When one is considering actions taken y those in control and authority of our public affairs and the people’s property – care must be taken to give the facts and circumstances very wide and generous allowances, because not all the details would be readily apparent and up front. And when dealing with international celebrities, we have to be especially careful to take into account that those famous ones have been used to special treatment, and that their names and reputations do carry and are worthy of exceptional values. On the other hand, those who take on the duties and responsibilities for informing and enlightening John Public – must not and cannot be seen to be disclosing selected parts of news, that pleases some or embarrassing others, because of whom the persons involved maybe. When information and disclosures are in the public interest and are factual, the public have a right to know what is happening in their names and on their behalf. And when the matter concerns and involves the people’s property, then they have a vested interest and are even more entitled to know exactly what is happening with their property, and how those who are the Trustees on the people’s behalf are carrying out the Trust bestowed upon them by the peoples votes. No other consideration should be seen to be of any greater importance than the above principles. And to ensure that those who offer themselves for public service, and having been accepted to serve the people they enjoy special privileges that go with the offices they hold and the responsibilities they are entrusted to carry out in the people’s name – they must expect to have to answer to the people for whatever decisions that are taken. If we in these mini – states and tiny dots in the global village that make up to-day’s world setting ,needed any further examples of how the public must respond to any form of action proposed or taken by those in authority – then we got it all in the “Bailout operations” recently concluded in the U.S.A House of Representatives and Congress. Some of us find the time and put in the efforts to get the news and information and endeavour to pass it on to John Public – but if all the John Publics do and say is -----“no big ting, more bubul again, what else can we expect” –then the efforts would be wasted time, and the Society we live in would go to the dogs. We cannot allow that to happen to our little haven – that our parents and fore-fathers fought and struggled to bring about, and to maintain with sweat and blood and slavish labour, over many, many decades when all seemed hopeless. So when you saw and heard the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament – parading and waving a paper containing the article pertaining to the Grand Beach Freehold Land sale in Grand Anse – you should have read it yourself and then decide whether or not it was in bad faith, malicious, designed to defame anyone, or over and above everything, untrue. And having done as above, say it publicly as you saw it and found it – conscientiously. Dr. Patrick Antoine called me the day after the article appeared on Carib Net News, and introduced himself as a friend of my son Larry with whom he went to school and was in the same class. I knew that before. He then said the story about the payments he received as Agent was not true. I replied that I was in a meeting and could not discuss the matter then, but if he called me at my office the next day I would discuss it and carry his side of the story. He promised to do so and hangup. I heard nothing further from him, but on Friday a.m. I got a call from Cajeton Hood – with whom I share an office at Gouyave together with Marlon Glean – and he informed me that Dr. Antoine had consulted Karl Hudson Phillips, Q.C in Trinidad, and the latter had contacted him (Hood) to send me a letter, and he was sending it later the morning. I was in and out of office all day, and left there about 4.30 p.m. but received no letter from Hood on Antoine’s behalf. I was therefore surprised to see Mr. Hood on GBN/TV the same night, saying I was served a letter that a.m. and should have replied the same day – but up to the evening he had received no reply. No malicious intent was ever intended in the article. There was a purported sale of a valuable property by the then Government of Grenada, and as the Government’s Economic Advisor, if he acted as Agent he had to be paid for his services – as all Agents in Land Sales are paid. If my information was wrong and he gave me his story I would readily have carried it. The payment to an Agent for services rendered, and the payment to any other professionals who acted in the Sale, make no difference to the substantive issue – as to whether or not, the sale of the freehold of that very valuable piece of the people’s property, should have been signed by the Governor General on the last day of the then Government in office, for the consideration contained therein. Parliament was dissolved on the 2nd of June, 2008; the date for General Elections had been announced the day before by the P.M; there was no Cabinet as such in operation, so who was advising who? As for Mr. Lewis Hamilton himself – there was never any thought of him being in anyway tainted by this deal, and absolutely no intention to damage his image and fame nor hurt his family and ancestors – who hail from the parish next door to where I live. In fact, I saw him as a wholly innocent victim, whose fame and fortune those in the Government of the day deliberately set out set to capitalize up on for their own mis-guided purpose. The Company formed in Grenada was buying the Leasehold of the said land and the buildings thereon – from Issa Nicholas (G’da) Ltd. For over Forty Million U.S. dollars. But those who came up with the deal for the purported sale of the Freehold of the said land – in their zeal to come public later on and announce their big catch of this World-famous grand-son of the soil, who has made us all very proud of his achievements – they boobed even further. Mr. Lewis