Archive for May 6th, 2013
Cayman squad squeezed out in soggy game
(CRFU): The Cayman National Men’s XV faltered to USA Rugby South in heart-breaking fashion on 4 May in Marietta, Georgia. Playing in atrocious cold and wet conditions with much of the Life University Rugby pitch submerged in up to 4 inches of water Cayman scored first when continued pressure at the set piece caused a knock on behind the USA try line which Cayman scrum half Robbie Cribb was quick to touch down and ring in the opening points of the game. The try duly converted by Morgan Hayward.Cayman continued to dominate the scrum and lineout but could not manage any further points as the conditions made any running play difficult but smart kicking from Hayward and inside centre Adam Keenan and powerful runs from the Cayman Pack kept the USA South in their own half for much of the first 40 minutes.
Half Time Score USA South 3-7 Cayman Islands
Barring a rued missed penalty kick which would have taken Cayman to 10 points the Cayman defence held out for 80 minutes as the American attack could not find the try line as they had done in previous encounters this international season against Jamaica, Mexico and the Bahamas but 2 kickable penalties in the 2nd half for USA South, the 2nd coming in the final 3 minutes of the game saw the Americans (not only earn the lead in the score for the first time) squeeze out a 2 point win.
USA South now moves to play Bermuda in Bermuda on 18 May whilst Cayman must regroup to face Bermuda on home soil on 1 June 2013.
Should Bermuda defeat USA South on 18 May then it will be all to play for at Big Game 1 on 1 June for Cayman.
Tickets are available at www.caymanbiggame.com
For more details see details below
Webb spearheads anti-discrimination
(CNS): FIFA Vice President, CONCACAF President and Cayman's own Jeff Webb chaired the first meeting of the newly created FIFA Task Force Against Racism and Discrimination in Zürich Monday which has come up with a number of ideas for dealing with racism in the game. The task force has suggested introducing an official at games designated purely to identify acts of discrimination and evidence, applying sanctions in two stages and having clubs take responsibility for the action of players, officials and supporters with concrete action plans on how they will fight racisim.
The meeting focused on the current debate over the application of sanctions in cases of racist and discriminative incident and meeting included representatives from the football committee and a panel of experts on the fight against racism and discrimination.
During the session the need to send a strong message of zero tolerance towards discrimination within football, making sure social justice and racial integration is implemented at all levels of the football community, was emphasised.
“We have a special responsibility in the way we can impact football and society,” said Webb during his opening remarks. “One of the opportunities this task force has is its vast reach throughout FIFA’s 209 member associations where we can implement the resolutions in every region and every country where football is played, bringing universality to the mechanisms that combat racism and discrimination.”
The task force came up with several proposals which will be included in a draft resolution to be presented at the FIFA Congress in Mauritius at the end of May
The first proposal includes having an official at the stadium who wouldidentify potential acts of discrimination with the aim of easing the pressure on referees and facilitating the availability of evidence, which is not always easy to obtain, for the disciplinary committees to take decisions;
Secondly, the task force suggested applying sanctions in two stages, with a list of applicable sanctions for a first or a minor offence, such as a warning, a fine, or the playing of a match behind closed doors, and a list of stronger sanctions for reoffenders or for serious incidents, such as point deductions, expulsion from a competition, or relegation;
And thirdly, the responsibility of member associations and clubs for the actions of their players, officials and supporters was highlighted. The task force called for the implementation of the existing sanctions in a harmonised way across all confederations, member associations and leagues, with a proposal to request that clubs and member associations provide a concrete action plan showing their intention to fight any forms of racism and discrimination among their supporters.
At its next meeting the Task Force will focus on education and prevention, which is the second objective that was set when the group was created.
Police seek info in sex crime investigation
(CNS): The RCIPS are investigating a report by a woman on Saturday night that she was a victim of a serious sexual assault following the Batabano Carnival in George Town. George Town detectives are looking for information that can help them track what happened to the woman. A police spokesperson said that at about 9:45pm on Saturday, 4 May, the RCIPS received a report that a woman had been found walking along Crewe Road, between the Minimart and Ryan’s Road. The woman was distressed and stated that she had been sexually assaulted. She was taken to the Cayman Islands Hospital in George Town and was subsequently released.
