Mac to face Bodden Towners at public meeting
(CNS): The premier’s press office has announced that McKeeva Bush will be holding the second in his planned series of town hall meetings next week. This time the premier will be meeting with the people of Bodden Town at the Civic Centre on Tuesday evening 2 November, beginning at 8 pm. The official release says the premier will be talking about government finances, what the government is doing to stimulate the economy and get people back to work, helping businesses, and the process involved in the selection of Cohen and Company. After his opening remarks the audience will have the opportunity to ask the premier questions directly. (Photo by Dennie Warren Jr)
During the first meeting hosted by Bush in George Town in September, at the newly renovated historic Peace Hall, the premier berated what he said was the bureaucracy getting in the way of government projects. He said there was a “silent, passive non-compliance” and a “dragging of feet” when people were opposed to government projects.
The premier also faced a considerable number of questions at the last meeting on topics ranging from the cruise port development project and unemployment.
In the wake of the premier’s decision to ignore his ministerial technical team’s advice to award the government financing contract to a joint bid from two local banks, as recommended by the Central Tenders Committee, and choose a foreign financier instead, together with the controversy surrounding the recent bid for the country’s CCTV, the premier is likely to face questions regarding the central tendering process.
The announcement of Joe Imparato’s plans to construct a commercial port in East End may also be another issue likely to be on the minds of the people of Bodden Town, as well as a number of local issues, such as the continued flooding problems in the district.
The second meeting will take place the night before the Legislative Assembly returns for its next meeting, when government is expected to bring a number of bills for amendment, including the tax concessions amendment bill. The country’s legislators will also be debating a number of private members motions and there are more than 14 questions set down by opposition and independent members to be asked of government ministers.
Category: Headline News
A no one ting, dem Bodden Towners ga be his MATCH!
Its a good thing all you folks have a JOB! Really hard to understand why folks do not want developers to spend their money in Cayman. Prefer to suffer rather than make Cayman better.
People are complaining they need work, they need people to rent their apartments before the banks take away their little possessions but do not want anyone to come here to spend money.
Do not understand. All this just because the other Caymanians wear a different colour shirt? because one personality or the other says you should not like the other. And if you change governments, what will be new? More spending to prove who should be re-elected? More of their friends to get the contracts? what then if they leave you out of either party feast? what then? Very tribal.
Caymanians wake up. We do not need these Caribbean style political parties here. Mainly foreigners stroking the fire on this anyway, don’t you see. Do not be fooled.
I know one thing, they (udp) where up late Monday night having “Caucus”
Mr. Premier.
I understand you want the identity of all the bloggers who exercise their democratic right in voicing their opinion of you and the UDP on CNS!
WOULD YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN TO THE CAYMANIAN PEOPLE
"EXACTLY THE REASON WHY YOU WANT TO KNOW THEIR IDENTITY AND EXPLAIN EXACTLY WHAT HARM YOU PLAN ON DOING TO THESE PEOPLE" THAT YOU MISTAKENLY THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH?"
They were trying to figure out how to answer Chuckie’s questions which he posed on Rooster yesterday morning. He had some pertinent questions on the Cohen & Co deal and some brilliant suggestions for the proposed national referendum on gambling.
What a tail spin he sent them in again 🙂
I guess we can look out for the "motorcade" with the Boatswain Beach buses then.
Bodden Towners – be sure to play the song "There are more Questions than Answers" the minute he come up over Guard House Hill and keep him at the Civic Center until he answers every one of them.
FACE ALL THE PEOPLE
He needs to face his entire country not just Bodden Town. Does he really think for one minute that anyone is going to listen XXXX.
NOTICE how he is working so hard at trying to sell us all on his special deal for the country’s loan, without ever disclosing the true terms of the tender and the agreement he has XXXX signed with Cohen & Company in New York. If there was nothing to hide he and the UDP would have no problem with being totally transparent at all times.
Investigate this Government without delay before it is too late for the country to recover from the mess they are placing us in.
A principled Caymanian who is concerned seeing their country go to ruin from greed and self interest.
Its over for the UDP in BT. Chuckie just need 2 or 3 other good people with him next time to fix their business for them……..Os got to lay it down now but he can still serve a purpose……especially on Tuesday night………..ahhhhhh…………I can hear that cow cod whistling now. Three strikes and you’re out policy !!!
