Archive for March, 2009
SASI successes highlighted
(CNS): For the past three years, more than 400 people – children and adults – have participated in Sports Association of the Sister Islands (SASI) programs, competitions, and events. Addressing 165 people at the annual SASI Awards Banquet, President and Sister Islands Sports Instructor Mitchum Sanford noted in his address, “This equates to 25% of the Cayman Brac population." (Left: Cordell Gutierrez receives Male Basketball Athlete of the Year from MLAs Julianna O’Connor Connolly and Moses Kirkconnell)
"These numbers are ready to grow even more these coming years if we provide the country with an adequate facility and sports staff – or we could see a reversal and down-spiral effect if this isn’t done quickly. The people deserve it so let’s do it.”
He said the continued growth of programs comes with an even larger increase in athletic participation and competitions, and more clubs and teams meant more traveling and more money was needed. “Perhaps at this time in our growth cycle the most important thing we much focus our efforts and energy on these next coming years, is to complete the Sports Complex and expand the staffing and resources of the Sports Department.”
He continued, “In my humble opinion it’s just not acceptable to exclude the Sister Islands out of the upgrading, refurbishing, and building of the various sporting fields, structures, and basic infrastructures and utilities that are required to operate and conduct sound, practical, and safe athletic programs for our children. But here in the Brac it’s a way of life for us to not have and not complain, we just except it and make do. This has been the toughest part of my six years working for the Dept of Sports, and I’m not sure as to how long I can continue as the frustration is unbearable at times.”
Sanford said the completion of the Football Field at the proposed Sports Complex last meant that for the first time, Cayman Brac could play all of their home matches in the CIFA National Youth Leagues here in the Brac. “As promised, the CBFC entered two youth teams last season in the national league – that being an U-14 and U-16 team. The club again this season has entered the two youth teams and plans to enter a third in coming years, also the club is looking at entering a men’s team in the national first division next season if financial viable.” (Right: Amanda Nelson is Female Football AOY)
Cayman Brac Netball Club, led by Ventisha Conolly and Lizzanna Hurlston, entered the Cayman Islands Netball Association U-18 Netball League for their third season and the U-18 League for the second time.
Flynn Bush took over the Track and Field Program last season after completing his IAAF “level 3” certification in Puerto Rico. With 60+ young people attending each session,this program has developed some very promising athletes for future Cayman Islands representation at the international level.
Swimming and the Sister Islands Swim Club, led by Micahel Hundt, were represented at more meets last season in Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and the United States that ever before in the history of the Sister Islands. “Mr Hundt continues to produce outstanding athletes each year in his after-school program in the it-si-bi-si 15m pool he has to work with,” said Sanford.
The development last year of a new Youth Basketball Program has been very successful and popular with high school age athletes, he said, noting that SASI had entered an U-16 team in the CIBA National U-16 Development League last season. “Pastor Victoriano Pomare took over the program a few months ago and raised the level of the athletes much higher than I possibly could; the team is again looking to enter the U-16 League in coming weeks.”
The Cayman Brac Cricket Club will continue to contest CICA 2nd Division League this year as they have for the more than a decade now. Ashton Ferguson led the club to a 4th place finish last seasonand he and fellow cricketer Sohadeo Sohan have been very instrumental in developing the game to youngsters in the Brac. “Their help and expertise will one-day help SASI develop a youth cricket team to contest the national 2nd division as the men present do,” Sanford said.
The President concluded by acknowledging Stephen Tatum and Michael Sanford (left), who had gone through sports programs and competitions and gone on to earn football scholarships to attend university. They are now examples for other athletes on the Brac to follow, he said.
The event was sponsored by the Cayman Brac Power and Light Co. Key Note Speaker was Canover Watson, Managing Director, Admiral Financial Center and 2008 YCLA recipient.