“Details of what took place are unclear at this time,”the RCIPS spokesperson stated. “However, officers have been able to establish that the victim attended the Batabano parade on Saturday afternoon and then visited a waterfront bar. Police enquiries are ongoing and detectives wish to speak to anyone who may have seen the woman walking along Crewe Road on Saturday evening, or any vehicles dropping off a woman around the relevant time in the area.”
Information can be passed to George Town police station on 949-4222, the RCIPS tip-line 949-7777 or Cayman Crime Stoppers 800-8477 (TIPS).
Local top cop elected boss of regional police body
(CNS): Cayman’s police commissioner, David Baines, has been elected president of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police. Baines was voted head of the regional police body at the 28th AGM, which brought together senior cops from 17 Caribbean nations. During the police talking-shop, Baines spoke about the shared action, initiatives, legislation and solutions of the various regional police bodies. The RCIPS top cop committed to establishing RIBIN in the Caribbean, which digitally stores bullet andbullet casing data and cross compares with all other crime scene data, enabling officers to match weapons and crimes throughout the region.
Baines spoke about the need to stem the flow of weapons into the region and stop the violence and killing. He also committed to trauma training and equipment across the region for police officers "to stem the flow of blood and save a life, when minutes mean the difference between life and death for a gunshot victim”.
He went on, “Commitments only mean something when they are acted upon and the words and intentions uttered in Bermuda are evidenced in practice on the streets of the nations we protect. It is my promise I will do all in my power to secure the sponsorship, equipment, training and in supporting colleagues across the region to make this commitment a reality."
Although the nations attending the conference have very different contexts in which they operate, different poverty levels, different capacities and there is no one size solution, the conference organisers said that the goal was to build relationships and share information of what works and to apply it to the improved security and safety of all of the member nations.
The commissioners reviewed actions to stop the flow of illicit weapons to the region, working with US Federal authorities to stem the trade from US sources into the Caribbean. The increased numbers of gun dealers in Florida is a feature in fuelling the supply and access to guns by criminal gangs. US authorities have confirmed that of recovered weapons used in criminality in the Caribbean, the majority are originally from the Florida area.
Monty hits Walkers for six
(CRFU): It was Match Day 5 in the KRyS Global National Mixed Touch Rugby Championships 2013 last weekend and, as the season turns round the penultimate bend, three teams are stepping forward to put in a heavy challenge for the title. Hot on the heels of their famous victory over the reigning touch rugby Champions last week, Genesis Trust were even hotter this week with Captain Neil Montgomery the hottest of the lot. This twisting firestarter almost single-handedly destroyed Walkers who were burned, blasted and scorched until all that was left could only be identified by its dental records. With this hot display Monty certainly puts the “fire” in fiery, the “sizzle” in sizzling and the “xxx” in arsonist as he set the scoreboard alight.
Genesis Trust 10 Walkers 2
It all started with Roger Priaulx who sustained his run of scoring in every game so far with a nice little opener. This hardy perennial continually defies Father Time with his seventh try of the season. Walkers have played solid touch rugby throughout these Championships but were taught a harsh lesson on what it takes to be a top team in touch. Missing a few players from their starting lineup due to injury, this was compounded when Lil’ Kim Smith dislocated her little pinky whilst heroically diving to stop an errant pass hitting the ground.
Reports from the sideline said she was a brave little soldier and after a quick trip to A&E was released under observation with strict instructions to orally administer liquid pain-killers served in ice-cold green bottles. She took her medicine well I hear. Walkers just couldn’t get a hold in the game despite the best efforts of Rolf Lindsay, Rhian Minty, Elaine Kerr and Brad Stephenson.
Up stepped Monty. This one-man-show was great to watch as the crowd voyeuristically watched him metaphorically take down his opponents pants and give them a good spanking. THWACK! A dummy, a side-step and under the posts. SLAP! A neat interchange and easy run in to score. KAPOW! A burst of pace through the gap for a simple touchdown. BOSH! A double side-step, a twist and a flip finished with a slice of panache. BONK! A give-and-go, with a triple toe-loop and a dash of va-va-voom for number five. WALLOP! Trademark drop of the shoulder, fake-offload, doubleSalchow and a burst of exuberance to cross the whitewash. He’d scored 6.0 from all the judges -except the Russian one (which is typical!)
