ESTABLISHED 1965 www.caymancompass.com – 50 CENTS – WEDNESDAY JANUARY 4, 2017 High of 86 Low of 76 13 DAYS LEFT TO REGISTER TO VOTE ELECTION 2017 Slight to moderate with wave heights of 2 to 4 feet. EDITORIAL | PAGE 4 POLICE CHECKPOINTS: STOP IN THE NAME OF THE LAW, PLEASE BUSINESS | PAGE 10 US BRINGS SWISS BANK PROGRAM TO A CLOSE TOURISM DEPARTMENT SEEKS CONSULTANTS ON LATIN AMERICA TAD STONER tstoner@pinnaclemedialtd.com Tourism minister Moses Kirkconnell hopes an effort to explore air services to South American gateway cities will boost summer- time visitors. The idea, he says, is to take advantage of Southern Hemisphere seasons that are the reverse of those in Cayman’s chief tourism market, the U.S. and Canada, providing new air routes and filling a growing roster of hotel rooms during Cayman’s traditional off-season. “Our core market is North America, 90- plus percent of our stay-over visitors are from there,” he said, adding that the appeal of Cayman is that “when it’s cold in the north, Cayman is warm – and when it’s cold in the south, well, Cayman is still warm.” If tourism officials examine the strategies making North American tourism successful, they may generalize to South America, he said. The Department of Tourism has issued an invitation to tender seeking “consulting ser- vices … in the development of a Latin America business strategy to promote tourism to the Cayman Islands.” The department and the Ministry of Tourism – boosted by local business leaders – have had only modest success in previous, similar attempts. Approaches to Panama and Honduras have had limited responses, and larger plans in- volving Buenos Aires have proved sluggish. On Tuesday, Mr. Kirkconnell renewed hopes that prosperous Latin gateways might finally happen. “You can’t do this independently of the stakeholders without all the players involved in the tourism product,” he said, naming chiefly hotels and airlines. “You have to look at this in a business- like way. You talk to a local hotel, and we are looking at bringing people from, say, Bogota and Panama City and Rio, but without talking to them, you are doing no good for anyone, and so we are looking at the potential and what is there,” he said. The Department of Tourism did not re- spond on Tuesday to queries about its tender, which sets Jan. 13 as a deadline for responses. The invitation did not mention when the de- partment would make its selection or when consultations might start and finish. Mr. Kirkconnell hopes that South American “hub cities” might be named, funneling passen- gers to George Town from high-income areas like those in the New York and Washington Cayman Islands stars in Robb Report ‘Travel Issue’ VICTORIA WHEATON vwheaton@pinnaclemedialtd.com The Cayman Islands is fea- tured in the first edition of the 2017 Robb Report, consid- ered by many as the quint- essential guide to the best of luxury living. The magazine often fea- tures the latest in fine auto- mobiles, cutting-edge home technology products, and five- star vacations. The cover of its latest edi- tion, dubbed “The Travel Issue,” features “Caribbean Bliss in the Cayman Islands,” heading the magazine’s list of 21 top trips for the year. A six-page article by Brett Anderson covers a number of local properties, including The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, the Kimpton Seafire + Spa and Camana Bay. “When I landed on Grand Cayman several days before, I didn’t know what to expect of my inaugural visit,” Mr. An- derson said. “ … I was greeted by something entirely unex- pected: a sense of familiarity.” Local luxury Mr. Anderson was given a tour of The Ritz-Carlton by general manager Marc Lan- gevin, highlighted by a look at the 8,000-square-foot Grand Cayman Penthouse. Next was a stop at the new Kimpton and a chat with Jackie Doak, presi- dent of Dart Real Estate. Mr. Anderson’s article also encompasses a jaunt to the Sister Islands, with a stay at the exclusive Le Soleil d’Or on Cayman Brac. “Le Soleil d’Or, situated on a rustic beachfront, offers guests the absolute privacy enjoyed by castaways but without the de- privations,” Mr. Anderson wrote. Angel Robledo, mixologist The Presidential Suite at the Kimpton Seafire resort gets a thumbs-up from the Robb Report. The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman resort on Seven Mile Beach. – PHOTO: TANEOS RAMSAY PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 5 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 5 »2 LOCAL&REGIONAL WEDNESDAY JANUARY 4, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS Daily Matinees Every Day $8.00 Seniors, Mon-Fri Before 6pm Cayman Cinema@cbcinema6cbcinema6 640-FILM (640-3456) *Additional charges will apply per 3D ticket requested. SATURDAY NIGHT: For your viewing pleasure, minors under the age of 18 will not be admitted to any film starting after 6pm, unless accompanied by their parent. - WEDNESDAY - ROGUE ONE 3D (PG13) 12:50 2D | 3:05 | 6:50 2D | 9:35 PASSENGERS 3D (PG13) 1:00 | 3:50 2D | 7:00 | 9:40 2D ASSASSINS