Archive for June, 2009
Recession… what recession?
So far, so good, eh? There’s little evidence here in Cayman of the severe recession up north, though there is bound to be worse to come for us. We are only 50,000 people; there are 6000 communities of this size in the US, and all 6000 aren’t suffering equally.
There are pockets of prosperity like ours.
It’s handy for us that we can watch American TV. Not only can we follow what’s happening up there – all those job losses and foreclosures and repossessions – but we can also catch some of the advice on what to do to minimize the effect of hard times on our personal lives. That’s just as well, because nobody here is giving us any free advice.
We can buy advice, but it’s very expensive. Even just a few hours can cost a thousand dollars or so, and for individuals or small businesses that’s not affordable.
Large and medium-sized companies have full-time accountants or other financial types on their staffs. Maybe they have outside consultants as well; or at least their bankers are on hand for them. Whoever the companies go to, they can afford to pay whatever it takes. And they get good value.
But who can small companies turn to, or individuals? They have just as much need for professional help as large ones. Small companies are always the first to go to the wall, during recessions, everywhere in the world. We had better prepare ourselves for that to happen here, too.
The Chamber of Commerce used to care about this sort of thing, a while back. It is best placed to get something going now. If its Councilors would read their formal terms of reference, they would see that they are actually obliged to help out.
Free advice
They could start up a non-profit “Citizens Advice Bureau” (CAB) where individuals could go for free or low-cost advice. Almost every town in England has one of those, and they are extraordinarily useful, especially during hard economic times.
Over there, local governments often fund the offices. Our government could do that – with the money they budget for First Class junkets overseas, why not? Is it too much to hope that our new Cabinet will spend the money on useful projects, instead of indulging in ventures of vanity?
Ah well, it’s a sad fact of life that pretty much all government projects end up as either vanity projects or empire-building exercises. A private-sector CAB ought to be much more efficient and productive. Let’s hope we can get one.
The Merchants Association is defunct, but it could be revived quickly if the will existed. What value do merchants place on the solvency of small businesses, and the spending ability of customers. If the government (MLAs and Civil Servants) won’t come to the party, or the Chamber and Merchants Association, who else is there?
Well, there is one unappreciated source of talent that has great potential. Grand Cayman is home to some hundreds of individuals with financial knowledge and experience that might well be made available to those who need it. Someare Caymanians, some are Status-holders, most are expat transients on Work Permits, and some are rich retirees.
Most would probably be willing to help, if asked politely. And, on the premise that nobody truly values advice that’s free, most would want to be paid something for their time.
It would be worth paying fifty or a hundred bucks an hour to improve one’s business and money-management skills. Unfortunately, the indentured-labour system doesn’t allow expats to do it without a Caymanian “front man”. That obstacle may be all that stands between a great many native Caymanian small businesses and survival, in the coming recession.
Change the Law
Many individuals are at risk, too, who under-estimate the danger that may soon face them in the form of foreclosed mortgages, called-in car loans and credit-card debts. The key question is, would Caymanians be willing to change the indentured-labour system in any circumstances? It was suspended after Ivan, very successfully. Unfortunately the Immigration authorities of the time betrayed many of the expats who helped the rebuilding, and rolled them over as soon as the emergency ended. The stench of that betrayal still lingers in expat memories. They will insist on fair dealings, next time around.
So until the Immigration Law is changed, those in need of advice will have to limit themselves to watching relevant American TV programs and trying to pick up ideas from there. In their spare time they might like to lobby their MLAs to change the Law to allow easy access to basic financial advice from people on Work Permits. The addition of twenty words in the Law is all it would take. That could be done and dusted in a week, if the will were there.
Work Permit expats willing to help Caymanians from going broke when things get really tight, would be best not to do any favours before the Law changes. Even giving free advice is dangerous, if a Caymanian could have charged money for it. The marl road is littered with stories of the deportation of do-gooders. Be very careful.
Much depends on our new Cabinet. Will its members be smarter than the outgoing one – smart enough and bold enough to take action before disaster hits? We must hope.