Monty’s six of the best left Walkers reeling in agony. With hot flushed cheeks and panting for breath they were taught a harsh lesson they won’t want to repeat – truly caned by Genesis Trust.
JERRY’S MAGIC GLOVE UPDATE – On show for a third week in a row, Jerry “The Power of Glove” Beck seems to have re-found his mojo. His magic gloves played very well helping Beck run in a good try. When interviewed after the game the Magic Gloves said, “We are very happy with our owner. He treats us well and makes sure we don’t get too grubby. We get washed every week so we can look our dazzling best come match-day. Last week we’d lost that gloving feeling but today we were certainly in a groovy kind of glove.” Talking magic gloves? Whatever next.
Rolf Lindsay scored both tries for Walkers but it was scant consolation for a tough day in the boardroom.
SIDEBAR NWNT 11 DART 4
A match-up between tournament co-favourites and the bottom team didn’t look like much to excite the crowd but for a while DART made the unbelievable seem possible with a fine performance, particularly in the first half. Short of players for every game this year, DART have typically started well but ran out of steam in the final phases of the game. And so it proved again this week. SIDEbar, with their pace attack enhanced by a first outing for the sartorial car-crash that is Neal Ainscow, quickly ran up three tries. Ainscow, Riley Mullen and Jyoti Choi doing the damage.
But then DART found a gritty response and answered with tries from Ruan Van Vuuren, Scott Murray and Loletta Hanna. Murray’s was the pick of the bunch with a now typical flailing-arms-and-legs manoeuvre that defies gravity, logic and all five senses. His octopus-on-steroids approach means he can squeeze through any gap to dash for the try-line. Thankfully there is no ink squirt to confuse his opponents. Lewis Chong looked lively on his debut and is a fine addition to the squad.
With the score tied on 3-3 an upset looked on the cards. DART would have to hold their line to consolidate and then frustrate SIDEbar. Sadly for DART, they responded almost immediately with a Choi score quickly followed by another from Mullen to go in at half-time 5-3. This pricked a big hole in DART’s balloon and the second half was largely one-way traffic. Brandon Smith came up with a second half hat-trick with one more each from Ainscow and Choi. This kept the scoreboard ticking over and the result out of sight. A consolation score for Mat Bishop was scant reward for the efforts of the DART team.
STEPPING STONES 7 HEINEKEN BREW CREW 4
SteppingStones continued their 100% record with a fine win over Heineken Brew Crew. Captain Scott McCarty was pivotal with three tries bringing his seasons total to seven. The ‘Stones play a fast-paced game and identical twins Ray Galletly and Morgan Shelver form a nice partnership whenever on the pitch together.
With Mike McGrath also adding some sleight-of-hand passing, the ball is often thrown back and forth like a hand grenade with the pin removed. Anyone dropping that ball would be in for a shock. It took a full seven minutes for the first try to be scored, another record for this season and it was Rudolf Weder who found the gap to break the deadlock.
McCarty added a second before the lead was further extended by Karen Hart with a nice pair. If SteppingStones are known for their passing game then Heineken are celebrated for having fast elusive runners and Steve Henshaw. Iain Currie and the brothers Westin have, in previous weeks, been able to score through their ability to break through with some fancy footwork and it was just such a break from the red-hot Currie that put Heineken’s first point on the board.
Paul Westin added a second and for while it looked like the Brew Crew could get back in the game. However, some sloppy passing and miscommunication led to attacks stuttering to a halt and SteppingStones capitalized with two more quick tries from the follically-challenged Shelver and the wonderfully hirsute McCarty – they are a sort of yin and yang of touch rugby. This natural duality of complementary forces interact to become greater than the sums of their parts pushing SteppingStones towards the top of the table and the Championship title.
Scott bucks political trend and queries cruise port
(CNS): Coalition for Cayman candidate Jude Scott has questioned whether the next Cayman government should be building a cruise port facility in the capital. Going against the current political trend, where most groups and independents are supporting the development of berthing facilities, Scott has questioned whether such a facility would threaten the growing success in overnight tourism and burgeoning stay-over numbers as well as the famous Seven Mile Beach. Speaking at the Chamber of Commerce district forum last week in South Sound, Scott, who is one of five C4C candidates in the capital, said he was not convinced how encouraging “mass tourism” fitted with the country’s overall tourism strategy.
