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Sarkozy clamps down on French ministers’ perks
(The Guardian): Spare a thought – and perhaps a euro – for the poor French politician. No more taxpayer-funded Cuban cigars, private jets, or even luxury hotels. And, if Nicolas Sarkozy has his way, no more overstaffed offices and unfettered use of the ministry photocopier. Having cancelled the Elysée palace summer garden party, the French president has decided everyone else must "make an effort" to tighten their professional belts. Anxious to be seen wielding the austerity axe following a spate of scandals over official perks, not to mention a ballooning public deficit, he is demanding ministers’ spending be "vigorously reduced".
Caymanian conservation: an oxymoron?
One hates to be negativeand it would be wonderful if some sort of comprehensive conservation legislation could be passed in our lifetimes. However, it is difficult to get excited about Cayman’s pending Conservation Law given the depressing realities of this country when it comes to the natural environment.
First of all, why wasn’t this done 30 years ago? Did it really take this long for our elected leaders to consider and be won over by the idea that conservation might be a good thing? What a tragic string of morons and greed-filled pirates we have had fill the Legislative Assembly all these lost years. Imagine how beautiful Grand Cayman would be today if these people had any vision and sense of responsibility for our country’s natural resources.
I recall the words of Bodden Town MLA Haig Bodden back in the early 1990s when someone dared suggest the need for laws to protect Cayman’s birds: "I say it’s nonsense. In my book, people come before birds!" Sadly, he was no lone wolf in his view that conservation is annoying nonsense to be squashed whenever it comes up.
Yeah, let’s kill all the birds, the fish, the trees. “We” come first. I’m sure that will work out really well for the Cayman Islands. Geez…
In fairness, there have been victories. Thankfully Caymanian Gina Petrie-Ebanks and Dace Grounds (a largely forgotten expat hero who did great things for Cayman) were able to push through the Marine Conservation Law some 25 years ago. If they and few others had not achieved that milestone, the coral reefs and all other marine life around our islands would be even more degraded than is currently the case. Oh, and no surprise, some of our prominent political and business leaders who are still on center stage today strongly opposed the Marine Conservation Law.
Does anyone remember when the National Trust was an outspoken, meaningful institution that fought loud and hard against the runaway destruction of Cayman? What happened to it? Why don’t we hear strong protests and condemnation from the Trust when politicians and developers ignore the few laws we have to ravage our environment? I’ll tell you why.
Short-sighted MLAs such as McKeeva Bush and Ezzard Miller bullied the National Trust, effectively shutting it down and muting it. They made sure that it wouldn’t make too much noise on behalf of a positive future for Cayman. And the clueless public reelects these sorts of people over and over.
It is clear that those who are in power today care nothing about the environment because they are either blinded by short-term greed or they are simply stupid. By consistently choosing immediate payoffs at the expense of irreplaceable natural wealth, they have shown us all their shallow minds and empty souls. They care nothing about what will not be left for future generations. They are so lost they don’t even seem to understand that they likely are setting themselves up for eventual economic failure—something they do care about.
Grand Cayman has already fallen so far from being the visually appealing place it once was. West Bay Road looks like any run-down Florida town. Seven Mile Beach is virtually inaccessible and hidden from view thanks to wall-to-wall condos that should never have been built. George Town is a mess with half-built offices and homes sitting stagnant for years, shanty towns, and a landfill that stands as a towering monument to the incompetence of the people who run our country.
Conservation Law? Yeah, whatever. Guess it can’t hurt. Then again, with our luck, it will probably end up giving the UDP and PPM anti-nature politicians a smokescreen to continue their pillaging and plundering under the guise of "careful consideration for the environment". Conservation Bill or not, don’t be naive enough to believe that a leader like McKeeva Bush will let "foolish" concerns about the marine environment, fresh water, air quality, trees, or wildlife stand in the way of casinos,bigger resorts, dredging for mega-yachts, etc. One only has to look at past history.
These people will always choose a dollar over a tree, and they will always get their way so long as dim voters can be won over by lies and trinkets. Intelligence and consideration for our grandchildren, be damned.
