Archive for September, 2010

Premier names five new National Heroes

Cayman News | 17/09/2010 | 38 Comments

(CNS): As the architect of the National Heroes programme that recognises those who have made a significant contribution to the development of the islands, the premier has announced five new National Heroes. McKeeva Bush said the committee had agreed that the late William Farrington, a former West Bay legislator; Desmond V. Watler, Cayman’s first chief secretary; former legislator Ormond L. Panton; Evelyn Wood, Cayman’s first female legislator; and Joyce Hylton, a social development pioneer, will all be officially installed during next January’s National Heroes Day celebrations. Bush said these people had set the foundations for what Cayman has today.

The national heroes are usually awarded posthumously, with the notable exception of Sybil McLaughlin, a former speaker of the Legislative Assembly, who was the only hero so far to be awarded while still living.

“Without these great men and women, where would the good ship Cayman be today?” Bush asked rhetorically, as he announced the latest heroes during a television broadcast on Thursday evening.

He also announced that the country’s primary schools would all be renamed in honour of Caymanians who have made great and valued contributions to our communities. The first two to begin this naming exercise will be the Bodden Town Primary School, which will now be known as the Theoline McCoy Primary School, and the Savannah Primary School, which will be named after Edna Jackson.

“Whatever I do is for the good of all the people of these islands, and I ask for your understanding, your support and your prayers,” Bush stated as he ended his broadcast.

Cayman to talk with Jamaica about removing visas

Cayman News | 17/09/2010 | 39 Comments

(CNS): Jamaica and the Cayman Islands have agreed to resolve the issue of the visa requirements for travel between the two countries. The agreement to talk about the matter was made during informal talks yesterday (Wednesday, 15 September) between McKeeva Bush, the premier and Jamaica’s deputy prime minister, Kenneth Baugh. Bush spoke with Baugh when he visited Cayman with former Jamaican Prime Minister “PJ” Patterson, and CARICOM Economic Adviser Byron Blake when they were in transit to attend a CARICOM Foreign Ministers’ Conference in Cuba.

The visa was first introduce by the CI government in 2005 following the large increase of Jamaican naitonals coming to Cayman as a result of the economic boom here in the wake of Ivan. The requirement was then reciprocated by the Jamaican government which in turn introduced a visa for Caymanians visiting Jamaica.

Given the significant amount of Jamaicans living and working in Cayman and the huge family ties of Caymanians with Jamaica the visa has been criticised and blamed for further fuelling divisiness.

Aside for discussing the possible removal of the visa requirement the Jamaican delegation also visited the Cayman Islands Legislative Assembly, where as well as Bush they met with the speaker Mary Lawrence as well as the deputy governor Donovan Ebanks as well as government ministers the opposition leader, MLAs and official members.

After watching the Legislative Assembly at work, the guests talked about the close historic ties between the islands. They also spoke of the need to rebuild the traditional Caribbean foundation of strong parenting and families in their countries, A GIS release stated.

Premier says rollover gap can be cut

Cayman News | 17/09/2010 | 94 Comments

(CNS): The premier told the country on Thursday night that he has legal advice from the UK which says the Cayman Islands government can make the rollover as short as it chooses and he will be examining changes to the immigration policy. Speaking to the country during a television address, McKeeva Bush raised the issue of immigration and the need to attract people to the Cayman Islands as well as the need to encourage people to keep their earnings here. He said that Cayman was exporting part of its GDP as a result of the way the country’s immigration policy encouraged foreign workers to send money out of Cayman. He said any country which exported its GDP was doomed to failure.

Bush stated that new initiatives and incentives were needed to encourage people to relocate to Cayman and conduct business on the ground here, a key factor that government had to focus on. He said Cayman was not offering security for staff of potential investors or good service, which had to be addressed.

“These initiatives can be achieved without the necessity of granting Caymanian Status,” he said. “We have legal advice from the UK that says we can make the rollover time as limited as we want to in our legislation.”

Currently the law requires expatriate workers on work permits to leave for a minimum period of twelve months after working for seven years before they can return. The period was originally set at two years but was then reduce to twelve by the previous administration as they said it was the minimum period which could be accepted in law as a genuine break in stay. This would then prevent all permit holders from meeting the threshold to be entitled to begin the process of becoming Caymanian and in turn what was perceived as an imbalance between indigenous Caymanians and foreign status holders.

Bush did not say if he intended to scrap the concept of the seven year rollover policy or, if it remained in place, how short he was willing to make the mandated break in stay but he implied there would be immigration changes. He added that everybody needed to examine how best people could be attracted here while still creating jobs and upward mobility for Caymanians. Bush further revealed the intention to remove work permits for visiting foreign business people who were here for short business trips.

He said he would make a further announcement on the issue of immigration in a few weeks.

Bush also sent a warning to the members of government appointed boards would be changed if they were either incapable or unwilling to carry out government wishes or were not complying with government policy for enhancing economic development.

