Archive for April, 2009
Police in teenager standoff
(CNS): Police said today that an 18-year-old man with mental health problems who barricaded himself in his house armed with two machetes after making threats to harm his family last night has now been taken into custody safely following a major negotiation operation by the RCIPS. Police were alerted to the incident in West Bay at around 8:50 pm last night, Tuesday 21 April, when a woman reported that her son had been causing problems at her house and requested police assistance.
Police said that officers responded to the scene and the young man then barricaded himself in his room, refusing to come out. The two other occupants of the house were removed safely from the scene. Officers entered into negotiations with the man, whose mood police described as fluctuating frequently between calm and erratic.
The RCIPS stated that he made serious threats against his family and the police. During the standoff the house was cordoned off and two officers trained in negotiation tactics, including one who is currently on annual leave, attended the location.
Conversations with the man continued into the night and he was persuaded to give up one of the two machetes he had in his possession. Following a number of hours of negotiations and based on the increasing risks the Senior Incident Command made the decision to deploy a tactical entry into the house using trained specialist officers and the man was taken into custody without incident under the Mental Health Act.
He was also arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct, threatening violence and failing to attend court.
“This was a situation which had the potential to end tragically or in serious injuries to the occupants, the subject or the officers,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Anthony Ennis. “I am extremely proud of the professionalism and skills displayed by the officers who brought about a successful end to this volatile incident.”
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.
Fidel ‘corrects’ Obama
(Huffington Post): Fidel Castro says President Barack Obama "misinterpreted" his brother Raul’s remarks regarding the United States and bristled at the suggestion that Cuba should free political prisoners or cut taxes on dollars people send to the island. Raul Castro touched off a whirlwind of speculation last week that the U.S. and Cuba could be headed toward a thaw after nearly a half-century of chilly relations. The speculation began when the Cuban president said leaders would be willing to sit down with their US counterparts and discuss "everything, everything, everything," including human rights, freedom of the press and expression, and political prisoners.
Day continues to storm sports
(CNS): The name Merta Day is synonymous with sports, and to the long list of accomplishments she has, Day has just added another title — Most Valuable Player — in the finals of the Cayman Islands Basketball Association’s (CIBA) National Women’s League. Her team, Quick Cash Storm, remained undefeated throughout the entire season, even though Day endured the much of the season with a niggling injury. In the finals, however, she was ready to play her role to maintain her team’s unbeaten run and to take the winner’s trophy. (Photos by Tara Bush)
According to a CIBA release, 43-year-old Day probably began her sporting life when she began to walk. With an athletic body built for running, a commanding height for basketball and netball, the agility and coordination for tae-kwon-do, the strength and endurance for rugby and the hand-eye coordination for squash, Day has competed in just about every sport.
Truth be told, she is one of the lucky ones who has found a way to turn her passion for sport into a career. She is currently employed with the Cayman Islands Department of Sports as Sports Coordinator for Women. She has been with the department for the past 23 years.
No stranger to sporting awards, Day has won Netballer of the Year “many years back”, as she recalls. She has been named Player of the Match in rugby and has many middle distance running events to her credit. She has received the coveted Sports Person of the Year award and was the first person in the history of these islands to be awarded an international medal – as the Tae-kwon-do winner at the Central American Games in Ponce Puerto Rico year 1992. She was also local middle-weight champion.
In 2008, Day was awarded the Sports Woman’s Diploma from the International Olympic Committee for outstanding contribution to the development of sports for girls and women in Cayman Islands.
Her basketball accolades are pretty impressive as well. She wasthe first woman to record the first triple double – this means she secured double figures in scoring, rebounding, assist or steals. Along the way, she says she has earned a variety of titles in the local women’s league and won the MVP award in the 2006 and 2007 seasons. She did not compete in the 2008 league.
Merta Day is the real sport deal. She started playing basketball seriously in 1992 for Cayman Women’s National Team, under the tutelage of Rick Catlin. She says she found the game to be fun and was drawn it to due to its high visibility on television.
