Archive for July, 2012
1/3 of voters cast ballot
(CNS): Almost one third of registered electors have now gone to the polls to cast their vote in today's 18 July referendum on one man, one vote. According to the 11am poll return, during the first four hours of voting 31.13% of electors voted. Only 4,704 voters have been polled so far but with the stations open for another six hours there is still plenty of time for enough voters to come out to carry the referendum. North Side still leads the way in turnout with more than 42% of voters having already attended the polling station. Meanwhile, in George Town and Bodden Town more than 31% of voters have been polled. In West Bay 29.7% of voters have turned out but in East End only 28.33% of electors have voted, while in Cayman Brac and Little Cayman just 27% of voters have been to the polls.
The turnout in this referendum is critical as the bar has been set at 50% of the electorate plus one for the result to be binding and not a simple majority of voters who turn out. The key number is 7,583 votes for the referendum to carry. Therefore, if less than that number turn outto vote, the 'yes' vote will not win the day.
NS leads early turnout
(CNS): Since the polls opened at 7am this morning a total of 2,713 votes have now been cast in the national referendum on one man, one vote. Elections officials reported that so far just under 18% of the electorate has already come out to the polls to participate in the historic ballot. With eight hours still to go, officials were urging all registered electors to join in the democratic process and cast their vote. Across the polling districts North Side leads the way for voter turn out with almost 24% of registered voters having already been to the polls or voted by post or at a mobile station. Across the Cayman Islands, so far the Sister Islands trail in turnout with less than 15% of voters having been to the polls.
Just behind North Side is Bodden Town and George Town where over 18% of registered electors have voted, followed by West Bay where 17.5% of people have gone to the polls. Meanwhile, only 16.2% of voters have come out in the already single member constituency of East End to cast their vote in the first two hours since the polls opened.
The turn out in this referendum is critical as the bar has been set at 50% of the electorate plus one for the result to be binding and not a simple majority of voters who turn out. The key number is 7,583 votes for the referendum to carry.
Cayman goes to the polls
(CNS): Elections officials confirmed that all was in order as the polls opened on Wednesday morning for the historic referendum on Cayman's voting system. The ballot boxes were dispatched from the Election Command Centre into the district polling stations in the early hours and all the stations opened on time. Cayman voters will be voting either in favour or against one man, one vote in single member constituencies. For the vote to carry there needs to be 7,583 voters, one way or another. The polling stations where electors can vote are listed below and anyone who is not sure which station they should go to can check the register on the elections office website or visit a local post office, all of which areopen.
Voters can also go to their nearest polling station and check the register with election officials. The polls will now be open until 6pm this evening and the count is expected to start at 7pm.
Polling Divisions attached.
Check back to CNS for regular updates on voter turnout throughout the day and for the live results this evening.
It’s not a deal, Mr Premier, it’s a steal
On the local radio on June 19th, 2012 the premier was poking fun at our group for opposing the giving away of a section of our West Bay Road. He compared the situation to a man selling a car for $2,000, the buyer refurbishing the car and then reselling it for $5,000. The premier asked “Are you going to ask for the $3,000 profit he made on the car?”
No, Mr Premier, that is a poor analogy. The buyer spent money to refurbish the car and making a profit of $3,000 is his due. However, when the developer gets the title to the Crown Land, that is the 4,290 feet of West Bay Road, he immediately gets $600 million in his pocket without doing any upgrading, construction or refurbishing of his property that he owns on the land side of the road. Being in the real estate business yourself, Mr Bush, surely you will admit that the value of Seven Mile Beach land depends on its depth from the beach/high water mark to its boundary with the West Bay Road.
It therefore follows that the simple act of combining the width of the West Bay Road with the developer’s beach parcels increases the value of those parcels significantly. Just think what happens value-wise when those enlarged beach parcels are then also combined with the developer’s landside property: his property will all then be marketed as beachfront property because it will stretch from the Seven Mile Beach high water mark, across the closed section of West Bay Road, through his Stan Thomas acquisitions including the Yacht Club, and all the way to the [western] boundary of the Esterly Tibbetts Highway and its extension to Batabano Road. The resulting combination of parcels will immediately at least triple (or more) in value as he will now sell his residential lots as beachfront property!
