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WestStar and Cayman 27 sold to Logic
(CNS Business): Cable TV provider WestStar and its TV station Cayman 27 have been bought out by Bermuda-based KeyTech, the parent company of Logic. In an announcement Wednesday, the KeyTech Group of Companies revealed that its subsidiary, WestTel Limited (Logic Cayman) has acquired the Cayman-based company, British Overseas Territory Cable & Telecommunications (BOTCAT), financed through debt and equity. According to Cayman 27, the purchase agreement has been completed and consent has been granted by the Information Communications and Technology Authority (ICTA). “For now, it will be business as usual for both companies,” the TV station said in its report. Read more on CNS Business
Boat full of Cuban migrants hits reef at East End
(CNS): A boat with 20 Cuban migrants, seven of them women, hit a reef on the East End of Grand Cayman around midnight last night, according to unofficial sources. While the authorities have not yet reported on the incident, CNS understands that one woman on the boat had to be treated for injuries to her feet. Following government policy, the immigration authorities took all the boat people into custody forrepatriation. The process of repatriation is with accordance to the Memorandum of Understading with the Cuban government.
JetBlue makes emergency stop in Bermuda
(CNS): A JetBlue aircraft flying from New York’s JFK airport and St Maarten was diverted to Bermuda yesterday after reports of smoke and fumes inside the aircraft’s cockpit. The Jet Blue Airbus A320-200 had 139 people on board and five hours of fuel, according to media reports in Bermuda. With ten vehicles and 16 staff members of the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service (BFRS) standing by, the flight landed safely in Bermuda at 12.07pm. The BFRS Emergency Medical Technicians carried out a search of the aircraft and assessed passengers and crew, but determined that no medical assistance was required. An investigation into the cause of the issue will be carried out, officials said.
Flight B6-787 from New York JFK to St Maarten was en route at FL330 about 230nm northwest of Bermuda when the crew declared emergency, reporting smoke in the cockpit and decided to divert to Bermuda. Enroute to Bermuda the crew reported they had the smoke pretty much under control but the fumes persisted, according to The Aviation Herald. The aircraft landed safely about 40 minutes later.
Men found with cash on Brac released without charge
(CNS): Three men, thought to be Jamaican nationals, who were arrested on Cayman Brac yesterday, having been found with a substantial amount of cash, have apparently been released without being charged with any crime. While there has been no report from the RCIPS, unofficial sources said they claimed to have come from Cuba and had sold fish and their equipment. CNS understands that the men had approximately US $10,000 in their possession when they were detained Monday. CNS has asked the police for clarification about the incident and is awating a response.
UNLIKE Cayman: a weekend of film, art & music
(CNS): In celebration of its 30th anniversary, UWC Cayman Islands is collaborating with Friends of Film (FoF) and UNLIKE Festivals to host UNLIKE Cayman this month. UNLIKE is a touring arts and culture festival that gives artists an opportunity to showcase their work while bridging different cultures through the arts. By providing music, art and film in a relaxed environment and without entry fees, it also breaks the barriers that often surround these media and supports talented young artists. Through the efforts of committed volunteers, UNLIKE has already featured in Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Oslo, Norway; and Helsinki, Finland in its first year.
“The goal of each and every UNLIKE festival is to encourage people to think outside of the box and beyond given borders and limitations,” explained UNLIKE’s managing director, Janne Koivisto. “Promoting multicultural understanding by raising awareness using art and media as the medium gives the audience a great opportunity to experience unique artworks and connect with artists around the world. We’re very excited to be bringing it to the Cayman Islands.”
UNLIKE is partnering with FoF, UWC Cayman Islands, and a number of other volunteers from the local arts scene to produce the festival. FoF is a diverse group of working film professionals dedicated to motion picture production in the Cayman Islands. UWC Cayman Islands is a national committee of the global United World Colleges movement, whose mission is to use education as a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainablefuture.
The event will take place the weekend of 26-28 September. All proceeds will go toward the charitable foundation’s scholarship programme that ensures a need-blind selection process based entirely on merit for all Caymanian UWC scholars.
“FoF is delighted to be part of UNLIKE Cayman. It’s rewarding to be able to help an organisation like UWC Cayman Islands that gives students a transformational educational experience in which they find ways to achieve a more peaceful and sustainable future and we are thrilled to be partnering also with the inspiring UNLIKE Festival,” said Colleen Dahlstrom, co-founder of FoF.
UNLIKE Cayman will give many different types of local artists with varying levels of experience an opportunity to showcase their hard work and talent, while also giving the community a chance to come together and enjoy themselves. The main festival will take place all day Saturday, 27th September at Camana Bay, with an opening Cocktail Reception at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands on Friday 26th September and a Closing Brunch on Sunday 28th September at Royal Palms. Saturday’s festival will be completely free for all to attend and tickets for other events will go on sale in the coming weeks.
