel. Bahamian authorities got wind of the story after the visitors posted photos of their barbecue on Facebook. The photos upset many and quickly made their way from Atlantis Resort employees to the Bahamas National Trust to the Embassy and media in a matter of 24 hours. The two Americans have since been released on bail and returned to the United States. ¶4. In a separate incident on March 1, American tourists posted details of their stay at Hog Cay, including pictures of a plucked duck in a roasting pan ready for the oven, to a blog. They are suspected of trespassing on the private island, terrorizing a flock of wild ducks and slaughtering a pet duck. Bahamian police are currently investigating. -------------- CLICO MELTDOWN -------------- ¶5. More than 100 agents stand to lose their jobs as CLICO (Bahamas) Ltd, the country's largest insurance company, is liquidated. Concerns in The Bahamas were raised when Trinidad-based parent company, CL Financial, received a government bail out in January after suffering major financial losses. As the liquidator - Baker, Tilly, and Gomez - seeks a buyer, the Prime Minister encouraged all policy holders to continue making payments, even as worried peopled lined up out the door of the conglomerate to check on their policies and, in some cases, cancel existing plans. -------------- FULL HOUSE AT EMBASSY MLK ESSAY EVENT -------------- ¶6. On February 13 Embassy Nassau hosted a ceremony in honor of the winners of this year's Martin Luther King, Jr. essay competition. Post received 105 essay nominations from 19 different schools throughout The Bahamas. Two grand prize winners (one representing New Providence schools and one representing the Family Island schools) each received a laptop computer and books. The three additional winners and four honorable mentions received books on the life of MLK and President Obama. All of the prizes were generously donated by local businesses and organizations. The event was widely attended by local media and the two grand prize essays were printed in newspapers the following week. -------------- NEWSPAPER DELIVERY TO MOST OUT ISLANDS ENDS -------------- ¶7. Outer island readers of the nation's largest circulation daily, The Tribune, awoke on February 10 to a front-page story describing the end of daily air deliveries of this newspaper to most outer islands. Ironically, the beginning of online access began the same day in a PDF version (http://access.tribune242.com) to the relief of internet-savvy Bahamians and ex-pats. According to The Tribune story and subsequent editorials, Bahamasair, the much-maligned air carrier, suddenly and without previous discussion increased the shipping rates to a prohibitive level effective January 1. Service has since resumed to Freeport, the Bahamas' second-largest city, under private arrangement. -------------- RASH OF SUICIDES WORRIES BAHAMIANS -------------- ¶8. A spate of suicides and at least one very public attempted suicide - by an unemployed woman desperate for work - have provided grist to Bahamian media full of stories of economic hardship lately. Everyone seems to be weighing in on the spike in such acts, which are considered uncharacteristic for Bahamians - compared to murders or traffic fatalities, that is, which are tallied daily in standard radio news openers, dominating the headlines and airwaves on slow news days. In the socially conservative Bahamas, religious leaders too have been weighing in on what are regarded as un-Christian acts of desperation, with a number of churches banding together to provide family crisis counseling and discourage "raw materialism" and promote Christian goodwill "at this time of economic scarcity." ZUNIGA-BROWN