Archive for July, 2009
Jamaica 3rd on ‘happy’ list
(CNN) — Costa Rica is the happiest place in the world, according to an independent research group in Britain with the goal of building a new economy, "centered on people and the environment," with Jamaica scoring 3rd. The report ranks nations using the "Happy Planet Index," which seeks countries with the most content people. In addition to happiness, the index by the New Economics Foundation considers the ecological footprint and life expectancy of countries. The runner-up was the Dominican Republic, but Britain 74th and the US an unhappy 114th.
Man shot dead in GT
(CNS): A 28 year old man is dead following a shooting in George Town during the early hours of Sunday morning (5 July) and a murder investigation has been launched. Police said that the victim was shot in the leg and was pronounced dead at the Cayman Islands hospital, but they are currently trying to establish a timeline of events and exactly when the shooting in McField Lane took place. A call was made to the 911 Emergency Communications Centre by a woman at about 1:00 am reporting that a man had been shot in the leg and was bleeding profusely.
Police have refused to give details of time of the arrival of the ambulance at the scene and it is unclear whether the man had been shot in the leg some time before the 911 call was made or, because of the timeline of the ambulance’s arrival, that he bled out and died from his wound.
According to police, when the medics responded and arrived on the scene they found the victim in a serious condition and he was taken to George Town hospital where he was subsequently pronounced dead. A family liaison officer has been assigned to the relatives of the victim and a post mortem is scheduled to take place at a later date.
A major incident room has been set up at George Town Police Station with what was described as a team of experienced investigators working on the case led by Senior Investigating Officer Detective Inspector Kim Evans and strategically overseen by Acting Detective Chief Superintendent Marlon Bodden.
Crime Scene Investigators are investigating the scene whilst other officers are speaking to various persons in an effort to establish precisely when the shooting occurred, which differs from the reported time. However, despite enquiries by CNS, the police have refused to give a timeline between the 911 call and the arrival of the ambulance.
“We are making enquiries into what happened and all priority lines of enquiry will be thoroughly examined,” DI Evans said. “The team of investigators are working hard on this case and we encourage anyone with information who has not yet contacted the police, to come forward as soon as possible.,”
Anyone with information can contact the murder team directly on the following numbers:
Detective Inspector Kim Evans – 526 0628
Detective Sergeant Collins Oremule – 516 8746
Detective Constable – Chase Wade – 526 8911
People can also 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.
Pirates’ daysare numbered
(CNS): Speaking for the first time publicly since his declaration in a May church service that he intended to rename the longstanding annual Pirates Week festival, Leader of Government Business McKeeva Bush said he not only planned to change the name of the event but also its content. He said he wanted to see more emphasis on Cayman’s sea faring history. “It’s had its day,” said Bush, adding that times have changed and people now question what relationship Cayman has with piracy.
Bush said at the new government’s first press briefing on Thursday that Pirates Week hardly brings any tourists now and there needed to be more meaning to the festival. “I want to see more school children involved,” he added, saying it should be depicting things Caymanian, although he said the pirates would not be banned but would no longer be the central theme. He suggested having replicas of tall ships and turtle boats landing instead of pirates tearing people up.
While acknowledging that the pirates theme was fun and colourful and may have meaning for some people associated with it, he said it had other connotations that the country did not need at this time. He said it had nothing to do with the church but was to do with the country as a whole and its image.
Although a name has not been settled, the LoGB indicated he preferred something along the lines of cultural or heritage week. He denied that he had thought up the idea of change on the spot but that for several years Pirates Week had not added value to the tourism product and there were a number of ideas and proposals on the table.
When the news first broke that the government was re-thinking the Pirates Week Festival a few days following the election, a number of people appeared to offer support but those involved in the tourism industry began questioning the wisdom.
The Cayman Islands Tourism Association also told CNS last month that its members are concerned 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.
The Seattle Seafair Pirates also spoke with told CNS recently and expressed their disappointment 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. The Seattle Pirates say the festival has attracted 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 remained 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.
Mary Trumbach, daughter of the late Jim Bodden, the national hero who founded Pirates Week, told The Caymanian Compass recently that she was “livid over the decision”, both for personal reasons and for the business dependent on Pirates Week. “I’m extremely annoyed,” she stated.