Awards Presented:
1) CBP&L Football League (youth & senior divisions)
2) Netball = Most improved team last season in CINA U-18 league
3) Community POY = Ventisha Conolly (Lions, Leos, BPWC, sports)
4) School OY = C&SBPS
5) Service & Appreciation = Lizzanna Hurlston, Victoriano Pomare, Brac International Travel
6) Life-Time Achievement = Theo Cuffy (C.I. National Cricket Coach)
7) Silver Sponsor OY = Rotary Club of CYB
8) Silver Sponsor OY = Paramount Carpets
9) Gold Sponsor OY = Sagicor General Insurance (Cayman) Ltd
10) Gold Sponsor OY = Kirkconnell Ltd
11) Gold Sponsor OY = Cayman National Corporation
12) Platinum Sponsor OY = Progressive Distributors
13) Platinum Sponsor OY = CBP&L Company Ltd
14) Netball AOY = Mya Dunkley
15) Male Basketball AOY = Cordell Gutierrez
16) Female T&F AOY = Madison Bush
17) Male T&F AOY = Andrew Frederick
18) Male Cricket AOY = Sohadeo Sohan
19) Female Swimming AOY = Martha Rivers
20) Female Football AOY = Amanda Nelson
21) Male Football AOY = Michael Sanford
Former Education Minister on UDP hustings
(CNS): Bodden Town candidates Mark Scotland and Dwayne Seymour will be joined tonight bythe former United Democratic Party MLA for the district, Roy Bodden, who served as Education Minister in the previous UDP administration but who has retired from the political arena. In what is likely to be a show of party force, Scotland and Seymour will be presenting themselves to Bodden Town’s electorate at the first of the UDP’s major campaign meetings.
Featuring live entertainment as well as politics, the event will be held at Mario Rankin Yard, Hirst Road, at the intersection of Newlands and the new bypass. “We are inviting everyone, especially Bodden Towners, to our first public meeting to talk about the major issues facing the country and our solutions to address them,” explained Scotland.
Seymour said the candidates have met with people throughout the community over the past several months but this was their first district-wide meeting. In addition to the two candidates, speakers include Bodden, former Miss Teen Cayman Islands and youth leader Yentel McGaw, and UDP Party Leader Mckeeva Bush.
“This team will be working for a better Bodden Town and they are what this district badly needs,” said Bush. “Mr Scotland and Mr Seymour represent a better way forward for this country and the people of Bodden Town.”
Criticising the performance of one of the current incumbents, Scotland accused Anthony Eden of neglecting the poor. “A study commissioned by the PPM showed that the Cayman Islands was found to have one of the highest gaps between the rich and the poor in the entire Caribbean. The Ministry of Health has known this for more than a year now and has yet to do anything about it”, he said.
The meeting will present an opportunity to quiz the UDP candidates and assess their suitability for office. Neither candidate has served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly before, however Mark Scotland ran in the district for the UDP in 2005 and both men claim extensive business experience.
Task force to do government books
(CNS): Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson has announced that a special task force of accountants will be formed in order to tackle the outstanding financial reports. During his presentation of the Supplementary Appropriations Bill to the Legislative Assembly on the last day of business yesterday, Jefferson said the group would be made up of accountants from inside the civil service in the first instance but external number crunchers will be brought into the task force from the beginning of the new financial year.
With a budget deficit of almost $29 million, Leader of the Opposition McKeeva Bush said the country was moving along a dangerous path and the issue of the outstanding government accounts was more important than ever. “As the government hasn’t published any audited accounts in four years, we don’t have the facts, members of this House can’t see what is happening with government spending,” he said. He added that he was very disappointed that the accounts had not been present as it was proof of the pudding about what had happened with government spending and there was no other way to know the facts.
Jefferson said that accounts were now finished for the year 2005 and just neede to be compiled into the report, but the problems of Hurricane Ivan and the new requirements of the PMFL had put pressure on CFOs. He said while these were not excuses they were explanations. Jefferson stated that the taskforce would remove the pressure on CFOs, who would be freed up to concentrate on keeping departments’ accounts currentwhile the external accountants would deal with the backlog.
“The importance of this area is fully understood. It is being taken seriously and there is an action plan in place with the establishment of the taskforce,” he added.
The significant delinquency of government financial reporting was exposed in July of last year when Auditor General Dan Duguay released a report, the State of Financial Accountability Reporting, which revealed that every government ministry and statutory authority was behind in its audited accounts. Some were more than four years behind which has prevented government from compiling full reports for any year since it has been in office.
Since the revelation there has been some considerable controversy about the report, with departments denying the position set out by Duguay’s report only to miss more deadlines. However, Duguay told CNS recently that his office continues to work will all the entities that are behind, and he says some improvements have been made. However, the establishment of the taskforce is the first concrete indication that the Portfolio of Finance has a plan to deal with the problem.
In the wake of the report, Governor Stuart Jack raised his concerns and said the delays went to the heart of good governance and said he expected to see the matter addressed. On 6 August he said audited financial statements are important for the accountability of government and hence for good governance and the delay in finalising the statements could not be allowed to continue.
