Archive for January, 2012
NRA reveals no analysis on landfill move to BT
(CNS): Claims made by the environment minister, Mark Scotland, that relocating the landfill to Bodden Town would not impact traffic in the district do not appear to be based on research or proper analysis. A freedom of information request made to the NRA by local activists campaigning against the move has revealed that no reports, studies or assessments of traffic levels were the dump to be moved have been undertaken. The Coalition to Keep Bodden Town Dump Free said it has also submitted an FOI request to the public works ministry but that also revealed that there were no reports, studies, or research that could justify the move. As a result, the coalition said it questions the minister’s assertions about the limited impact on their district.
Scotland, who is Bodden Town’s representative as well as being a Cabinet minister, has stated publicly that moving the dump would have little impact on the traffic levels of Cayman’s original capital. However, Vincent Frederick, one of the leaders of the coalition, says the lack of research or assessment seriously undermines that claim.
“Where did Mr Scotland come up with his estimate of ‘only 200 truckloads’ of garbage' – so 400 more trucks through Bodden Town, every day, when you count the return trip? On what did he base this rather frivolous assertion that no new roads would be required?” the activist asked.
Fredrick said the coalition asked the NRA for all studies, reports, correspondence, emails, memorandums relating to traffic levels through Bodden Town as a result of the proposed landfill in Midland Acres and any requirement of additional roads. The NRA responded: “Unfortunately, this Authority does not have any record of studies, reports, correspondence, emails, or memorandum relating to new landfill in Midland Acres.”
Similarly requests made to made to the Ministry of District Administration, Works, Lands and Agriculture (DAWLA) for “studies, reports, correspondence, emails, memorandums” relating to the selection of a suitable alternative location for the George Town landfill and the selection of Bodden Town also came up blank.
The ministry said: “…this Ministry holds no records…as you have requested.” In December the Department of Environmental Health also confirmed there had been no studies or reports concerning an alternative site for the GT landfill as most of the studies conducted focused on better waste management practices at George Town.
Alain Beiner, another of the coalition members spearheading the campaign said the activists were concerned by the persistent absence of any response to the question of who decided on Bodden Town, how, where and when?
The coalition stated that Mark Scotland has indicated that a private study was conducted sometime in the 1990s which found that Bodden Town, while not a first choice for re-siting the landfill, was best for a waste-management facility in regard to wildlife and wetlands.
However, Biener doubted the veracity of the unidentified study which does not appear to have been seen by any of the staff in the relevant government departments or by the public and which the minister also indicated does not identify Bodden Town as the best location.
Gregg Anderson, another Coalition leader, said the people needed to know who commissioned this study and who conducted it. If it is the basis of government’s decision to relocate the dump to Bodden Town, he queried why it wasn’t filed with DEH or DAWLA so that they could provide the people with a copy.
“Choosing Midland Acres as the best choice in ‘regards to wetlands’ directly contradicts last year’s opinion of the Central Tenders Committee’s technical team, who rejected moving the dump there because of concerns about the potential environmental impact of locating a new dump in the central wetlands area,” he added.
The Coalition said that they had asked the minister for several pieces of information including a copy of that study but so far, other than an acknowledgement for the request, the coalition has not received any information from their elected representative and government minister.
Anderson said the lack of openness and consultation as well as the reluctance of their representatives to provide answers is fuelling the fears of Bodden Towners about the proposed landfill relocation as well as a distrust of their MLAs.
The Coalition has now begun a door-to-door campaign among residents in the district to inform them of their concerns and question how people feel about the proposal. The campaign began in Midland Acres and will continue throughout the district. A bulk distribution of the Coalition’s information flyer was also launched, beginning with the Bodden Town and the Savannah post offices.
Coalition leaders have said that a series of radio spots is also planned to spell out the position of the coalition and why they are concerned.
“We represent the interests of the population,” said Frederick. “We’re opposed to the dump being relocated to our district, and we call on government to solve the problem of Mount Trashmore where it is, without contaminating a new site. Dart wants the dump ‘out of its backyard’ and dumped it into ours — with no concern for the consequences for our environment, our economy, our well-being, or for our future. We’ll fight this senseless plan, and we intend to win, ” he added.