Student poster to feature at earthquake conference
(CNS): Budding artists from the New Horizons High School have won the Hazard Management Cayman Islands (HMCI) earthquake awareness poster competition. Year 8 students Josh Caballero, Roshaine Anderson and Rayshawn Conner will share a $400 prize sponsored by Cayman Imports. HMCI’s Deputy Director of Preparedness Omar Afflick said their work was great. “It is clear they put in a lot of effort.” HMCI now plans to display the posters at a major earthquake conference which takes place in Martinique in the latter part of June.
“Also, if you smell gas it is important to report this to parents or the authorities. If power lines are down stay clear and assume they are still live. It is recommended you wait until a structural expert has had an opportunity to check the building and declare it safe before going back inside,” Affleck said.
Preparing for hazards in advance has been shown to significantly reduce loss of life and residents are urged to secure items like book shelves and television cabinets to the walls to minimize the risk of toppling when an earthquake occurs. “These heavy items can cause significant injury, especially to a young child and putting up brackets and securing the items makes good sense. It is quick and it is not a costly exercise,” Affleck advised.
Gay penguin couple adopts chick in German zoo
(Discover): When a heterosexual Humboldt penguin couple rejected their unhatched egg this spring, zookeepers at Germany’s Bremerhaven Zoo found a happy home for the abandoned egg in the nest of gay penguin pair, Z and Vielpunkt. “Another couple threw the egg out of their batch,” the zoo’s vet said in a statement. “We picked it up and put it in the nest of the gay penguins.” The couple then incubated the egg for more than a month before hatching a healthy chick that is now about four weeks old. Z and Vielpunkt have been caring for the chick just as a heterosexual penguin couple would, say animal experts.
Passengers shaken up on two scary flights
(CNS): Passengers on a flight from Grand Cayman to London at the end of May were shaken up on the first leg of the journey to Nassau, Bahamas, when the British Airways jet ran into an electrical storm. And just a few days later, a Cayman Airways Boeing 737-300 from Miami, FL, en route to Grand Cayman last week was forced to make a rapid descent when the primary cabin pressure controller suffered a malfunction about halfway into the flight. No one was harmed on either flight.
On Friday 29 May Flight BA252 Cayman to London (via Nassau) was, according to British Airways, diverted to Miami due to bad weather. “We apologize to customers for the disruption to their journeys. Thunderstorms can cause delays and disruption around airports since aircraft are required to fly around them,” a spokesperson said via email. “The aircraft refuelled before completing the journey to Nassau. Safety is our number one priority and we took the decision to divert as a precaution. “
However, one passenger recalled the journey as terrifying. Julie Price said that when the evening flight left Grand Cayman the sun was shining. “When we got closer to Nassau we were caught in a powerful storm; there were lightning bolts going off outside the plane and it was raining extremely heavily and the wind was very powerful. It was too strong a storm to enable the plane to fly through it,” she recalled.
“I have never been so terrified in my life, the plane was jolting up and down and was extremely rocky, at one point it felt like the plane plummeted downwards and the force of the drop made everyone get thrown out of their seats." However, passengers were kept from falling by their seatbelts.
"Some passengers were crying and a few even screamed, personally I was absolutely terrified, I didn’t cry but had a slight panic attack (pains in my chest and finding it hard to breathe). In the end we had to make an emergency landing in Miami,” she said.
Price had no complaints about the captain, however. “Once the plane had landed the captain walked around the aircraft and was very nice – he tried to calm people down and reassure them. He said that planes are built like tanks and are extremely strong and would hold up to a lot; he also said that 99 per cent of the time a flight is smooth and our type of journey was very rare.” The captain told the passengers that pilots go through vigorous training, such as simulators, and that his training had been extremely useful in flying through the storm.
“He promised us that we would not fly back to Nassau until it had been confirmed that the weather was better. All the passengers were extremely shaken (although some of the men seemed to enjoy the experience, go figure!).” When Price told him how frightened she had been when the plane appeared to drop, he said that if this story was in the news it would say that a plane plummeted, when in reality, he said, “We only fell fifty feet or so, which isn’t a lot considering the height we are in the air.”