How did we come up with the above figure of $600 million? Two studies were done by reputable real estate agents on the value of that same West Bay Road in the vicinity of the Public Beach and the Old Courtyard Marriot Hotel. One was done in March 2010 and the other in early 2011. They showed that for every 500 feet of property on the landside the value of the property was increased by $70 million once they acquired the West Bay Road to now become beachfront property. The length of the road that the developer covets is not 2,500 feet, as they were misleading us for 9 months, but is actually 4,290 feet. 500 feet goes into 4290 feet 8.58 times and when multiplied by $70 million gives a total of $600.6 million that the developer will be getting immediately once he gets the title to that section of the road.
Wemust also add the value of the road itself that isprime, world famous Seven Mile Beach property – priceless.
This road is 4,290 feet in length and 70 feet wide, which gives a total of 300,300 square feet. We wonder what amount the developer told the PricewaterhouseCoopers reviewers that this road was worth since it appears he is calling all the shots. We also wonder what length of road the PWC review was assessing. Was it the 2,500 feet which is worth a lot less that the actual 4,290 feet? How independent was the review by PWC when only the developer and the government made submissions? Objectors and other interested persons were not allowed to do so.
We have not been able to get to see the NRA Agreement that was signed on December 15th, 2011. We applied on a couple of occasions using the Freedom of Information Act to get copies of this “deal” but we were denied.
Thankfully, as a copy has this week come into the possession of Mr Ezzard Miller it has now been brought out into the public domain. What transparency! Talk about secrecy! Keeping the public in the dark for 7 months and they talk about good governance? Is the PWC review going to take the same route of secrecy and keeping the public in the dark?
In the deal the developer is also getting about 75 acres in Barkers and another 73 acres of Crown Land in Salt Creek. He is getting at least $45 million in tax concessions and Room Tax Exemption for 10 years after the hotel is built. He is also getting the re-zoning of 45 acres of mangrove land behind Camana Bay so that he can fill with marl and sell as residential lots. The extension of Esterley Tibbetts Highway up to Batabano Road will open up his land in that area making it even more valuable. In addition, moving the dump away from his proposed residential lots will increase the value of his Camana Bay property in that area.
When all is added up the developer is getting over $1,000 million. In return he is giving ~$100 million over the next 25 years. We are getting the extension of the Esterley Tibbetts highway ($33 million), moving the dump ($26 million), $5 million (for community projects), $4 million (for supplemental budget), land clearing jobs, show gutting hotel and lately a cemetery (in the swamp) in West Bay, a Sunrise Centre and a mini Public Beach.
So Mr Premier, where is the value for money? You are giving away the country’s assets worth over $1,000 million and in exchange Cayman is getting $100 million. How on heaven’s earth can you call this a ‘fantastic deal’? This you have said on numerous occasions when you referred to Caymanians who oppose this deal as idiots. The For Cayman Investment Alliance (FCIA) should be renamed the For Dart Investment Alliance (FDIA) or simply “THE STEAL”.
Why is it that the deal is constantly being altered? Just a few days ago we heard of some more projects that the developer was undertaking as part of this deal. Is it because the independent review team of PWC has obviously seen that there is not value for money and someone has recommended to the developer to throw in a few more trinkets into the pot so that the deal looks a little bit fairer? Even with these few additions the developer is getting 10 times what he is giving which is grossly unfair.
It is a shame and a disgrace that we have a greedy developer coming to the Cayman Islands and sees our beautiful West Bay Road and decides that he wants 4,290 feet for himself and he has no regard for the Caymanians who built that road over 100 years ago and have used it ever since. We need the Esterley Tibbetts Highway to complement the West Bay Road and not to replace it. He can also build his hotel with an overhead pass just like the Ritz Carlton and Hyatt did previously. He does not just want the 500 feet of West Bay Road in front of the Old Courtyard Marriot, which was the excuse first used in giving him the section of West Bay Road, but wants 4,290 feet. This extra amount of road is for futurespeculation. What a disgrace!
It is even more disgraceful and shameful that we have a desperate government, so hell bent on starting a project to go into the upcoming elections that they see nothing wrong in giving away so much valuable assets that belong to the people of the Cayman Islands to this developer for little or nothing. The people were never consulted on this deal. We were only informed that it was taking place. “You not stopping me. This project is going ahead,” the premier said at a meeting at Mary Miller Hall June 2011. The developer is getting the bank and all the gold and money inside it and in exchange he is giving the government a pouch full of pennies in return. What a STEAL!