British doctors call for homeopathy ban
(The Telegraph): Hundreds of doctors will this week call for a ban on NHS funding for homeopathic treatments. Delegates to the British Medical Association’s conference are expected to support seven motions opposing the use of public money to pay for remedies which they claim have ‘no place in the modern health service.’ They are also calling for junior doctors to be exempt from being placed in homoeopathic hospitals, claiming it goes against the principles of evidence-based medicine. The conference will also hear calls for homoeopathic remedies to be banned from chemists unless they are clearly labelled as placebos rather than medicines.
Walkers’ bike riders raise $55k to fight Leukemia
(CNS): By completing the endurance challenge of riding 100 miles through the Sierra Nevada mountains around Lake Tahoe, a team of cyclists from Walkers have raised over US$55,000 for a charity to defeat blood cancer. The 13-strong team from Walkers took part in ‘America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride’ around Lake Tahoe, Nevada, to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on 6 June 2010. So far, Team Walkers have raised US$55,807.91 thanks to the generosity of many staff members at Walkers as well as family, friends and members of the community in Cayman. It was a real team effort by Walkers, who were riding in the event as part of a major client’s team, with senior partners of the firm riding alongside lawyers, managers and support staff.
Team Walkers consisted of Nancy Lewis (Team Captain), Grant Stein, Ian Ashman, Mark Lewis, Rolf Lindsay, Shelley Lindsay, Caroline Williams, Glen Inanga, Colette Wilkins, Victoria Hew, Sarah Priaulx, Donna Harding and Wade Tamasa.
"It was a truly fabulous experience which has left us feeling energised and inspired," commented Nancy Lewis, Chief Executive Officer of Walkers Global Holdings. "We are delighted to have raised so much for such an important charity and I’d like to thank everyone in the firm and all our friends for their donations, support and encouragement. Many of us have friends or family members who have beenaffected by this dreadful disease or other forms of cancer and everyone on our team had their own personal reasons for taking part. It was a particularly incredible effort from those in our team who were doing this ride for the first time."
Three of the Walkers team, (Nancy Lewis, Grant Stein and Mark Lewis), took part in this event last year, however a number of the riders were considerably less experienced and they put in a huge effort in negotiating the steep hills and highways around Lake Tahoe, as well as the months of training beforehand. The team completed a number of long training rides in Cayman, however, these were in sharp contrast to the series of demanding peaks of the 100-mile course, where the altitude ranges between 6,300 feet and 7,100 feet above sea level, with numerous rolling ascents and descents adding up to over 4,400 vertical feet of elevation gain.
"For a first timer, it was very difficult to prepare for the hills, although some members of our team took spinning classes which would have helped," said Victoria Hew, Director of Human Resources at Walkers. "For me it was the fear of the unknown which made it quite daunting, but the altitude didn’t cause me too many problems. Completing the last 20-miles, where there were a succession of very steep hills, was just sheer determination and it really depends upon whether you are the type of person that just doesn’t give up or not."
The great spirit of camaraderie among the 3,000 people taking part in the event helped to encourage the Walkers riders, as did the cheering crowds from the sidelines, as well as the picturesque lake and mountain views. "The scenery around Lake Tahoe was so inspiring and the view was just unbelievable," said Wade Tamasa, Operations Assistant with Walkers. "For me, it wasn’t only about doing the ride but also being able to support such an important cause. I would love to do this again next year and I’d like to thank the partners of the firm for giving me the opportunity."
All of the members of Team Walkers managed to complete the 100-mile course, taking between 6.5 and twelve hours to do so. Some of the team had to battle through severe cramp in order to finish, while punctures were an annoyance for others. In addition to finding the stamina and strength required in their legs and core muscles, one of the challenges for the team was keeping together with so many other cyclists on the road. The members of Team Walkers stood out from the crowd, however, as each of them had a Cayman Islands Blue Iguana soft toy attached to their helmets as a mascot. "The iguanas sparked a lot of confused questions about Godzilla and dinosaurs which gave us the perfect opportunity to explain to our fellow riders about the Cayman Islands and the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme – everyone loved it," said Sarah Priaulx, Associate with Walkers.
