Archive for October, 2009
Local efforts aid Philippines after floods
(CNS): One month after Tropical Storm Ketsana dumped the heaviest rains in more than 40 years on Philippines capital Manila, more than 1.5 million are left struggling to live in flooded suburbs or emergency shelters and the situation remains desperate. Ketsana hit the centre of Luzon island 26 September, flooding Manila and some areas in neighbouring provinces. Tropical Storm Parma hit northern Luzon 3 October, ruining rice crops in the nation’s second-biggest rice-producing region and triggering landslides.An ongoing fundraising effort in the Cayman Islands to help those affected has so far raised over $23,500 to help victims of the devastation.
Although the country was spared a third storm, Lupit, this past weekend, its effects may still cause further landslides, adding to the misery left by Ketsana and Parma, which killed almost 1,000 people. Survivors now face disease and shortages of food and fresh water.
On Saturday, 10th October, every radio station in Grand Cayman held live remotes encouraging people to give to the Red Cross Philippines Disaster Relief Fund. Donation locations included all Foster’s Food Fair stores, Hurley’s Supermarket, Kirk Home Center, Kirk’s Supermarket, and the Tortuga Rum Company in Industrial Park.
“The funds raised here in Cayman will assist in providing shelter for some of the Filipino families left homeless,” said Hemant Balgobin of the Cayman Islands Red Cross. “The Red Cross in the Philippines in conjunction with the International Federation Red Cross aim to support 100,000 of those affected, providing fresh water and food, hygiene supplies and other necessities for these families.”
The island-wide radio-thon, which raised over CI$20,000, was organized by local Cayman businesses to support the Red Cross relief efforts. Companies involved include Cayman Islands Red Cross, CITN, Digicel, DMS Broadcasting (HOT 104, CAYROCK, KISS, and X-107), Foster’s Food Fair, Hurley’s Entertainment (Rooster and Z-99), Kirk Home Center, Kirk Supermarket, Paramount Media (VIBE and SPIN), and the Tortuga Rum Company.
Digicel customers can text short code 4244 or help to donate $1.00. Digicel will match the funds raised through texting. Donations from small and large businesses are also encouraged.
“This has been an amazing group effort which came together very quickly,” said Jeremy Ebanks, general manager, Tortuga Rum Company. “All of Cayman can be proud of the generosity of so many individuals that will help the people of the Philippines. Now we want businesses to join in this cause.”
“dms Broadcasting was proud to be part of this important fundraising effort,” commented dms Broadcasting Market Manager Bryan Hollenbaugh. Adding some entertainment to the mix, dms Broadcasting on-air personalities broadcasted live from each of their respective locations, speaking with passers-by and playing Cayman’s hottest hits for shoppers and listeners alike. Foster’s Food Fair staff was also on hand during the efforts, offering up hot dogs and waters for a $2 donation.
dms Broadcasting’s Network Promotions and Marketing Manager Phil Vinciullo, “The Filipino population is one of Cayman’s largest expatriate communities, and upon hearing about the effects Typhoon Ketsana had on their friends and families back home, dms Broadcasting was determined to help. We hope to join together again for efforts like this one so remember to keep your dials tuned to your favourite dms Broadcasting station to find out how you can get involved!”
On Cayman Brac, the Backyard Caboose Theatre Company and the Brac Filipino community hosted a successful variety show and food sale on Friday, Oct 16th 2009 at the Aston Rutty Civic Centre, raising over three thousand dollars. The total money raised from both food sales and the show is CI$3,507, which will be sent to ABS CBN Foundation Incorporation.
Want to help?
Find a Red Cross collection drop box or deposit cash and checks, payable to the Red Cross, into Bank of Butterfield: Red Cross Philippines Relief Fund # 02201035054. For more information, contact the Cayman Islands Red Cross at 949-6785 ext. 27.
Or ABS CBN Foundation Incorporation account # 563-0020111 Banco de Oro, Mother Ignacia Branch, Swift Code, BNORPHM ABS CBN BDO Branch.
About CNS Christmas Appeal: CNS will be featuring a number of charities with local connections in the run up to Christmas. If you would like to promote your charity this season, please email Christmas@caymannewsservice.com
Firearms suspect escapes cops
(CNS): Police have issued a wanted alert for 28-year-old Dainian Cecil Henry, who escaped from George Town Police Station yesterday, 25 October, at around 5:15 in the evening. Henry is reported to have made his escape by knocking aside a woman coming into the station who was carrying a baby. He made off down Elgin Avenue in the direction of the Immigration Department and officers immediately made chase but did not find him. Police said Henry was arrested over firearms related offences. Henry is of medium to dark complexion; approximately 5’ 9’’, heavy set at about 170lbs, low cut hair, and was last seen wearing a green t-shirt with yellow stripes and khaki shorts.