The government only listens to their supporters and pays no regard to the rest of us who do not agree with the government’s projects that are not in the best interests of the country. If the developer so loves Caymanians and that he is doing these projects for us why does he not leave our West Bay Road alone and stop buying up all the existing Crown Lands for himself. Who has given the developer the permission to acquire such extensive tracts of Crown Land all over Grand Cayman? Was due process adhered to in these transactions?
Morally, environmentally, economically and culturally this project is wrong. This project had its beginning in the previous UDP administration of 2001 – 2005. They amended laws to suit the plans for this project – the Vesting of Crown Lands Law etc. In June 2011 the project was shoved down our throats. No one was going to change the government’s mind. What is even more frightening is that we still do not know all the details of this deal, the facets of this very complex deal are constantly changing and we dare say that not even the government knows what is going on or what they are actually getting as of now.
We say to you Caymanians wake up before it is too late. Wake up before your environment is permanently destroyed and your beaches, your lands, your businesses and your way of life are all taken away from you, forever.
What will we tell our children thirty years from now when they come asking us: “What did you do to stop this wanton destruction of our environment, our protective mangroves? Why did you not stop the wholesale giving away of our Crown lands, our assets, our rights to our beaches and our roads to the extent that nothing was left for us and our children?” All we will be able to do is bow our heads in shame and regret.
To sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards out of men.
Wake up Cayman!
Closing George Town dump – ignoring the perfect solution
Recently, Minister Mark Scotland was on a local talk show, once again reminding us that the real reason we need to close the George Town dump is that we simply cannot afford to keep it there. He also spent lot of time trying to dispel the belief that Wheelabrator had presented government with a perfect solution that was being ignored.
I found his comments to be quite interesting, because the arguments currently in circulation in favor of keeping the dump in George Town is that the waste could simply be mined down and burned to create energy, thus dismantling the mountain, producing free electricity and preventing the contamination of a new site. On the surface this seems to make sense; however, as Minister Scotland who, apart from being the representative for Bodden Town is also an engineer, clearly explained, if it was that simple, waste-to-energy would have happened by now.
According to Minister Scotland, the last government hired consultants to help them figure out if waste-to-energy was worth pursuing at George Town dump, and although the consultants agreed that it was possible, they apparently raised some very significant challenges in their report, which remain central to the current debate.
According to what I understood from the minister’s comments, the consultants said it would take about $120 million to get the new system set up, and then it would require on-going annual funding of about $20 million for operation.
They also estimated that two-thirds of the waste buried deep inside Mt Trashmore was not suitable for burning in a waste to energy plant, and went on to say that mining the waste to separate out its burnable components would be very slow and take about 20 years.
According to Minister Scotland, the consultants also advised that government would need to buy more land next to the dump to locate the waste to energy plant. As he put it, “Government simply does not have the money to do this.”
However, despite these obvious challenges, there are many who still believe that Wheelabrator, a big profit-driven US company, could somehow step in and magically present us with an affordable, timely, space saving plan to pump power out of Mt. Trashmore.
According to CNS andthe people on Rooster, Wheelabrator “had provided all the required elements to successfully complete the project and a comprehensive breakdown of their approach.” If that were true, then details have certainly never been made public. But if you insist on believing that line, I have a goldmine in Cayman Brac that I want to sell you.
It is obvious to me that waste-to-energy at the George Town dump would be a waste of money because any sustainable solution to Cayman’s waste problems must rest on the introduction of a comprehensive island-wide recycling program so that another landfill mountain doesn’t simply pile up.
Anything else would be a waste. Determining exactly what government’s plans are for the recycling component of a new facility is where our actions should be targeted.
This, my friends is the perfect solution that is being constantly ignored.
TCI takes back over 1000 crown acres in settlement
(CNS): Following a settlement with the developer Mario Hoffmann, the TCI government has said that it has taken back around 1,506 acres at his Salt Cay Development. Although Hoffmann and his development companies have not admitted any wrongdoing or liability, Hoffman, who is a native Czech, has given up his ‘Belongership’, the TCI term for Status, and has made a contribution to the TCI government’s legal costs. According to the governor’s office, the details of the settlement remain confidential but all claims and counterclaims between the parties have now been settled.
TCI Attorney General Huw Shepheard said government was pleased the disputes were settled and that the position of Salt Cay was secured with the transfer of all the respective lands to the government. “The government will be undertaking a broad consultation as to the future of Salt Cay," he added.