“When we look at cruise berthing there are two things we must focus on,” he said. “We absolutely cannot do it if it risks damaging Seven Mile Beach,” Scott said, as he called for a thorough environmental impact assessment to understand the impact if government does go ahead with the proposed project. In addition, Scott said, consideration must be given to the wider tourism product in Cayman.
“We need to evaluate from a national perspective how this fits in with our overall tourism strategy. In isolation it sounds very sexy and a great silver bullet solution that will put lots of people back to work, but we ought to look at how it meshes with our stay-over visitation strategy,” Scott said. “The reality is we are a small population and we have to be careful we don’t over invest in mass tourism, which has a direct impact on the quality of the experience of our stay-over visitors, who are going to be frequenting the same places that our cruise passengers are going to visit.”
He said government needed to understand the historical statistics regarding cruise passenger numbers as he said past record breaking numbers were as a result of extreme circumstances that were not repeatable, such as swine flu in Mexico that had caused cruise ships to call here instead, as well as the growing competition in the region that would prevent the numbers from being as high as people think, even with a pier.
“We now have competing ports that are owned by cruise lines, so they don’t have an incentive to drive traffic here,” he said.
The cruise lines have, however, continued to express a strong desire to see berthing facilities in Cayman, illustrated by their offer to work with the tendering process that is now underway. This will follow the RFP circulated by government on Friday for a local company to put together a business case for the berthing,which will inform the actual tendering process for the project.
Scott was a lone voice on Tuesday when he questioned the wisdom of the port project. Stefan Baraud, who had led the early negotiations first with DECCO and then GLF when he was chairman of the Port Authority, pointed out that cruise tourism contributes $175 million to the local economy each year and employs over 4,000 people.
“We have made attempts over the last three administrations to resolve the matter,” he said, pointing to the failed attempts which he said had weakened Cayman’s position with the cruise lines. However, he believed it could still be done, given the appropriate attention.
He pointed out that every week Cayman loses out as more than 8,400 passengers and crew sail by on the Oasis to Falmouth, Jamaica. He said that Carnival cruise line has also seriously cut their calls, which is more lost revenue, and Cayman had to stop talking about it and get it done.
“Whatever the process, is it must be completely transparent and above board and maximize opportunities for Caymanians businesses to get involved,” he said.
The opposition leader added his support for the port, not least because of the declining passenger numbers and the work that the project could provide. “Just getting that project underway now would do a great deal for the economy,” he said.
McLaughlin added that it had to be a public-private partnership, given the circumstances, but pointed out that it was exactly the sort of project that lent itself to a that type of arrangement because of the passenger taxes. McLaughlin said that a PPM government would ensure the project focused entirely on the piers and not an upland development that would compete with George Town businesses.
Progressives focus on jobs for Cayman Brac
(CNS): Laying out ideas for economic growth and job creation on Cayman Brac that could be put into effect very quickly, PPM Deputy Leader Moses Kirkconnell said that people traveling from the US to Cuba on humanitarian trips frequently go through Grand Cayman but there was no reason why, once the upgrade to the Cayman Brac airport was complete, they could not go through the Brac instead. At a party rally outside Kirkconnell’s Market Friday night, the Progressive incumbent also proposed developing back office work on the island, turning the new hurricane shelter on the Bluff into a hospitality trainingschool and developing sports tourism, as well as creating short term jobs cleaning up the beaches and roads. (Photos by James Tibbetts)
Addressing a crowd of around 300 people, Kirkconnell focused heavily on job creation utilizing the infrastructure that was already in place on the island. Creating a Miami to Cayman Brac to Havana airline route, with three or four flights per week, would accomplish two things: it would help to penetrate the US market for Brac tourism and it would create jobs at the Brac airport, he said.
“Every day of my life people come to me and say they want jobs,” Kirkconnell told the crowd, noting that they did not want handouts but employment. He said that it would take 60 to 90 days once the PPM took office to implement short term job creation, such as beach cleaning and the roadside clean-up programme, while they worked on introducing some of the other ideas he had. These included making sure that the hotel rooms already in existence on Cayman Brac were filled and creating incentives to bring back office work to the island. There was no reason why statistics and accounting jobs could not be moved to the Brac, he noted.