The plan to move the landfill to Bodden Town is part of the proposed ForCayman Alliance, which is an investment partnership between the islands’ largest developer, the Dart Group, and the government that includes a number ofland swaps to facilitate more development and investment. Dart has proposed swapping the crown land at the current landfill site in George Town for land it owns in Midland Acres and to finance the creation of what it has said would be a new modern waste management park.
Dart proposes to then finance the capping and remediation of the existing dump, which is located close to its main investment project Camana Bay, then eventually, when safe to do so, it says it would create a recreational area at the site.
Social media embraced in Jamaica’s election
(Caribbean Journal): The 2011 general election in Jamaica saw the use of traditional and social media in ways never before experienced on that island. This was the first such election in that country since the coming of age of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, threeof the most popular social networks. The former Prime Minister, Andrew Holness went as far as to indicate that the Jamaica Labour Party would be relying less on traditional media and more on social media to communicate their messages to the people, so that, as he said, “the people can get the message unfiltered, untwisted … the truth.'
Teen IDs Jeffers as gunman
(CNS): Seventeen-year-old Adryan Powell told the Grand Court on Monday afternoon that Raziel Jeffers was one of the gunmen that opened fire on him in a yard in Bonaventure Road, West Bay, some two and a half years ago. The teenager, who was one month shy of his 15th birthday on the evening he was shot multiple times, is now confined to a wheelchair as a result of the injuries he suffered during the shooting. Powell, who was one of three youngsters gunned down by the two masked shooters that night, including 20-year-old Marcus Ebanks who was killed, said he was 100 percent certain Jeffers had shot him as the mask he wore had slipped from his face.
The prosecution’s case against 28-year-old Raziel Jeffers of West Bay is that he was one of two men who, according to forensics, were armed with a least three guns when they indiscriminately opened fire on a group of boys and young mentalking in the West Bay yard at around 7:30pm on 8 July 2009. The men also gunned down the murder victim’s teenage brother, Rod Ebanks, who received four gunshot wounds but later recovered from his injuries.
As the Grand Court trial opened on Monday Jeffers was charged with one count of murder and four counts of attempted murder as well as possession of an unlicensed firearm in connection with the shooting. The crown claims that on the evening in question Jeffers’ target was not Ebanks but Jose Sanchez, who was a member of an opposing West Bay gang and a man with whom Jeffers also had a significant personal dispute in relation to his former and current girlfriends.
Although he was the target, Sanchez, who was the first to see the sudden arrival of the two gunmen on the night of the shooting, managed to escape to the safety of the house before the shooters opened fire, said Andrew Radcliffe, QC, prosecuting counsel for the crown.
As he presented an outline of the crown’s case against Jeffers, Radcliffe told the court that the prosecution would show through motive, forensic evidence, telephone records, a confession to his girlfriend and Adryan Powell’s identification that the defendant was one of the gunmen who shot and killed Marcus Ebanks and tried to kill the other men in a joint criminal enterprise.
In the long and detailed opening statement to Justice Charles Quin, who is presiding over the case alone without a jury, Radcliffe said it would show the court that Jeffers had met with a man in Scranton, George Town, shortly before the shooting to collect the weapons which the two of them used in the crime.
The crown counsel named the man as Osborne Douglas, who has not been charged in connection with the shooting.
The attorney said telephone records would show that Jeffers then drove back from George Town to West Bay, where he then shot the young men in the yard before making his escape via Scranton to an address in Bodden Town, where he was arrested in the early hours of the next morning.
Radcliffe said that gunshot residue (GSR) was found on a packet of cigarette papers taken from Jeffers when he was arrested at a house in Frederick Street. However, no other traces of GSR or firearms were found at the time of his arrest.
The attorney told the court that the defendant was released on bail soon after the arrest and it was not until several months later that Jeffers’ former girlfriend, Megan Martinez, told police that he had confessed to being one of the gunmen when they were still together.