Meanwhile, Hoffmann denied allegations of misconduct and corruption but said it was “convenient and expedient” to settle rather than carry on the disputes over Salt Cay. “We have maintained our innocence at all times and continue to think that our project for Salt Cay was a good one for the people of Salt Cay and the Turks and Caicos Islands," Hoffmann stated.
“After litigating these issues for several years, in light of all mutual claims we felt it best to settle these disputes now and move forward with our other businesses,” he added.
The developer had been attempting to develop a resort on the small island since 2000 and had acquired the majority of land on Salt Cay. A UK commission of enquiry in 2009 found that the former TCI premier, Michael Misick, and his government had given Hoffmann’s company a 99-year lease on 239 acres of Crown land for $1 per acre. The TCI interim government has since been trying to get the land back via a protracted courtroom battle over allegations of corrupt transactions.
Cayman team heads to London as major contenders
(CNS): The team maybe one of the smallest to head to London for the 2012 Olympics but the Cayman athletes are serious contenders. The Fraser brothers, Ronald Forbes, Cydonie Mothersille and Kemar Hyman are all competitors that athletes from some of the biggest countries in the world will be watching when the contest begins next week. The athletes, who make up what some say is one of the best teams ever fielded by the Cayman Islands, are all now headed for the UK and Ireland to start training for the big event and getting ready to do Cayman proud.
This will be Shaune Fraser’s third Olympic Games and on the eve of the team’s departure for the UK based games he said it is the strongest team that the Cayman Islands have ever sent.
“All the athletes are qualified at the Olympic ‘A’ standard for the Games, and should have good performances in their events,’ he said, adding that he and the other athletes will do their very best to make Cayman proud especially as many family members, friends and Cayman residents will be in London for the games.
Track & Field athletes Ronald Forbes and Kemar Hyman are participating in a pre-games training camp in Surrey, England prior to the Games along with their personal coaches, while Swimmers Shaune and Brett Fraser in Dublin, Ireland to prepare with their coach and fellow university swimmers leading into the competition.
The Chef de Mission Lori Powell who is in charge of the team and here assistant attaché, Bruce Blake are expected to arrive at the Games Village this weekend and the athletes and officials will arrive there on 24 and 25 July.
The delegation includes physiotherapists Ashley Stern and Al Bartice-Smith who will attend to the needs of team which consists of swimmers Shaune and Brett Fraser, with Dr. Sook Lee Yin as their team manager and coach Anthony Nesty, Track & Field athletes Cydonie Mothersille, Ronald Forbes and Kemar Hyman, managed by Dalton Watler with Cayman National Coach Kenrick Williams as Head Coach and personal coaches Ian Weakly Joey Scott and Kenneth Harnden.
At the opening ceremony team members will wear outfits that have had considerable local contribution. The white trousers/skirts with white shirts/blouses, and a blue jacket with white piping and a green tie or bow tie were designed by young Caymanian Rory and the jackets and ties have been manufactured locally by Super Stitch Sewing and Fabric Centre with the CIOC logo applied to the jacket lapels by Island Embroidery. The outfits will be accessorized by a trilby style hat made from local thatch by Caymanian crafter Annie Joy Ebanks, while the blue canvas shoes are sponsored by CROCS shoes, and sunglasses sponsored by Oakley.
The Cayman team will come in the opening ceremony right behind Canada and Cape Verde, and just before the commercials.
The Cayman Islands pins which continue to be a huge draw for collectors at sporting events have been designed this time by Jaime Doak. Inspired by true Caymanian heritage the pins are in the shape of the Cayman turtle. There is a set of five pins, representing the five colours of the Olympic rings – blue, yellow, black, green and red. The department of tourism in London and Tortuga Rum have provided giveaways and rum cakes to be distributed in London to each of the 205 countries at the Games; along with a copy of the Cayman Team Booklet which has been produced by the CIOC through local company Tower Marketing.
The Opening Ceremony will take place on 27 July and the participation schedule for the Cayman athletes in their events for Swimming and Track & Field is posted below.
Mac accused of abusing office
(CNS): The opposition leader has accused the premier of abusing his office and misusing public funds in relation to the UDP campaign against the government referendum. Alden McLaughlin says he has set out his concerns in a formal letter to the governor, auditor general, the Commission for Standards in Public Life and the Anti-corruption Commission. The PPM leader believes that McKeeva Bush has used his position and government resources to deliberately undermine what was originally a people’s issue and not to educate the public about voting systems. “The premier has not carried out an education campaign about voting but has launched a UDP political campaign to tell people to vote ‘no’,” McLaughlin told CNS as he pointed to numerous abuses.