Following Wednesday night’s public meeting, when the premier berated the bureaucracy of the public service, on Thursday he used the TV platform to criticise the wider members of society who were not supporting his efforts to attract development. He warned that he would be “asking the governor to do something” about people who worked for government who were not supporting him.

“As premier I cannot and will not allow our country to suffer at the hands of a few,” he said. adding that it was time to embrace foreigners and guest workers to Cayman as they were an intrinsic part of the economy. He warned that with as may as 10,000 people gone from the country, if this wasn’t addressed the country would not be able to pay bills, there would be more unemployed, children would not be able to receive an education and government would not be able to pay the civil service wage bill.

Kenneth Dart turns his attention to The Bahamas

Cayman News | 17/09/2010 | 29 Comments

(The Tribune): Cayman businessman and developer Kenneth Dart is turning his attention and investment to the re-birth of the Bay and Parliament Street area of the Bahamas’ capital. The Dart Group, founded by the billionaire heir to a Styrofoam cup fortune, and developer of the 500-acre Camana Bay project, has, according to sources, signed an agreement to purchase prime downtown Nassau real estate opposite the country’s House of Assembly on Parliament Street. Dart Group’s representatives are believed to have visited Nassau last year and were attracted by the waterfront properties that will be freed up for commercial/residential development when the shipping companies relocate to Arawak Cay.

Sources told The Tribune that Dart had “the skills and deep pockets necessary” to turn the vision for downtown Nassau into reality, having created Camana Bay from scratch.

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Jury says 3 men are guilty

Cayman News | 16/09/2010 | 71 Comments

(CNS): Full story — Patrick McField, Osbourne Douglas and Brandon Leslie-Ebanks have all been found guilty of the murder of Omar Samuels in McField Lane, George Town on 5 July. The verdict was returned just before 4:00pm this afternoon (Thursday 16 September) to a courtroom filled with friends and family of the defendants. When the unexpected verdict was delivered by the foreman, the families of the three men broke down in shock and grief at the result. The judge took a short adjournment after the jury’s verdict was delivered before pronouncing the mandatory life sentence on all three defendants as the men’s families wept in the public gallery. (Photo courtesy of News27)

The defence teams said they were unable to comment on the verdict but each one confirmed that they would be filing appeals as soon as possible on behalf of their respective clients.

Brandon Leslie-Ebanks’ mother and brother told CNS that they were shocked by the verdict. Brandon’s mother said that, given the gun crime in Cayman at present and the murder which took place during the trial, this may have influenced the result, but she said it was a travesty of justice to convict innocent men as was the situation in this case with her son and his co-defendants.

“Convicting innocent men of a crime won’t solve the problem that we are facing in our community,” she said. “My son is not a murderer, he does not carry a gun, but because of the bad things that are happening in Cayman it is influencing people to think all young men are bad. He is not guilty of this crime and the man who fired that bullet and killed Omar is still free. Justice has not been served,” she added through her tears

Matthew Leslie, Brandon’s brother said, “This is very distressing for us at present, especially for my mom for whom this has been a stressful ordeal, as the evidence simply did not support the result. However I am confident that this will be overturned in the Court of Appeal where the evidence will be properly assessed.”

Leslie said that all of the friends and relatives of the defendants were shocked and surprised because they believed that the widely contradictory evidence of the crown’s eyewitnesses and the inconsistencies with the forensic evidence simply did not point in any way to the guilt of the young men.

Brandon’s brother also noted that the passing of the police bill as well as another murder involving a firearm during the trial may well have served to have a negative effect on the community.

Kim Evans, who was since retired from the RCIPS but was the senior investigating officer on the case at the time, was also in court to hear the verdict. He said that the officers involved had worked very hard on the enquiry and justice had been served.

The Ryan family’s 302-day sailing odyssey

Guest Writer | 16/09/2010 | 0 Comments

(CNN): Anyone who has ever owned a boat has probably dreamed of cruising around the world on it. Sadly, very few of us actually do. Work, kids, health or other commitments usually gets in the way of our ambitions. Mike and Judy Ryan were no different, with three young daughters and a hectic hotel business to run. But in 2007, they decided they had waited long enough to fulfil their dream. Back then their youngest daughter Fiona was just eight years old, Madeleine was ten and Justine 12.

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Facebook alternative Diaspora rolls out first code

Guest Writer | 16/09/2010 | 0 Comments

(BBC): Developers have been given their first glimpse of a community-funded and open alternative to Facebook. Diaspora describes itself as a "privacy-aware, personally-controlled" social network. It was conceived earlier this year by four US students during a period when Facebook came under fire for its privacy settings. The open-source project has now released its first code to developers and also published screenshots. "This is now a community project and development is open to anyone with the technical expertise who shares the vision of a social network that puts users in control," the team said in a blog.