Price went on, “We had to wait quite a while before being told we were flying back to Nassau, when we got there it was still raining but the bad storm had gone so the ride was only a little bumpy. The rest of the flight to London was fine.” However, she said, “To top it all, when the plane landed in Nassau and the cabin crew changed over, the new airhostess merrily walked along the length of the aircraft and opened the overhead cupboards, she opened the one above me and promptly dropped a heavy bag on my head. As a result I’ve got a really sore neck and shoulders.”
Price, a former resident of Grand Cayman, who was visiting friends said, “That flight was the worst one I have ever taken in my life and not an experience I wish to repeat. Our captain assured us our flight was nothing to worry about and was completely safe. I believe him, but obviously I am not used to flight experiences like that and it has made me extremely nervous about flying every again.”
A few days later, a Cayman Airways flight was forced to descend due to pressure problem. According to local reports from passengers and a report on the Aviation Herald website, a Cayman Airways Boeing 737-300 from Miami, FL, en route to Grand Cayman last week was forced to make a rapid descent when the primary cabin pressure controller suffered a malfunction about halfway into the flight.
According to the website report the crew decided to descend to 10,000 feet and continued to Grand Cayman, where the airplane landed safely about 40 minutes later. One passenger who was on the 3 June KX 107 flight told CNS that it felt like an emergency descent as the plane went down so fast but the airline told Aviation Herald, a website which tracks incidents an aviation news around the world, that it was a normal descent as result of the anomaly. The passenger stated that the oxygen masks did not come down because the captain told them he was going to descend quickly to a level where they would be safe without them. CNS has now contacted CAL for a statement regarding what happened on the flight and is awaiting a response.
Miller: “I can sit on board”
(CNS): In the wake of criticisms by Pastor Al Ebanks, the current chair of the Health Services Authority Board, that Ezzard Miller cannot sit on it as it conflicts with legislation, the newly elected member for North Side has said there is no legislation to stop him and he is considerably more qualified to do so than the pastor. Miller stated that the new Health Authority Law passed by the PPM in 2009 clearly states that only public officials employed by the ministry or the HSA are barred from the board and the Constitution does not define an MLA as a public official.
Speaking on this morning’s edition of Crosstalk on Rooster, Miller said that there was nothing in the law to prevent him from sitting on the board. “There are only two categories of persons not allowed to sit on the board according to the new law,” he said, explaining that it was employees of the Health Ministry or the HSA, and the Constitution does not consider MLAs to be public officials.
Miller said that the law was based on recommendations he had made to the ministry in 2007 to bring relevant experience of management to the board.
He also referred to the recommendations made by Sir Richard Tucker in the wake of the Charles Clifford enquiry, which the governor had reportedly adopted, that politicians should not sit on boards. However, Miller said there is nothing in any law that enshrines this.
“If it was adopted as policy in the last Cabinet that MLAs can sit on boards, it certainly has not been implemented in the law,” Miller said. “In short, there is no conflict that I can find in law that
prevents me from sitting on the board."
Miller also said he was far more qualified than Pastor Al for the role. “When it comes to knowledge of health care, Pastor Al cannot claim to have as much experience as me,” he added
The former Health Minister told Rooster listeners that Pastor Al’s accusation of ‘cross breeding’, as he had called it, was a bit much given that the board currently had numerous members who were members of the hospital staff. He said that Pastor Al also sat as chair on the board of CINICO, the HSA’s biggest client, which he said offered an opportunity for the two boards to cover each other.
Miller, however, admitted that he had not been formally requested to sit yet and said he was not advocating that he was only person who could chair the board. But given that the new government had asked him to help with the Health Ministry because of his experience, he said the only way he could do that would be as chair of the HSA.
He said the important thing was to improve the situation at the HSA. “I know from recent experience that not everything that could be done is being done at present to address the problems in the HSA,” he added.