“Our focus now is on collaborating to make the festival in September one to remember, by connecting likeminded people and experiencing everything the cultural community in Cayman has to offer,” Dahlstrom emphasised.
Aubrey Bodden, Chairperson of UWC Cayman Islands, also expressed appreciation to the various companies that have already come on board as sponsors, noting “Without our corporate partners we would not be able to host this world-class festival and ensure that it is open to everyone to participate. UNLIKE Cayman began with the desire to do something that has never been done before in the Cayman Islands and has really grown into something even more awesome than we could have imagined.”
All filmmakers, visual artists, artisans, craftspersons, musicians, dancers, authors, poets and other performers and artists are welcome to participate in the festival. For more information about participation, tickets or sponsorship opportunities, please contact UNLIKECayman@gmail.com.
The Platinum Sponsor of UNLIKE Cayman is Dart Enterprises Limited. Gold Sponsors include Greenlight Re, the Ministry of Health, Sports, Youth & Culture, Morval Bank & Trust and Regal Cinemas; Silver Sponsors include Awesome Productions, Grant Thornton, Touch of Thai, Kensington Management Group, Pcreative, Hopscotch Productions, Lion’s Productions and CML TV; and Bronze Sponsors include Strategic Risk Solutions, Global Captive Management, CUC, Ogier, Island Heritage, BCQS, Cayman Spirits Company and the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands.
Young Brackers learn tennis basics
(TFCI): Tennis on the Brac is gently flourishing. Two years ago there was barely a child on the Sister Island who’d ever tried their hand at tennis. Now it’s part of introductory PE lessons in the primary and high schools, and many Brac youngsters regularly enjoy thwacking a ball around a court. It was thanks to sponsorship from Walkers, the international law firm, that a tennis pro from Grand Cayman, Adam Bayley, made the first coaching trip to the island in 2012. His visit was a hit, with children coming from all corners of the island to learn a new sport. “The programme grew from there,” explained Eliza Harford, head of the Tennis Federation of the Cayman Islands, which oversees the Brac programme.
“With continued support from Walkers, we’ve now evolved to weekend coaching clinics, which are run by Noel Watkins of Cayman Tennis Academy. Noel’s been over a couple of times in the past six months, and has two more trips planned before Christmas.”
Watkins has not only taught students, he’s also trained Brac PE teachers, plus sports enthusiasts Sue and Mike Hundt, to coach the sport, with the result that introductory tennis is now part of the PE curriculum. The game is taught using portable nets (slightly lower than a standard tennis net), plus shorter racquets and slower-than-standard balls, which make the game really easy to pick up.
“Most beginners learn to rally, serve and score in their very first lesson,” explained Watkins. “It’s a great system, strongly endorsed by the International Tennis Federation.”
In another major step forward, Hundt has organised for the Brac high school court to be resurfaced. With a new tennis net and posts waiting to be installed in time for the start of term in September, and with a hitting wall at one end of the court, young people on the Brac should soon have use of a full-sized, floodlit court. The Walkers sponsorship will cover the cost of new adult racquets and a supply of standard balls, noted Watkins.
“The Brac kids are incredibly enthusiastic, and some show great promise,” he added. “Progress is steady and encouraging, and it’s obvious the students have been practising between coaching sessions.”
Former turtle farm provides example for CTF
(CNS Business): A former sea turtle farm in the Reunion Islands in the Indian Ocean has successfully transitioned into a respected research centre where groundbreaking science is conducted but remains one of the islands' top tourist attractions. It also maintains the cultural heritage of the islands and their involvement with turtling, while continuing to employ people, according to Neil D’Cruze from World Animal Protection. See video
Education reform ‘unique’
(CNS): Eighty-five percent of students who graduated from the Brac high school this summer achieved five or more Level 2 passes, and all 85% reached the new goalpost, which is 5+ passes including maths and English. Sixty-four percent, almost two thirds, achieved seven or more Level 2 passes, Chief Education Officer Shirley Wahler told teaching staff on Cayman Brac. “Once again the Layman E. Scott High School has set the standard,” she said, describing the results, which are the best ever achieved in the Cayman Islands, as “phenomenal”. On top of that, the Year 11 class from the LSHS has already outstripped any Year 12 group prior to this year, she said, emphasizing that the reforms that have yielded such a spectacular turnaround in results are “uniquely Caymanian”.
Addressing teaching staff at the Annual Education Professionals' Welcome for staff on the Sister Islands on Friday morning in the high school hall, Wahler told them that everyone “should feel a glow of pride”, and described the results as “a community success”.
