Archive for August 24th, 2010

Astronaut takes a dive in Cayman

Cayman News | 24/08/2010 | 18 Comments

(CNS): While he may have missed out on the giant leap for mankind Buzz Aldrin enjoyed a giant splash in Cayman last week when he visited the islands for and enjoyed a spot of diving. The famous former astronaut, who was the second man on the moon after Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 voyage in 1969, was here on behalf of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation which provides college scholarships to top science and engineering students across the USA. The foundation had approachedmembers of Cayman’s Dive community for support for its fundraising efforts with complimentary accommodation and dives, which could be auctioned to raise money for the scholarship programme.

While he was in Cayman with his wife Lois, the 80 year old Aldrin did four dives and visited Stingray City. The couple attended a cocktail party onthe Friday evening hosted by members of the tourism industry along with the Department and Ministry of Tourism, where he met with government officials as well as the local sponsors who are donating to the scholarship foundation.

Although Aldrin had his share of problems when he retired from NASA, unlike his reclusive lunar colleague Armstrong, Aldrin has been a more visible face of the aeronautical industry. He has continued to promote space exploration, including producing a computer strategy game called Buzz Aldrin’s Race Into Space (1993).

On the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing, he teamed up with Snoop Dogg and Quincy Jones to create a rap single.

Over the years he has made a number of cameo appearances on TV programmes, including the Simpsons. More recently he was a contestant on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.

Disco duel fuels Friday night fever on 7MB

Cayman News | 24/08/2010 | 18 Comments

(CNS): How much disco dancing can Seven Mile Beach take? We are about to find out on Friday when two local bars, two local radio stations and two local DJs go head to head to win the hearts and minds of Cayman’s disco dons and divas. The 70s dance party Boogie Nights, sponsored by dms broadcasting, long held at the Wharf, one of the island’s oldest outdoor bars is moving to one if its newest – Tiki Beach with DJ Wacko Jacko. Meanwhile, Vibe FM, along with the original disco DJ Ben Maxwell, will be moving into The Wharf with the new 70s dance party ‘Disco Fever’ creating Cayman’s first disco duel.

Boogie Nights which is traditionally held on the last Friday of every month began around five years ago and became a popular monthly gig for disco fans at one of the islands most popular venues. But sponsors dms are now moving it from its long time home to head several miles down Seven Mile Beach to the new Tiki Bar.

Taking advantage of the new opening, Ben Maxwell the original Boogie Nights DJ with dms, who is now a familiar voice on Spin FM, Vibe’s sister station is stepping in to the Friday night disco vacuum created at The Wharf by the departure of dms and is hosting ‘ Disco Fever’ on the same night.

Asked if there was room for so much disco on the West Bay Road, Maxwell said we will all find out when he returns to the decks on Friday night. Delighted to be back Maxwell said: “Got To Be Real, I never thought I’d be playing disco music in my DJ career, I’m So Excited to be back behind the controls for Disco Fever @ The Wharf on the 27th. I Love The Nightlife and spent a good two years of my life catching Night Fever to ride the Groove Line. Not to brag but I know how to take the crowd to Funkytown. I’m the best disco DJ in Cayman, and am ready to do some Kung Fu Fighting to prove it. So Knock On Wood, all you Macho Men and Bad Girls! Let’s make it a Celebration on Friday night @ The Wharf with Disco Fever.”

Although there is likely to be more behind this disco duel than meets the eye, dms Broadcasting Operations Manager Ron Bowen said Boogie Nights was moving to the new venue to enjoy the beach view and that a complimentary bus would be provided for disco fans who want to follow Boogie Nights to Tiki Beach.

“We are particularly excited about this move as we are bringing the celebration to the beach – we live in paradise, so we should definitely take advantage of the sweeping panoramic view that Tiki Beach offers,” said Bowen. “We will also be heightening the excitement with additions such as the all-night Boogie Bus which will provide complimentary transportation along Seven Mile Beach – bussing people to the best party in town.”

Bowen promised to pull out all the disco stops for the event’s debut at its new home with a red carpet entrance, disco balls and chance to win a private ‘Studio 54’ cabana.

Broadcasting Market Manager Dan Charleston said the firm was confident that the decision to move the event to Tiki Beach was a good one.”It is the optimum venue to enjoy a beautiful stretch of Seven Mile Beach and can easily cater to a huge crowd. We look forward to seeing a lot of familiar faces there as well as new partygoers ready to check out what all the talk is about,” he added.