“But what I really liked was that everyone on the team got an opportunity to shoot the ball and also because of the scholarship opportunities,” Day said.
Day, who emerged the MVP in this year’s finals of the basket ball league, said she did not set out to be a stats leader this year. “I deliberately looked for a team that had reliable players, specifically the centre positions, so that I would have less playing time and could be on the bench, instead of being one of the key players. I also wanted to play for a team that enjoyed playing ball and simply having fun,” she explained.
She says that sport is important to her because of three things: cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance and flexibility, which she says are key ingredients to a healthy lifestyle.
“Sports keep me fit, healthy and happy. I get to socialise and meet people, travel the world and be an ambassador for my country. Sports also gave me a scholarship and even though I did not capitalise on it back then, this kind of opportunity can be a blessing to young people whose families cannot afford to pay college tuition fees,” she added.
Day said she was pleased to receive this year’s award, but was equally surprised because so many of her teammates played well. “I say a huge thank you to my team mates who supported me and made the good passes to me, allowing me the opportunities to score, and thereby allowing us to maintain our winning streak. I must also thank my coach. It was a total team effort, especially since we didn’t even have a team practice, because we were all so busy,” she said.
In further praise to the efforts of her team, Day noted that she sat on the bench for four weeks due to a hamstring injury and the team “fought tooth and nail during the play-offs to make it to the finals. Any of our starting five could easily have won the MVP award — more specifically Lavern [Ebanks] or Bobeth [O’Garro] I applaud them all – they are all MVPs in my opinion and it was an absolute pleasure playing with players you can rely on,” she added.
Day encourages young women to get started in sports early. “The younger you start, the easier it is to learn new skills. Sports provide wholesome activities that can be enjoyed at all levels and keep young people out of trouble,” she said.
“There are so many benefits to sports, ranging from a healthy lifestyle, to opportunities for scholarships. Young sports persons must be disciplined and maintain good grades in school,” she added.
Merta Day is married to Michael and they have a daughter, Chantelle Day, who is one of the top squash players in the Caribbean.
Sparkies need to be licenced
(CNS): All active electrical contractors need to submit an electrical contractor’s application to the Building Control Unit (BCU) by Thursday, 30 April 2009 the Electrical Board of Examiners (EBE) has said. According to the Electricity Law (Revision 2005) and the Electricity Regulations (Revision 2005) section 60(1) no one is allowed to trade as an electrician without a license and the requirement is being enforced as part of the phasing in of regulations.
The law states: “No person shall trade, contract or carry on business as an electrical contractor of any nature or employ staff for any such work unless he is licensed in that behalf by the Board (Electrical Board of Examiners) and also holds a licence as an electrician or contractor under the Trade and Business Licensing Law (2003 Revision).”
As of Tuesday, 19 May 2009, the Building Control Unit (BCU) will not conduct inspections for electricians who do not meet the requirements detailed in the regulations, section 60(2), as they would be operating illegally. “Most applications received to date have been approved,” said EBE Chairman Robert Duty. “We expect that most contractors will be in compliance,”
The electrical contractor’s application is available on www.planning.gov.ky, and at BCU, in Regatta Office Park. There is no application charge at this time. The EBE will consider applications during its regular meetings, which normally are held the second Tuesday of each month.
The board is also advising those sitting the next Electrical Licensing Exam that it is scheduled for Friday, 29 May 2009 on Grand Cayman. People wishing to take the exam must submit their applications to the Planning Department no later than 12 noon, 8 May 2009. Application forms are available from the Planning Department website as above or from the office.
The exam is scheduled to take place from 8am to 12 noon in the training room at Innovative Management & Professional Training, located in Alissta Towers, Unit 201, 85 North Sound Road. Each applicant must pay two separate fees in order to sit the exam. The first fee of CI$25 is an application processing fee, which is payable by cheque or money order to the Cayman Islands Government. The second, is the US$60 exam fee which is payable only by a US currency money order to the International Code Council. Both fees are to be submitted along with the application by 8 May 2009.