He said the food and hospitality provided at the political meetings hosted by Bush in relation to the anti-referendum campaign compounded the issue at rallies where the UDP speakers have used public cash to begin their 2013 election campaign.
The opposition leader pointed out that not only is it odd that the government would embark on a campaign against its own referendum question, having hi-jacked the people’s campaign for one man, one vote, but it was wrong for the government to use public money to push specifically the ‘no’ vote without actually educating the people on the pros and cons of both sides of the debate.
The premier has both abused his office and misused public cash, McLaughlin says, because the campaign is a one-sided political push for a ‘no' vote and cannot in any way be described as an education campaign.
The UDP has admitted to using the public purse to buy full page advertisements in the local print media, the radio and the television (although not on CNS) telling registered electors to vote ‘no’. Bush said at the UDP anti-referendum rally in West Bay that it was spending around $100,000 campaigning against the referendum.
The opposition leader said that as well as mounting a full scale assault against one man, one vote, the premier has spent a lot of the time at the public meetings berating and criticising the supporters of OMOV and the opposition, as well as talking about his government’s general policies rather than the pros and cons and voting systems.
McLaughlin said the blatant misuse of government funds for political campaigning may also amount to offences against the election law.
“This is not about government using public funds to educate the electorate to help them better decide on Referendum Day but a flagrant abuse of office and public money to pursue the UDP’s own agenda, which is vehemently opposed to OMOV,” the opposition leader told CNS.
McLaughlin said that Bush and other members of the UDP were desperate to preserve the status quo because they believe they are more likely to be re-elected under the current system.
“They are not interested in what is the best electoral system for the Cayman Islands; they are interested in keeping their own seats,” McLaughlin added. The opposition leader said that he is writing to the governor’s and auditor general’s office as well as the two commissions because he believes the issue needs to be properly investigated.
So far, government has held three public district meetings on the issue of one man, one vote and each has been heavily dominated by UDP political rhetoric. There has been very little about the actual mechanics of voting systems and comparisons between single member versus multi-member constituencies and the issue of one man, one vote against multiple notes.
The platforms have been dominated entirely by UDPmembers and no other speakers have appeared that support multi-member, multi voting systems. The MLAs and ministers have heavily criticised the individual members of the PPM and the OMOV committee rather than the actual system, accusing them all of wanting to change the system so it would be easier for them to be elected.
Caribbean reefs in worse shape than Indo-Pacific
(Sail-world.com): Leading marine scientists have said that Coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region, including the Great Barrier Reef, recover faster from major stresses than their Caribbean counterparts. Dr George Roff and Professor Peter Mumby from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and The University of Queensland told the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium in Cairns that coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific Ocean are naturally tougher than the Caribbean reefs. 'The main reason that Indo-Pacific reefs are more resilient is they have less seaweed than the Caribbean Sea,' Dr Roff says. 'Seaweed and corals are age-old competitors in the battle for space.
“When seaweed growth rates are lower, such as the Indo-Pacific region, the reefs recover faster from setbacks. This provides coral with a competitive advantage over seaweed, and our study suggests that these reefs would have to be heavily degraded for seaweeds to take over,” he said.
Many of the doom and gloom stories have emanated from the Caribbean, which has deteriorated rapidly in the last 30 years,' says Professor Mumby. 'We now appreciate that the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean are far more different than we thought.'
The study, published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TREE), includes survey data Indo-Pacific region and Caribbean reefs from 1965 to 2010.
New York’s trans fat ban working out
(LiveScience): Love it or hate it, the ban on trans fats in New York City restaurants appears to be having the desired effect of lowering unhealthy trans fat and saturated fat consumption there. These first results of an ongoing study conducted by the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene appear in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. Fattening the pot for New York City officials was the finding that the positive effects of the ban were widespread across high- and low-income neighborhoods. Although city health officials analyzed only a sliver of the amount of prepared foods served to New Yorkers daily, the study demonstrates how public health campaigns — however viewed as paternalistic and strong-armed — can improve health habits when properly designed and implemented, said Alice Lichtenstein, a nutritionist at Tufts University