Her father started the festival over 30 years ago, having been approached by local businesses and hoteliers about doing something for the slower period of tourist season. She said Pirates Week has been extremely successful year after year and it has helped out local businesses, especially smaller vendors. “Changing the name is an insult to my father’s memory and to me and my family,” she said.
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.”
So far the Department of Tourism, the Pirates Week Committee and the Tourism Attraction Board have not offered any official comment on the change or what will happen regarding this week’s festival but the Pirates Week website for this year’s festival between 12-22 November is already live with the majority of the events already listed.
Dr Frank abandons appeal against conviction
(CNS): Former Member of the Legislative Assembly and UDP Minister Dr Frank McField has abandoned his appeal against a conviction he received in February of 2008 for assaulting police, threatening violence, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. McField was fined $2,300 in relation to the incident which occurred at a roadblock set up following a fatal accident on Shamrock Road in the early hours of 15 September, 2006. The appeal was due to be heard in Grand Court on Friday 3 July by Justice Alex Henderson; however, McField’s Attorney Clyde Allen told the court that McField would not be pursuing the appeal.
This means the conviction which McField received following the incident where he was said to have been drunk and had abused the police, will stand. McField also received a fine of $100 in December of last year for another incident in which he was arrested for disorderly conduct and threatening violence after an incident along the Esterley Tibbetts Highway on 9 November, 2006.
Dr Frank McField served as Minister for Community, Youth, Sports and GenderAffairs in the United Democratic Party Government from 2001 to 2005. He first entered the Legislative assembly as fourth elected member for George Town in 1996 and lost his seat in the 2005 election. He ran once again in the recent 20 May General Election as an independent candidate but gained less than five percent of the vote. A controversial character McField has found himself in the spotlight for both cultural contributions such as playwriting as well as his ministry’s Affordable Housing which was investigated by the Royal Cayman Islands Police following indications by an auditor General’s report that around $300,000 seemed to have gone missing.
According to reports of the February trail in which McField received the conviction, he had intended to appeal, he had threatened to kill two police officers that were attempting to arrest him at the roadblock before kicking one of them and spitting in the other officers face. The court heard that McField had repeatedly accused the officers of being racist, and threatened to have them kicked off the island.
Still no lawyer for Ricketts
(CNS): One of the men accused of murdering Estella Scott-Roberts is still without representation only weeks away from the trial. While the Legal Aid issue over the payment of lead counsel has now been resolved, Larry Ricketts still has no local junior legal representation on island. Justice Alex Henderson was forced to adjourn the case for a further seven days on Friday to see if a lawyer could be found to represent him locally but refrained from striking out the current trial date, which remains set for August.
Following ongoing problems regarding representation for the two men accused of the murder, the court heard on 3 July that Ricketts’ co-defendant Kirkland Henry has now been granted a legal aid certificate to secure the services of a Queens Counsel from Jamaica and that local defence attorney Ben Tonner was continuing as his local junior counsel.
Although Ricketts has now been allocated legal aid to cover his representation needs, including a QC, he has yet to secure a junior barrister to take his case and who would in turn approach lead counsel on his behalf.
Justice Henderson queried why John Furniss, the barrister who had originally taken Ricketts’ case, had been forced to come off record and raised his concern that, with the limited number of barristers doing criminal defence work in Cayman, counsel should not be coming off record over disagreements but only over fundamental or ethical problems.
Justice Henderson asked Tonner if he knew if there was an ethical difficulty with Furniss and requested that he ask Furniss to reconsider and talk to him about representing Ricketts. Tonner explained that he was not aware of the details but he could confirm that Furniss had been given leave to come off record. He said that, while he would pass on the message, he felt that Jennifer King, who deals with legal aid applications, would be better placed to establish if Furniss could return to the record and represent Ricketts or whether another defence barrister was available.
Henderson indicated clearly that he would like Furniss to return to Ricketts’ case. “It is one thing to withdraw over a disagreement and being forced to withdraw,” Henderson noted, adding that he felt coming off record over a dispute in how the case would be presented was not really acceptable. Henderson indicated that he believed too many defendants were dismissing counsel because they did not like what they were being told. He explained that a client determines certain issues such as the plea, but when it comes to tactics then it is the barrister that makes those decisions and they should be saying ‘no’ more often when clients were asking to dismiss when offered pessimistic predictions.