CREED 3D (PG13) 1:20 | 4:00 2D | 7:15 | 10:00 2D FENCES (PG13) 12:25 | 3:30 | 6:35 | 9:40 MOANA (PG) 12:45 | 3:30 | 6:45 | 9:20 SING 3D (PG) 12:30 | 3:45 2D | 7:00 | 9:50 2D Cruise travel continues to grow globally Surge in arrivals in Cayman reflects international trend JAMES WHITTAKER jwhittaker@pinnaclemedialtd.com A record 25 million pas- sengers are expected to set sail on cruises next year, continuing a steady growth in the industry over the past decade. The number of people taking cruise vacations glob- ally has risen from 15.8 mil- lion in 2007, according to sta- tistics from the Cruise Lines International Association. The cruise industry trade association, in its annual State of the Cruise Industry Outlook, indicates continued growth in cruise travel and significant investment in the industry in 2017. The Cayman Islands’ likely share of that growing market continues to be a source of debate, with sup- porters of the planned new cruise berthing terminal in- sisting the island will miss out if it does not follow through with plans for piers in George Town harbor. Cayman’s final cruise fig- ures for 2016 are still being collated, but the figures through November were tracking 3 percent higher than the previous year, put- ting the islands on course for its best year since 2006. Despite that positive picture, supporters of the planned cruise pier devel- opment in George Town harbor insist the good times will not last without proper berthing facilities. Robert Hamaty, owner of Tortuga Rum and founder of the Association for the Ad- vancement of Cruise Tourism, said, “We need to get these piers built because the in- dustry is growing, investment is increasing and all these new ships will be sailing by. The larger ships is where all the investment is going and if we are not careful, Cayman will be the islands that these ships forgot.” Cruise Lines Interna- tional Association reports that cruise lines are sched- uled to debut 26 new ocean, river and specialty ships in 2017 for a total investment of more than $6.8 billion in new vessels worldwide. From 2017 to 2026, the in- dustry is expected to intro- duce a total of 97 new cruise ships totaling an estimated investment of $53 billion through 2026, though a large proportion of that investment is expected to be focussed on the emerging Chinese market. “The cruise industry is responding to global de- mand and we are highly en- couraged by both the short- term and long-term outlook,” Cindy D’Aoust, president of the Cruise Lines Interna- tional Association, said in a media statement. “From technological ad- vancements and deployment of new ships to new ports and destinations around the world, the industry con- tinues to respond to de- sires of today’s travelers, re- sulting in steady growth and strong economic impact around the world.” Cruise industry expendi- tures generated $117 billion in total output worldwide, supporting 956,597 full- time equivalent employees who earned $38 billion in income in 2015, according to the report. Highlighting likely trends for 2017, the industry report predicts greater interest in cruises from a younger gen- eration, demand for celebrity chefs and expedition cruises. Potentially impacting Cayman is the growth in pop- ularity of private islands, owned or leased by the cruise lines. “As more cruise lines introduce private island des- tinations, travellers are re- sponding and booking these itineraries. In 2017, cruise lines offer ports on a total of seven private islands,” the report notes. Several of those are in the Caribbean region, including Royal Caribbean’s 260-acre private beach resort, La- badee, on Haiti’s north coast. The U.S. remains by far the biggest source of cruise passengers worldwide, with the report indicating that 11.28 million of the 25 mil- lion cruisers taking to the seas next year will be from the United States. Germany is next with 1.8 million, then the U.K. 1.6 million and Aus- tralia 1.1 million. Cruise ships moor off George Town on a busy day last year. An increase in the number of arrivals in the Cayman Islands reflects a worldwide trend in cruise travel. - PHOTO: TANEOS RAMSAY RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – An attack by members of one crime gang on rival in- mates touched off a riot at a prison in the northern state of Amazonas, leaving at least 56 dead, including sev- eral who were beheaded or dismembered in the worst bloodshed at a Brazilian prison since 1992. Authorities said the riot that raged from Sunday after- noon into Monday morning grew out of a fight between two of the country’s biggest crime gangs over control of prisons and drug routes in northern Brazil. In a separate incident Monday evening, four in- mates were killed at another Amazonas prison. Police were investigating whether there was a connection be- tween the mass killings at the Anisio Jobim Peniten- tiary Complex and the later ones at Unidade Prisional do Puraquequara. Amazonas authorities initially reported 60 dead in the Anisio Jobim prison in