Who will be crowned king of the disco is down to the local dance fans who will no doubt vote with their platforms.

Sentencing and confiscation delayed in fund theft case

Cayman News | 24/08/2010 | 0 Comments

(CNS): As a result of what appears to be mountains of information served on his client, defence attorney Ben Tonner asked the court for an adjournment this morning when Robert Girvan appeared before Justice Charles Quin. Girvan had been scheduled to appear for a confiscation and sentencing hearing in the wake of his guilty pleas last month to 18 counts of theft and three of money laundering. Girvan, a Jamaican national, pleaded guilty to the crimes in connection with a number of local funds known as the Grand Island Funds, which collapsed in 2008, as well as a number of other financial institutions he was working for as a fund director and trader. The crown made an application for the confiscation on 18 August and served more than 22 exhibits on the defence the following day.

Tonner of Samson & McGrath, who is representing Girvan, said on Tuesday that there had been very little time to begin working through the bundles and understand the crown’s claim, having so recently received the material. He asked Justice Quin for an adjournment in order to begin examining the extensive, complex financial material and put together a response and work towards narrowing the issues.

As a result of the amount of material, the judge was sympathetic to Tonner and his client and with no objections from the crown the judge agreed to adjourn the sentencing and confiscation hearing to September.

Following the guilty pleas made on the 11 August by Girvan, Justice Quin had remanded the former fund director in custody as a result of the certainty that he would be serving a substantial sentence, even if the recovery of some of the stolen money may go some way to mitigating the length of the sentence. Girvan is accused of stealing around $19 million, though a large percentage of the money is said to be lost, as Girvan used the money in unauthorised trading.

Justice Quin said at the time that Girvan was guilty of very serious offences, in which not only were huge amounts of money involved, causing significant losses to the third parties, but the crime struck at the very heart of the country’s financial services industry.

Miss Jamaica gets number two spot in pageant

Cayman News | 24/08/2010 | 33 Comments

(CNS): While the Cayman Islands did not have a contestant in this year’s Miss Universe pageant, the country’s neighbouring island of Jamaica certainly did. Yendi Phillipps managed to place second, creating history in Las Vegas last night, as the highest ever finish by a Jamaican in the Miss Universe contest — one of the world’s biggest beauty pageants. Beating early favourites Miss Puerto Rico and Miss Ireland to place in the top five, Phillipps came in as first runner up to the eventual winner, Miss Mexico Jimena Navarrete, which makes her essentially first reserve if for any reason Miss Mexico cannot continue her reign as Miss Universe 2010. The second runner-up was Miss Australia Jesinta Campbell and third runner-up was Miss Ukraine Anna Poslavska.

Miss Australia also clinched the Miss Congeniality Universe award. Miss Thailand Fonthip Watcharatrakul won Miss Photogenic Universe and the award for having the best national costume.

Phillipps holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the State University of New York at Brockport and a Master’s degree in Recreation and Leisure Management. She attended St. Andrew High School for Girls in Kingston, Jamaica.

There was no Miss Cayman Islands in this year’s Miss Universe pageant following the cancelation of the local pageant last year due to financial difficulties. However, the contest is back with a vengeance this year and six contestants were officially launched on Saturday evening ahead of the 2010 contest, which takes place on 25 September at the Lion’s Centre.

Either Cristin Alexander, Mysti Bush, Trudy Ann Duncan, Venessa Ebanks, Janine Martins or Shari Walton will be crowned Miss Cayman Islands and will then compete go on to compete in the 60th Miss World event, which will be held in Sanya, China in October. Miss Cayman Islands 2010 will then go on to compete in the 2011 Miss Universe contest.

Solar energy brings power to rural Africa

Guest Writer | 24/08/2010 | 0 Comments

(CNN): In rural communities of Africa — where more than 95 percent of homes have no access to electricity — solar energy has the power to transform lives. Globally, 1.5 billion people, one quarter of the world’s population, live without electricity, according to a United Nations report. Those who can afford any power at all spend large proportions of their income on kerosene for lamps or travel to larger towns to charge their batteries several times a week. Burning kerosene contributes to indoor air pollution, which is estimated to kill 1.6 million people each year.

