Archive for February, 2012
Mac to hit back with public meeting about port
(CNS): In the wake of a public rally in opposition to government’s proposed Dart deal, the premier will be hitting back by hosting his own public meeting this evening (Tuesday 21 February) in George Town on the same spot. McKeeva Bush says he will be updating the public on the cruise ship dock and “other matters”. Following the meeting hosted by local activists against the ForCayman Alliance, the premier will be emphasising the need to get projects going to create jobs and generate business to kick start the still flagging economy. The meeting, which will be broadcast live on Radio Cayman, will be held at Celebration Park Next to the Courthouse at 7:30pm.
See flyer below.
Cayman v Bermuda: Cox responds to Bush taunts
(CNS Business): Following taunting remarks by Premier McKeeva Bush last week that the Cayman Islands would win Bermuda’s insurance market, Bermuda’s Premier Paula Cox has punched back, saying, “Only the naive would be foolish enough to count Bermuda out,” and it was unlikely that Cayman’s initiative would represent a serious threat to Bermuda’s existing reinsurance market in the short term. She maintained that Bermuda was known as the risk capital of the world and was working to extend its lead while Cayman was trying to close the gap. The island also took measures to include Bermudians in its economic success, she said. Read more on CNS Business
Scientists find genetic defect behind obesity
(CNS): Researcher’s from London’s Imperial College in theUK have found that defects in a protein that functions as a dietary fat sensor may be the cause of obesity and liver disease, according to a study published in the journal Nature. The findings highlight a promising target for new drugs to treat obesity and metabolic disorders, the experts stated in a release on Sunday. The protein GPR120 is found on the surface of cells in the gut, liver and fat tissue and allows cells to detect and respond to unsaturated fatty acids from the diet, especially the omega-3 fatty acids which are believed to have a beneficial impact on health. Scientists found that mice deficient in GPR120 were more prone to developing obesity and liver disease when fed a high-fat diet.
They also found that people with a certain mutation in the gene encoding GPR120, which stops the protein fromresponding to omega-3 fatty acids, were significantly more likely to be obese.
“Being overweight is not always unhealthy if you can make more fat cells to store fat,” said Professor Froguel. “Some people seem to be unable to do this, and instead they deposit fat around their internal organs, which is very unhealthy. Our study suggests that in both mice and humans, defects in GPR120 combined with a high-fat diet greatly increase the risk of this unhealthy pattern of obesity. We think GPR120 could be a useful target for new drugs to treat obesity and liver diseases.”
In the gut, when unsaturated fatty acids from food bind to GPR120, this stimulates the release of hormones that suppress appetite and stimulate the pancreas to secrete insulin. When fat cells sense high levels of fat in the blood through GPR120, it stimulates them to divide to produce more fat cells to store all the fat, reducing the risk of fatty liver and furring of the arteries. This mechanism could be an important pathway for bringing about some of the healthy effects of omega-3s.
When they were fed on a high-fat diet, mice that lacked GPR120 not only became obese but also had fatty livers, lower numbers of fat cells, and poor control of blood glucose.
The researchers believe that mice that are deficient in GPR120 have difficulty storing excess fat in fat tissue. Instead, their bodies store fat in areas where it can cause health problems, like the liver, the muscles and in the walls of arteries. In humans, this pattern of obesity is associated with type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
The researchers analysed the gene for GPR120 in 6,942 obese people and 7,654 controls to test whether differences in the code that carries instructions for making the protein contribute to obesity in humans. They found that one mutation that renders the protein dysfunctional increases a person’s risk of obesity by 60 per cent. The researchers think this mutation mimics the effect of a bad diet lacking in unsaturated omega-3 fat.
The research was funded by the Medical Research Council, the European Commission, and numerous funding bodies in France, Japan and Finland.
Cave plans long term
(CNS): The owner of the North Side caves, who says he plans to develop them into a tourist attraction, told CNS that there will be no bar, restaurant or nightclub inside the caves and that no development work is taking place there yet, merely tests in preparation for his re-zoning and planning applications. Christian Sorensen admitted however that he did have plans for a licensed bar and restaurant near to the caves. He denied that he did not discuss his plans with the National Trust but said that it was several years since he had sat down in conservation with them and had not alerted them to the current work at the site of theproposed commercial “nature attraction”.
Sorensen told CNS that the circulation of the picture and comments by the National Trust had misrepresented what was happening and that both the NT and Department of Environment have known for many years that Crystal Caves wanted to create an attraction in the area. The need for access roads to his land, he said, had involved extensive discussions with the Trust, which holds land neighbouring the property.