Tonner requested that the judge turn his attention, in the meantime, to the trial date, which he said was wholly unrealistic given the circumstance as it was scheduled for the first week of August. However, Justice Henderson said he was reluctant to vacate the date at that time and wanted to wait one more week to see if counsel could be retained for Ricketts before he considered the need of changing the trial date.
During the morning’s Grand Court mentions, the lack of legal representation was raised on a number of occasions causing adjournments and delays to several cases, both for Grand Court matters and Summary Court appeals. As a result, Justice Henderson said he wanted to see Jennifer King attend the Grand Court in future during mentionsso that she could be aware of all the cases being referred to her where there was a problem with defence counsel.
Teenager charged over school break-in
(CNS): A sixteen year old boy has been charged with burglary by West Bay Detectives following an incident at Grace Christian Academy in April this year. The youngster appeared in court today, Friday, 3 July and has been remanded in custody until 17 July. Detective Sergeant Collins Oremule reminded the public that burglary is an opportunistic crime and urged members of the public to ensure that their homes and businesses are properly secured at all times.
“A burglar will select his target because it offers him the best opportunity to carry out his crime undetected, with the fewest number of obstacles in his way,” he said. “A building that presents itself as unoccupied and insecure is far more likely to be targeted than one which is properly secured.”
Sergeant Oremule also encouraged the community to work in partnership with the police to fight crime and to mark their property for identification purposes. “Reducing the risk and fear of crime is a task for the police and the community working together. To keep the Cayman Islands safe, we need residents and people who visit these islands to do their part in making life difficult for criminals.”
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.
Rock thrower arrested
(CNS): Police said today that they have made an arrest in connection with reports of rock throwing at cars on the East-West Arterial road in Savannah and that the investigation is continuing. Although police have refused to give any details regarding the individual who was arrested on suspicion of missile throwing and criminal damage, CNS understands that the suspect is a juvenile. At least three vehicles have been damaged by rocks and the incident was brought to wider public attention this week by local activist Sandra Catron.
At least one of the incidents took place on 1 July, and according to Catron, when police were first told they seemed reluctant to investigate. “I was with one of the victims when they were waiting for the police to attend following their call but they did not seem to be taking the incident very seriously,” said Catron who had issued an email alert and contacted the local media as she was aware of at least three cars being hit and other people who had seen the rocks being thrown.
“This is an exceptionally dangerous thing to do and I was concerned that the police were not acting on this,” Catron added. “I think anyone who has seen this or has had their car damaged should contact the police with the details so that these youngsters, and one witness believed it was young people, can be held accountable and pay for the damage.”
Acting Chief Superintendent Marlon Bodden today denied that the police had not taken the reports seriously: “We are taking these reports very seriously and will pursue all lines of enquiry until we have caught all those involved,” he added.
Anyone with information about the incident should contact Sergeant Ian Lavine on 526 0661.
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.
Government stonewalling
It seems our government that has been making all the right moves lately has an Achilles’ heel: replying to e-mails! I have sent in about 4 e-mails in to government so far, only one was answered.
But even then, the reply I got was to contact another government official who in turn told me to send it to another person who, in fact, was the first person I sent it to. It’s not like I want to know the pass code to the governor’s gate, I just want to know what’s up with the police station here in the Brac.
I am 16 years old and am working for Cayman News Service for the Work Experience Program at CBHS. I am currently writing a story on how the RCIPS in Cayman Brac has to stay in the UCCI campus here due to the fact that station hasn’t been fixed yet. It received damage from Hurricane Paloma which was some 7 months ago. I sent an e-mail to a government official on the matter. Three days later I still haven’t received an answer to such a simple question.
In this democratic community that we live in, nothing should be withheld from the public. What befuddles me is that the government will gladly answer inquires about the budget and expenses, land development etc, but they can’t answer simple questions.