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How to ‘undo’ an ill-advised Gmail message

Guest Writer | 24/08/2010 | 0 Comments

(CNN): Ever have that sick-to-your-stomach, "Oh crap!" moment after sending an e-mail? Did you get immediate second thoughts about that e-mail rant toyour ex? Was that blistering message supposed to be about your boss — not to your boss? Well, at least with Gmail, there’s something you can do about it. The ability to "undo" an e-mail has been a little known feature of Google’s e-mail service since last year. But in the past few days, it appears to have been improved. Google Operating System, an unofficial blog that shares Google news and tips, noted this weekend that a user now has up to 30 seconds to take back an unfortunate message.

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Top cop plans to ‘turn up heat’ on patrol officers

Cayman News | 24/08/2010 | 37 Comments

(CNS): Officers in the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service sealed up in their cool, air-conditioned cars may soon be a thing of the past. Police Commissioner David Baines has revealed that he is considering taking out the air conditioning units of police patrol cars to ensure that officers have their windows open and get out of their cars more often to interact with the community. A persistent complaint of many people is that while they say they see police cars passing through their districts, they very rarely actually see the police officers inside them as they remain inside the air-conditioned comfort with the windows tightly rolled up. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)

Having heard the same complaint at all three district police meetings over the last week, in West Bay on Monday evening (23 August) Baines said he was seriously thinking about removing the a/c units from the cars, which would mean officers would have to wind down windows and become more visible to, and engage with, the public they serve.

The issue goes to the heart of what the wider community wants and the message that is loud and clear from the Caymanian public regarding police visibility. Time and time again the people have said that they want to see more officers in their communities and they want to know who they are and have a relationship with those officers.

Baines said he is doing all he can to establish a full neighbourhood policing service across the islands which, once at full compliment, will consist of two neighbourhood officers for each MLA, namely: eight in George Town and West Bay, six in Bodden Town, two each in North Side and West Bay, and four on the Sister Islands, raising the visibility of local officers.

In the meantime, however, Baines said district commanders will impress upon their officers the need to get out of patrol cars and interact and engage with the community on the street.

Baines addressing cop skills

Cayman News | 24/08/2010 | 50 Comments

(CNS): From basic literacy skills to the handling of evidence for court cases, the police commissioner says that he is currently doing all he can to train officers and professionalise the RCIPS. Over the course of the last week David Baines has admitted that there have been failings in the service, from the way police deal with the public to the way they deal with crime scenes. He said officers are now attending UCCI to improve basic literacy skills and to advance their academic qualifications, while others are about to enter exchange programmes with other police forces to gain experience overseas, and some younger promising officers are being placed on specialist acceleration programmes. (Photo Dennie WarrenJr)

Baines has said that, as commissioner, it is his duty to stabilise and professionalise the force, and having identified the areas where the RCIPS has failed the community, he is now focusing on plugging the gaps through training as well as recruiting skilled officers. He said the goal was to improve public access to the police and the competence levels of all officers.

Speaking to the people of West Bay last night (Monday 23 August) at the third public meeting hosted by the RCIPS and government ministers, and in a district which has had more than its fair share of violent crime, Baines said he was making the RCIPS fit for purpose. He told the audience that by meeting with the people of each district he could listen to their concerns and hear what they want and expect from the RCIPS and explain to them what he has been doing to improve things.

He said when he took office there had been a “ragged three year period” where there was no leadership and an exodus from the service of a number of experienced officers.

Of the various complaints that the RCIPS has received, the commissioner said people have complained that front line officers are not professional when they interact with the public,that they lack basic skills and do not appear to be very intelligent when taking statements or information from the public. As a result, he said, the RCIPS has partnered with UCCI to officer basic literacy class as well as other academic courses for officers serving in the force. He also pointed to the new training schemes which will accelerate young promising Caymanian officers through the ranks more quickly.

The commissioner revealed that some senior officers would be going to the UK on exchange programmes in larger cities to help address some of the skills gaps in detection and investigation, intelligence gathering and covert operations. Baines noted that the 14 officers that had come to the Cayman Islands for a short term temporary period during the spike of murders earlier in the year had a positive influence on local officers, so he wanted to continue that by sending RCIPS staff to work alongside other police officers in the UK and gain valuable on the job training.

He said it was impossible for Caymanian officers to climb the ranks of the police force if they have not had the opportunity to learn and experience certain aspects of modern policing. He said he wanted to dispel the idea that the best police officers come from outside but, he said, Caymanian officers had to train overseas in larger services to gain the necessary experience to help them here.

CID and investigators are also being trained to improve detection and evidence handling. Baines explained that when local officers put together a serious case such as a murder, when they go to court they will be facing the most experience Queen’s Counsel for the defence and this means RCIPS officers have to be professional and cannot afford to have those lawyers undermine the case. “People say Cayman is small but we still need to be 21st century.”