Minutes of meetings back in 2009 show that the project was support by the then leader of government business, now premier, McKeeva Bush, who told the developers that he would support a planning waiver for the access roads.
Sorensen confirmed that government has granted a retail licence and a tourist attraction licence for the attractions as well as a liquor licence. However, he stated that he did not have a music and dancing licence. He said that with the proposed developments, such as the Shetty hospital and Cayman Enterprise City, the time was right to return to the proposal and begin the necessary process to get planning permission.
The plans go back to the 1990s, Sorensen said in response to the criticisms that have emerged since the excavator was photographed in the cave last week. He said that when he bought the land it was always with the intention of creating a guided tour of some kind and it was through talks with the National Trust that just five of a very extensive network of caves and a nature walk in the surrounding area emerged as the basis of the planned attraction. He said a small wooden structure would be erected some distance from the caves where visitors could buy a drink and some food after their tour, as well as souvenirs
The developer insisted that he had official “permission to carry out the tests” at the cave and to clear a pathway for the excavator as he needed to measure the areas to ensure that the five caves could be accessed safely by visitors.
Sorensen claimed that the project was “an eco-friendly one that would protect not damage the caves”. He said that at present people are camping there, burning fires, stealing stalagmites and vandalising the sensitive cave system. Sorensen said as an official attraction the caves would be managed properly and have round the clock security as well as qualified guides taking people round. He said that some people had been guiding tourists and charging money for the tours on his land, without regard to the safety of the visitor or the integrity of the caves.
The goal to have an organised attraction there is not new, Sorensen insisted, but it would still be some time before he actually started to develop the caves as a tourist attraction and, as a result of the previous discussions with the National Trust and the DoE, he had modified the original proposals and would now not have the road going so close to the caves. He said there would be lighting but experts have advised that this does not cause any damage to the sensitive eco systems.
Sorenson was concerned that the comments by the Trust were not reflective of the reality of the situation because they were aware of the long term plan and he said this had caused the distress. However, he conceded that he had not called attention to his ‘testing’ at the site as he did not want to attract further unwanted attention to the area from the visitors he says are causing the damage.
Asked about his plans for an environmental impact assessment, Sorensen said he would have to consider the situation and the costs involved as well as who would undertake the assessment, noting that his family had developed caves in Barbados so they already had considerable experience.
With no national conservation law, Sorensen and his partners at Crystal Caves are underno obligation to carry out an environmental impact assessment.
Foiled cash-bag robber admits guilt
(CNS): A forty year old foreign national has admitted attempting to rob a cash bag from a security guard outside foster’s supermarket in Savannah last year. Calmore Range pleaded guilty to attempted robbery on Friday when he appeared in Grand Court before Justice Seymour Panton. The Spanish speaker was assisted by an interpreter and remanded in custody until his sentencing hearing next month. Range was charged in December following his arrest at Owen Roberts International where he was trying to leave the country a few days after his foiled robbery attempt.
Range had made his bid to grab the cash as the security guard was loading an armoured van outside the supermarket in the Countryside Shopping Village on 2 December at around 7:30. As he approached the guard carrying what was at the time believed to be a handgun he demanded the cash bag but the guard put up a fight and Range ran off empty handed. Although the guard reported to police that he was shaken bythe attack, he was not physically injured and no shots were fired.
The police issued a description of the suspect and Range was arrested four days later at the airport.
BT group steps up campaign against dump move
(CNS): Lawn signs indicating the district’s spreading opposition over the proposal to move the landfill have sprung up around Bodden Town as the Coalition to Keep BT Dump Free steps up its own publicity campaign in what it says is a response to the Dart PR machine. In reply to the recent “ForCayman Investment Alliance” flyer, the coalition has published a rebuttal flyer, which it has distributed through the Bodden Town and Savannah post offices. The campaigners have also launched a website setting out the group’s opposition to the plan to cap and remediate the existing dump and start a new facility in Midlands Acre as part of a controversial major partnership deal between the Dart Group and government.
The coalition said the response to their campaign has been overwhelming and demand for the new lawn signs is outstripping supply.
“Property owners, tenants and business owners have been phoning and emailing us for the yard signs and then calling back for more – for their friends, family, and neighbours,” said Vincent Frederick, one of the coalition leaders. “We’ve been overwhelmed by the response, but we aim to get more signs out to the people of our district as they become available. We expect that they’ll be displayed in Midland Acres, along the main road in Bodden Town and throughout the district.”
The group does not have the funding of the Dart Group, which has also been running a campaign in the district to win the hearts and minds of the residents for the relocation of what they say will be a state-of-the-art modern eco-waste management park
Nevertheless, Gregg Anderson, another coalition leader, stated, “We’re using every means at our disposal, in spite of our limited resources, to counter the misconceptions spread by government and by Dart and to defend our district against this needless assault.”