On 6 August 2008, the governor said he expected COs and CFOs of all government entities to give the highest priority to quick progress towards meeting the requirements of the law and of financial accountability to the Legislative Assembly, particularly the Public Accounts Committee, and the public. Several datesfor the Public Accounts Committee to meet were set and missed.
Osbourne Bodden, Chair of the Committee, also released a statement in August saying the committee acknowledged the long standing problem with the lack of timely financial statements being made available for audit by the audit office and it would commence witness calling and testimony by early September. Bodden said he strenuously recommended that a specific deadline be given and once passed that the audit office proceeds with issuing its report.
However, the committee did not meet before the dissolution of the House and will not now do so until after a new administration and therefore new committee is formed.
Fears of record hedge fund withdrawals
(Financial Times): Hedge fund investors believe the industry will see even bigger withdrawals this year than last, when record levels of cash were pulled from the sector. A survey of investors by Deutsche Bank found a third expect more than $200bn to be withdrawn, after a net $155bn was taken out last year, according to calculations by Chicago consultancy Hedge Fund Research. Only a quarter of investors expect net inflows into the industry, and 82 per cent of the 1,000 surveyed said redemptions were the biggest issue hedge fund managers face.
UK bill of rights outlined
(The Guardian): A new British bill of rights and responsibilitilies outlined yesterday could enshrine entitlements to welfare, equal treatment, housing, children’s wellbeing and the NHS, Jack Straw, the justice secretary, said yesterday. He likened the bill’s potential impact to Magna Carta and the 1689 Bill of Rights. The green paper follows a commitment to the measure made by Gordon Brown the day after he became prime minister, but the proposals have been met with disdain by some cabinet members worried it would simply empower the judiciary, deepen popular frustrations with the Human Rights Act, and be seen as an irrelevance at a time of recession.
Few nations use death penalty
(BBC): The world is moving nearer to ending the use of capital punishment, Amnesty International says, despite its latest report revealing a mixed picture. In its annual survey the group says 2,390 people were put to death in 2008, up from 1,252 in 2007. And 8,864 were sentenced to death, up from 3,347. Of 25 nations using the death penalty in 2008, China was the most prolific. But Amnesty said it was encouraging that just 59 nations retained the death penalty and so few actually used it. The group’s secretary general, Irene Khan, said such punishments as beheading, stoning and electrocution "have no place in the 21st Century".
Lions and Leos star in video
(CNS): Local Lions and Leos were captured working in the community on both Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac by a visiting film crew from Lions Clubs International. From beach clean-ups to tackling breast cancer and screening schoolchildren for eye defects, the Cayman Lions Family demonstrated some of the fine work they do for the people and places of the Cayman Islands.
The visitors were welcomed at the Lions Club of Grand Cayman Happy hour event on Friday 27 February, with gift bags donated by the Department of Tourism, where they were able to socialize with many Lions who were in attendance.
Early Saturday morning the group headed down to the Lions Swimming Pool to film a group of young swimmers training. Then it was off to Cayman Brac for a packed schedule that included filming a beach clean-up, a meeting with teachers to present school supplies, meeting with people who were affected by Hurricane Paloma, which hit Cayman Brac on 8 November 2008, distribution of relief supplies and interviews with several members of the Lions and Leos Clubs of Cayman Brac about different projects being tackled in that community.
Sunday saw the crew filming members of the Leos Club of Grand Cayman at the Public Beach on West Bay Road. The Leos was busy cleaning up the beach and painting some of the cabanas. Several members of the Lions Club of Grand Cayman turned out to help and the session ended with a barbeque. Once lunch was over, they headed up to North Side to visit Daniel Rankin, who was the grateful recipient of a new electronic wheelchair from the Lions Club of Grand Cayman. Their last stop for the day was to visit with the Lions Club of Tropical Gardens where they captured the work being done on the ‘Breast Cancer Awareness’ project at the Elmslie Memorial United Church Hall.
Their final day of filming started early with the Sight Screening project which was taking place at Pace High School – over 100 children were screened for visual defects. They then visited the Lions Eye Clinic and met with Dr Pandit to discuss the work Lions do for sight in the community, and also to find out how Lions has helped the clinic by donations of much needed new equipment in order to carry out other operations; which will save community members from having to traveling overseas, and also saving them hundreds, or maybe even thousands of dollars.
The final stop in their whistle stop tour was the Mammogram Clinic where they met and interviewed the doctor, and met with some patients who were recipients of the Lions Mammogram vouchers at the Chrissie Tomlinson Memorial Hospital.