Viagra conman jailed
(Manchester Evening News): A MAN who became a millionaire by illegally selling Viagra-type drugs on the internet has been jailed for two years. Martin Simon Hickman, 49, from Ashton under Lyne, made £3.4m profit in four years through several websites, including one in Germany, by cashing in on the booming online trade in prescription drugs. It also emerged that Hickman had channelled the money through accounts in Malta, the Cayman Islands, the Isle of Man and local banks in Ashton under Lyne and Lees in Oldham.
Name change riles pirates
(CNS): After almost three decades of celebrating the Pirates Week Festival, the Seattle Seafair Pirates told CNS that they are very disappointed over the name change. “The whole idea of Pirates Week was to bring the tourist to Cayman in the down season, and it worked,” said Mark Jensen a spokesperson for the service club which has helped to boost Pirates week over the years. CITA also noted that its members have some concerns about how the change could affect bookings but the main sponsor Digicel has said it will continue to support the festival whatever it is called.
In the wake of the announcement by Leader of Government Business McKeeva Bush that Pirates Week will now be called the ‘Cultural Festival’, there has been a considerable amount of speculation about what that will mean for tourism figures, whether the actual events will change and when it will take effect. The Seattle Seafair Pirates have been instrumental in promoting the Pirates Week Festival overseas and attracting huge numbers of visitors to the island during what is considered the quietest part of the season.
“Changing the name will have a detrimental impact even if the events remain the same,” Jensen told CNS. “The success of Pirates Week is unquestionable and we cannot understand why it would be changed when it’s working. Over the years the numbers have increased for Pirates Week to the point where you can’t get a hotel room now during that week, which is exactly what it was meant to do. I am interested to understand what the government is trying to accomplish here. The festival was designed to attract tourists and that is what it did. Excuse the pun but the name is a hook which attracts visitors.”
Jensen, who is himself an event planner by trade, noted that taking away the name would be a serious marketing mistake. He said that the fun pirate theme, which his organisation uses, attracts positive attention not negative, and has nothing to do with the terrorists that some people now refer to as pirates operating off the coast of East Africa.
“I can understand that people are feeling uncomfortable about the issue relating to terrorists, but this has nothing to do with that,” he said, explaining that as a service club the Seafair Pirates are an organisation that raises a lot of money for good causes because they are able to attract attention. He said that was illustrated by how quickly the club was able to send $50,000 to Cayman Brac last year in the wake of Paloma. “We can raise money and get things done because we attract attention,” added Jenson.
The Cayman Islands Tourism Association noted that its members have also communicated their concern over the loss of the “Pirates Week" name because it has gained momentum with visitors over the years and gives a real boost to business during a slow time — particularly the restaurants and bars.
Trina Christian said that CITA members would certainly be interested in engaging in the discussion that may result. She said it was important to consider that while the "promotion" of pirates has been up for discussion for many years, the concern that has now arisen with merging "pirates" into a new name change, such as Cultural Heritage Week, is that it may give further association to pirates and local heritage which is not the outcome people were looking for. “We look forward to being able to discuss this topic with the new minister so that any changes or enhancements can be coordinated to achieve successful results,” Christian stated on behalf of the members.
Digicel told CNS on Monday, 8 June, that it would continue its support of the annual festival regardless. “Digicel has been a proud sponsor of the festival for the last 3 years, as part of our efforts to promote Caymanian Heritage and culture,” said Victor Corcoran, CEO Digicel Cayman. “The title of the festival, whilst relevant to the program, remains under the management of the organizing committee. Digicel has embraced this national celebration and will continue to do so through its support of the decision by the Cayman Islands Cultural Festival committee.”
Although the Pirates Week Committee and the Tourism Attraction Board said they did not want to comment on the announcement or how it would impact this year’s celebrations, the website for Pirates Week 2009 is already live. The 32nd festival is set to take place between 12-22 November and most of the events are already listed and scheduled under the Pirates Week Festival handle.