Manaus, but the state public security secretary’s office later reduced that figure to 56. Officials also said 112 inmates escaped during the riot. There were 1,224 in- mates in the prison, which was built to hold 592, Am- azonas state public securi- ty’s office said. The prison is run by a private company that is paid according to the number of inmates. Twelve prison guards were held hostage by the in- mates during the riot, though none was injured. “This is the biggest prison massacre in our state’s his- tory,” Public Security Secre- tary Sergio Fontes said at a news conference. “What hap- pened here is another chapter of the war that narcos are waging on this country and it shows that this problem cannot be tackled only by state governments.” At least 56 inmates killed in prison riot in northern Brazil Relatives of prisoners wait Monday for information outside the Anisio Jobim Penitentiary Complex in Manaus, Brazil. - PHOTO: AP/EDMAR BARROS, FUTURA PRESS, BRAZIL OUT PARTY OVER: UN ENVOYS BLASTED FOR PARTY WITH COLOMBIA REBELS BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) – United Nations ob- servers are in hot water in Colombia over a video showing them dancing with leftist rebels while deployed to watch over the guerrillas as part of a peace deal. The short video was shot by Spanish news agency EFE from inside a jungle camp in northern Colombia during a New Year’s Eve party. It shows two men wearing blue vests with U.N. insignia dancing hip-to-hip with fe- male guerrillas. The images, dismissed by some as a folkish dis- play of Colombians’ love for revelry in even the most adverse circum- stances, drew sharp re- buke from opponents of the peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. “What a joke,” conser- vative lawmaker Maria Fernanda Cabal blasted out on Twitter. “How can we trust in the U.N. delegates’ impartiality when they go partying with the FARC?” The U.N. mission in a statement late Monday said it would take appro- priate measures. “This behavior is in- appropriate and doesn’t reflect the values of professionalism and im- partiality of the mission,” it said without identi- fying the officials by name or nationality. As part of a peace deal ratified last month hun- dreds of U.N.-sponsored observers, mostly from Latin American nations, are being deployed across the country to 20-plus camps where guerrillas will soon begin turning over their weapons. SEARCH OFF PUERTO RICO FOR MISSING CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Authorities are searching near Puerto Rico for a French citizen suspected of going overboard from a cruise ship north of the U.S. island territory. The U.S. Coast Guard says the 74-year-old was reported missing by his wife while the MSC Divina was en route to San Juan. Lt. Leah Roach says a Coast Guard plane and cutter were searching a wide area Tuesday about 24 nautical miles north of Puerto Rico. Roach says Jean Pierre Knorr awoke before dawn Monday and told his wife he was stepping outside for some fresh air. She got up several hours later and re- alized he had not returned. MSC Cruises said com- pany officials are working with the Coast Guard to de- termine the circumstances that led to his apparent disappearance.3 WORLD&REGIONAL CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY JANUARY 4, 2017 +1.954.659.5080 l flgps@ccf.org clevelandclinic.org/flgps Make your connection to world class care. Our Global Patient Coordinators connect people from over 100 countries to a world renowned name in healthcare. Family, friends, co-workers remember Dale Ebanks West Bay man dies after a boating accident on New Year’s Day JEWEL LEVY jevy@pinnaclemedialtd.com A woman whose son was killed following a New Year’s Day boating accident also lost her husband in an inci- dent on the water in 2014. Dale Ebanks, 49, of West Bay died from his injuries Jan. 2 at the Cayman Is- lands Hospital after he was thrown overboard and was then struck on the head by the boat the day before. Dale Ebanks’s father, George Burnis Ebanks, 79, of Boatswains Bay, West Bay, died in September 2014 while on an early morning fishing trip. When that hap- pened, Andy Ebanks, Dale’s mother, said Dale comforted her by saying, “Mama, daddy died doing the things he liked to do.” “I can only think the same of my son,” she said on Tuesday. Brothers were testing boat Dale Ebanks was testing the boat with his brother Ian when the incident happened. Dale’s wife Belkis heard the news about her husband of 10 years when her mother- in-law Andy Ebanks came knocking on her door to tell her Dale and Ian had been in a boating accident and they needed to get to the hospital immediately. She said she was too shaken up to speak about the ordeal. When the family arrived at the hospital, they were told there were no changes in Dale’s condition. Around 1 a.m., Andy Ebanks said, the doctors told them Dale had succumbed to his injuries. “His brother Ian is taking it very hard,” Ms. Ebanks said. “They grew up like twins. If he worked on the car, Dale