Archive for May 14th, 2010
Premier details overseas trips
(CNS): As a result of the much publicised Freedom of Information request made in February, Cayman News Service can now reveal that the premier spent just 161 days including weekends in the Cayman Islands between being elected to office in May 2009 and the end of February 2010. For just under 50% of the time he was travelling overseas attending a variety of meetings, conferences and TIEA signings, as well as the Miss Universe Pageant and the Winter Olympics. Revealing his full itinerary at a press briefing on Thursday, McKeeva Bush criticised CNS for making the request saying it had wasted time and as minister of tourism and finance as well as premier he had to travel.
Bush added that he was not fond of flying and had made every attempt to keep his travel to a bare necessity as he didn’t enjoy spending time away from family. “A part of my duty as the premier is to ensure that the business of the country is conducted, and our interests overseas are well represented. I know of too many instances when Cayman was not represented at the table and we took stick for it,” he said, citing the European Directive as something thrust on the jurisdiction because of the failure of leadership to be at the table.
Science Fair was a crowd pleaser
(CNS): The fourth annual occasion of the Rotary Central Science Fair was held last Saturday at Camana Bay’s Arts and Recreation Centre and marked another resounding success for the service club. The event was well supported all round, attracting a constant flow of visitors throughout the day to see local middle and high school students showcase science projects in a range of categories as they vied for cash prizes and awards for the best entries in their category. Parents, mentors, sponsors and members of the whole community came out in force to support the Science Fair, which has become one of the main events of Cayman’s educational calendar and continues to go from strength to strength, a release from Rotary said.
Rotary Central President, Paul Byles, said, “This year’s Rotary Central Science Fair was an impressive display by all the students. We had a very high turn out and were extremely pleased to see so many people from the community come by Camana Bay during the day to view the diverse displays which ranged across four categories.”
There were 22 displays on show in the final, representing the work of 32 students. First prize winners in each category were, Luciana Regidor (Life Sciences); Tajel Small and Loshana Lopez (Physics & Chemistry); Diarra Hoyte (Earth Sciences); and Connor Woods (Food & Health). Leading Edge High School was recognised for having the most students participating and also the most projects in the in the Science Fair competition.
All prize winners were recognized at an awards ceremony and banquet on Saturday evening, at which Hon. Rolston Anglin, Minister of Education, Training and Employment and Hon. Mark Scotland, Minister of Health, Environment, Youth, Sports & Culture, were in attendance. Minister Anglin addressed the gathering and both Ministers assisted with the presentation of awards.
Minister Anglin remarked, “It is encouraging to see the high standard of work that students in our schools are producing. I am very impressed by what I saw at this year’s Science Fair and would like to acknowledge the enthusiasm and creativity of all the students who took part. I also congratulate the parents of this year’s participants for their encouragement and support.”
The 2010 Science Fair received considerable support from Cayman’s corporate community. Mr. Byles said, “Rotary Central certainly wishes to thank all of our sponsoring organisations for supporting the Science Fair’, adding, “I also wish to acknowledge the vision and hard work of Rotarian Bill Hrudey who was instrumental in establishing this Science Fair 4 years ago.”
Rotarian Larry Tibbetts was the Chairman of the Rotary Central Science Fair Committee. Mr. Tibbetts said, “We are extremely pleased with the success of this year’s Science Fair. Its success is testimony to the hard work and dedication of everyone involved. It also demonstrates the high value and commitment our community places on education. We look forward to next year’s Science Fair, which we hope will be even better.”
Witnesses blame ministries for missing reports
(CNS): Many of the government’s missing annual reports appear to be in the hands of ministry officials, according to some statutory authorities. A number of these reports which should have already been tabled in the Legislative Assembly in order to make them public documents appear to have been held up at the final hurdle, the Public Accounts Committee heard on Thursday as it resumed its hearings regarding the current delinquent state of the government’s financial accounts. A number of statutory authorities who were cited by the AG’s office as being substantially complete, told PAC that they had sent reports to their relevant ministries only to have them disappear. (The LA table where annual reports need to be laid before becoming public documents)
Former UK treasury minister stabbed at meeting
(Reuters) – British lawmaker Stephen Timms, a former treasury minister in the previous Labour government, has been stabbed at his constituency office in east London, a party spokesman and police said on Friday. Timms, 54, was taken to a local hospital but his injuries are not thought to be life-threatening, said a spokesman for the Labour party which bowed out of government this week after 13 years of power. Police said a 21-year-old woman had been arrested in connection with the incident which took place as Timms held a monthly meeting with constituents at a library in east London on Friday afternoon.
The legend of Dan the Man
Gather ’round children, and listen to the tellin’ of the tell. I’m talking about the story of “Dan the Man”. Some people say he’s just a myth, a made-up monster tale meant to scare civil servants and the like. But I’m telling you straight, he was a real man in the flesh. I hope you listen and listen well, kids, because there’s a lesson worth knowing in the Legend of Dan the Man.