The 2009 examination dates for Grand Cayman are as follows:
Exam Date Deadline
29 May 2009 8 May 2009
28 August 2009 7 August 2009
27 November 2009 6 November 2009
For further enquiries, please contact the Planning Department at 769-PLAN (7526), fax: 769-2228, e-mail: Building.Control@gov.ky visit www.planning.gov.ky, call EBE Chairman Robert Duty on 916-4891 or EBE Secretary Emerson Piercy on 526-1521.
Christianity’s human-rights heritage
Our proposed Bill of Rights allows discrimination as long as it is “justifiable”. That’s what Section 16 says. What all the fuss is about is who decides what is justifiable.
My guess is, the Privy Council in London will decide on a case-by-case basis – each case being brought by a very rich person who doesn’t need to live here. The Attorney-General’s Office will defend the discrimination every inch of the way and will appeal every time it loses, and will delay payment even when the Privy Council does rule against it. Also, the plaintiff will lose his residency papers within 24 hours of going to court. That’s what happens to people who take on the Cayman Islands Government.
The Bill of Rights doesn’t actually identify gays as the prime target of any discrimination. The British Government wouldn’t stand for that. Anyway, our politicians are rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of having their broad power to discriminate enshrined in the Constitution. Can you imagine? Who wouldn’t want to be best-buds with them, then?
Disguising the target (the gays) compromises the whole purpose of the Bill. Politicians and bureaucrats know that “rights” aren’t worth a hill of beans if they can be arbitrarily withheld. Our FCO masters know it too, and it’s cause for concern that they seem to be going along with this swindle.
This situation arises out of some local church-leaders’ loathing of homosexual men and women. How ironic that is. Christians have led many reform movements over the Centuries: what a shame the tradition looks like coming to the end of the line in Cayman.
Reform movements throughout Christendom would never have succeeded without the leadership of Christians. It was devout Christians who led the fight to abolish chattel slavery in the British Empire, two hundred years ago. In 1772 a judge had ruled that as a matter of common law, slavery was not legal in England. By implication, it had not been legal since the Norman Kings, though it had always been widely practised both in England and its colonies.
That ruling encouraged some liberal Christians to mount the campaign that resulted in the Great Emancipation of 1833. A second campaign promoted the belief that slavery ought to be abolished everywhere in the world. Freedom from slavery was so fundamental a status that it transcended nation, religion, sex, race, and every other consideration. Heathen black African women had as much God-given right to freedom as Christian white English men.
One hundred years before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the international campaigners recognised that virtue is not the exclusive preserve of Christianity or any other religion. Rather, virtue derives from rules of behaviour that are common to all mankind regardless of religion.
Belief in the Christian God does not guarantee good “Christian” behaviour. Christianity is not an ethics-based religion, any more than Islam is, or Judaism. Decency and compassion have nothing at all to do with religion, and vice versa. It was this non-religious decency and compassion that was evident in the anti-slavery movements.
The abolition of slavery in nation after nation placed the “civil” right to own humans below the newly recognized “human” right of all humans (even foreigners) not to be owned. Some generations later, in the aftermath of the Second World War, activist Christians led the political battle to agree the contents of the Universal Declaration. What a glorious victory that was, for a religion that is not rooted in an ethical ideal.
There has been no general retreat by Christendom since then, from its commitment to human rights. Some small and introspective communities have found it difficult to overcome their loyalty to their narrow traditional beliefs, and that is understandable. Prejudices harden in cultural isolation.
Native Caymanians comprise one of these communities, resistant to mainstream Christianity’s generosity of spirit towards new ideas that promise greater kindness. Thus, the veneration of selected Old Testament myths and parables that happen to coincide with the community’s prejudices.
Has Cayman forgotten that many of our ancestors were set free by Christian activists? Is there no residual gratitude?
Prejudice and discrimination go hand in hand, don’t they? We see this in the draft Bill of Rights. Our most vocal religious spokesmen are anxious to shore up their prejudices, and our political representatives are anxious to get their fingers on the trigger of unlimited personal discrimination.