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Mac berates bureaucrats

Cayman News | 16/09/2010 | 67 Comments

(CNS): The country’s premier has taken another swipe at the bureaucracy that he says is hampering his efforts to get the country’s economy back on track. He described the bureaucracy as “silent, passive non-compliance” and a “dragging of feet” when people were opposed to government projects. Although he did not call out the civil service directly, he implied that it was within the government mechanism that he was encountering the problems that prevented him from getting what he wanted done. McKeeva Bush raised the issue at a George Town public meeting on Wednesday night as he talked about the current state of the economy and efforts to turn things around. He warned the audience, in which there were a number of public servants, that he was going to stop it. (Photo Dennie WarrenJr)

“In government there is a lot of bureaucracy. Believe you me, I have never seen as much bureaucracy as I am seeing now,” he said, adding that while sometimes it was good to have bureaucracy as it ensured transparency and best interests of government and the people, too often it was used as a barricade. Bush said there was a series of hoops that politicians have to repeatedly jump through to get a single project done.

“Sometimes bureaucracy is used as an excuse for the dragging of feet because someone doesn’t agree with the project or doesn’t want to see the project accomplished,” the premier told the audience gathered at the newly renovated George Town Peace Hall. “It is what I have heard referred to as a silent, passive, non-compliance from the people paid to advance the policy of objectives. It’s a dragging of the feet that prevents us from making positive progress.”

He said that he should not be standing there talking about getting a waste-to-energy project going in the near future; he should have been giving a progress report on a job which had already started months ago. However, bureaucracy had held the project up, he claimed. It was just one example he gave, adding that a number of things were being “deliberately bogged down”.

“I wish I had gotten more done in the past twelve months … but I am not going to stand for it any longer, not when people are out of work and losing their homes,” he warned. “We were given a mandate and that mandate must be carried out.”

He said he was not afraid of losing elections as he had lost them in the past and it had made him stronger. Bush added that he was now going to apply pressure in order to get things done though he gave no indication of where that pressure would be applied.

“We don’t have time to play games simply because someone doesn’t agree with a policy decision, or because someone doesn’t trust someone else, or because someone doesn’t want to see someone else get the work,” the premier complained, adding they were using their positions to stand in the way of projects and slow them down. “The economic situation is deadly serious. The world is not going to wait for us to get our act together or feel sorry for us. What has to be done must get done.”

He said doing everything at a snail’s pace would be to the country’sdetriment if not to its total destruction as money wouldn’t come in and bills and salaries wouldn’t get paid. Too many are going to get hurt, he said.

Asked by a member of the audience what he meant by "the bureaucrats" and for more details and specifics on who was holding things up, Bush said that was perhaps a question he really did not want to answer but he said, “Let’s say we are going to something about it.”

Cayman tax authorityincreases reports to Europe

Cayman News | 16/09/2010 | 0 Comments

(CNS): According to the specialist website Tax News, the Cayman Islands increased the number of reports it has made under the European Union Savings Directive during 2009. The total number of reports made by the Cayman Islands’ Tax Information Authority increased from 5,679 in 2008, to 7,397 in 2009. However, while the number or reports was up, the total value of income declared fell significantly from US$25.7 million in 2008 to US$12.25 million in 2009, the tax experts revealed in a specialist report. The biggest number of reports were made regarding accounts based in Cayman went to the French tax authority. Cayman sent 3,602 reports to France last year, an increase from 2,159 in 2008.

The next largest number of reports was from account holders relating to the UK, which was down significantly on 2008. Cayman sent 1,142 reports to the UK tax office compared to 1,643 reports in 2008.The amount also fell substantially from US$13m in 2008, to US$3.3m.

Although the number of reports sent to France was more than the UK, the amount of savings income was still greater based on UK related accounts than those from French offshore account holders, the Tax News report revealed. Dutch residents were recorded as having the highest interest income in 2009, with US$4.48m declared.

The Cayman Islands is party to the European Union Savings Directive, so residents in a European Union country who have accounts in Cayman and receive interest on that money are liable, under the Cayman’s regime, to have information relating to the interest they have earned sent confidentially to their home country’s tax authority.

Police investigate break-in at George Town business

Cayman News | 16/09/2010 | 2 Comments

(CNS): At around 3:45 this morning Thursday 16 September police from the George Town Police Station responded to an alarm that had been activated at a business premises on Walkers Road, located near to the four way junction. When the officers arrived to at the location they found what they described as an “insecure door” where it looked like the suspects had gained entry into the building. Although they searched the office the police said no on was found and “it was determined that the suspects had fled prior police arrival,” a police spokesperson said this morning. The police did not say what, if anything, had been taken by the burglars.

Detective Constable Kingsly Mitchell of George Town CID is appealing for anyone who was in the area of around the relevant time and witnessed the burglary or saw the suspects fleeing the scene to come forward.

Anyone with information should call George Town Police Station on 949-4222 or Crime Stoppers 800-8477 (TIPS)