News

Press Release – Oscar O’Brien Forbes

Published

8 years ago

September 11, 2016

Providenciales, TCI, September 5^th, 2016 – When the power is restored the glory will come!

Despite of their economic struggles, our forefathers held to the hope that they would one day change their condition through determination and hard work, earning for themselves, notable achievements and high honour. We are the continuation of our ancestors, their hopes and their dreams, which naturally obligates to improve on their efforts to obtain the Glory they pursued! We are uniquely skilled to the mission given our human capacity to reflect on our past and dream of a future that is informed by the mistakes and setbacks of that past.

In the Turks and Caicos Islands our climb is steep and our struggle fierce and hard because our democracy remains under siege by the heavy handed and resentful British government who have imposed on us a ‘Constitution’ that is lacking key elements of good governance which restricts our full enjoyment of our Divine Right to freedom and the power for self-determination. This document in effect misappropriates the power of the people into the hands of technocrats – a select few – who, while they may possess some competence, they lack accountability, because they have not been elected. Therefore the document is useless!

On one hand she’s The Mother of Democracy and the other the Architect of Slavery and at every turn she denies us this Glory that we seek. This contradiction in her historical positions speaks to the schizophrenic nature of Great Britain’s approach to oversight of the Colony and the wickedness our state of dependency. But if the power is restored, the Glory will come!

We have an escalating crime rate, which has adversely impacted the quality of life of The Turks and Caicos Islander and created a climate of fear and dread. Our homes are under the constant threat of invading bandits who target our Nissan Fugas, Sankey Televisions and Acer tablets, our personal symbols of achievement in our march toward Glory. This speaker is convinced that crime is a contributing factor to our country’s plummeting travel-ratings because even our tourists are not exempt from the tyranny of lawless men whom we seem unable to deter. But if the power is restored then the Glory will come!

Flaws in our border control attract Illegal migration, a prolonged and vexing plague on our society. And while there have been some successes with interceptions and repatriations, the general feeling is that Turks and Caicos has a leaky border that allows in all sorts of other contrabands like guns, drugs, gangsters and infectious diseases, forever changing the Turks and Caicos experience. National Security is key to maintaining law and order and guaranteeing the continuance of our way of life. Government is responsible to protect the country and its citizens against all national threats. But if the power is restored, the Glory will come!

Our Public Service is challenged to meet the fundamentals of its Core Values because it is afflicted with redundancies and inefficiencies with no demonstrated ability to be proactive reactive to the growing and changing demands of the public. The Service is under resourced in technology, human assets, cogent policies, supplies and equipment all of which are required to create a public service that is professionally respected and able to serve the people with efficiency and effectiveness. The Public Service is not setup for the success of the Civil Servant, and this breeds antagonism and hatred between them and the general public. But if the power is restored, the Glory will come!

The current tax model for Turks and Caicos matches no best practice plan known to man. The haphazard nature tax hikes have proven to be, a heavy burden to existing businesses, it has endangered the middle-class and it hangs about the necks of the poor like a milestone on the head of a drowning man. The continuous indiscriminate tax hikes are and in the words of my Uncle Boogie “nothing but a down-drivement” to foreign investments! The surpluses that resulted from the fleecing of the Turks and Caicos Islands are being misrepresented, by this government, as fiscal prudence without taking into consideration the dwindling numbers of players in the economy or the threat of significant shortfalls next year – But if the power is restored, the Glory will come!

The Glory, we are toiling for, is not impossible to obtain, it is within our reach; we have had a glimpse of it before. While the gross missteps of the current regime have been a hindrance to our march to Glory, they are not alone in the struggle against us for there are fearsome giants on the landscape that also seek to undermine us:

There are Giants of special interests, who seek their selfish desires at the expense of everyone. Some come bearing treats to satisfy our immediate personal needs then work to deny us, not only the long-term gains that would result from a growing economy but also the power of self-sufficiency that makes us lords of our own destiny.

Consider the Giants of irrational emotionalism; they are the defenders of business-as-usual. They try to dull the sound of your conscience by getting loud and combative over petty issues. These behaviours corrupt good manners and expose their own fears of the very change in governance they also crave and deserve.

Then there are the Giants of political dynasties that cast long, ugly shadows of intimidation over the citizen statesmen, like me, who would dare to challenge the status quo and work with you, to usher in a new era of equal opportunity and fair play. But Giants, they die! The bigger they come the harder they fall… I am willing and ready to sling rocks at Giants…

I am aligned with that silent majority who share the belief that, when the power is restored the Glory will come! We are well able to obtain Glory without compromise while maintaining the highest moral standing. We have the strength of our conviction that Turks and Caicos is destined for greatness and we are worthy of it and we are the people to achieve it. We are driven by the fortitude and resilience of our fore parents who through sheer will and despite the British abandonment, overcame and reserved for us an inheritance, the head and not the tail, above and not beneath, a lender and not a borrower; This Glory, ladies and gentlemen, is our inheritance.