Once upon a time, long ago in the Cayman Islands, there was this giant of a fellow. Some say he was ten feet tall, but I’m pretty sure he was no more than seven or eight feet. Story goes, that he was from the north, somewhere up in the ice and snow. But this sure wasn’t no Santa Clause. Dan wasn’t one of us but he had somehow tricked the government into hiring him to be the auditor general. That’s a fancy job where you are supposed to wear clean shirts buttoned all the way up and make sure everything is going okay with the government’s money. Truth be told, it’s an easy job. You just have to make sure money goes where the politicians want it to go. That’s it. Real simple.
The problem was that this Dan fellow didn’t quite understand the job. He had a head full of crazy ideas about exposing waste and corruption. Even more amazing, he actually thought it was okay to tell news reporters that our government was wasting money and doing some things that didn’t seem tobe entirely squeaky clean, if you get my drift. Yep, ol’ Dan had the nerve to tell the public how public funds were being squandered and shuffled around in shady ways.
Well, Dan the Man caused one big uproar, let me tell you. Politicians hated him. And they had a good reason to. It’s rude to tell on people when they are bad or making mistakes. Nobody likes a tattletale! And it wasn’t just the politicians who hated Dan. The people who liked it when politicians wasted their money were very upset too. They called radio shows and blasted Dan the Man. Yes sireee, it was a glorious day for Cayman. Finally we were standing up for ourselves! Sure there were a few who defended Dan. They babbled on about waste and corruption being bad. Blah, blah. They were just haters. The smart Caymanians knew that the politicians could be trusted and we didn’t need some abominable snow monster coming down here to our country and messing with our way of doing business. The old way worked for our grandparents, and it would work for us!
Now listen carefully kids, this is the good part. The government had decided it had had just about enough of Dan the Man so they dumped him. Yahoo! They told him to pack his bags. It was a great day indeed. They told Dan the Man “thanks but no thanks! See you, wouldn’t want to be you! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!” Ha! Justice, Cayman style. How you like that, Dan?
Never was I so proud to be a Caymanian as I was that day.
Dan the Man might have been a giant. He might have been really smart and brave. And, yes, he might have cared a lot about honesty in government. But why should we care about all that? What mattered to us was that we got rid of him and let our politicians have all the freedom and secrecy they needed to have when it came to money. We don’t need somebody snooping around and exposing problems. We all know in our hearts that if anything is wrong the politicians will tell us. We can trust them when it comes to money. After all, these are Christian men and women that we elected!
So remember the Legend of Dan, kids. We are a proud people and we don’t take foolishness from anyone, even if they are ten feet tall and obsessed with honesty. There is also another lesson here, children. If you grow up to be a politician or civil servant, make sure you keep the story of Dan close to heart. The Cayman way is to never look for government waste and corruption that might embarrass somebody. And, if you do accidently stumble across it, just keep your mouth shut and let it fix itself in its own good time.
It’s been so many years now so I can’t quite remember every detail, but I’m pretty sure we had a parade that day Dan the Man finally left Cayman. Everybody cheered to see him go. We were so happy to know that Cayman’s politicians would again be able to relax and not have to worry about every penny they spend or misplace. Yeah, it was a great day.
And the Cayman Islands lived happily ever after.
Cuts continue says Bush
(CNS): Updated 10:30 am — The premier is still cutting public sector operating expenses to reduce the amount of borrowing Cayman will need to bridge the expected deficit for the 09/10 fiscal year. McKeeva Bush said that he will continue to talk with civil servants in his role as Minister for Finance about cost cutting measures in order to reduce the deficit and keep borrowing to the minimum. Giving few details about the size of Cayman’s year end deficit, the UK’s position on the country’s borrowing needs or the introduction of taxation, Bush told the country that he would bring a budget to the Legislative Assembly before the end of May.
Mac attacks CNS and FOI
(CNS): Both the media and the Freedom of Information (FOI) law came under attack from the premier on Thursday afternoon when he accused Nicky Watson, the owner of Cayman News Service, of wasting government time because of an FOI request she submitted asking for details of his travel arrangements since taking office. Listing where he had been over the last year, McKeeva Bush asked what good such a request was and proceeded to criticise the FOI law for allowing not only anonymous requests, but requests without reason. He also took the opportunity to again criticise what he called "the blogs" (comments) on CNS, as well as the content of Cayman Net News and vowed to make the media pay “good fees” in future. (Photo by Dennie Warren Jr)
Man charged in Ming murder
(CNS): A man has now been charged in connection with the fatal shooting of Damion Ming in West Bay earlier this year. In keeping with the RCIPS’ recent policy of withholding the names of people charged with all crimes police said they had brought charges against a 26 year old man. No details of the individual or even the district the man was from were given. However police said that officers from the joint RCIPS and UK enquiry team had charged the man on Thursday afternoonwith murder and possession ofan unlicensed firearm. Ming was gunned down near to his home in the Birch Tree Hill area of West Bay on Thursday 25 March, 2010.