Archive for April, 2009
Minister calls out Brac MLA
(CNS): Although he said he had not planned to talk about education at the launch of the PPM’s national campaign last night, Minster Alden McLaughlin said he was driven to it. Following the "false witness” born against him on the pervious evening by UDP candidate Julianna O’Connor-Connolly regarding her misrepresentation of the events surrounding the passage of the Education Bill last month, he said he was forced to set the record straight. “I don’t want to call her a liar but she is damn careless with the truth!” he exclaimed.
Referring to O’Connor-Connolly’s claim that he had tried to take God out of the schools but she had saved the day, the Minister explained what had actually happened in the Legislative Assembly in its closing days and how O’Connor-Connolly had “born false witness against Alden McLaughlin".
As is confirmed by both records from the LA and the National Curriculum itself, O’Connor-Connolly seems to have misled the public with her claim during her speech at the UDP’s party rally on Monday night. McLaughlin said that religious education had been enshrined in the curriculum, which is already in use and had never been removed. He also put straight the impression that O’Connor-Connolly had given that he had tried to sneak it through.
He noted that the first draft of the bill had been brought to the House for debate in 2006, again in 2007 and again in October 2008, more than four months before the bill came to the House for passage last month, giving all the legislators more than ample time to scrutinize and assess the content of the new law, which he intended to bring before the close of House business.
“Not once did they debate this, not once did I hear a peep out of Julie. One of the most important pieces of legislation ever brought to the house and, with the exception of Rolston Anglin, not one of them had ever wanted to debate it,” he said. The minister explained that the opposition had been given months to raise any objections but had not done so, and he suspected their lack of interest was due to the fact that they did not believe he would be able to get the work done in time to bring the law for passage. As a result, he said they simply didn’t bother to look at it. But he added that his team had worked very hard to finalize the legal paperwork and bring the document before the legislative assembly for the vote.
McLaughlin said that not only had the bill been in the public domain and open for discussion for three years before the final draft was laid before the House, the National Curriculum with its eight pages detailing the requirement to teach religious education had been there in black and white and on the website for all to see for well over a year and was already being utilized in the schools. “I want to know how she can explain that religion was not in the curriculum.”
He explained, however, that in committee stage, which is where the technical language of a law can be finalized, he had offered to put the word “religion” into section 15, which was the part of the law which mandated the curriculum. Even though it was already enshrined in the law, in order to alleviate her unfounded concerns, McLaughlin said he was content to add religion to the text of the actual bill as well.
He said the problem was, as with all the members of the UDP, that they had not listened or bothered to read the law that he had been working on and sharing since the day he was elected. “The UDP has just not paid attention to what I was doing. In reality they have paid virtually no attention to education at all during this term.” He said that improving education was not only a tough job, it was one where the results come out many years ahead. “This is my life,” he said. “I am building for the future not for the next election.”
He noted that he would not talk about the issue again as the record was set straight. He said the UDP could mislead all they wanted but that much had been achieved in education and the law, which was passed in March, was merely the formalisation of so much which was already in place which the UDP would realise if they had paid any attention to education.
Mclean calls for national health cover and lottery
(CNS): Former health minister Gilbert McLean, the architect of the Cayman Islands National Insurance Company, has called for that to be the country’s complete national health insurer that everyone contributes to in order to provide a better health care system for the islands as a whole. Speaking to the people of Bodden Town on Saturday night, he also said that it is time to introduce a national lottery and utilise the more than $1 million spent illegally each week for good causes.
Having lost his seat in the 2005 General Election when running on the UDP ticket, McLean is taking to the campaign trail this time as an independent candidate.vHe has said that the illegal numbers game has been played for years and generates a significant amount of money that could benefit the many instead of the few. He estimated more than $1 million was being spent each week, which was disappearing into a black economy but could be used for education and health care. McLean recognised the controversy and noted that some people would think it
was wrong, but he said it seemed it was wrong to have the money go into the hands of bankers and not the people.
As the former health minister, he said the creation of CNICO was an important achievement but more should be done with it and it needs to be Cayman’s primary health insurance with everyone on island paying in. “If people want a private policy of their own as well, that’s fine, but everyone should be paying into the national insurance policy.” He noted that would create far more money for the government company which cold be funnelled into the hospital.