The crown said the witness would also testify that, prior to the confession, Jeffers had told her on the night in question that he was going to Scranton to meet "Ozzy" and the two of them were “going fishing”, a term, Radcliffe said, that had nothing to do with the sea but implied he was going to look for his enemies.
The prosecuter said other witnesses would testify that Jeffers had bragged about beating up Sanchez and that it was time to start killing some of the opposing gang members.
Radcliffe added that Jeffers, as a member of the Birch Tree Hill gang, already had a factional animosity towards Sanchez, who is a member of the Logwoods gang, as a result of the war between the two West Bay groups. Added to that existing animosity, when Jeffers discovered that Sanchez had begun a sexual relationship with a former girlfriend of his while she was still with him, the dispute turned personnel, the crown said, and it was further compounded when Sanchez assaulted Martinez, the woman Jeffers was living with at that time.
The crown counsel took the judge through a detailed review of the phone evidence, which it said would corroborate the evidence that Martinez was expected to give as well track Jeffers' movements on the night of the killing and place him close to the murder scene.
Powell, who is now confined to a wheelchair, began his evidence around 3pm Monday afternoon via a live video link. He described how he had gone to the house in Bonaventure Road that evening to wait for another friend who had borrowed his bike, and how as he was chatting with the other young man the two masked gunmen had suddenly arrived at the yard and opened fire.
He told the court that he was struck down by one of the bullets and he had tried to run away, and as he went down he was also hit in the face. The teenager was to receive multiple gunshots during the indiscriminate firing but he remained conscious as he lay on the ground. He told the court that one of the gunmen went past him as he lay in the yard wounded. Powell said he believed even at that point it was Jeffers who had shot him because he had known him for more than two years from the district of West Bay and from playing football.
When the gunman then spun around and looked directly down on Powell, the mask he was wearing fell down exposing Jeffers’ face to the teen, who said they looked at each other for a few seconds before he readjusted the mask and moved away. Certain who it was, Powell told the court that after looking at his assailant he lay his face back down and played dead.
The case continues in court two tomorrow morning, when the defence will begin its cross-examination of the crown’s primary witness.
Cabinet approves techy zone
(CNS): Although the creators of Cayman's first ever special economic zone (SEZ) have not yet revealed where the much anticipated science and technology park will eventually be located, the government has approved the order naming Cayman Enterprise City as the developer. This means that CEC can now take advantage of the benefits and concessions prescribed in the SEZ law even before the first phase of the techy park is built. Cabinet approved the order on Tuesday 10 January and officials said Monday that it would be gazetted in a few weeks. The law will pave the way for CEC to create what it has said will be a multi-phase development that will have some six different campuses catering to IT, science, media, bio-technology, commodities as well as academic and research companies.
The developers have stated that the first phase will cover 150,000 sq ft and that it was meant to break ground in the first quarter of this year but so far no location has been revealed.
The development proposal has been broadly welcomed in the community as a result of the focus on attracting modern technologies but as yet the developer has not revealed if any of the tenants they hope to attract have agreed to relocate to Cayman. CEC has said it will create some 800 jobs in its first year but so far it has created 20.
In the wake of Cabinet’s decision to issue the order for the creation of the zone, the premier said he was pleased with the progress of Cayman Enterprize City. “Government and CEC have worked well together in order to move this particular special economic zone forward professionally and quickly,” McKeeva Bush stated in a release from his ministry. "I'm particularly pleased that already, CEC has hired more than 20 staff, 70% of which are Caymanians. This is a great indication that government’s policy to make the right climate for investment is working."
The first meeting of the Special Economic Zone Authority (SEZA), which is responsible for enforcement of policy and oversight of this, the first zone of its kind, and any future zones took place on 14 December. The Department ofCommerce and Investment (DCI), in the Ministry of Finance, is secretariat for the SEZA. In this role DCI is responsible for the authority’s daily administration, including carrying out its functions and record keeping of all meetings, proceedings and decisions.