My beloved Turks and Caicos I have heard your calls for leadership that embodies our highest ideals and commands a deep respect for our rich cultural heritage. I have heard your cries for representation of your passions for a national identity that would produce a unifying national vision, because we have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. A response to your call however, will require that we all work together as a force for change to chart our course to Glory.

For all the challenges we have to our democracy, one of our greatest institutions still obtains, free and democratic elections. This is our opportunity to return the power to the people and lead the march to Glory!

I am the proud legacy of ESTHER VALERIA HALL-FORBES and FRANKLYN CYRENIUS FORBES natives of Bambarra, Middle Caicos. My parents provided a good life for their seven children, replete with religion in the Jumper tradition; a healthy appreciation for family and our cultural heritage; a sound education, good manners and the ethics of hard work. Throughout my life, these values have served me well in social and professional dealings and they showed up most notably in moments of challenge and conflict. It is these virtues I draw upon as I envision us working toward a Turks and Caicos that is United, Just and Free. Don’t change the guard now? If not now, when? For when the power is restored, the Glory will come! Wop Kon gorge!

My name is Oscar O’Brien Forbes, an All-Island Candidate in the upcoming General Elections

My fellow Turks and Caicos Islanders; We are blessed to live on the jewel of the Atlantic, which sits on the most fertile turquoise waters that continue to declare us as the envy of the world. We have also inherited, from our God fearing ancestors, brotherly love and neighbourliness, which are pillars of civilization and characteristics our Creator proclaims, are beautiful by nature. Give me an x and receive an Oscar!

News

Airports Authority aims for 24-hour airport and announces Scholarship programme

Published

17 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Deandrea Hamilton

Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, April 19, 2024 – In an attempt to move to 24-hour-a-day operations Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority (TCIAA) is steadily recruiting Air Traffic Controllers to work at the Providenciales/Howard Hamilton International Airport, according to Godfrey Smith, TCIAA CEO, reporting to the Appropriations Committee.

Speaking on April 8th Smith said a cabinet paper would be sent soon requesting six more Air Traffic Controllers to make round the clock operation at the Provo International possible and to open the airport in Grand Turk till 12 a.m.

Currently, 17 posts are filled and seven are vacant.

Smith was candid with his responses to recent industrial action from ATCs which led to resignations and firings.

“What we have to do is find systems to mitigate such actions and that has to start with filling these jobs, putting people in that want to work and doing right by people – and we always try to do right by our staff. Persons may not think that we are but we always do – we ain’t pick no fight,” he said in the meetings held at the NJS Francis building ahead of the National Budget Communication.

Smith indicated that recruitment was an issue across the board, ‘we need to find ways to recruit a little bit better’ he told the committee. Also in need of a push was capital spending or projects according to the CEO, who said the agency had ‘not been very good’ at meeting that mark but insisted they had recognized the issue and could do better.

A very important key performance indicator drawn up by the TCIAA is increasing passenger satisfaction at the Howard Hamilton International Airport. For the TCIAA part of this means a 30 percent increase in seating by Q2 of this year.

When queried on if they could even handle this increase the CEO said,

“The fact of the matter is we already have the capacity there. What we need is to make the service a bit better.”

Staff shortages have become such a frustrating issue that the TCIAA is instituting a scholarship program created by Authority Chairman, Selvyn Hawkins

“What the board wants to do is basically allocate $25,000 annually for a scholarship and they’ve approved it already.”

This process would cover tuition and all other costs for one student.

The student would return as a summer intern and other breaks to work at the TCIAA and upon graduation, assume a role at the company.

“We identify a particular skill we need, we go after it and we build capacity that is in a nutshell the nexus of the program,” Smith said.

The Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority (TCIAA) is allocated $49 million this financial year; over $20 million goes to salaries.

News

Flow TCI offers Gigabyte Speeds to Customers

Published

17 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Deandrea Hamilton

Company delivers fastest speeds nationwide and boosts service reliability

PROVIDENCIALES, TURKS AND CAICOS, APRIL 19^th, 2024 – More connections, faster speeds and greater support for customers. This is the promise from communications and entertainment provider, Flow TCI, as it embarks on an initiative to provide households with enhanced connections, greater overall reliability and now, for the first time, speeds up to one gigabit person second.

