Notes for “The Axis” RCEN meeting of March 27, 2015

 

 

Notes for “The Axis” RCEN meeting of March 27, 2015

 

Call to Order: President Elmer called the meeting to order.

 InvocationLindsey Cancino gave a short but sweet invocation.

Toasts: To our Queen and to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

Visiting Rotarians: Taran Mackey

Member Guests:There was a strong showing of guests today.

Banners: JR Bosclair presented a banner from a club visit in Minnesota.

Sergeant at Arms: PP Adam Darville received a weak but friendly welcome to the podium. Adam shared many jokes about the Wheel dinner last night. He fined many people for being late and told a couple of jokes that received a pity applause but it was all in good fun.

Member Birthdays: (Make checks payable to:  EAST NASSAU ROTARY CLUB FOUNDATION, $2/yr)

 Jay Naylor – March 27th, Tanya McCartney – March 30th , Carol Bischof – April 1st

 

Partner Birthdays: None

Wedding Anniversaries: Frank & Jennifer Colebrook, 42 years

Membership: Corrine Laville, 8 years; Werner Gruner, 3 years; Paul Knowles, 34 years; Donald Tomlinson, 40 years

Special Award:Lindsey Cancino presented the latest Paul Harris award to President Elmer Lowe.

Announcements: Sir Durward Knowles thanked Rotarians for their participation with the presentation of the bus to the BAPD this past Wednesday.

Phil Andrews needs support for our annual golf tournament taking place on Monday, May 11th. We are way behind in raising sponsorship funds. All members should please review the lists on the tables and assist with the list of sponsors in order for us to raise money. Elmer urged every member to get 3 sponsors and stressed the importance of coming together to raise funds for both the golf and fishing tournament.

 

Golf tournament and fishing tournament meeting is next Tuesday at the Green Parrot at 6pm.

4 Way Test: New Member, George, led the club in the 4 way test.

Speaker for the day: Tanya Carey gave a very warm, short introduction to speaker, Heather Carey. Heather is a photographer, activist and Tanya’s cousin.

 

Heather, is part of the new organization, Raising Awareness about the Bahamas Landfill (RABL), to combat the issue of the dump burning causing a health hazard.

 

Heather has been significantly affected by the fire causing headaches, sore throat and coughs. She has to wear a mask in and out of her house in the Goodman’s Bay area since January when the dump started burning badly. She has an air quality monitor that proves how hazardous the conditions are. Both Marathon Bahamas and Ride For Hope participants had to suffer with the smokey conditions.

 

A good reading on the air quality monitor is less than 300, when the dump started burning it was 4,000+. In a reading of over 300, the areas should be evacuated for anything longer than 12 hours. The air is toxic.

 

The air is always of poor quality even when we can’t smell or see the smoke. This is from the less obvious burning of the dump, car emissions, hotels, cruise ships, personal fires, etc.

 

Laura Paine spoke about the reasoning behind why we have so many fires at the dump. It is not a landfill but a dump. There is no lining or barrier between the items dumped and the land. The dump is always on fire underneath but what we notice is when the fires are on the surface.

 

In the Bahamas we have no emission controls rules. RABL is fighting to have regulations to permit harmful emissions, promote recycling so that there is less waste, and liase with the government and non-government stakeholders on issues related to waste, waste reduction and pollution.

 

RABL Projects

1.    Independent and scientifically driven tests of our soil, air and water.

2.    International and local awareness

3.    Legal implications

4.    Lobbying for a change

5.    Demonstration

 

On April 25th from 2pm to 5pm, there will be a peaceful demonstration in Rawson Square for the cause. There are many children, schools, parents and groups involved to bring the issue to the forefront in the community.

 

Heather came back up the podium to speak about the necessity of raising funds in order to perform full testings. They have spoken to a US company to come in to perform the testing. They need to at least start with 2 testings, each testing is $15,000 each. There will need to be a total of 5 tests to complete a full analysis. Heather also stressed the high rates of cancer in this country and how they would like to have the data from the tests in order to confirm that our air quality is contributing to the illnesses, cancer rates and also can effect tourism (particularly Baha Mar).

 

Paul asked about how they will tell the difference between dump pollution and jitney emissions. Heather said the analysis will be able to detect this.

 

Laura also said that from a previous study, we are at a 40% higher risk of getting cancer and illnesses just from car and bus pollution. Her guess is that with the dump pollution, we are at a 150% higher risk of various illnesses.

 

Vote of Thanks: Fintan thanked the speakers by starting with a joke about the value of his house in the East tripling but then went on to give a very heartfelt thanks on behalf of the club.

Final Toast To RATW, Editor Melissa Knowles

 
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