The Year 11 students, who will graduate from the LSHS in the summer of 2014 and are the second year group on the Brac to take their exams early and go onto the restructured Year 12 programme, have already achieved better results than any Year 12 group except for the LSHS Class of 2014. The CEO told teachers that 73% already have five or more Level 2 passes, 68% have 5+ Level 2 passes including maths and English, 50% have seven or more and 43% have nine or more Level 2 passes.
Passes at CXC and CSEC grades I – III or GCSE/IGCSE grades A* through C are Level 2 or Standard High School Level. Five Level 2 qualifications are recognised internationally as equivalent to a US high school diploma and mark successful completion of secondary education. (Read more about academic levels here)
While the reforms in education have taken place over the last decade, Wahler, who was principal of the Brac high school before becoming chief education officer, said the journey of reform on the Sister Island had really been over the course of the last decade and a half. Much of the “trailblazing work” had been done on Cayman Brac for others to emulate, she said.
“We find out what works for us, and then we do more of it,” she said, explaining that the progress made in the education system had come out of a “uniquely Caymanian solution”. She noted that many efforts toward improvements in the Cayman Islands involve using overseas expertise, and this had been especially true for education.
However, Wahler stressed, “Our solution came from inside the system.” The reforms are based on building literacy and numeracy skills and building student confidence, she said and aimed not just at passing exams but also improving the “soft skills” needed to function as an adult.
As gratifying as the high school results are, she said, the “most exciting” news was from the primary schools, where reading results for Year 6 students across the system were up 21%, writing results were up 13%, and maths results rose by 8%.
What this means is that students now entering high school are doing so with better skills that previous years, which points towards even better results for future graduating classes, the CEO noted.
Saying she was the “last person to be complacent” and that “the journey is by no means over”, the chief education officer paid tribute the teaching staff who had accomplished those results.
“It’s important to stop and celebrate successes,” she said.
Related story on CNS:
Schools’ results celebrated
(CNS): Preliminary results for this year’s external exams indicate that the Year 12 students have surpassed last year’s record breaking Level 2 pass rate, continuing the year-on-year improvements in standards, and while the final tally is not yet known, Year 11 pass rates have also bettered last year's. In addition, there has been a dramatic improvement in literacy and numeracy in primary schools, teachers were told by Chief Education Officer Shirley Wahler at the Annual Education Professionals' Welcome on Wednesday. However, despite all the indications that the education system is on the right path, in her address to staff Education Minister Tara Rivers noted that both she and the ministry counsellor, who were both backed by the Coalition for Cayman (C4C) group, were still considering privatizing government schools.
Rivers noted that she and Winston Connolly were elected on the principle of public-private partnerships and were continuing to explore the possibility of adopting it in regards to public schools. The minister also announced that there are to be baseline inspections in every government school over the course of the next year.
Celebrating the continued upward trajectory of external exam results, CEO Shirley Wahler told teachers gathered at the Mary Miller Hall for the welcome back event that results for English Level 2 pass rate for the graduating students, “which were so spectacularly high last year”, are even higher, with a preliminary result of 68.5%. But, she said, “the real story” was the mathematics results, which have jumped more than 9% over last year’s figures to 46.1%. (See CNS article Numeracy focus in schools)
Pointing to the startling improvements in results in just two years (from 2011 to 2013) from 45% to 70% of students achieving five or more Level 2 passes, the CEO said that level of change took England 13 years to achieve. “The comparison to our Caribbean neighbours is even starker,” Wahler said, noting that the overall benchmark figure for the Caribbean region hovers around 22%. “And our journey is by no means over,” she added.
Before all the results are in, it appears that Year 11 students have once again done well in English and maths results “have shown a significant surge” over last year. For both Year 11 and Year 12 students, Wahler said, the new graduation requirements, which include academic and behaviour criteria, had a “pronounced influence”.
As well as a sustained year-on-year rise in high school results, Wahler said the percentage of Year 6 students who achieved National Curriculum Level 4 “shot up” this year. Reading results were up 21%, writing results were up 13%, and maths results rose by 8%.
“In real terms, this means that the standard of achievement in secondary schools can reasonably be expected to continue improving as well, with Year 7 students coming in with significantly higher levels of achievement than in past years. All of this translates to continued and sustainable success,” the CEO said.
Dismissing “the relentless rhetoric” about Cayman’s “failing schools”, the CEO told teaching staff she was proud of them “and proud to give testimony today to the amazing results you have achieved and continue to achieve as you guide and develop our country’s most precious resource, its children.”