Henry had been in custody for firearm related matters and the public is advised to report any sightings of this individual immediately and are strongly advised to not approach him directly.
Anyone with information of crime taking place can pass it on to police in a number of ways; people can speak with an officer they know and trust, they can reach George Town detectives on 949-4222, they can leave information on an anonymous voicemail service by calling 949-7777 or they can call 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.
Ex MD denies booze-up
(CNS): The former managing director of Boatswain Beach has denied partying on public funds following revelations in the latest report from the office of the auditor general. Admitting that he had borrowed more than $66,000 in salary advances, Joey Ebanks said that the $6,500 bar tab was to promote business at the Schooner Bar and Grill, which he said was struggling to attract patrons. Dan Duguay states in his report that he was not offered any explanation for the spending by Ebanks at the bar during the audit of the turtle farm, but Ebanks insists it was part of a policy to improve business.
According to the AG, Ebanks was offered the opportunity on several occasions to respond in writing to the report before it was published. Ebanks says, however, that he has chosen to offer a defence on his Facebook page as he did not believe he would get a fair hearing in the report.
The former MD and PPM candidate in the General Elections earlier this year offers apologies to his family friends, the staff at the turtle farm and the board of directors over the salary advances but says the hospitality charges were legitimate.
“I wish to state first and foremost that the Auditor General’s report on my salary advances is accurate and fair. I deeply regret this and apologize to my family, friends, Boatswains Beach staff and Board. When I am wrong I admit so and accept responsibility,” he writes on the social networking site. “When we began to promote our ‘Happy Friday Nights’ we only had two customers for the first three months or so. Having re-evaluated the strategy we decided to increase our alcohol purchases with free product. Staff members were identified to assist with inviting their friends to the events and being allowed to ‘buy’ a drink for their friends from the free stock. Additionally, I spent Friday nights working the crowd to secure loyal customers and using this inventory to ‘buy’ their loyalty.”
Ebanks also states that he paid forlunch for primary school children — though a significant number of the tabs, which were seen by CNS, were charged on Friday and Saturday nights and were predominantly for alcoholic drinks.
In his response Ebanks refers to the auditor general as Dan "Carpetbagger" Duguay, accusing him of pursuing headlines and that the report “was about getting Joey Ebanks".
Throughout the Facebock posting Ebanks makes a number of unsubstantiated allegations against various people, which he says is why he believes Duguay wrote the report. However, Duguay said on Friday when he released the results of the audit into the public domain that it was conducted because of stories in the media concerning unorthodox salary advances and loans which had been made to the MD.
In the audit, Duguay confirmed that the articles were correct that the MD had been taking cash from the farm on a regular basis. Between June 2007 and February 2009 Ebanks had taken $65,870 and made repayments of just over $16,023. When he resigned from his post in March 2009 the outstanding sum was $49,847.87. Ebanks also owed $1,900 for turtle meat that he had purchased on credit.
Speaking to News 27 on Friday evening, Ebanks said he regrets taking the loansand would not say what he borrowed the money for other than it was for personal use.
Following Duguay’s revelations about the full extent of the salary advances and loans, the current Turtle Farm Board also issued a statement on Friday evening thanking Duguay for the report. Ken Hydes, the new board chair and past MD of the Turtle Farm, said the new board had reviewed the report and had noted the content and recommendations.
“The members of the current board are committed to ensuring that the necessary policies and administrative changes are put in place to guarantee that best practices are followed with an emphasis being placed on accountability at all levels of the organization,” Hydes added. “Prior to the release of the report, the Board of Directors had already implemented significant policy changes that directly relate to the recommendations contained in the document. One of these policy changes is the requirement that all disbursement of funds to employees other than that which is contractually due to the employee, must receive prior approval of the Board of Directors.”
The Turtle Farm is currently running a $14 million deficit and was allocated a further $9 million to keep the facility afloat in the 2009/10 budget.
Officials make list about fighting crime
(CNS): Top level officials say they have identified ten measures to tackle the escalating levels of crime according to a release from government information services. Follow the commissioner’s meeting with members of the Legislative Assembly last Monday,another high-level meeting was reportedly held on Friday (23 October) called by the governor where government ministers, top civil servants and the commissioner made a list. Deputy Chief Secretary Franz Manderson said the meeting focused on gun and violent crime as well as youth at risk.