He also suggested investing some of the million dollars currently invested in numerous Cayman pension schemes here in the jurisdiction instead of sending it overseas where the downturn in the economy has undermined the value of so many people’s investment. Citing the rapid and drastic erosion in the value of people’s pensions which have largely been invested abroad, McLean called for a review of the way in which pension funds are invested. “Up to 50% of our pension funds should be invested in Cayman by way of loans to small businesses, managed through the Cayman Islands Investment Bureau,” he said.
He told Bodden Towners that he agreed with the government’s proposal in the Constitution for a National Security Council to give elected members more say in managing the police and fighting crime but he said there was a need to assess what was happening with the exodus of senior Caymanian officers and find a way to get them back.
McLean also criticised government spending and borrowing and described its management of the economy as reckless. Though he did not say which projects he intended to stop or what areas of public spending he would cut if he was elected, he did say the first order would be to get
government funds in order by assessing the finances and ensuring all government financial statements were audited and up to date.
Given the criticism of the independent candidates from both parties, McLean noted that the voters should not listen to the party rhetoric and vote for who they wanted. “It’s not truethat voting independent is a wasted vote. You have the right to choose,” he said. “But choose wisely. A vote for me is a vote for experience. You need to elect people who understand the real world.”
He said he had been in office before and proved himself and was prepared to go and do it again if the people elected him back.
Chimps swap meat for sex
(BBC): Chimpanzees enter into "deals" whereby they exchange meat for sex, according to researchers. Male chimps that are willing to share the proceeds of theirhunting expeditions mate twice as often as their more selfish counterparts. This is a long-term exchange, so males continue to share their catch with females when they are not fertile, copulating with them when they are. Cristina Gomes and her colleagues, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, studied chimps in the Tai Forest reserve in Ivory Coast.
Drug decriminalization shows positive results
(Scientific American): In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problem—it decriminalized the use and possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs. The theory: focusing on treatment and prevention instead of jailing users would decrease the number of deaths and infections. Five years later, the number of deaths from street drug overdoses dropped from around 400 to 290 annually, and the number of new HIV cases caused by using dirty needles to inject heroin, cocaine and other illegal substances plummeted from nearly 1,400 in 2000 to about 400 in 2006 .
Tax deals delicate
(CNS): The government has said that negotiating bi-lateral tax agreements is a sensitive business and not something that could have been hurried through because of the rhetoric surrounding the recent G20 summit since what they purpose is to also get something in return. “In good faith, when we negotiate tax exchange agreements we would expect to accrue some benefits for the Cayman Islands in the commercial area,” Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts explained in the wake of the meeting.
The delicate balance of signing the tax information exchange agreements, now perceived to be highly beneficial, is also tied in with acquiring some commercial advantages for the Cayman Islands or getting the jurisdiction removed from country’s own black lists. Not wishing to elaborate on what the government might be seeking with the countries it is currently in negotiations with or what deals it has so far gained, Tibbetts said that without giving too much away the negotiations had focused on Cayman’s developing business in aircraft financing. He said that depending on the country involved, negotiations over commercial benefits would be different on each occasion.
Following the G20 summit, Minister McLaughlin explained that while the government had been criticised for not signing treaties, the PPM administration had, in fact, been engaged in negotiations since they took office, but that did not mean they were able to be successful. For example, in the dealings with the UK, the goal posts continued to change, McLaughlin said, and the government had to be very careful not to put Cayman at a commercial disadvantage.
“One of fundamental issues we face is that countries have us on internal blacklists and the negotiations will be a way to get off the internal lists,” said McLaughlin. The new unilateral law has created a way for Cayman to offer and control the flow of information without the bilateral agreements and the negotiations that go with them but still left the door open for commercial agreements, he said.
The opposition had not signed any tax agreements when they were in office, the minister noted, which he did not mean as a criticism but said it illustrated that the UDP had acted on the best advice, just as the current administration had. “We don’t want to put Cayman in a position of competitive disadvantage. We want to be compliant with OECD tax exchange standards but we don’t want to give away things other countries haven’t and then lose business. “
However, some leading members of the offshore community have questioned the wisdom of holding out on some exchange agreements. They say that there is probably very little commercial advantage that the government can negotiate as in most cases Cayman is already getting all the business it is likely to get from a given nation but that not having tax agreements is more of a disadvantage.