Despite the fact that the pirate association has long made many people in Cayman uncomfortable, historians say that there is little doubt that Cayman, like most of the islands in the West Indies, was certainly a popular spot for the sea robbers of the past. While some of the more fanciful stories of the most infamous pirates may not be historically accurate, Cayman’s maritime history certainly records the islands’ close association with pirates.
CUC upgrades to cause West Bay power outage
(CNS): Residents in the Mount Pleasant and the Shores areas of West Bay will be without electricity on during Tuesday 9 June due to upgrade work on lines in the area Caribbean Utilities Company (CUC) said. The power firm explained that there will be a service interruption between 8:30 a.m. and 3:00 pm in order to facilitate the work.
Homes from the junction of Meadow Avenue and Up the Hill Road off Mount Pleasant Road, Bonneville Drive, Glade Drive, Radiant Lane, Adonis Drive, Lynnette Crescent, Shorelink Terrace, Violet Lane, Bayshore Drive, Shorescape Lane, Shorewinds Trail, Shoreview Point, Shoreline Drive and all side roads will be affected. CUC apologises for this interruption which is necessary to facilitate upgrading of lines in these areas. Customers may contact CUC’s Customer Service Department at 949-5200 for further information.
HSA aware of all high risk groups
(CNS): Now that Cayman has recorded two case of the novel H1N1 flu (formerly swine flu) and is expecting more confirmed cases this week, despite the Health Services Authority’s best efforts to keep people informed of the situation there is still considerable misunderstanding in the community, especially about Tamiflu. Medical Director Dr Greg Hoeskema told CNS that the administration of Tamiflu is being done within the CDC/WHO guidelines, that officials are aware of all the high risk groups and it isn’t being withheld from anyone who needs it.
“We are aware of all the potential high risk groups and we are following the guidelines laid out by the CDC and WHO,” explained Dr Hoeksema. “Now that the virus is in the community we are considering each patient on a case by case basis and addressing their level of risk in relation to those groups in our clinical evaluations for treatment.”
Dr Hoeksema pointed out that Tamiflu is not a cure but a treatment that can help prevent complications in high risk patients. “If someone is sick enough to be in the hospital. Tamiflu can be beneficial for those patients who could develop complications. However, it has limited value in patients who are otherwise healthy and not in one of the high risk groups.” He noted that they would offer the treatment to those over 65, pregnant women and very small children, but there are dangers in administering it to patients who are not very sick.
Dr Anna Matthews, the acting director of Public Health, explained the problem of resistance with over use. “If we are to use Tamiflu on too wide an audience there is a real public health risk of mutating the virus which will then become resistant.”
She explained that there are only four varieties of Tamiflu and this particular strain of flu is already resistant to two of them. If it is given to patients that don’t need it, the danger of it developing resistance to the remaining two is very real, which would create an even greater problem should the flu return mutated for the autumn flu season.
Dr Matthews noted that, given the circumstances, the community now needs people who have symptoms to come in for testing and to then confine themselves to their homes to stop spreading the virus.
The idea of closing down schools or work places is not necessary, officials say, as the flu is no more virulent than other strains of seasonal flu for most people and, as it is not normal practice to close things down for seasonal flu, it is misguided to do so for this session. Health officials also confirmed that work colleagues of the latest case are being informed so that they can be tested.
On Friday, the new Minister for Health Mark Scotland said the HSA was handling the situation and that residents should take some responsibility to help control the spread. “This is a national health issue, and while government will do all it can, I want residents to also take responsibility – arm yourselves with facts and learn as much as possible about H1N1. Follow the advice of public health officials: Stay at home if you are sick and follow the rules of good personal hygiene,” Scotland stated.