was right there to help him.” Speaking to the Cayman Compass about the day of the accident, Ian Ebanks said he and his brother had just planned to cruise around, checking the boat and maybe heading to Cayman Kai, but soon re- alized the boat had prob- lems and not enough gas, so they turned around and headed back. “We weren’t going at any speed when the steering cable broke loose and the boat lost control,” he said. “Dale grabbed out to hold onto the boat, which spun and dragged him overboard and into the engine, which caught him on the side of his face. It happened so fast I had no time to react; all I could do was throw the an- chor overboard and jump over to grab him.” He said a nearby boat helped them to shore to meet the ambulance that re- sponded to a 911 call made around 6:15 p.m. Ian Ebanks said the boat was not new, but was one he had had for a while. “I miss my bother dearly,” he said, “but what can we do when accidents happen? “He helped me and I helped him; we never had no fuss or fight. I will al- ways miss him.” His sister Jennifer said Dale was a hardworking man and had gotten bap- tized as a Jehovah’s Witness a couple of years ago. He al- ways helped out with com- munity events, and while he did not have children of his own, he was a loving person with others. “When there was a funeral in the family, he was the first to pull it together,” she said. “It’s hard now that we have to do it for him.” Worked at PWD Dale Ebanks started working at the Public Works Department in October 1997. He was a skilled painter and extremely depend- able, said Max Jones, Public Works director. “He was well respected at PWD and a good friend to a large number of PWD em- ployees,” Mr. Jones said. In recent years, he said, Dale was based at the Cayman Islands Further Education Centre and was always willing to take on whatever task needed to be done to support the school. He also said the staff and management at the center held Dale in high esteem and frequently praised his work. They had come to rely greatly on Dale for maintenance activities at the school. “Dale will be hugely missed by all those who worked with him at PWD,” he said. In addition to his wife and his mother, Mr. Ebanks is survived by his sis- ters, Jennifer and Melita, and his brothers Ian, Donny and Denny. The date of the fu- neral service for Mr. Ebanks will be announced later, the family said. Dale Ebanks’s death is the first water-related death of the year. Last year proved to be a particularly dangerous year on the water in Cayman, with 18 people losing their lives in water-related fatalities. In a statement released on Monday, the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service said the Joint Marine Unit was investigating the New Year’s Day accident.Dale Ebanks “It happened so fast I had no time to react; all I could do was throw the anchor overboard and jump over to grab him.” IAN EBANKS, brotherThe islands’ most-trusted news source 4 – EDITORIAL – Opinion&Letters The Cayman Compass welcomes comments, opinions and viewpoints from readers. Letters to the editor can be emailed to editor@pinnaclemedialtd.com, submitted via www.caymancompass.com, sent by post or hand-delivered to the Compass office. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY: Caymanian Compass Limited (a subsidiary of Pinnacle Media Ltd) Compass Centre Shedden Road, George Town SEND US YOUR VIEWS OR NEWS: P.O. Box 1365 Grand Cayman KY1-1108, Cayman Islands Telephone: (345) 815-0095 Email: newsdesk@pinnaclemedialtd.com ADVERTISE WITH US: Telephone: (345) 949-5111 Email: sales@pinnaclemedialtd.com Website: www.caymancompass.com PUBLISHERS DAVID R. LEGGE AND VICKI L. LEGGE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DAVID R. LEGGE EXECUTIVE EDITOR PATRICK BRENDEL A MEMBER OF THE INTER-AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION “Give light and the people will findtheirownway” A positive side effect of President Obama’s duplicity with the anti-Israeli United Nations vote was the at- tention it brought to what the U.N. is actually doing and how it is wasting tax- payer dollars and under- mining liberty. If the U.S. Congress had it to do all over again with the knowledge of what the U.N., the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Organization for Eco- nomic Cooperation and Devel- opment would actually do – in contrast with their promises – would it have ever agreed to their creation, let alone pro- vide taxpayer dollars to sup- port them? The answer is clearly “no.” That’s despite the widespread belief that prob- lems can be solved by setting up governmental and interna- tional organizations, staffed by experts who will make things much better – as if the mere statement of good inten- tions solves everything. The U.N. was formed in 1945 at the end of World War II as an international organi- zation largely to prevent an- other conflict. In addition to the objective of “maintaining world peace and security,” it has also taken on the roles of promoting economic