15:29 you can bet your behind it is over for Mark Twain, Dwayne the Karati Kid and the PPM tired shadow on the wall. All three of them needs to go.
How many persons agree this might get post-poned or someone acting on Big Mac’s behalf will read a lengthy speech in his absence???
I hope they do that. Then a monkey wrench will be flung in their spoke wheel.
Oh boy here we go again……..more and more ‘ramblings of nothingness’ !
I hope that The Chuckster will attend the meeting with a list of probing questions and deal with Big Mac just like he did in the 2005 campaign.
I heard The Chuckster on Rooster this morning and I like his suggestion for the gambling referendum………for those of you who weren’t listening, The Chuckster said that since this will be a very expensive exercise we should add four other very important questions of national importance to the referendum. He said that these questions are :
1. Do you have confidence in the UDP Government’s ability to manage the affairs of our country ? – Yes or No.
2. Do you support the National Conservation Law in its current form ? Yes or No.
3. Do you support the proposed East End Cargo Port ? Yes or No.
4. Do you support our country returning to a November election cycle with the next general elections being held in November 2012 ? Yes or No.
Or alternatively holding the next general elections in November 2013 ? Yes or No.
What say you ?
Why is he coming to B. Town? He needs to turn the lights on West Bay. They are in desperate need of help, which has been ignored over the last year. He should be more creative by seeking to get the unemployed, employed and his efforts would greatly appreciated.
The Dock will only mean higher costs and the poor will be poorer having to pay more for the goods. No locals will be employed, just like the new town on the out-skirts of his district. It amazes me how some of or people can change the laws to suit the needs and wants of their cronies, to the disadvantage and demise of the caymanian people.
14:52 You ask why the Premier UDP party is comming to Bodden Town?. I will answer you that question.
‘Fright will make old people jump fifty foot fence" The UDP chain link in Bodden Town is at its weakest, and is about to break. It cannot fix again. So dont even try, unless you are using Chucksters fourteen ct. gold nuggets.
CNS: Is this going to be broadcast on Cayman 27?
CNS: Sorry, I have no idea.
Yes it will be aired for the island to watch Live and Direct!
Live & Direct
U.D.P Man
Let’s give him a chance, if Mr. Bush was doing nothing it would have been a ‘talk’, he is tying, so let’s give him a chance. I will be attending the meeting and hope many others will. Remember as the saying goes, "you can"t please all the people all the time". P.s. I neither UDP or PPM I am for the Caymanian people and I have seen where the Public Beach & huts in BT are looking good, I found out it’s all because of certain Bodden Towners and two current government members for BT. Let’s talk about some of the good that’s going on in our BLESSED Islands
"Tell the truth", why dont you stop whimpering. What Chance? Like an ice cube in hell? Why the public beach? There are other places of interest to the people of Bodden Town..
Hey "telldtruth", do you remember the plans for the BT public beach under PPM? Tell the truth now… In case you don’t, the plans were for a dock, public beach withcabanas and also places for BT vendors to sell goods to tourists/public on their way East. The dock was half way constructed when Mark and Dwayne got elected (and I use that word elected very loosely here). A few weeks after, they scrapped the plans saying that the area chosen was not the best place for the dock and another place had been identified in BT for the dock, they did not say where, and Govt had to pay the dock builder anyway for – you guessed it – NO DOCK. Chalk that waste of money up to Mark and Dwayne. Now I understand that Mark and Dwayne have come full circle and are developing the area where the PPM started, under similar PPM plans, but just excluding a boat dock. Oh, and don’t forget that it was under Chuckie that the land was obtained that you infer that Mark and Dwayne are developing now.
So now, tell the truth and the whole truth when you infer that Mark and Dwayne are the only MLAs developing BT. I praise the BTers for beautifying their district, but really, in this instance, Mark and Dwayne are Johnny-come-latelys.
Tell the truth, I would honestly say that both PPM and UDP are Johnny Come Lately. I am going to very honestly tell you that the people of Bodden Town had faithfully looked forward to the Go East plans by the PPM Government, but in honest, they dragged their feet up to one month before election. Starting the Coe Wood beach project then, knowing fully well it was on the fire for four years, was a big mistake.
The UDP party is building blocks in the sand, and as the song says, "A foolish man builds his house upon the sand. The public beach is clean, and beautiful, BUT, and that but means that other areas of Bodden Town could have been fixed and beautified. We do not live on the beach. Road ways are overgrown, flooded areas, good cement buildings locked up to rot, 10 residents of this district in the George Town pines, when we have the prvious proposed old people home locked up to rot. If anything I said is not true,then please point it out to me. Thank you.