The members of the new authority were also revealed in the release by ministry officials and they are:
Chairman David Kirkaldy
Deputy Chairman Marcus Cumber
Director Jason Blick (CEO, CEC)
Director Glen Daykin
Director Director of Commerce & Investment (or designate)
Director Collector of Customs (or designate)
Director Chief Immigration Office (or designate)
Director Director of Planning (or designate)
Director Director of Labour (or designate)
Director Chief Surveyor (or designate)
One charged in jewel heist
(CNS): The police have now charged a 34-year-old George Town man with a violent broad daylight jewellery shop robbery a few days before Christmas. The man who has yet to be named has been charged with a list of crimes including robbery, handling stolen property, possession of criminal property, theft of a motor vehicle, arson and driving whilst disqualified. The incident took place at the Magnum Jewellery store in a busy downtown George Town on 22 December at around 11.20 am. The man with along with two other accomplishes smash into display cases at the front of the open store in Cardinal Avenue with axes and grabbed a selection of high end jewellery.
Police arrested the suspect who was due to appear in court on Monday following a police operation in the Windsor Park area of George Town on Wednesday 10 January when a quantity of jewellery was also recovered.
Following the robbery the three man had fled in a stolen Rav 4 vehicle which was later found burnt out a short time later in Wahoo Close, George Town. The men were then believed to have escaped in a maroon SUV.
One charged in jewel heist
(CNS): The police have now charged a 34-year-old George Town man with a violent broad daylight jewellery shop robbery a few days before Christmas. Julio Newball has been charged with a list of crimes including robbery, handling stolen property, possession of criminal property, theft of a motor vehicle, arson and driving whilst disqualified. The incident took place at the Magnum Jewellery store in a busy downtown George Town on 22 December at around 11.20 am. The man along with two other accomplices smashed into display cases at the front of the open store in Cardinal Avenue with axes and grabbed a selection of high end jewellery.
Police arrested Newball, who was due to appear in court on Monday, following a police operation in the Windsor Park area of George Town on Wednesday 10 January when a quantity of jewellery was also recovered.
Following the robbery the three man had fled in a stolen Rav 4 vehicle, which was later found burnt out a short time later in Wahoo Close, George Town. The men were then believed to have escaped in a maroon SUV.
CBO and CNS lets public have its say on politics
(CNS Business): In an attempt to gauge the public’s view on governance, transparency and politics in general, CNS Business has partnered with the organisers of this week’s Cayman Business Outlook conference and offers readers the chance to have their say anonymously on the subject in a specially devised poll. Results from the poll will then be put to a panel of local speakers at the conference, which will be held this Thursday at the Westin Casuarina Resort & Spa. Readers who would like to submit questions to the panel can do so anonymously as comments on CNS Business.
Accounting for the cash
How governments collect and spend public cash is one of the key issues on which they are judged, but here in the Cayman Islands no one really knows how this or the previous administration actually spent our money. As the UDP approaches the last year of this government, the voters still don’t have access to any meaningful account of how it has actually spent the people’s cash or how successful it has been at collecting what it is owed.
In his latest update on the state of government accounting, the auditor general went very easy on the government. No doubt exhausted by the efforts to try and have it produce anything at all that accounts for what it is doing with the money it collects from the people, and not wishing to undermine the relatively minor step forward of meeting accounting deadlines for the first time in eight years, he offered praise and encouragement.
Sadly, however, the failure of government to account for how it has collected and spent our money means that once again when the voters go to the polls in May 2013 they will not really have a clue how the people they are voting for will spend the cash they collect from them. They won’t know where government has failed to collect what’s owed and whether they are wasting cash. They won’t know where money has been well spent and provided a positive outcome because what little information comes from government cannot be relied upon or is meaningless.
Despite claims by government that public finances are being addressed and that it is catching up when it comes to genuine accountability to the people, this is simply not true.
Of the 38 entities that are obligated to produce annual reports only eight — yes, eight — have been made public for even the first financial year in office of the current government. Of those eight only four statutory authorities have unqualified reports that the public can rely on; the other four have qualified reports, which means the auditor general could not be sure that the information supplied in the reports was accurate or credible. So today there are in existence only four statutory authority reports that tell the people how public cash was spent in the financial year from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010. In essence the entire public spending since the government took office with these four exceptions – CIMA, the ERA, CINICO and the Turtle Farm — remain a mystery.
