Archive for March 4th, 2011
Barefoot Beach muggers charged with robbery
(CNS): Following a recent police operation in East End, when three men were arrested in connection with the mugging of two tourists on a secluded beach along the Queens Highway, two have now been charged. 18-year-old Michael McLaughlin and 30-year-old Trent Bodden appeared in Summary Court on Thursday afternoon charged with the robbery, in which they were said to be armed with a knuckle duster and a baseball bat. The incident occurred around noon on Monday, 7 February, at Barefoot Beach when the couple, who were visiting from the US, were confronted by three men, all of whom had their faces covered by t-shirts.
One of the men grabbed the male tourist, placed him in a headlock and demanded cash. As the robbers made off from the scene they smashed the window of the couple’s hire car with the baseball bat and stole an underwater camera.
Mac hits out at petition
(CNS): The premier has said that the petition which is being organised against the North Sound Channel may put other investors off from doing business in the Cayman Islands. In another televised statement on Thursday evening McKeeva Bush hit out at those people who have voiced their opposition to a proposal to dredge a channel in the North Sound. Bush said that investors may question whether Cayman wants investment when they see petitions. He told the nation that people should wait until they have all the facts before they sign it as he believed the channel would not harm the North Sound but will help protect it.
“You probably will be asked to sign a petition against this channel. I ask you to wait until you have the facts before you make up your mind for it or against it,” Bush said in his third broadcast in just over a week. “When investors see petitions being circulated, they will question whether in fact these islands want investment. A petition might be against a channel but what next? Condos, hotels, a refinery? When will the negative and destructive talk end? It makes investors uneasy,” he added.
He also asked where the people who were “against everything” had got their facts from and said that besides being critics they had no answers on how to make the islands sustainable.
Bush pointed in particular to the independent member for North Side, Ezzard Miller, who, Bush said, had suggested that plans he found left on his car windshield were the proposed plans for the channel and which have now been posted on the Rooster website. Bush denied that these plans had anything to do with the project he had been discussing and accused both Millerand Rooster of being irresponsible for circulating them.
“Some people are prepared to oppose everything because they are satisfied with how they are surviving,” he said, adding that it was because they don’t care about other people. “Those politicians who get on the radio weekly to oppose everything don’t care how you are able to live – if you believe them, and then re-elect them – no matter what group – then you pay – they are satisfied – and you will not get ahead. That is what happened in 2005 to 2009.”
People had to accept that businesses had to be successful so that the country can have jobs, live decently, have money to spend, but sacrifices had to be made to get something, Bush stated.
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Defending the latest proposed projects, which include the North Sound channel and the creation of an oil refinery, he said he not believe the channel would destroy the North Sound. The proposal was not for more than a depth of 20ft and it would be more than two miles away from the Sand Bar, he said.
Contrary to expert opinion, Bush said the channel would help protect the North Sound, improve the clarity of the water and the two islands which are now associated with this latest project proposal would prove to be buffers for the shoreline.
“While we must consider ‘what if’, we can’t live our lives in fear of ‘what if’. But I urge everyone not to talk before you have the facts. Be careful of who you listen to out there no matter how good it sounds,” the premier stated in defence of his controversial plans.
He promised that an environmental impact assessment would be done by the best marine scientists and the channel will only go ahead if the environmental study says it will not damage the North Sound. “There will not be a channel before an environmental impact study is conducted. If the study, and good reason, says that we should not go ahead, it will not move forward,” he told the people of the country.
See the full broadcast statement by the premier below.
For more details on the campaign against the North Sound Channel visit the savecayman facebook page or email savecayman@gmail.com.
Go to the CNS poll:
Are you in favour of dredging a channel in the North Sound to accommodate mega yachts?