de- velopment, protecting the environment, providing hu- manitarian aid, and pro- tecting human rights, in- cluding gender equality. It has 193 members, and membership is open to all “peace-loving states that ac- cept the obligations con- tained in the Charter and are able and willing to carry out these obligations.” Its intent is wonderful, but has little to do with re- ality. In fact, the U.N. has been a forum for authori- tarian, human rights and economic freedom-denying countries that bash the U.S. and other free-market, lib- erty-loving democracies. U.S, taxpayers are responsible for 22 percent of the U.N.’s gen- eral budget (Russia pays 3 percent) and for about 28 percent of the much-larger “peacekeeping budget.” Over the years, the U.N. has been mired in endless mismanage- ment and corruption scan- dals (such as the Iraqi Oil- for-Food program). Other than the fact that the U.N. has been ineffective, inept, corrupt and hypocritical, it is a fine organization. The International Mon- etary Fund was formed in 1945 and now has 189 mem- bers “working to foster global monetary cooperation, se- cure financial stability, fa- cilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.” Wow, but why no mention of mother- hood and apple pie? It was formed on the ideas of Harry Dexter White (an aide to President Franklin D. Roos- evelt, who was later found to be a communist, covertly working for Stalin) and John Maynard Keynes. The IMF is funded by a quota system (U.S. taxpayers are responsible for 18 per- cent) where funds are put into a pool to be lent to countries in distress. The IMF directors and staff have persistently exhibited a certain smug- ness and arrogance when disseminating advice (which has often later proved to be wrong) and requirements in exchange for aid. The mere existence of the IMF adds to global systemic financial risk, because countries know they can get an IMF bailout rather than clean up their own acts. Giving loans to countries (or individuals or businesses) that have been proved inca- pable of behaving respon- sibly in the past is not a good business model. The World Bank Group is a family of five major in- ternational organizations, of which the major ones are the International Bank for Re- construction and Develop- ment formed in 1944, and the International Development Association, whose main mis- sion is to eliminate global poverty. It borrows money from developed country gov- ernments (the U.S. being the largest) at interest rates near what the governments pay on their own bonds, and uses the proceeds largely to fund pri- marily government or govern- ment-sponsored projects in poor countries. The rationale for the World Bank is to pro- vide countries with low-cost loans that would not be pro- vided by the private sector. The basic flaw in the World Bank model is that if governments in poorer na- tions establish the rule of law and strong protections of private property rights, as well as a stable currency and reasonable tax rates and reg- ulations, they will be able to attract all the private capital they need for productive uses, and without those protec- tions, investment funds are likely to be stolen or wasted. The reason poor countries re- main poor is because they embrace socialistic policies or have corrupt or incompe- tent leadership. World Bank funds are normally only dis- persed with the agreement of a country’s leadership, which all too often results in cro- nyism and theft or misal- location of the funds. The tragedy is not only that the loans are misspent, but then the citizens of the countries are stuck with the bill to pay them back with interest. The Paris-based Orga- nization for Economic Co- operation and Development members are the developed market-economy democra- cies. Its initial mission was to foster policies that would stimulate economic progress and trade – all well and good. Unfortunately, it has morphed into an organization that pro- motes higher taxes and at- tempts to penalize jurisdic- tions that have low or no corporate income taxes – con- trary to its founding mission. If the Republican Con- gress and Trump adminis- tration are serious about “draining the swamp,” a good place to begin is the defunding of the above-de- scribed organizations. Richard W. Rahn, chairman of Improbable Success Productions and a board member of the American Council for Capital Formation, is on the Editorial Board of Cayman Financial Review. © 2016, The Washington Times, LLC. WEDNESDAY JANUARY 4, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS Over the extended holiday period between Christmas and New Year’s, one of the editors at the Cayman Compass found himself interacting with police on two separate occasions. No, he wasn’t driving recklessly on a motorbike, and no, warrants weren’t involved. Rather, our editor, along with hundreds of motorists, simply encountered traffic checkpoints set up by the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service. (In both incidents, the officers glanced at our editor’s vehicle