Bermuda makes ‘white list’
(CNS): While Leader of Government Business McKeeva Bush and other delegates are on the road to Washington, London and Paris to try and increase the number of bi-lateral Tax Information Exchange Agreements the Cayman Islands Government has with other jurisdictions, Bermuda has now made the ‘white list’, having signed its 12th agreement. Although the OECD was supposedly considering Cayman’s unilateral mechanism, so far it does not appear to have spurred the organisation to move Cayman from the ‘grey list’ yet. But CIFSA Chair Anthony Travers has said that Cayman will have enough bi-lateral treaties in place soon to finally persuade the OECD to place Cayman on the ‘white list’.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said that it had promoted Bermuda from its ‘grey list’ to the ‘white list’ because Bermuda has today (8 June) signed another bi-lateral treaty, this time with the Netherlands, bringing its total of agreements to twelve.
The Cayman Islands has eight bi-lateral agreements, but under the previous administration it claimed a total of twenty agreements as a result of the passage of the Tax Information Authority Law introduced in 2008, which enabled the CI Government to sign agreements that were not full bi-lateral agreements — a system unique to Cayman.
However, although the OECD said it was giving consideration to that, the jurisdiction still languishes on the ‘grey list’ while Bermuda has been immediately promoted to the ‘white list’ on completing the OECD’s minimum standard of 12 bi-lateral treaties. Travers’ the Chair of the Cayman Islands Financial Services Association’ had warned former Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts several weeks ago that the unilateral mechanism may not be sufficient to sway the OECD to move Cayman from the ‘grey list’.
Speaking about the latest movement with Bermuda today, he told CNS that CIFSA was disappointed but was never surprised at the application by the OECD of a double standard to the Cayman Islands.
“In addition to 8 bilateral treaties in the OECD form duly signed, Cayman has 12 perfectly satisfactory tax information exchange arrangements in place under our Unilateral Mechanism, which operate in precisely the same way, as a matter of domestic Cayman Islands law, as the bilateral arrangements,” he said.
“The Unilateral Mechanism is well recognized by OECD countries and specifically by the countries which are scheduled, including the UK, Germany, Japan, South Africa and Ireland . That, however, apparently is not sufficient for the OECD Secretariat, which has its own methodology and which continues to refuse to give credit to the Unilateral Mechanism when adopted by Cayman.”
He said that, given the circumstances, the rationale for the refusal to move Cayman “cannot be a technical objection and must therefore be political.”
However, the Cayman negotiating team, now headed up by George McCarthy, is following up on well advanced negotiations to complete bi-lateral treaties with another four jurisdictions.
“In addition, a full double tax treaty is scheduled to be signed with the UK next week in London. Cayman will therefore shortly have in excess of 12 bi-lateral tax information exchange treaties in addition to the 12 tax information exchange arrangements under the Unilateral Mechanism, which on any objective analysis will place it well ahead of any offshore jurisdiction in terms of functioning tax information arrangements and substantively ahead of most onshore jurisdictions,” Travers noted.
He explained that this was also in addition to the 27 proactive reporting treaties that Cayman has entered into under the European Union Savings Directive which, according to the OECD, do not exist at all. “However, no organization can defy gravity forever,” the chair said. “We have every reason, therefore, to anticipate that, by whichever standard that may or may not be applied by the OECD, Cayman must shortly be fully entitled to be placed on the ‘white list’ and that this odd interlude will shortly be consigned to history.”
The OECD said today that Bermuda has crossed the threshold for being considered to have substantially implemented the internationally agreed standard in this area. Welcoming the new agreement, Jeffrey Owens, Director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, said it was a significant development for Bermuda.
“As it has signed 12 agreements, Bermuda is now shown in our progress report alongside other countries that have substantially implemented the standard,” Owens stated. “When we first issued the Progress Report, Bermuda had only three agreements but it has been able to rapidly implement the standard by signing nine agreements in two months. It is nevertheless essential that countries that reach this threshold continue to be open to negotiating agreements with other countries that approach them.”
Bermuda’s Finance Minister Paula Cox said the country would continue to build upon its long standing position of transparency and cooperation which has, through the years, differentiated Bermuda from other jurisdictions. Bermuda has concluded negotiations on three more TIEAs, with Germany, Mexico and Canada, which are expected to be signed later this year.