The bike ride was organised by Team in Training (TNT) which puts on various endurance events each year, such as marathons and triathlons, providing specialist training programmes to help people raise money to beat blood cancers. There were 1,300 TNT riders taking part in the event, collectively raising over US$6 million for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Team Walkers believes that this is a worthy cause to support because should anyone in Cayman be unfortunate enough to require such treatment, in most cases the care they receive will be in the US. Over the past 13 years, nearly 18,000 people have taken part in the Lake Tahoe bike ride, raising total funds of US$62 million.
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is the world’s largest voluntary health organisation dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education and patient services. Its mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. Since being founded in 1949, the Society has awarded more than US$680 million in research funding.
Jesus did not die on cross, says Christian scholar
(The Telegraph): Jesus may not have died nailed to the cross because there is no evidence that the Romans crucified prisoners two thousand years ago, a scholar has claimed. The legend of his execution is based on the traditions of the Christian church and artistic illustrations rather than antique texts, according to theologian Gunnar Samuelsson. He claims the Bible has been misinterpreted as there are no explicit references the use of nails or to crucifixion – only that Jesus bore a "staurus" towards Calvary which is not necessarily a cross but can also mean a "pole". Samuelsson, who has written a 400-page thesis after studying the original texts, said: "The problem is descriptions of crucifixions are remarkably absent in the antique literature.
US pirate hunters target movies
(BBC): An organisation set up in the US to track down and punish illegal file-sharers is coming under increasing scrutiny from civil liberty groups. The US Copyright Group (USCG) has been working on behalf of a range of movie makers, most notably those behind box office hit The Hurt Locker. It has pledged to target 150,000 illegal downloaders in coming months. But civil rights groups have questioned its motives. On its website USCG offers to help film industry leaders, producers and copyright owners to recover losses due to illegal downloading. It promises to assist with halting copyright infringement which is a huge problem for the movie industry.
Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke in custody
(BBC): Police in Jamaica say they have arrested suspected drugs lord Christopher "Dudus" Coke on the outskirts of the capital, Kingston. Jamaican media say he walked into a police station although Information Minister Daryl Vaz told the BBC he had been detained in a "police spot-check". The Jamaican government wants to extradite Mr Coke to the US to face charges of drug and gun trafficking. Attempts to capture him in May led to clashes in which scores of people died. Mr Coke, 41, is accused of being the leader of the notorious Shower Posse.
Boy detained for Facebook insult murder in London
(BBC): A 16-year-old boy has been detained for killing a former best friend after the pair traded insults on Facebook. Salum Kombo, 18, was stabbed in the chest in Bromley-by-Bow, east London, in December after calling his killer, then 15, names including "pussy". The trial heard the boy, who was found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey in May, could not take the "loss of face". The teenager, who cannot be named, has been ordered to serve a minimum of 14 years. Sentencing the boy at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said: "There was nothing brave about what you did. "This was quite simply an act of cowardice, as so many stabbings are."
Tea and coffee ‘protect against heart disease’
(BBC): Drinking several cups of tea or coffee a day appears to protect against heart disease, a 13-year-long study from the Netherlands has found. It adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting health benefits from the most popular hot drinks. Those who drank more than six cups of tea a day cut their risk of heart disease by a third, the study of 40,000 people found. Consuming between two to four coffees a day was also linked to a reduced risk. While the protective effect ceased with more than four cups of coffee a day, even those who drank this much were no more likely to die of any cause, including stroke and cancer, than those who abstained.
Big Mac’s little gamble
It may go down as McKeeva Bush’s slickest political maneuver yet. He is artfully allowing a referendum to decide whether or not Cayman will legalize gambling. If all goes according to plan and the people vote the way he hopes, West Bay’s smooth operator can still play the pious churchman while finally getting that casino he’s been salivating for all these years.
“It’s the will of the people,” he will say. “I am simply respecting the democratic process. My hands are clean. Now let’s play some Black Jack!”
What is this whole gambling-government connection anyway? Put simply, it’s a creative way to tax mathematically challenged citizens as well as those who are prone to unrealistic fantasies. The worse you measure up on those two scales, the more money you are likely to gamble away. To some people, however, gambling is far more sinister than simply a way of squeezing money out of the rubes.