Lyndon Martin wins appeal
(CNS): Updated – Independent candidate for the Sister Islands, Lyndon Martin, has had one of the charges against him quashed and his pending sentence of eight months in prison replaced with 120 hours of community service during an appeal hearing yesterday regarding his conviction for immigration offences. Martin said that in light of the judge’s decision to reduce the sentences he would not appeal the other convictions. A jury had found Martin guilty in April of last year on three counts of obtaining property by deception involving a total of $1,075 that related to immigration issues.
He was sentenced to eight months imprisonment, but bailed pending the appeal. Yesterday a judge quashed count five, which was obtaining property by deception from Weldon Shaw, because they found the trial judge had erred in admitting the evidence to be read. The sentence on the remaining two charges of 8 months imprisonment, which relate to Clent Myrie, were replaced with community service as the Appeal Court disagreed with the trial judge that these offence constitute a breach of trust.
The three judge Appeal Court heard arguments from Martin’s attorney Trevor Burke QC, instructed by attorney Philip McGhee, who successfully argued that Martin’s trial judge in April had erred by allowing the key witness statement to be read in record without allowing for Martin’s legal team to challenge Shaw.
Welcoming the result, Martin thanked his legal team and the hundreds of prayers that his community had said for him. He said as he is always conducting community service, this sentence is welcome. “I look forward to giving back to my community,” he said.
The result has cleared the way for Martin to get on with his campaign for the May General Election where he will be running on the Sister Islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman alongside PPM candidate Moses Kirk-Connell, Independent Maxine McCoy-Moore and his former UDP colleague Julianna O’Connor-Conolly.
However, Martin is also still facing charges in the mysterious "Net Newsgate" regarding the Special Police Investigation Team’s accusations that he made a false accusation against a police officer. Martin had made a report to then Commissioner Stuart Kernohan that he believed his former boss at Cayman Net News, Desmond Seales, could be in a corrupt relationship with Anthony Ennis. Originally SPIT made some 17 charges against Martin but all except two have since been dropped.
Martin was due to have his day in court this month. However, the prosecution has asked for a delay until later in the year as they are believed not to be ready and seem to have some issues regarding witnesses.
Candidate calls for heads to roll at prison
(CNS): In the wake of the announcement that a serving inmate at Northward Prison has been arrested for the murder of Sabrina Schirn, political candidate in the prison’s district of Bodden Town, Sandra Catron, has called for not only an immediate investigation but also the suspension of prison management and staff involved. Catron said it was shocking and abhorrent that someone who was incarcerated because he had already broken society’s laws should be afforded the opportunity to re-offend while in prison.
Although no one has yet been found guilty and no charges have been brought against the prisoner, Catron expressed her dissatisfaction that there was any possibility of any offender committing a crime while serving time. “This is by far one of the most unreal situations I have ever heard of,” said the independent candidate. “How can any of us feel safe knowing that even after incarcerations we are still not safe from criminals.”
The Acting Chief Officer in the Portfolio of Internal and External Affairs, Franz Manderson, said today that following the judicial process there would be an investigation and a review of what happened. However, Catron said in a statement that the people could not wait that long and an investigation needed to be undertaken now. She said that Commissioner of Corrections and Rehabilitation Dr William Rattray was in post from overseas because Cayman is said not to have the level of expertise, and we should continue to hold him to such a high standard as they are accustomed to overseas and put him on immediate suspensions pending a full independent investigation. “The officers on duty that day should be afforded the same just treatment,” she said.
The prison stated today that the farm release programme had been suspended since Schirn’s body was discovered however, it did not say if other programmes were continuing and whether inmates were still being released into the community for sporting and other local events. Catron called for the immediate suspension of the work release programmes until adequate security measures could be implemented.
She said that before workers returned to the farm, security lookout towers with armed guards needed to be erected, prisoners must be stopped from using and collecting cell phones when on release, and law enforcement tracking bracelets should be attached to all prisoners outside of the prison.
Reacting to Rattray’s comments that the prisoner in question was not a violent offender, she said the general public needed to realize that because someone was incarcerated for a particular crime did not mean they were not capable of committing a more serious offence.
“The fact of the matter is, often the prosecutor is only able to get a successful prosecution on one of potentially numerous offenses. We should not take comfort in this to the point of ignoring all sensible security measures,” she said. “The comparison of teachers to prison officers in my opinion shows a real lack of understanding that the prison is not a school. These are two very different types of institutions and should have internal procedures that reflect that," Catron added, regarding Rattray’s comment at the press briefing on Friday 3 April.