Yup well said. And the dock and localstores was the most useful thing BT public beach could have benefited from – from the BT people’s point of view.
I kinda think the children’s play park could have been better positioned – further away from the road. The bbq thing is good though, great for cooking freshly caught fish.
As for Bush, personally I think he has been given (and taken) way too many chances already.
As the saying goes, I hope BT don’t beat about the Bush tonight.
A public beach, a few huts and a BBQ pit are the least of our worries now, my dear.
He did it agian! Don’t be fooled by this smoke-screen – get rid of McKeeva "Bigmac" and the fries.
You BT’ers need to ask him exactly what he meant by "Inward Investment"? and by whom and for whom? Ask him when he spoke about keeping our spending here, if that was meant for Mr. Imperato too? He will be shipping all his marl overseas and pocketing the money, without any care at all for the Caymanians? Ask him the questions and watch him getting flustered. LOL! He gets angry when he is hiding things from unnah. He uses scare mungering to get his way, as he is a known street fighter and mouth champion. Ask him the important questions and for Christ sake, don’t believe everything he tells unnah. For him, its all about the money, not about the Islands prosperity. So ask the questions and don’t be scare of him.
Will Chuckie be in attendance??
After listening to this morning Rooster show I hope and pray that Charles Clifford will be attendance to get us the Public some answers to thosequestions which he mentioned this morning!!
As well as the ministers that are to be representing Bodden Town maybe just maybe they will allow Mr. Clifford to get answers too just like us as he is a resident of Bodden Town who is a concerned citizen.
Cant wait to see the outcome of this meeting.
I see that referendum be of GREAT USE to us the CITIZENS of this COUNTRY!
"the premier will be talking about government finances, what the government is doing to stimulate the economy and get people back to work, helping businesses, and the process involved in the selection of Cohen and Company"
What about the out of control wave of violent crime that has been sweeping the island for the last few years unabated? You know- the one that’s led to a violent assualt and a murder in Bodden town in just the last month? Any room for that on the agenda? Maybe even just to let us know that you are aware of it even if you don’t actually care now that your house is secure?
If you’re not willing to come and talk to us about that then this is just a meaningless political stageshow and you are making fools out of the people that bother to turn up.
No Good ever comes out of these Meetings!
Whilst I don’t disagree with you, I would be interested in what evidence you have, of whatever nature, that McKeeva is actually trying to track down the identities of nay-sayers and others who speak in opposition either as anonymous posters or otherwise.
As an aside to CNS, presumably you are well aware that a great deal can be learned about a person’s identity from a poster’s IP address etc., which can be captured whenever anyone connects to your / leaves a post. Do you keep this data (I presume you do) and if so, how safe is it?
CNS: We hold the IP information for at most 2 hours before it is purged from the system. If it takes me a while to get to the comments (like today) most of the IP addresses of commenters will have been purged before the comments are posted.
And another reason to like CNS.
Warwick;
Either you have selective memory like the ardent UDP supporter or you have just arrived on these golden shores.
Have you forgtten the recent two press conferences where McKeeva wanted to put CNS and similar ventures out of business by ranting that he will demand a six figure annual licensing fee. Failure to pay will result in jail time!
On other forums he has articulated that he wants "the identities of the posters on these blogs to be known so I can know who they are!!"
Google is a wonderful tool, I suggest that you use it sometime you might be blessed with an enlightening experience.
You didn’t actually answer the question though. Ranting that he wants the identities of posters doesn’t mean he is doing anything to get them. If he was, that moves things in this country to a whole new sinister level.
Is he going to make these bloggers disappear like the bank manager of first Cayman Bank after it sank under his directorship? His bullying is no stronger than a blogger’s bullying.
People have connections and when you touch someone who you think is vulnerable it could be a behive! so Big Mac and the UDP need to be careful who they threaten. Cayman bloggers have connections locally and OVERSEAS!
‘BUSHWHACKER by Trade’… Love that title!!!. (:-)
Mr..Premier,
You can have as many meetings as you wish.
We still don’t want the UDP in power. You have lost our confidence accross the board.
This is not bureaucracy, this is reality.