The meeting took place against a backdrop of community outrage over the number of murders and shooting incidents in the country over the last few months as well as the number of robberies where weapons have been used from women mugged in parking lots to day time heists.
With few reported arrests and limited information about the progress of the murder investigations as well as the armed robberies the elected government has also been calling for the establishment of a specialist task force to tackle the problem.
Provide more resources for the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, and convene a special task force to focus on gun and other serious crime.
Work with the business community to install closed-caption television (CCTV) coverage on their premises, in order to help identify and convict criminals.
Review licensing requirements for nightclubs and other licensed premises, in order to reduce the chances of those locations becoming the scenes of serious criminal activity.
Urge the public to volunteer information and testify in court, while making every effort to ensure confidentiality and protect witnesses.
Consider changes to law and trial procedures that will protect witnesses and prevent jury intimidation.
Modernise the Police Law to better equip police officers to deal with emerging trends in criminality
Immediately begin using electronic tagging in prescribed circumstances.
Follow up the 2006 Crime Survey and subsequent recommendations, through a government-wide effort spearheaded by Community Affairs Minister Mike Adam. The intention is to provide a constructive future for at-risk youth, and to prevent as many as possible from becoming the next generation of criminals.
Establish, as soon as resources allow, a facility for juveniles that would separate them from older offenders, and meet the requirements of the new Constitution.
Establish a criminal justice steering committee, chaired by the Attorney General that would develop a comprehensive strategy to reduce crime. In addition to the ten points agreed during the meeting, the committee would speak to other aspects of crime prevention, alternative sentences, parole, rehabilitation, and community involvement.
Scientists to freeze coral
(BBC): The prospects of saving the world’s coral reefs now appear so bleak that plans are being made to freeze samples to preserve them for the future. A meeting in Denmark took evidence from researchers that most coral reefs will not survive even if tough regulations on greenhouse gases are put in place. Scientists proposed storing samples of coral species in liquid nitrogen. That will allow them to be reintroduced to the seas in the future if global temperatures can be stabilised. Legislators from 16 major economies have been meeting in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, to try to agree the way forward on climate change.
Severe swine flu cases increases in UK
(The Telegraph): Doctors have been "unnerved" by the severity of swine flu in some patients and their rapid deterioration into a "life and death situation", Sir Liam Donaldson, chief medical officer has said. The number of people in intensive care with swine flu has reached its highest point yet, with 99 people currently in critical care beds out of a total of 506 inhospital. Sir Liam said intensive care specialists have told him privately that they are ‘unnerved by the severity off the illness and how quickly it can develop’. He said some patients are ‘getting into a life and death situation very early on’. The number of patients in intensive care has risen from 74 last week.
Missing teens found safe
(CNS): Update Sunday 9:55pm – Two teenage girls who were reported missing Saturday are now back at the West Bay address that they had gone missing from Friday night, police reported this evening. Without elaborating, the RCIPS said they were safe and well and were being reunited with their parents. The girls Tyisha Scott (left) and Amber Yates (right), who are both 15-years-old, had been missing since 10:30 pm on Friday, 23 October.
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.
Met officer’s lover reveals all
(CNS): The Special Police Investigation Team is back in the British tabloids, this time with tales of a tawdry affair, naked pool parties, deception and binge drinking. The UK’s Daily Mail reveals that the cover of one member of SPIT, sent to the Cayman Islands to investigate allegations of corruption in theRCIPS and dubbed the “Sunshine Squad” by the Mail, was blown after he was thrown fully-clothed into water at a pool party hosted by his American mistress, Julie Karner. A friend of Karner’s told the tabloid the affair was no secret. Photo: Simon Ashwin, of SPIT
The Mail said Karner, 51, had an intimate photograph which illustrates the depth of her five-month relationship with Simon Ashwin, a 45-year-old detective inspector attached to Scotland Yard’s elite Directorate of Professional Standards.
Following last week’s revelations and a series of photographs showing the SPIT team living it up or asleep on the job, the Mail published an article today (Saturday 24 October) in which Karner, who told the Daily Mail she did not know Ashwin was married and thought he was a property developer called Simon Phelan, says she discovered his real identity after he was thrown fully-clothed into a pool during a party hosted by Karner and her friend Michele Nauss. After examining his sodden wallet, she found his police badge and discovered his real name, the Mail says.