The deputy party leader, who is expected to retain his seat in the upcoming elections by a healthy margin, also pointed to the Progressives’ manifesto promise to roll back fees and lower the cost for small businesses. “Every business on Cayman Brac is a small business,” he noted. The PPM also intend to offer low interest loans to businesses with advice from experts on how to manage their money, and he said this would also be of help to businesses on the Sister Island.
Promising to continue the government intern programme for young people on Cayman Brac, he also said the party would cut the red tape for veterans and seamen to receive their benefits. Without naming a figure, he said they would “see how much we can increase” those benefits.
In a clear criticism of the recent appointment of a sports director from abroad over the popular and very effective local Brac sports instructor, Mitchum Sanford (which many people on the island believe was a decision pushed by Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, who has responsibility for sports in the Sister Islands), Kirkconnell emphasised Sanford’s achievements.
During the early days of the 2005-2009 PPM administration, Sanford had explained in detail to Alden McLaughlin (now party leader), who was the minister responsible for sports at the time, exactly what funds were needed for the sports programme, which had resulted in a 400% increase in the sports budget for the Brac. Sanford had used those funds to get many sports programmes going on the island and had mentored a number of young people towards sports scholarships at universities in the US, several of whom had now completed their degrees, Kirkconnell noted.
“I know of no better person to be sports director for Cayman Brac and Little Cayman,” he said, adding that he “wanted to have that discussion on 23rd of May”.
The first PPM administration had put a playing field on the Bluff, Kirkconnell said. Now what is needed is to add lights, changing rooms and a running track, as well as basketball and volleyball facilities. “So, when visiting teams get off the plane, they’ll know they are coming to ‘our house’ to play,” he said, explaining that the development of sports tourism would also boost the economy and create jobs.
The Progressives will look at green initiatives for the island, including recycling and waste-to-energy garbage disposal to deal with the dump on the south side, Kirkconnell said. They will also return to studies on solar and wind power undertaken during the last PPM administration, which were cut off by Hurricane Paloma in November 2008.
The first elected member for the district also addressed the crime spree on the island. Following an article on CNS in which he called on the police to deal with spate of burglaries, particularly of commercial properties, the police commissioner had sent a team of detectives and forensic experts to the Brac, Kirkconnell said. He noted that because the island had been crime free for so long, those jobs had not been necessary in the past.
However, he said, “Now is not the time to be divided from the police. We need to be united to get rid of crime,” and invited people to sign up for the local Neighbourhood Watch Programme or join the Special Constabulary.
Giving credit to the UDP for continuing the Paloma Fund for the Sister Islands, which had been started by the PPM after the hurricane, Kirkconnell listed the tangible achievements of the previous PPM administration, including the Cayman Brac Day Care Centre, the upgrades to the Aston Rutty Civic Centre and the addition of the medical wing, the launch of the Department of Commerce and Investment office on the Brac, the upgrade to Faith Hospital and the Ann Tatum Ramp.
Community urged to complete ESO surveys
(CNS): As the deadline approaches for the completion of the 2013 round of annual surveys measuring economic activity in the Cayman Islands officials are urging businesses to complete the outstanding forms before Friday 10 May. The Economics and Statistics Office (ESO) staff distributed some 3,400 forms locally to businesses, non-profit institutions and government organisations in the last week of March and first week of April as part of the System of National Accounts (SNA) survey. The survey is the main basis for estimating the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), along with the economic contribution of all sectors to GDP.
Over 1,200 Balance of Payments (BOP) forms were also distributed. BOP measures receipts from and payments to overseas entities.
”We are kindly requesting all entities with outstanding forms to please complete these and return them to ESO by May 10th, 2013,” said the ESO Director Maria Zingapan. “These returns are crucial in ensuring that we have a complete picture of the status of the Cayman Islands’ economy. In 2011, it was estimated from that year’s survey that GDP grew 0.9% after declining for three consecutive years.”
The surveys are confidential as mandated in the Statistics Law (2011 Revision) and are exempt from the Freedom of Information (FOI) Law. Both surveys were designed in accordance with standards issued by international bodies such as the United Nations Statistical Commission and the International Monetary Fund.
The results from all returns will be published in aggregate form only and information provided by individual entities will remain undisclosed.