Police arrest two as disputes turn violent
(CNS): Two people were arrested yesterday (Monday 6 April) following separate violent disputes involving weapons. The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) said the first incident occurred around 5pm in the vicinity of Eclipse Drive, George Town and resulted in the arrest of a 36 year old woman. Later in the night a man was arrested following the assault of another man with a machete in Impulse Close, Bodden Town.
Police responded to the scene of the first incident in George Town and found that a man had sustained a laceration to his face. The man was taken to hospital for treatment and a woman was arrested on suspicion of assault, actual bodily harm. At around 10.15pm the 911 Emergency Communications Centre received a call from a member of the public reporting that he had been attacked by another man who was armed with a machete. Police learnt that the two men, both of whom live on Impulse Close, had got into a dispute which resulted in one of the men receiving an injury from the machete. The suspect was arrested on suspicion of assault, actual bodily harm.
The RCIPS said it urges residents not to resort to violence to settle disputes. Anyone who is involved in violent acts will be dealt with under the full force of the law.
Anyone with information about crime taking place in the Cayman Islands should contact their local police station or Crime Stoppers on 800-8477 (TIPS). All persons calling Crime Stoppers remain anonymous, and are eligible for a reward of up to $1000, should their information lead to an arrest or recovery of property/drugs.
Cayman in volleyball circuit
(CNS): After a very successful tournament here in Cayman organized by the Cayman Islands Volleyball Federation, a male Beach Volleyball team of Kirk Rankin (Shervin) and Olney Thompson (OT) will leave Cayman to compete in follow-up tournaments in the NORCECA Circuit through June 2009.Shervin and OT hope to accumulate adequate points to succeed in being granted a wild card to compete in the Inaugural Caribbean Games 2009 being held in Trinidad & Tobago in July.
According to a release from the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee, other teams competing at the Caribbean Games include Antigua, Aruba, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts & Nevis, and Trinidad.
The CIOC is sponsoring these athletes to attend the upcoming tournament in the Dominican Republic and has provided the athletes with competition gear to use in the Circuit tournaments. The committee said they wish Shervin and OT the best in competition and trust that they will be able to be a part of the Cayman Team to participate at the inaugural Caribbean Games in Trinidad, 12 – 19 July 2009.
Dates Hosting Country and City Competition Division
8-April-13 Boca Chica, Dom. Rep. III NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit M/W
13-May-18 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico III NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit M/W
20-May-25 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico III NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit M/W
27-May/june-1 Pachuca. Mexico III NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit M/W
3-June-8 Verascruz, Mexico III NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit M/W
17-Jun-22 Trinidad & Tobago(Port Spain) III NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit M/W
24-June-29 Jamaica III NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit M/W
Photo: (L-R) Olney Thompson, Donald McLean (CIOC President) and Shervin Rankin.
Handgun lands man in court
(CNS): Rohan Marshall (29) of West Bay, has been charged with two counts of possession of an unlicensed firearm — one relating to a handgun and one relating to ammunition– possession of ganja and failing to provide a urine specimen, following a stop and search last week. (The arrested man is not the Rohan Marshall who works with the Department of Employment Relations.) Marshall who, appeared in court today (Tuesday, 7 April ) was arrested after the vehicle he was driving was stopped and searched by police on Tuesday, 31 March.
The discovery of the weapon was reportedly made at 4:50 pm in the afternoon when as USG officers (a team specifically trained in the use of firearms) stopped and searched a vehicle whilst on patrol along West Bay Road. Police say the man, who was the only person in the car, was arrested on suspicion of possession of an unlicensed firearm.
Superintendent Kurt Walton, who has responsibility for the USG, said at the time that the Police are committed to preventing criminal acts that disrupt the lives of law abiding members of our community. “Addressing the use of illegal firearms is a key priority and anyone found to be in possession of an illegal weapon will be prosecuted. A firearm conviction before the Grand Court in the Cayman Islands attracts a very lengthy period of imprisonment and as such we appeal to those persons who have thoughts of possessing such illegal weapons to quit,” he warned.
Anyone with information about crime taking place in the Cayman Islands should contact their local police station or Crime Stoppers on 800-8477 (TIPS). All persons calling Crime Stoppers remain anonymous, and are eligiblefor a reward of up to $1000, should their information lead to an arrest or recovery of property/drugs.