Hamilton is not a party to the Deed signed on the 7th July, 2008, by the Director of the Grenadian Company and the Governor General on behalf of the Grenadian Government. This must mean, therefore, that no Government of Grenada have any claim against Mr. Hamilton, should his picture or his autograph not appear on any advertisement for the State of Grenada. And conversely, should Mr. Hamilton having provided his photo and signature etc. to advertise the State of Grenada, and any Government of Grenada decide that no sufficient consideration was provided, and no valid contract exist between the Grenada Government and Mr. Hamilton – he too, would have no claim, and neither have the Grenadian Company whose Director signed the Deed. In other words, that document signed by those who did so on that fateful date – is for all intents and purposes a NULLITY and must be revoked. And as one business man called me and commented on the matter – the ex-Government Ministers put Grenada into tremendous debt, by building all sorts of un-necessary new roads at the time, in preparation for the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean. And their rationale for so doing, was that the influx of Tourists thereafter from all over the cricketing – world especially, would be the economic salvation for our Spice Isles thereafter. The opposite has been the Case, and the new stadium itself stands empty and hardly ever used, as a white elephant – and is an expensive liability to even clean and maintain it for the odd occasion. Does anyone really and truly believe, that because Lewis Hamilton is the World famous racing driver he most definitely is - by his photo and name appearing on some Bill Board that is advertising Grenada as a Tourist Resort, world racing fans would flock to Grenada as a result thereof? And even if his fans and racing colleagues, do decide to come to Grenada to stay at his Hotel – of which he was buying the Leasehold interest through the Grenadian Company separately – what are the economic returns for the Grenadian people who are sacrificing Fifteen Million (U.S.) Dollars, by selling the Freehold to the Company without a single cent going to the Treasury? And by pointing out those facts, and asking those questions in the public interest – especially in these gru-gru days, when our poor and under privileged people Island wide are ketching their nen-nen, and watching their children going to school many a-day, with very little or nothing of substance to eat until they get back home later – what is the bad faith involved therein, and how am I tarnishing Grenada’s image and interest out there? I feel certain in my own mind, and I harbour a deep-down inner feeling – that being the very successful individuals both Messrs. Antoine and Hamilton most definitely are, and as genuine son and grandson from the impoverished Grenadian society, they either once knew or acquired some knowledge about during their sojourn overseas – that when looking at the whole picture as it has now un-folded in the public domain, they too would agree that my motive was neither malicious, in bad faith, nor intended to do them any harm. The public interest of the people as a whole, must be of paramount importance when we are dealing with matters of public affairs especially. The actions and omissions of the Ministers of the Government of the day – who were the servants and Trustees of the people who elected them to serve – that was very important. The fairness and transparency and motives, when dealing with the people’s property in the interest of all the people was key. And in that vein, the written words on documents as well as the spoken words to the public – must be able to withstand the test of the perception they will all leave behind. In-accuracies, genuine mistakes, and mis-information, will occur in all walks of life, because we are human beings. Wherever these have occurred, or even perceived so to be – in my article on the Grand Beach Resort Freehold land sale – I readily withdraw them and sincerely apologise to those who felt offended – in particular Dr. Antoine and Mr. Lewis Hamilton. And I re-assure them, without any reservation – that all I set out to do in the public interest, was to inform John Public of a transaction in his name that was not on the face of the document on all fours with the legal intentions and operational criteria the said document purported to convey. But just as this political issue is making the headline news, with threats of court actions to follow and public statements that are themselves in-accurate – the sad news came out that Derek Knights Q.C., of Legal, Political, and Trade Union long standing fame and service, had passed away to the great beyond in the United States. I know he had been sick for sometime now and then moved to the U.S. where his family resided – but his passing still has all the elements of sorrow and shock and sadness, that overcome us all when someone so close and who had served the people and Country for so long – passes on. I will always cherish the memories of the very un-selfish help and advice I received from Derek in my early days at the Bar. He was never too busy to spare the time to listen to my many querries about a Legal problem, and offer his very wide and incisive knowledge of all facets of the Law that he practiced for decades. And even where we dis-agreed about poltics and the political climate – he nevertheless still offered the benefit of his wide experience in that field. My very sincere condolences to his wife and family and other relatives and friends, here in Grenada and overseas. A brilliant and fearless son of the soil has gone ahead – but he has left his mark to remind us all, that as we all have to follow on the road he has travelled – when we go, we will be taking with us, not how much we have achieved on that road, but purely and simply who we are. (The above article represents the views/opinions of the writer and not necessarily those of the Inside Grenada Staff). By Lloyd Noel Inside Grenada News