I understand that there may be some information which may be confidential, but other matters which involve the public need to be made known. If the citizens of the Cayman Islands cannot trust their leaders, then who can they trust? We are all on the same level here. We all want to do what’s best for our country. We all want to know what’s best for our country. We have a right to know everything happening in our country. It doesn’t make sense to hide anything.
We demand and deserve answers. Maybe it isn’t that you are hiding something. Maybe you are busy. I know typing a few sentences is a lot of laborious work, but a little bit of time that’s all we request. It is our obligation as people to know the truth about our country.
As a citizen of the Cayman Islands there are things I would like to know about my country. If I am to take pride in my country, then I must first know what it stands for. I have nothing against some secrecy. Important information in the wrong hands can be fatal for a country. So I am all for the guarding of important information, but in the end of it all if the government wants us to trust them, they must trust us.
The fact is the government won’t answer me, a 16 year old, on a simple question, but are more than happy to comment on the harder more complex issues. Now, I am not saying I haven’t received help. Ms Deborah Denis of the RCIPS is the only government contact that has helped me so far. Dr Mark Laskin of the NRF has also been a tremendous help to me. Ms. Lynn Smith-Moore of DART has also been a great help. But it’s sad that when I send something in to the government leaders my matter just gets brushed aside it seems. That, my friends, just doesn’t seem right.
CIO moves on
(CNS): At an informal reception at the Immigration Department celebrating the promotion ofoutgoing Chief Immigration Officer Franz Manderson, retiring Chief Secretary George McCarthy called him “the ultimate professional”, and he received accolades from a wide cross-section of civil service colleagues. Manderson took on his new role of Deputy Chief Secretary on Wednesday, 1 July, taking over from the new Chief Secretary Donovan Ebanks, who has filled the seat just vacated by McCarthy.
Manderson’s farewell function, held Monday 29 June, concluded 27 years in uniform – from his beginnings as a work experience student, his subsequent progression through the ranks, and on through his years as chief. At the reception the new Chief Secretary said, “This is a happy and glorious experience. I look forward to you doing even greater things on the other side of the street.” Deputy CIO Kerry Nixon, JP, said, “This is another great milestone. Mr Manderson ‘s move will augur well for Immigration and for all the Cayman Islands, for he’ll now be able to direct policy.”
Examples of Manderson’s exemplary service were numerous, and events such as the Cuban refugee crisis, Hurricane Ivan, and the struggles to protect Cayman’s borders and combat illegal immigration practices were all cited. Other tributes noted his efforts to further his qualifications, and his involvement in changing immigration legislation.
Describing Manderson as an ideal role model for youth, Attorney General Sam Bulgin said “Franz is the essence of someone who is always striving. He brought a bright and refreshing approach to Immigration matters, and I’m sure he will bring the same passion, dedication and commitment to his new position.” Similar sentiments were voiced by others, including Cabinet Secretary and former Immigration Chief Orrett Connor, RCIPS Commissioner David Baines, Work Permit Board Chairman Sharon Roulstone, former Deputy CIO Dennis Brady, and Deputy CIO Bruce Smith.
Manderson thanked his colleagues and other government officials who had allowed him to take risks and make hard decisions. He especially expressed his gratitude to those closest to him – wife Nuvia, their children Alyssa and Franz Jr., mother Jenny Manderson and sister Paula Evans – for their unwavering support and encouragement.
Commending the many members of his extended Immigration family, he said, “I am leaving with a tremendous sense of achievement. I came to the Department with a vision which has been realized by your commitment and hard work.”
These top level civil service changes coincided with this week’s start of the new fiscal year for the Cayman Islands Government.
Maples donates to Squash Association
(CNS): Twelve players will be representing the Cayman Islands this year at the Caribbean Junior Squash Championships, which takes place in Barbados from 9 through 20 July. According to a release from one of the sponsors, Maples and Caulder, the Cayman players include perhaps one of the best male teams in years. It is hoped they will win the boys’ team championship this year, while the girls look poised to strongly contend in the individual events. All players take part in their respective age groups from under 13s to under 19’s. Last year, Cayman placed 5th overall and are hoping to improve on this.
Photo: Paul Lumsden, a Partner of Maples and Calder, presents Cayman Islands junior squash player Courtney Staffordwith a donation to help her team participate in the championships.