Karner told the Mail, “It was a nude pool party, just a bit of fun. Simon wasn’t going to come, but then at 10pm he finally texted to say he would if I picked him up, so I drove to his apartment and collected him in my BMW.” She went on, “When we got to the party, it had got quite rowdy and all of a sudden people started throwing each other in the pool, including Simon. When he got out, he gave me his belongings to keep safe so I took them to my room and had a good look at them. There was his police badge with his real name on.” (Right: A photo of Julie Karner published by the Daily Mail)
Karner, until recently head of human resources of the islands’ National Roads Authority, described to the Mail how she met “Simon Phelan” at the Royal Palms beach bar in January last year and slept with him the next night.
In the article she describes strange details of the affair: “Simon would always say, ‘If you see me in a bar, don’t come up to me – wait till I come to you.’ So stupidly I used to wait until 2am when Simon would finally send me a text saying he was ready for me.”
Karner also claims that the UK officer was a heavy drinker: “Often, I had already gone home and had to come and pick him up in the car. I would usually find him completely drunk, staggering down the street, and I would take him home for the night. He made me jump through hoops for him. One night, after he had moved to an apartment, he kept begging me to come to him. I drove over to find he was so drunk he couldn’t answer his door. I could hear his phone ringing inside but he must have passed out.”
She told the Mail she asked him his true identity: “He said he couldn’t tell me because he was part of a special team and it was all secret. He told me I couldn’t talk to anyone about him. We would sleep together a couple of nights a week, but then a whole week would go by when he would keep saying he was busy with his secret stuff, and now I know that was when his wife and kids were here visiting him.”
Karner says in the Mail she reported her relationship with Ashwin to the lead investigator of SPIT, Martin Bridger. She said, “He told me he was really angry because he said it takes a lot of time and money to fabricate a false identity for a police officer.”
However, Michele Nauss, 41, who lives with Julie Karner, said in the article, “Simon and some of the other policemen were getting drunk every night. Simon would always start the evening keeping his distance from Julie, but by the end he would be half draped across her. It wasn’t much of a secret.”
After Ashwin returned to the UK, Karner says she learned that he had a wife, Laura, and three children in Surrey. She managed to discover Mrs Ashwin’s e-mail address and sent her a message, which read: “We have something in common … I met your husband Simon in Cayman and we spent some very intimate time together. Please believe me when I say that if I had known he was married it would not have happened. This is my attempt to right the wrong. Isn’t it ironic that a cop who was sent here to investigate corrupt police has to be so deceitful?”
She told the Mail, “He was supposed to be exposing crooked policemen and instead he was the most deceptive one of all. When Simon left in July 2008, he called me and said, ‘I’m leaving tomorrow and I’m really busy so I won’t be able to see you, but take care of yourself.’ And that was that.”
The Mail reports that, in a statement on the Ashwin affair yesterday, the Metropolitan Police said: “We do not believe that the officer’s behaviour had a specific impact on the overall investigation but we recognise that it was inappropriate and did not uphold the high standards we expect of officers.”
The members of SPIT, including Ashwin, were all RCIPS special constables.
Bonus holiday weekend to mark Constitution
(CNS): People of the Cayman Islands will be enjoying an unexpected long holiday weekend at the beginning of November as the ‘Appointed Day’ when the country’s new constitution comes into effect has been declared a public holiday. The extra day’s public vacation falls on Friday 6 November just before Monday 9 November which is already schedule as this year’s Remembrance Day holiday.
The extra public holiday is a one off and is in order to commemorate the commencement of the 2009 Cayman Islands Constitution. GIS said that the Public Holidays Order 2009 was published today, (Friday 23 October) as supplement #2 in Extraordinary Gazette #69. The order was made by the governor, Stuart Jack, in accordance with section 2 of the Public Holidays Law (2007 Revision).
As well as marking the day whenthe provisions winthin the new constitution will come into effect it will also be the day the McKeeva Bush, the Leader of Government Business becomes the country’s first premier.
Two men cleared in Margaritaville heist
(CNS): Police have now confirmed that two men who were arrested at the Cayman Islands immigration office in Elgin Avenue this week, in connection with a robbery at Margaritaville, have been released after being eliminated from the enquiry. The two men were reportedly arrested after staff at the office believed one of the men was the same as those pictured in police photos released to the public on Wednesday afternoon. However, they turned out not to be the men as pictured left. Pictures from CCTV footage were circulated following an armed daylight robbery which had taken place at the down town George Town bar and restaurant on Friday 16 October at 8.30am.
The robbers armed with a knife and a gun threatened staff and escaped with more than $20,000. This incident, along with a number of other gun crimes, caused the RCIPS to initiate a high-profile policing initiative which has led to a visible increase in foot patrol officers in the centre of George Town.
Police said the investigations into this and other high profile crimes are continuing.