The Cayman Ministers Association (CMA) has stormed to the front of this issue. Armed with “research” (cut and pasted from Wikipedia, no doubt), they are making the case that a national lottery and a casino will increase crime and pretty much lead to every other Caymanian selling their children for one more turn at the craps table. I know that the CMA folks speak to God every night but I think they are wrong about this, nonetheless. Gambling does not necessarily lead to social decay. It can, of course, but so too can incompetent politicians and we certainly don’t seem to have any problem accepting them in Cayman, now do we?
The CMA’s claim that legalized gambling will lead us to runaway crime is difficult to take seriously because we’re already there. Serious crime is here; it didn’t wait on the grand opening of our first casino. Just this month, for example, we had a streak of daily armed robberies striking nearly every gas station in Grand Cayman. What, if gambling is legalized we will have two gas stations robbed per day rather than just one per day? Our murders-to-population ratio is already close to or ahead of Detroit and Kingston. Are a few slot machines really going to make it any worse? Maybe, but I doubt it.
Could some Caymanians throw away their lives gambling? Sure, but very few would. It’s a minor issue that might impact a tiny handful of people at most. Most Caymanians are not total morons with no understanding of near impossible odds. Virtually everyone here who chooses to gamble would still keep enough cash in their pocket to buy baby food on the way home. If the preachers are so terrified of Caymanians being hypnotised by roulette-wheels then they should devote their energies to making sure our schools do a better job of teaching mathematics. Anyone who has taken a basic statistics course, for example, would find it nearly impossible to place extravagant bets on the long-shot games casinos offer. Generally, only the very wealthy and the very stupid spend large sums of money gambling. It would be no different in Cayman.
By the way, morality and crime aside, would a Cayman Islands lottery even be profitable here? Has anyone crunched the numbers? Cayman is not Florida with a population of 18 million. We only have about 50,000 people. How many out of that will buy lottery tickets every week? How many will they buy? Assuming tickets would be $1, it’s difficult to see where the money will come from for big prizes. If we are talking about nothing more than a $50,000 or so payoff, I can’t see much excitement being generated. It would feel like just another Rotary Club raffle. No big deal. Maybe tourists would buy large numbers of tickets, but that’s far from certain.
There is also the cost of printing the tickets, distribution and sales, advertising, salaries for managers and bean-counters and, don’t forget, security guards to prevent winners from being shot by a criminal when they show up at the lottery office with their winning tickets. Considering all that, our government could end up losing money.
Speaking on a radio talk show, CMA’s anti-gambling point man Reverend Nicholas Sykes described gambling as a dishonest means of making money. He’s right; gambling is a scam. It’s taking money from people while promising them the chance of a very unlikely payoff. Like Sykes says, gambling is immoral. It’s almost as bad as taking money from people while promising them the chance of a big payoff in the sky after they die.
Ironically, in the end, I must agree with the Cayman Ministers Association. I say vote “No” because gambling would be a disaster for the Cayman Islands. Why do I think this? Not because gambling is inherently evil or because it will make all of us start beating our children and smoking crack. The only reason I’m against legalized gambling in Cayman is because Caymanian politicians would control it. That alone pretty much guarantees that it would turn sour fast. Gambling revenue could be a fine addition to our economy, no doubt. But given the quality of the people we keep electing to run things, it surely wouldn’t work out like we might hope.
First of all, more money in the hands of our politicians—UDP or PPM, it doesn’t matter—would not be used to pay off debt or actually improve education or anything else that matters. Have no doubt, the budget would be shuffled around so that our politicians had more to spend on tourist “attractions” that nobody goes to and other mysterious black holes that always seem to emerge in Cayman. They would spend away new wealth on pay raises and pay offs. And if some crime or social problems did bubble up directly due to gambling, they would ignore it or be so slow to react that the entire country really could end up being dragged to hell—just like the preachers are warning.
So, the bottom line is thatgambling may be stupid but it’s not evil. It would not condemn us to certain and absolute destruction. However, given the realities of Cayman politics, the safe vote is a definite “No”. We aren’t ready for the additional responsibility.