He denied allegations made by his district representative and environment minister, Mark Scotland, who accused the coalition of suggesting the current location in its current form is acceptable.
“This is an outright lie,” Anderson said. “The George Town dump, as it has been mismanaged by this and by previous governments, is completely unacceptable. But the problem of Mount Trashmore can and must be fixed where it is without contaminating a new site. We fully support the solution chosen by the Central Tenders Committee, favoured by independent engineers and adopted by this very same government before its inexplicable about face – a waste-to-energy facility, proper management of the GT dump, and a concerted recycling programme.”
He said this was the same conclusion of the 2008 APEC Engineering study commissioned by the government, adding that since its inception the coalition has called for a solution of the landfill problem which is in the interest of Grand Cayman as a whole at its current location instead of creating a new Mount Trashmore “with no concern at all for due process, for the well-being of Bodden Towners and for their environment.”
The coalition takes the position that the sudden decision to move the landfill is for “the sole benefit of Dart” as they point to the need to convert the residential/agricultural zoned area into a heavy industrial zone.
Alain Beiner, a Bodden town businessman and a coalition spokesperson, stated that while the activists don’t have the spending power of Dart or even government but with the flyer and the website the group hoped what he called the facts and the opinion of those not on Dart’s payroll would get out to the people of the district and beyond.
“Government has ignored due process and the need for an environmental impact assessment. They have even refused to tell us which government entity decided to move the dump to Bodden Town and on what basis. They have refused to consult the people of our district, apparently preferring the opinion of those with a financial interest in forcing the dump on us,” he said.
The Coalition to Keep BT Dump Free is a non-political, single issue community organization open to everyone, regardless of political affiliation. It supports no political party and condemns equally past and present governments for neglecting their responsibility in regards to proper management of the George Town landfill and the elimination of Mount Trashmore.
Go to coalition website and see flyer below.
Cubans repatriated after three months in Cayman
(CNS): The Cayman Islands government returned sixteen Cuban refugees last week who were forced toland on Cayman Brac back in November because of problems with their vessel. Two men, however, remain on the run. Fernando Figueredo and Rafael Hildalgo, escaped the Detention Centre on 21 January and are still being sought,officials stated. The 15 men and one woman were all repatriated, despite their claims for political asylum in the Cayman Islands, all of which were reviewed and refused. According to officials, the refugees all signed letters stating that they wished to be repatriated. One of the men also stated that he would be getting on the next boat leaving Cuba as soon as he could.
In a release from GIS, the Cubans reportedly stated that they had been treated well during their stay in Cayman by government, individuals and the wider community but gave a “thumbs-down” to having to return.
“I’m happy to be going back to see my family, but I will get on the next boat leaving Cuba but not stopping in Cayman Islands,” one refugee reportedly told GIS.
Acting Assistant Chief Immigration Officer Joey Scott led a team of 17 officers in what was the first repatriation handled entirely by immigration and the second in two years.
Gary Wong, head of the immigration’s enforcement arm, said that the goal was to carry out the process in a safe and effective manner.
Anyone with information regarding the two missing refugees is asked to call 526-0418, 526-0433 or 526-0488, or risk facing prosecution.
Bermuda’s deficit almost $276 million
(CNS Business): Bermuda’s government spent nearly $276 million more than it raised in revenues in the fiscal year ending 31 March 2011 and drew down all $200 million of a term loan it got from Butterfield Bank last May, financial statements issued by Auditor General Heather Jacobs Matthews and tabled in Parliament yesterday revealed. The government also upped its borrowing at the end of last year, extending and increasing overdraft facilities with both Butterfield and HSBC Bermuda, totalling some $80 million. The finanacial statements reveal that the Butterfield loan had been “fully utilised” with successive drawdowns of $70 million, $50 million, $50 million, and $30 million, taking place in May, June, August and September of last year.
The Consolidated Fund statements showed on November 16 the Government signed a $50 million overdraft facility with Butterfield Bank that expires at the end of next month, with a daily charge of 1.2 percent above the bank's base rate of about 3.75 percent, the Royal Gazette reports.
And just over a month later, on December 29, Government increased its overdraft facility with HSBC from $20 million to $50 million, to also expire on March 31 and with daily charges on overdrawn balances of one percent above HSBC's base rate.
Premier Paula Cox blamed “an array of very challenging economic and financial circumstances” for the “short-term deficit peak”.
In his blog cmlor.com, offshore recruiting specialist Steve McIntosh notes that funding the additional interest on the resultant debt alone will mean finding an extra $14m in revenue each subsequent budget year till the sum is paid off. "No small beer," he writes.