Consequently, some 16 months away from an election the people have no idea how the current government has fared when it comes to spending the people’s money or collecting it.
Has government spent enough on education, not enough on crime fighting, too much on roads or too little on the poor? Has it collected customs from all the right people? Are fees still outstanding and why? Are collection systems themselves efficient? Should government spend less on collecting money or more money to ensure everyone pays their dues?
Legitimate questions about public finances are the most basic reasons why one group of politicians is voted in over another. It will be impossible for any voter in the Cayman Islands to have an accurate idea when they go to the polls how the representatives they are about to vote for will spend their cash.
Often politicians may say they are spending money on one thing and collecting from another as declared in the budget, but the budget documents are a wish list not a reality and difficult for the man in the street to properly interpret .
Unless the people can see and understand clearly the actual amounts collected and the actual amounts spent and the reasons, they cannot make an informed decision when they go to the polls.
The issue of government finance is not about meeting deadlines and obeying the requirements of the law. The Public Management and Finance Law was passed to make government account for how it spends the people’s money – our money not theirs, ours. The annual reports should be telling the people what each government department spent and why but the failure of government to produce them year after year after means the government is simply unaccountable to its employers.
When a government is voted into office we trust those people to collect and spend the money wisely or at the very least as it claimed it would during its election campaign. Even the richest governments do not have an infinite supply of public cash and even in the best of times must make decisions about spending in line with the wishes of the majority. During global recession how the money comes in and goes out is even more fundamental to the voter’s decision.
Given the persistent failure of government to give the people a true and meaningful account of want it has done with the public’s money (that the people can actually understand) means every single voter is handicapped at the polls. The Cayman electorate is notable to make an informed choice about which government they can trust to spend their money in the way they want.
In the end, that’s not democracy.
Robbers hit West Bay house
(CNS): A West Bay man was reportedly robbed in his own home Sunday evening in the second incident of its kind this weekend. Police said that in this second home invasion there was only one masked and armed robber, who reportedly mugged the victim at a house in Capt. Curry Road, West Bay at 6:53 this evening. The man said that he was at his residence when the robber, with what appeared to be firearm, entered the house and stole his wallet and two cell phones. Police said the suspect is of slim build and between 5'10" and 6ft tall. The robber’s face was covered with a black mask and he was wearing a long sleeved black shirt and a long pair of black trousers.
According to the report, no shots were fired and no one was injured during the incident before the suspect escaped on foot.
Police are also investigating a mugging which took place early Sunday morning outside a house in Palm Dale, George. The man told police that as hewent the outside his house he was approached by two masked men armed with a knife and a gun, who stole a cash bag containing an undisclosed sum before escaping on foot
Police are asking anyone who may have witness the suspect before or after the incident off Town Hall road to contact the police at West Bay Police station 949 3999, the RCIPS tips line 949-7777 or Crime Stoppers 800-8477(TIPS).
West Bay man pleads not guilty to nightclub stabbing
(CNS): Twenty year old Dan Kelly from West Bay has denied stabbing another man during a fight inside a West Bay Road nightclub in December. The West Bay man was granted bail following his not guilty plea to the charge of grievous bodily harm by Justice Alex Henderson as he said the crown had presented nothing more than a “bare allegation” against the defendant who has been in custody since his arrest on 12 December. Although Kelly admits he was at Club 7 on the night the victim says he was stabbed the West Bay man denied being in a fight with the man or stabbing him.
The accusation against Kelly is based on a seven line statement issued by the 36 year old victim who says he knows Dan Kelly, only hours after he had received abdominal surgery, following the stabbing at the club. The crown said that Kelly made an unprovoked attack on the victim stabbing him twice for “no reason,” the court heard.
Kelly’s defence attorney however said there are no witnesses and no forensic evidence that her client was involved in the fight. He gave a full statement to the police on arrest denying the charge.
The victim had not called the police at the time of the stabbing which allegedly occurred inside Club 7 at around 2am. The police were called by hospital staff after the victim turned up suffering from two stab wounds andseeking treatment at the Cayman Islands hospital.