FLOW TCI Country Manager, Joanne Missick shared: “Our customers are at the heart of everything we do. We listen to our customers and want to exceed their demands, so we are focused on delivering unmatched value with customer centric products and services that are future proof. Flow subscribers on our Fibre Extreme package can now access up to one gigabyte speeds and subscribers on our Fibre Plus and Fibre Max package, as of April 1^st, are also now benefitting from up to 5x more speeds.”

This is third speed boost for Flow customers in the last two years. This comes under the umbrella of the the Company’s recently launched “Working for You” campaign, where technicians are going into the neighborhoods across the island to conduct repairs, decommission copper cables, and increase the brand’s visibility in local communities.

“To date several neighborhoods have been served by technicians and the company will continue to go across the islands to ensure each neighborhood receives personal attention. We recognize that over the past few months some customers have experienced issues with the quality and delivery of our services. This is not what we stand for. Flow remains committed to providing technology and innovation that enables growth and positively impacts lives”, says, newly appointed Head of Technical Operations, Simeon Thomas.

Thomas adds, “We have been closely monitoring and reviewing every aspect of our network and there is room for improvement across each of the islands. Where we find shortcomings, we are taking concrete actions and assigning our technicians to rapidly make all necessary adjustments and improvements for our customers”.

Flow has made significant investments in expanding and modernizing its infrastructure and delivering a more robust and reliable network paving the way for the country’s digital transformation.

For more information on speed increases visit https://www2.discoverflow.co/turks-and-caicos/price-adjustment-speed-increase on our website.

Thank you for your usual assistance in sharing our stories.

Government

Harold Charles, Appointed Member to the HOA, goes out with a Bang

Published

18 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Deandrea Hamilton

Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, April 19, 2024 – In an explosive, self-proclaimed, final budget speech to the people of the Turks and Caicos, Harold Charles, Governors Appointed Member is expressing frustration that many Turks and Caicos Islanders are locked out of top jobs in the country and unable to build wealth.

”I’ve been in this country for 50 years and I’ve noticed all those big developments that come in— the majority of [managers]are foreign people. After 50 years, when are we going to have Belongers manage those businesses?” Charles asked. “I’m upset, I’m frustrated [this is] their home. They have nowhere else to go—- If we don’t empower our Turks and Caicos Islanders we will never get out of living paycheck to paycheck.”

Charles echoed what thousands of locals have been saying for years about the failure of successive governments to get the economic success in the country on a level that residents can participate in it. The member maintained that not only were many locals working for scraps overseas and at home, but that it was the prerogative of the government to create avenues for them to move upward.

”I know the government’s heart is in the right place but somehow we’re not getting it together. I’m talking (about) both PDM and PNPs. It must change. There are many islanders overseas taking crummy jobs when all this opportunity is in the Turks and Caicos Islands.”

Calling on the government to enforce laws which allow islanders to get a foothold in lucrative industries, Charles maintained that TCIG could not let investors come and do as they liked.

”We have all these big companies making millions. They brag about how much they’re making, yet how much do they contribute to the development of our people?”

Charles encouraged the government to mandate that locals were hired in the large developments, taking place across the country.

Capital projects and their execution was another issue that the member highlighted

”Over the past three years in office, we seem to be dragging our feet when it comes to the execution of projects,” he said, “the last budget reflected bitter-sweet sentiment.”

The government managed to spend $29 million of a $57 million capital project budget in 2023/24 financial year.

“Mr. Speaker prior, we promised the people infrastructural investment, improved roads, ease with doing business with TCIG, more scholarships, increased home care, a $900,000 special needs school.”

The Appointed member was also frustrated with the amount of money being allocated to crucial areas including the absence of allocations for a special needs school.

”We were promised that no Turks and Caicos Islander would be left behind while I appreciate the government’s commitment to ensuring this. I am concerned that the relatively low level of funding allocated to education and infrastructure may hinder the effectiveness of effort,” The member stressed.

Closing his speech, Charles maintained that it was “crucial that the sectors receive additional support in order to provide citizens with the necessary resources and opportunities for their development.“

Mr. Speaker it is imperative that we allocate our resources adequately and streamline processes to enhance the ease of doing business with the Turks and Caicos Government. We must priortise increasing service delivery capacity in critical departments such as the customer service department, the register of records, the department of motor vehicles and the list goes on,” express Charles.

Charles reminded that there is a growing demand on the services TCIG provides, especially as the country enjoys unprecedented, year on year, exponential economic growth.

Charles alongside Jameka Williams (Government Appointed Member) Willin Belliard (Governor’s Appointed Member number one) and Alvin Garland (Opposition Appointed Member) will very likely be the last set of appointed members in the House of Assembly of the Turks and Caicos as it transitions to a wholly elected parliament.

Harold Charles indicated it was unlikely he would join any leadership race describing the 2024-2025 Budget contribution as likely his final.