"Not to pile on, but it’s worth noting that these results are just about a year old and that the economy seems unlikely to have improved in the last year given the continued job losses in the international business sector."
He noted a change in Bermuda's accounting policy that required the restatement of prior year numbers. "Far be it from this recovering accountant to cast aspersions on the motive for a change in accounting policy but let’s just say organisations with this much red ink on their books would be loath to agree to a change in policy that negatively impacted their bottom line.
"No wonder Premier Cox has come out all rhetorical guns blazing against an effort announced by the Cayman Islands to attract reinsurance companies, a sector traditionally dominated by Bermuda. The last thing the Bermuda economy needs is a slide in payroll tax revenue, the treasury’s life blood accounting for $423m, 42% of revenues for the fiscal year," McIntosh wrote.
Too much profit in Cayman politics
Do you know of any Caymanian politicians who have significantly increased their personal wealth while “serving the people”? How do they manage to do that, anyway? It’s a fair question. How is it that we see people with very little personal wealth take office and then, after a few terms, seem to be far richer than their salary can account for? We can’t assume that they took bribes because everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
Many of these career politicians have businesses so maybe that explains it. In many cases, however, it’s clear to everyone that not all of them possess elite business minds capable of turning thousands of dollars into millions in a few years. So that doesn’t explain it.
A recent book by Peter Schweizer, “Throw Them All Out”, describes the blatant unethical and unfair practices of many elected politicians in the United States. Schweizer documents how members of both parties routinely become entrenched in power and then use their positions and connections to make lots of money for themselves. They do this in ways that ordinary citizens can’t.
The most outrageous aspect of this is that the people who are responsible for writing the kinds of laws that would prevent such unfair profiting are the very people who are cashing in and don’t want anything to change. It’s a catch-22 only a politician could love. So they keep cashing in, not because they are smarter or luckier than everybody else, but because they share and receive privileged information and tailor laws to please those who can add to their bottom line in some way. If they behaved this way in the financial industry they would face criminal chargesand likely end up in prison. But in politics, it’s business as usual.
It sounds crazy but it’s true: Handing a politician $50 for a favor is called bribery and somebody is likely going to jail. But when a politician learns things in closed meetings and then immediately rushes out to buy or dump millions of dollars in stock accordingly, it’s all legit. The people’s interest, be damned, individual profit triumphs. Legal or not, it clearly is the path of a scoundrel and shouldn’t happen.
So what does America’s problem have to do with us? Everything, because the situation can only be much worse here! Who exposes it? Who fights it? Who cares? Cayman’s news media is far less aggressive and capable due to limits of manpower, resources and legal protection. And, sad to say, the Caymanian public seems reluctant or incapable of working up much outrage about politicians who abuse their office in selfish ways. Maybe they don’t recognize it or, if they do, feel it’s impossible to reform. Or maybe they are too busy trying to figure out how to become a “servant of the people” so they can get rich too.
If anyone has doubts about how political office in the Cayman Islands is often profitable far beyond base salary, just look at how hard people fight to win elections here. Why would any normal person do that? You would have to be kicked in the head twice by an old East End mule to willingly embrace such a demeaning circus. If anything, people should be reluctant and even fearful of taking on such a job with so much responsibility, so much public criticism and such a relatively small paycheck. We should see only the most intensely patriotic, unselfish and compassionate among us vying for office—with a few megalomaniacs here and there, of course. But, no, we see hordes of people charging full speed toward it as if they really do love begging for votes, making empty promises and reading legal documents. Isn’t it obvious what they are really chasing?
Still not convinced there is a mountain of shady money at the end of Cayman’s political rainbow? It’s common knowledge that some voters have been given washing machines, free home renovations, even had driveways paved leading up to past elections. Why? Why would candidates fork out so much money, so many goods and services in order to “serve the people” as an elected representative? It might be because they love the Cayman Islands, want to improve our schools, reduce crime and build up tourism. But it’s probably because they are aiming to use your votes for access to big bucks.
Visitor drowns at Spotts
(CNS): Just over twenty-four hours after a four-year-old child was drowned in a local pond in Northward, police reported the death of a 58-year-old tourist who drowned in the Spotts Public Beach area on Sunday. An RCIPS spokesperson said that shortly before 5:00pm today, police received a report that a man was unconscious floating on the water. He was found by a member of the public who was also at the beach. He went into the water and brought the man ashore, but found he was unresponsive to CPR. Emergency services personnel attended the location and took the man to the Cayman Islands Hospital in George Town, where he was pronounced dead.
Police stated that enquiries into the circumstances surrounding the incident are ongoing.