Former party official urges people to vote on merit
(CNS): Independent candidate Stefan Baraud is urging people in the capital to vote on merit and not party lines. The former UDP official, who has turned his back on party politics and elected to run on his own platform in George Town, said he was frustrated with the path political parties have led the country down. He urged his supporters to consider "all candidates on their individual merits and make an informed decision based on their qualifications, experience, policies and suggested ideas for moving our country forward,” when itcomes to their other five votes on 22 May. Baraud, like many others running alone has not said which group or party he would prefer to support into government but that he would work with any LA member.
“My support will be based on issues and policies and what is in the best interest of our country and my George Town constituents,” he told CNS this week.
Convinced that the way out of the country’s economic woes is through education and training, he said that the country could reduce the number of work permits until the local workforce could fill those jobs.
“This is why education, training and retraining of Caymanians is high on my agenda,”Baraud stated. “We need to put in place a long term plan that matches our human capital to the needs of the economy, improves the quantity of Caymanians graduating from high school, and puts in place a first class technical and vocational program for students wishing to pursue technical careers,” he added.
Wanting to see Caymanians achieve a higher average level of education with a clear path to pursue technical and vocational careers if they want, in a recent press release he endorsed the programme run by Superior Autos, where six students have passed through the twelve month mechanic apprentice programme and have gone on to careers in the local automotive industry.
As a young Caymanian entrepreneur, Baraud told CNS he wanted to see the development of local talent and warned there needed to be clarity regarding the types of investments government encourages so that they will have the most positive impact on local economy and the creation of jobs, while having the least impact on our environment.
The would-be independent MLA said every country needed inward investment for its economy to thrive but that investment must benefit local businesses and generate employment for Caymanians as much as possible.
Talking about the ForCayman Investment Alliance, Baraud said the closure of West Bay Road was a fait accompli but there was still an opportunity to review the remaining aspects of the FCIA agreement, such as the George Town landfill.
A leading figure in the early cruise port negotiations as the former chair of the Port Authority Board, Baraud said he would use his first private members motion to get the project on track if it was not underway.
“I strongly support the creation of a new port with cruise berthing facilities but the selection of the developer follows strict procurement standards. These facilities will greatly add to our tourism product and have a positive impact on the economy,” he said.
Baraud also stated that he did not support increasing taxes to pay for Cayman’s ever-burgeoning government but pointed to what he described as “smart spending cuts”, many of which were set out in the Miller Shaw Report.
“We can implement the changes proposed by the Civil Service Reviews,” he said. “Privatization of organization such as the Cayman Turtle Farm, Cayman Airways and the Water Authority is another area for potential savings for the government,” Baraud added.
Mother takes on inconsiderate ‘parkers’
(CNS): A West Bay mom is calling on the community to help her fight against the misuse of disabled parking spots by taking direct action. For several months Chelsea Rivers has been waging a one-woman campaign but is now asking others to help her ‘name and shame’ those able-bodied drivers who use parking spots reserved for the disabled. She is asking people to hand out flyers and to take photos of cars parked in the designated spots with their number plates visible and then sending the pictures to the RCIPS. After her own disabled son was almost hit by a reversing car as they made their way through the car park, having not been able to use the designated spot because of other inconsiderate drivers, Rivers said she felt she had to do something other than get angry.
Now, trying hard to press home the message to drivers not to use these special parking spots she hopes others will also join in the fight using the flyers posted below and their phones to snap instant images of offending drivers.
“When I see someone illegally parked I stick one of the flyers facing out, on their windshield, take a picture of their license plate with my phone and send it in to the police station,” Rivers explained. If the driver is in the vehicle, she said, she hands the flyer over and then takes a photo of their plate as well as the bright blue disabled parking sign or road paint.
Aware that her actions are quite bold, Rivers says she is hoping that people will begin to get the message and start to understand just some of the many issues facing disabled people in the local community.
“There are many challenges for adults and children with disabilities,” said Rivers. “Dealing with thoughtless people shouldn't be one of them,” she added as she asked people to join her in the naming and shaming campaign in an effort to get everyone to think again before they pull into a disabled parking spot.
According to the new traffic law, it is an offence to park in a designated disabled spot without displaying a valid disabled person’s permit, which are available at the vehicle licensing department.