Just make sure you do not try to convince us to give up our TAX HAVEN BIRTH RIGHT to agree to your proposed direct Taxation. We don’t plan on giving any government including the UDP more tax money to scres us in the a*s with.
The answer is "NO!"
And don’t ask us to agree to the project in East End proposed by Mr Imparato. A man with NO PLAN! This is way TOO TAXING ON US!
Imparato has found a good UDP horse to ride who in turn is trying to RIDE ON THE BACKS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE CAYMAN ISLANDS with taxes to fund projects owned by foreigners!
Typical THIRD WORLD!
It WON’T WORK!
Have you spoken to any Educators who may be would like to invest in an educational institution at reasonable costs "Harvard or Yale Ivy League College or University" here in the Cayman Islands? That’s a greater investment than even Dr. Shetty’s Hospital. Both would be nice.
An Ivy League University could be an ideal Education &Tourism Product!
BUT WE’RE SICK AND TIRED OF YOU ALLOWING THESE FOREIGN INVESTORS TO COME IN AND BLOW THE HELL OUT OF OUR LITTLE ISLAND. It’s only 144 square miles I’m sure you’re running out of land to sell these folks. After all land sales pays good commission. Arn’t you in the real estate business yourself?.
It is high time to start invite some other form of investment instead of foreigners buying up all our land and destroying it leaving holes, and destroying the mangrove barriers. This is not why we elected you and you need to carefully take stock of your actions that continue to steer a course that is totally against the approval and acceptance of the people of the Cayman Islands. .
FNG, you made the same mistake again..the island is only 72 square miles. All islands together are 100 sq miles.
Maybe the other 44 sq miles includes the extensions into the sea planned by Dart.
Honk!!! Honk!! Here comes Mac to BT. What’s new? – Changes changes and reports and that we/re going further over the Guard House Hill!!!
This is history after two years, then we can be re-introduced to the two BT, MLAs. Where there are more questions than answers this should be an interesting meeting!!!!
Happy to hear this. I will be attending.
Has Mac’s opinion replaced the Rule of Law in Cayman?
In Oct 2009, the late Lord Bingham in a speech to the IBA included the following quote from the famous Scottish biographer Dr. Johnson. (see http://www.ibanet.org/Article/Detail.aspx?ArticleUid=953f5e69-2229-4928-9f30-dc0d36d4bc42#lordbingham)
"The law is the measure of civil right, but if the measure be changeable the extent of thing measured never can be settled. To permit a law to be modified at discretion is to leave the community without law. …..It is to suffer the rash and ignorant to act at discretion……He that is thus governed lives not by law but by opinion."
Given the way Mac keeps changing the law to suit his every whim and in particular to suit the whims of his wealthy cronies, it would appear that we Caymanians no longer live by the rule of law. Instead we appear to live by Mac’s opinion.
yes -go to the meeting-and boo-him and them-bunch of @!#$%^&* !!!.
That’s productive.
Props to the Premier for sticking with his public meetings. And moving them around the districts. There’s a lot of negatives could be said but at least this one is positive. It gives the government a good way to get a feel of people, direct from the people.
Props? Like he doesn’t already KNOW what the people think? (& could obvioulsy care less)
Sadly Jab Jab….this then could possibly be the only positive thing this administration does for four years. But what happened to the press conferences?…when Elio was a boy on the radio he complained week after week that ALL of the ministers didn’t show up for the weekly press conferences! Now that he is the man the press conferences went to monthly, then to monthly with a press secretary, and now?
Ooooh, this should be good! Where’s the popcorn?
Sorry Premier…
With all due respect, when I think of your deals with Jospeh Imparato, I think of a CUC owner who is oblivious to the needs of the Cayman Islands. I think of the negative contributions over the yearswhere Joe has made the cost of living in the Cayman Islands no better! But he has a house in the United States and enjoys living somewhere else other than here.
Again sorry Premier, with all due respect, you can’t convince me that an East End Port for a QUARRY will be good for this country! You talk about jobs… well… I will tell you where you can start Sir…you can start by allowing average Caymanians like myself create and expand our own businesses. You can get rid of the high fees that are preventing Caymanians from creating jobs! Then we will see jobs flourish in the Cayman Islands.
Sorry to say Sir, but it looks like you look out for rich. I am convinced your over-development, tree cut-down, money-making projects, will not be helping my future generation. It seems to me, you have made MONEY your god! Sorry…
You sound like you’re describing the 15 members of Parliament not just Mac.