But it won’t kill us to wait a few more years to get a Bill of Rights that is free of discrimination against our fellow humans. Our leaders have led us to the cusp of shame, by packaging reasonable new rules of governance with a Bill of Rights that enshrines bigotry and discrimination. The packaging is a trick.
It would be a stunning defeat for virtue and compassion if Cayman were to vote for the proposed discriminatory Bill of Rights. We who value fairness over prejudice must hope with all our heart that the proposal fails.
Let us who respect fairness in our lives honour the Christians of 200 years ago who battled the racial prejudices of their time. In the privacy of the voting booth let us vote NO to the new Constitution and reject the Bill of Diluted Rights.
Let us not be persuaded by “leaders” who are ruled by their prejudices.
Drivers warned to be careful on clean-up day
(CNS): The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service is asking motorists to take extra care on the road this coming weekend as hundreds of people give up their time to assist in the Chamber of Commerce annual Earth Day Roadside Clean-up. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people will be taking part in the event on Saturday, 25 April, which will see volunteers collecting litter and debris from the side of the road between 7am and around 12pm.
Police said drivers are urged to be on the look out for them and be mindful that more people will be out on the road than usual. Motorists should take extra care by slowing down and being alert. Anyone wanting more information on the event should contact the Chamber of Commerce on 949-8090 ext. 124 or visit their website at www.caymanchamber.ky.
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.
TIEAs are not for fishing
(CNS): When it comes to offshore business at present all eyes are on Jeffrey Owens, the OECD’s Director of Tax Policy and Administration who has played an instrumental role in encouraging Offshore Financial Centers to sign tax information exchange agreements or TIEAs as part of a move away from bank secrecy and towards transparency. Owens who is scheduled as headline speaker at the forthcoming Offshore Alert conference next week recently said the agreements do not allow countries to go on "fishing expeditions" for information about taxpayers.
Offshore Alert organizers said Owens will be presenting on this, one of the most topical issues in the offshore world when he delivers a key-note address entitled "Tax Co-Operation: Risks and Opportunities" at the 7th Annual OffshoreAlert Financial Due Diligence Conference, which will take place in Miami Beach, Florida 26-28 April.
Owens has said that TIEAs respect a taxpayers’ right to privacy and the rights of countries to "tailor their own tax systems to their own needs." Over the last five months, 27 TIEAs have been signed or announced, including 11 by Bermuda and seven by the Cayman Islands, stated Owens.
As well as explaining the issues surrounding TIEAs he will look at "What’s Next" for OFCs as the international drive towards greater transparency for tax purposes gathers momentum amid the threat of sanctions against countries deemed to be non-cooperative. In the wake of the G20 summit in London he also noted that more progress on tax transparency and cooperation had been made in the last two months than in the last ten years. “We’ve moved very substantially to a level playing field,” he said, adding the recent agreements apply as much to companies as to individuals. “We’re in favour of fair tax competition,” Mr. Owens said. “It’s up to each country to decide its own rate of tax.”
However, Owens has also criticized tax haves for their impact on developing countries he recently told Reuters, that tax drainage to havens was equal to 7 or 8 percent of the gross domestic product of the African continent.
Following Owens’ speech, the conference will hear from Wendy Warren, who is the CEO and Executive Director of the Bahamas Financial Services Board. In a speech entitled "The Offshore Perspective outlining her vision of how OFCs must adapt in order to thrive in the current global economic and political climate.
Owens and Warren will also take part in a panel discussion regarding the issues affecting OFCs with Eduardo D’Angelo Silva, Vice Chairman of the Cayman Islands Financial Services Association, David Chenkin, a New York-based attorney and Bob Roach, Counsel and Chief Investigator to the U. S. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, which is chaired by U. S. Senator Carl Levin, the principal sponsor of the ‘Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act’, which is currently being considered by Congress.