Training would play a part, Baines told the people, in putting things right where the service has got things wrong in the past. He said the service could not afford to be taken by surprise in the court because of the way evidence had been gathered or to be accused of not handling exhibits properly, as has been suggested in the past. “We are starting to raise the professionalism in this area,” he said. “We need to get it right and get it right first time and every time.”

Having identified the failings, the top cop said the goal was to prevent them from happening in future. He’d hoped the mistakes would become fewer and fewer in investigations until they are eventually a thing of the past.

As a district that has persistently complained about the lack of Caymanian officers policing their community, during the evening a number of residents told the commissioner that in the last few months, since the change of management at the West Bay station, they had seen an improvement in police presence. A number said they were very happy to see a West Bayer was now second in command at the station as the community knew and trusted Brad Ebanks.

MLAs are ‘double dipping’

Cayman News | 24/08/2010 | 69 Comments

(CNS): Government has refused to grant a freedom of information request made by CNS back in June asking for details of which serving Members of the Legislative Assembly are drawing a pension on top of their salaries, termed ‘double dipping’ by one MLA earlier this year. There are five members of the parliament who have served one term or more that have also reached the age of fifty-five and are entitled to claim. PPM member Anthony Eden, the opposition leader Kurt Tibbetts, North Side member Ezzard Miller, West Bay government backbencher Captain Eugene Ebanks and the Premier McKeeva Bush are all over 55 and entitled, according to the law, to claim a pension on top of their salaries.

The PPM have admitted openly that both Eden and Tibbetts are claiming their pension entitlements but Miller, who coined the phrase ‘double dipping’, has said he is not taking his pension as he believes it is “immoral and unethical”.

The FOI request which has been denied by government is currently going through the appeals process, but CNS understands that after serving more than 25 years in the LA the premier opted to claim his fully vested public pension soon after becoming premier. He is understood to have made the pensions claim before announcing a major pay cut in MLAs’ salaries so his pension entitlement has been calculated on his original premier’s monthly salary of over $14,800 and not the recently reduced pay cheque.

Sources have told CNS that the premier opted to receive a lump sum amounting to a quarter of the value of the pension, and as a result he is receiving monthly payments of ¾ of his pension entitlement amount of the fully vested pension.

Ezzard Miller, the independent member, recently raised the issue in the Legislative Assembly and said he would be disappointed if he were to learn his parliamentary colleagues were double dipping with salaries and pensions as he said a pension was meant to be taken when a person had retired from their job, not while one was still doing it.

“Although I may be entitled, I have no intentions of claiming my pension until I leave this House for good,” Miller told CNS. “I believe it is immoral and unethical and I will be bringing a private member’s motion to the House to change the law to prevent it happening in future.”

Miller also criticised the practice in the civil service where a number of senior government officials who have retired at sixty have taken their pensions but have gone back to work in their job and are able to draw a salary and a pension from the public purse. Although it is not illegal, Miller believes it should be.

MLAs were first given access to their pensions while remaining in office in 2004 when a change to the law provided for MLAs to claim their pensions once they had served a single term and passed the age of 55, even if they continued to serve in the Legislative Assembly. In the past legislators had died while still in office and were never able to claim the pensions which they had earned through their years of service.

Unlike the civil service there is no official retirement age for politicians, who can stand for election at any age, and since MLAs cannot be certain they will returned to the Assembly from parliament to parliament the law was changed to give them access to their pensions before they retired in case they never did.

Speaking in the Legislative Assembly recently, the deputy governor Donovan Ebanks said the amendment had reflected the fact that careers in the House, unlike those in the broader community, can often be intermittent. “They are seldom of sustained duration from commencement until one permanently retires from the arena,” he said. Ebanks made his comments when he presented the Parliamentary Pension (Amendment) Bill, 2009 to change the MLAs pension scheme to a defined contribution rather than a defined benefit, as it is at present, for future members.

This change, however, did not affect existing members and the Leader of the Opposition said he had decided to take his pension a few months after his 55th birthday, despite the fact it was not fully vested (meaning he had not served four full terms) because of the uncertain future of being a politician.

Legislators’ pensions are calculated on multiples of fifths relating to the amount of terms served and the salary they were receiving upon reaching the age of 55. After one term in office MLAs can draw a pension based on one fifth of their most recent salary, rising to a maximum of four fifths for those serving four terms or more.