Lion John Ebanks, Council Chairperson of Lions Multiple District 60 played chaperone for the duration of the weekend. Lion John said, “It was a pleasure to have the crew here to be able to capture the great work that is carried out in our community by both Lions and Leos. This video will be used to showcase the work we do and to encourage others to join this wonderful service Organization.”
Lions Club of Grand Cayman President Tony Ritch added, “All members of these great service clubs were more than happy to participate in the filming. It was a fantastic opportunity to, not only showcase the community projects that we are all working on, but also our beautiful Islands.”
Rotaract Blue goes green for Rotaract Week
(CNS): Members of Rotaract Blue Cayman Islands were joined by Rotarians from their sponsor club Rotary Central and students from the Lighthouse School on Saturday 14 March for a special tree planting project, which began at the Park in the Palm Dale area (off Crewe Road), which was selected from a list of areas that were previously identified by the Department of Recreation and Parks. The tree planting was part of a week of activities to celebrate the annual World Rotaract Week, which marks the chartering of the first Rotaract Club in North Carolina, USA, on 13 March 1968.
As a result of very generous donations from Power Flower owner Hendrik Lindhardt, Carlos Dawkins of Qualscape Ltd, and the Camana Bay nursery, the club received a wide selection of trees, 17 of which were planted at the Palm Dale Park venue. The remaining plants will be used for other tree planting and replenishment projects in the near future.
Project organiser Tricia Cacho explained the initiative: “We chose to carry out an environmentally friendly project in conjunction with our Rotaract District’s initiative, ‘Going Green’. The Palm Dale community’s new park is now green and flourishing and we hope that the residents are pleased with what we have done. Many thanks to everyone who made our project a success."
Rotaract Blue is one of the newest Rotaract initiatives in the Caribbean. The club is sponsored by Rotary Club of Grand Cayman Central and under their guidance ithas become the second established Rotaract Club in the Cayman Islands. The Open Arms programme aims to create community awareness of different disabilities and to integrate individuals with disabilities into the community.
UCCI students earn HR credentials
(CNS): Two Caymanian students at the University College of the Cayman Islands recently earned the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certification. Katrina Parchment and Regina Bennett sat the Human Resource Certification Institute’s PHR exam earlier in the academic year and are the first UCCI students to earn this distinguished qualification. The certification, awarded by the HR Certification Institute, signifies that recipients possess the theoretical knowledge and practical experience in human resource management necessary to pass a rigorous examination and demonstrates a mastery of the body of knowledge in the field.
Bennett said she took the SHRM programme to expand her knowledge and enhance her qualifications by earning a globally recognized credential in the HR profession. “This achievement both challenges me to continue learning and motivates me to keep striving for career advancement,” she said.
Parchment added that the commitment and focus required for the programme is significant. “My hard work and dedication to the programme was rewarded when I passed the PHR exam. It feels good to know that the knowledge and credentials I have gained has further strengthened my capabilities as an HR professional,” she noted.
Dr Carolyn Mathews, Director of Executive Training and Graduate studies and instructor for the programme, said she is particularly proud of the accomplishments of these two students. “It is a wonderful achievement that as a result of their study two HR Masters Degree students from UCCI have received professional certification from the Human Resources Certification Institute in the United States. Congratulations from all at UCCI.”
The HR Certification Institute is the credentialing body for human resource professionals and is affiliated with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the world’s largest organization dedicated exclusively to the human resource profession.
Ocean Awareness for kids
(CNS): With a new Ocean Aware initiative, the Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI) aims to help all children in the Cayman Islands have an understanding of the ocean’s influence on people and human impact on the sea by the time they are twelve years old. To reach this goal, and with sponsorship from CUC, the CCMI Education Committee has developed and published an ocean literacy teacher’s guide, “Our Ocean Planet”, which has been endorsed by the Education Ministry and has been incorporated into the science curriculum.
The Ocean Aware programme is a detailed and ambitious three-year plan, and its overall scope is two-fold: to provide literature, training and support to teachers in both the public and private schools in the Cayman Islands; and to implement a public awareness campaign for Ocean Aware, designed to make all members of the community more aware of the impact of of humans on the ocean and visa versa.
“Educating our youth is very important if we are to be successful in preserving the natural beauty of our marine environment. We are pleased to commit to the Ocean Aware initiative of CCMI as we can see the tremendous long term benefits it will bring to the Cayman Islands,” said Richard Hew, President and CEO of CUC.
For more information on the Ocean Aware or any of CCMI’s educational initiatives, contact Sally at copppage@reefresearch.org