So far, 250 people from 28 countries have registered to attend the conference, which will look at the latest developments in Offshore Financial Center
Strong support to preserve Blossom Village Road
(CNS): Three of the four Sister Islands candidates are among more than 250 people who have so far signed a petition to ask government not to pave the old-time Caymanian sand road that runs through Blossom Village in Little Cayman. Both incumbents, Julianna O’Connor-Connolly (UDP) and Moses Kirkconnell (PPM), and independent candidate Lyndon Martin have signed the petition, as well as the four West Bay UDP MLAs. However, while paving plans have been halted for now, District Administration Minister Kurt Tibbetts has not ruled out the paving of the road. (Photos by Foots)
Elsie Kynes, and her husband, the artist known as “Foots”, launched the campaign (See Campaign to save historic road in LC) on Monday, 23 February, when they found out that Public Works Department on Little Cayman was set to start work on paving the road. While pleased that the immediate plans have been stopped, they are now determined to preserve the road as a national landmark forever.
Department of Environment Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie has said, “The DoE’s position is that we would not wish to see this road paved for the same reason we chose not to pave the parking lot of the recently constructed DoE building on Little Cayman (which is also in Blossom Village), which is that the road, like our parking lot, is within the extended beach ridge system and should therefore not be covered over with an impervious surface which has the potential to significantly alter the drainage characteristics of such areas," Ebanks-Petrie said. "We also believe that the public’s concerns over the potential speed limit increase and the aesthetic impact on Blossom Village are legitimate.”
Foots says they intend to take the petition to the Governor’s Office next week, and petitions are circulating on both Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. Anyone interested in signing can call him at 925-0904 or email bettyboo@candw.ky or footscaymanbrac@yahoo.com . There is also a website Blossom Village Road blog, launched by local photographer David Wolfe, where people can vote in an online poll. To date 172 people have voted “no” to paving the road, and two people have voted “yes”.
A statement from Kurt Tibbetts reads, “A few weeks ago, we were advised of a petition signed by Little Cayman residents in response to the proposed paving of the Blossom Village Road. While the petition has not been received to date in light of the concern, paving plans have been postponed, pending reassessment and discussion between District Administration and the Department of Environment.
“However, it should be noted that work on that stretch of road was originally scheduled in response to requests from residents and landowners living in the area. The plan for the road was then announced during the Little Cayman District Office opening in May 2008. At that time District Commissioner Ernie Scott invited residents to forward their comments regarding the proposed work to his office. Once District Administration has had an opportunity to discuss this with the various stakeholders, a decision regarding the proposed road works will be made and the public will be advised accordingly.”
West Bay four target UDP
(CNS): Four of West Bay’s independent candidates, who are running as a group hoping to overturn the United Democratic Party’s hold on the district, launched their collective campaign on Saturday night setting out some of their beliefs and concerns. Although the four have differing views on a number of subjects they have one very common thread, which is their belief that the current incumbents have failed in their duty to represent the district. (Left: Paul Rivers from the West Bay four)
While Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush, the first elected member for the district, and his colleague Rolstin Anglin hold their seats with significant majorities, getting well over half of the vote in the last election, the West Bay four, not unlike other independent candidates will have their eyes on the slightly more vulnerable seats held by Cine Glidden with just over 48% of the vote and Capt Eugene with just over 46%. Well over half of the West Bay voters did not use any of their four votes on these two candidates and, hoping to gain those and a lot more, Woody Da Costa opened the evenings proceedings to a large crowd in the parking lot opposite Foster’s Supermarket.
Having proved he was an articulate and assertive potential candidate at the previous evening’s Chamber Candidate District Forum, Da Costa, introduced by the West Bay four’s committee chair Attlee Ebanks,outlined his desire to change policy across the board to address Cayman’s fundamental social problems and inequities that had resulted from the uncontrolled and rapid development of the islands. He said the existing career politicians had all had a hand in this and the UDP had nothing to offer but failed promises.
“We need a new development policy as the rapid growth has not been welcomed by all and has revealed inequities. We need to strengthen the economy, not because that is the objective in itself but because a strong economy will bring happiness and comfort for all,” he noted, explaining that over the coming weeks of the campaign he would present his specific policy ideas. Da Costa said he was running for office as he wanted to help write a new chapter in the history of West Bay.