Looking back, Wahler said that for more than a decade before 2007 student results had been stagnant, with only about a quarter of students who finished high school achieving 5 or more O-Level passes. Going back further in time, she noted that the 1995 Annual Report for the Cayman Islands boasted about the historic high performance of students, when 25% of Year 12 students had gained 4 or more passes, “far outstripping the previous high point of 16%, and lauded as the best results in the Caribbean”.
However, she said that “visionary leaders who believed that we could do better, and who refused to remain complacent” spearheaded the turnaround. “It is through that leadership that the process of education reform was undertaken and sustained through successive administrations,” she said. Most importantly, the reforms were about “valuing every student as an individual who has a place in oursystem and offering opportunities for every child to succeed, not just a chosen few,” she added.
“It is important that our students know, that our parents know and that our community know and understand what you, our teachers, through the performance of your students, have achieved,” the teachers were told by their boss.
Turing to the issue of student behavior, an issue that has been the subject of considerable attention recently, she said that overcoming poor behavior would take hard and consistent work on the part of educators. “It requires the engagement of every school and every teacher,” she said.
“But we cannot do this alone,” the chief education officer told teachers. “Every stakeholder in education, which means everyone in our wider community, has a part to play. Public education is a public good and our work serves not just today’s students but the country as a whole. This is a project for the entire community.”
But she said the Department of Education Services would be publishing policies and procedures to provide clear and accessible guidance on how to submit and manage complaints and grievances “in a positive and mutually respectful manner that allows us to work together to improve our system. In this way, we create avenues for problems to be resolved in ways that move the system forward, model professional and productive behaviour and ensure that concerns are heard.”
Lionfish CULL attacks reef pest
(CNS): Divers removed 579 lionfish with a total weight of more than 250 pounds from Cayman Islands reefs this weekend during the third lionfish tournament this year organized by CULL (Cayman United Lionfish League). Sixty scuba divers and free divers in 13 teams signed up for Cull #12 Summer Showdown to help get rid of the invasive and voracious fish and compete for the cash prizes on offer, according to the Cayman Islands Tourism Association, which supports the effort towards helping Cayman's underwater ecosystem. Afterwards, the reef pests were cooked up by the chefs at Rackams, who provided delectable sautéed lionfish on garlic crostinis. (See related video below)
This tournament saw CULL team up with ‘Culling For A Cause’ to sponsor ARK (Act of Random Kindness) by donating the remainder of the fish to the cause to retain the profits. One of the teams was even so generous to donate their own prize winnings to this noble cause.
Rackams again provided the headquarters for this tournament and registration took place on Thursday 14 August. The weigh-ins on Saturday and Sunday evening allowed teams to have their prize catches weighed and measured before being cooked up by the chefs at Rackams who provided delectable sautéed lionfish on garlic crostinis.
Gold sponsor Foster’s Food Fair donated $4,800 in cash prizesand $500 was awarded to each first place winner and $100 for each second place in four separate categories for both Scuba Diving and Free Diving divisions:
Scuba Divers:
• Most Lionfish:
– 1st Place – Ambassador Divers – 130
– 2nd Place – Team Lisa – 72
• Biggest Lionfish
– 1st Place – Ambassador Divers – 294mm
– 2nd Place – Hog Heaven – 293mm
• Smallest Lionfish
– 1st Place – Ball & Chain – 54mm
– 2nd Place – Ambassador Divers – 58mm
• Overall Weight
– 1st Place – Ambassador Divers – 32.2kg
– 2nd Place –Culling For A Cause – 13.6kg
Free Divers:
• Most Lionfish:
– 1st Place – Green Water – 130
– 2nd Place – Cayman Deep – 42
• Biggest Lionfish
– 1st Place – Cayman Deep – 304mm
– 2nd Place – Green Water – 297mm
• Smallest Lionfish
– 1st Place – Green Water – 49mm
– 2nd Place – Green Water – 60mm
• Overall Weight
– 1st Place – Green Water – 14.8kg
– 2nd Place – Cayman Deep – 9.4kg
New CITA Executive Director, Tiffany Dixon-Ebanks, said, “CITA is pleased to lend support to initiatives that will lead to the eradication of the Lionfish from our pristine waters. We would certainly like to extend congratulations to the CULL team for another successful event – good job! The CITA also extends thanks to Foster’s Food Fair for their generous sponsorship of this very worthy cause.”
The Cayman United Lionfish League thanked all sponsors who made this tournament possible, especially Foster’s Food Fair, as well as CITA, Rackam’s Waterfront Bar & Grill, Ambassador Divers, Vibe 98.9, Spin 94.9, DoE, Signs of Paradise and Monogram’s and More.
See CNS Library entry: Lionfish problem
Related video on CNS Business:
