THE NASSAU GUARDIAN

In the midst of the Christ­mas sea­son, when every­one is sup­pos­ed­ly enjoy­ing them­selves and hav­ing fun, there are many peo­ple who are in sor­row because of the death of loved ones. It’s a fact that there are no days ear­marked for the Grim Reaper to take a hol­i­day. It does­n’t mat­ter if it’s a per­son­’s birth­day or anniver­sary, whether it’s Christ­mas or any oth­er spe­cial­ty date on the cal­en­dar. If it is the appoint­ed time for some­one, then so be it, that date will be kept, regard­less.

Apart from the trag­ic acci­dent with Chalk’s Ocean Air­ways last week when 11 res­i­dents of Bimi­ni died, three promi­nent Bahami­ans also expired dur­ing the Christ­mas hol­i­days: E. Pedro Roberts, Sean Han­na and Tyrone D’arville.

E. Pedro Roberts stand out in many instances. His name is eas­i­ly rec­og­niz­able as a son of the cel­e­brat­ed edu­ca­tor, EP Roberts, after whom a junior school is named, and broth­er of the late Fr. Antho­ny Roberts and Dr Patrick Roberts. He is also the uncle of Cab­i­net Min­is­ter Neville Wis­dom and for­mer House of Assem­bly Speak­er Italia John­son. Mr. Roberts has long been an advo­cate of nation­al and social devel­op­ment, serv­ing as chief phar­ma­cist at the Princess Mar­garet Hos­pi­tal for 30 years.

Sean Han­na was called to the Bar at the young age of 22, but he had the dis­tinc­tion of com­ing from a fam­i­ly of lawyers, with his father Arthur D Han­na at the head, his broth­er Dion and sis­ter Glenys Han­na-Mar­tin, Min­is­ter of Trans­port and Avi­a­tion. Sean Han­na was a rel­a­tive­ly qui­et and unob­tru­sive indi­vid­ual and for the most part kept out of the lime­light, although he was a pas­sion­ate per­son with a keen legal mind, who stood up for what he believed in.

And Tyrone D’arville, from work­ing in his father’s Deluxe Clean­ers as a boy, to big busi­ness ven­tures such as Por­tion Con­trol, Sun Man­u­fac­tur­ing, Town Cen­tre Mall and Fur­ni­ture Plus. These men were Bahami­ans who blazed trails in The Bahamas, who were not afraid to put their mon­ey where their mouths were and to become suc­cess­ful entre­pre­neurs and sol­id Bahami­an busi­ness­men.

No doubt there are oth­ers whose deaths will cause griev­ing among fam­i­ly and friends but will not cause a stir in the wider com­mu­ni­ty and will prob­a­bly not get pub­lic men­tion except for the obit­u­ary sec­tions of the news.

Child abuse

There was a time when it was point­ed to as being “cute” and it made good pho­to­graph­ic mate­r­i­al for the news­pa­pers. That time how­ev­er is past and the sight of tod­dlers and oth­er under­age chil­dren mak­ing Junkanoo laps around Bay and Shirley Streets has cer­tain­ly out­grown its nov­el­ty fea­tures and could be bor­der­ing on inhu­mane treat­ment, cru­el­ty or sim­ple child abuse. This is cer­tain­ly a mat­ter at which the Min­istry of Social Ser­vices should not turn a blind eye and should see that it is stopped imme­di­ate­ly.

Junior Junkanoo is organ­ised to accom­mo­date school chil­dren of every age and that is where they should per­form. There should be no rea­son for these minor chil­dren to be out all night danc­ing and pranc­ing about with the adult groups as was seen in too many instances with groups on the Mon­day night/Tuesday morn­ing Box­ing Day Junkanoo Parade.