Lana Mae Smith criticised the incumbents for what she said was poor representation and said that their excuse of not being in government was not good enough. She said they were too busy working on their own affairs and not attending to the issues of their districts. “How do you collect a full time salary when you only give part time representation?” she asked rhetorically. She lamented the state of the district, which was even more of a problem because of West Bay’s role in the tourism industry and recalled the days when people used to aspire to live in West Bay as it was the best district.
Smith also focused on what is becoming her defining policy, that of the environment, as she is one of the only candidates to openly embrace the full content of the National Conservation Bill. She said if the environment could talk it would be crying. “Here we are in paradise and we are abusing our natural environment,” Smith lamented. “As the world is embracing and understanding green issues, our representatives are developing and developing.” She added that the time had come to champion the environmentand that started with passing the National Conservation Bill. She said Cayman needed sustainable development not the unbridled development of the past, motivated by kickbacks.
Reginald ‘Choppy’ Delepenha took to the stage with a PowerPoint presentation that revealed the extent of development in the area and the increase in population and noted that West Bay had seen more growth than any other district but the district had been neglected by its MLAs and agreed with Smith that the part time representation couldn’t work anymore.
“We need leaders that will put you first,” he said. “Not people who look after foreign developers.” He asked how many people worked at the Ritz Carlton to which no one admitted, and he said with jobs at less than $5 an hour he was not surprised. Delepenha said he was not against development but it was time to see it benefitting the people of Cayman. Concerned about the problems caused by unemployment and poverty, he said people needed a hand up not a hand out. Calling on the people to vote for him and his three colleagues he told them not to be afraid (referring to past allegations of voter intimidation in the district) as there was no need of that fear anymore.
Introduced by Ebanks as "the lion", Paul Rivers, who his often heard lamenting the issues impacting ordinary Caymanians on the local radio talk shows, took to the podium last. Demonstrating his skills as an orator he told the people that if they elected him they would have a lion fighting in their corner. He said he was not afraid of victimisation and not afraid to fight for his people.
He said the tomfoolery of the existing representation had to stop and people had a choice: they could vote for more of the same foolishness or they could vote for change on what he described as "judgement day", 20 May.
“Our future should not be locked in bondage,” he said. “We need our lions share and we need it now.” He spoke about the mounting social problems of unemployment and disaffected youth in the district and the changes to the tourism industry that had seen Caymanians almost removed from the product. He recalled a time when people would visit the first time as tourists and return as family. But he said, “The kindness of Caymanians had become our weakness as the predators have come among us.” He called on the people not to vote straight but to vote smart and that if the system was going to be changed, the people needed to change the players.
Speaking on their behalf at the close of the meeting, Ebanks said that all four would not be taking bribes but taking a pay cut as they had agreed to take 15% of their MLAs salaries if elected and place it into an account to be used for projects specifically for West Bay.
Crash witnesses sought three weeks after the event
(CNS): Police on Cayman Brac are appealing for witnesses to a car crash that ended in an assault. The crash occurred in the vicinity of Surf Lane at around 1:20 am on Sunday, 29 March. Police and paramedics responded to the scene where a 22-year-old man was found to have severe facial injuries. CNS understands that a single passenger in the car is married to a 30-year-old man, a pedestrian at the scene, who was arrested on suspicion of assault causing grievous bodily harm, and that the victim, who was the driver of the car, is her nephew.
CNS also understands that the car swerved off the road through several yards, destroying a gazebo in one of them. Police say the victim was taken to hospital and currently remains receiving medical care.
Police said it has become clear that there were a number of people present in the area following the accident. Officers are anxious to speak to anybody who saw the vehicle involved in the crash in the area that night, including bystanders at the scene following the crash. They are particularly keen to trace anyone who called 911.
“We need the assistance of the community to help us get to the bottom of this incident,” said Sergeant Matt Dawson. “A young man has suffered some severe facial injuries and it is vital that the person/s responsible are brought to justice. It is extremely difficult for the police to effectively investigate crimes such as this without the assistance of the public and I would urge anyone who saw anything at all to get in touch with the police. All information received will be treated in the strictest of confidence.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Sergeant Dawson on 948-0331 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.