tag, said hello, and waved him though.) The checkpoints are the first and most noticeable sign of the tenure of new Police Commissioner Derek Byrne. In addition to citations for improperly tinted windows or expired tags, the checkpoints also provide police with opportunities to make arrests for more serious offenses, such as intoxicated driving, drug possession or even violent crime. Perhaps the most important result of the checkpoints, however, is what is reflected in our editor’s experience – a renewed awareness among the law-abiding members of our community that our police are present, active and on duty. Now, we know that some of our readers aren’t propo- nents of relatively intrusive traffic checkpoints, and we understand they aren’t the only way for police to raise their profile “on the street.” But checkpoints certainly are one tool that officers can employ. As a rule, we don’t delve into police tactics or strategies, preferring to leave those decisions up to the professionals; however, we will say that, particularly in the wake of the two Boxing Day shootings (in regard to which one arrest has been made), and generally amid the perception that crime and law- lessness are on the rise, it is most imperative that police strive to be as visible as possible. We simply cannot allow the safety and security of Cayman to slip away, drip by drip, because of passivity on the part of law enforcement. If diminishing standards among the community eventually erode the rule of law, then Cayman will have “defined deviancy down,” and what was once considered unacceptable, or even unthink- able, will have become the status quo. Too often the Compass runs stories involving gun violence, not just about “gang members shooting one another,” but also situations where innocent people are involved. For example, in Tuesday’s newspaper, we pub- lished a story about two armed men who attempted (but thankfully failed) to rob a money transfer vehicle outside a local bank. Not so long ago, that story would have run across the top of the front page, beneath a screaming two-deck headline. On Tuesday, it didn’t even make Page One. Cayman is still far safer than similarly sized communi- ties in North America or Europe, and is one of the safest places in the Caribbean. It is vital to our tourism sector, financial services industry and quality of life that we keep Cayman’s reputation for safety in sync with reality. When it comes to law and order, the police are our first line of protection — backed up by public prosecu- tors, defense attorneys and the judiciary. All must work together to ensure prompt and expedient justice. It does little good if the police make arrests, but cases either take years to reach a judgment or don’t go forward at all. At the beginning of 2017, there is gridlock in Cayman, not just on many of our crowded roads (and not because of police checkpoints), but within our courts. Speed may not be desirable on our highways, but it is essential in our justice system. Police checkpoints: Stop in the name of the law, please Defund wasteful global entities RICHARD W. RAHN RICHARD W. RAHN Giving loans to countries (or individuals or businesses) that have been proved incapable of behaving responsibly in the past is not a good business model.The islands’ most-trusted news source 5 CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY JANUARY 4, 2017 and member of the Le So- leil d’Or staff, took Mr. An- derson around the resort’s farm and then treated him to a cocktail created from the farm’s bounty. “Minutes later, she re- turned with a small sherry glass containing a dark liquid topped with foam, a sprinkle of brown dust, and a wedge of dried coconut. The portion was small, but the flavors were profound – chocolate, brown spices, and hot pepper.” ‘Island Renewal’ The article, laden with large images of the prop- erties the author visited, ends with an “Island Re- newal” sidebar, focusing on the background of Camana Bay and how interest in local real estate isn’t limited to bricks and mortar. “The definition of luxury has changed,” according to David Seerman, vice president of sales at Dart Realty. “People don’t ask about finishes and fixtures; they want to know about experiences and what they can do with their fami- lies while they are here.” The January edition of the Robb Report is on newsstands now. metropolitan areas. “Think of the chain of what happens to people who want to vacation in the Caribbean and Cayman,” he said, as they move from prosperous residential communities to central air terminals, “which make it easy to visit Cayman if they are within, say, four hours.” Cayman Airways, he said, is a “tool” that can develop new “gateways of wealth” smoothing the path for Latin American visitors to George Town, even po- tentially spurring local air- lines to create their own Cayman routes. Fresh airlift would help fill the 20 percent more hotel rooms expected to become available in the next two to three years, the minister said. The five-star, 226- room Kimpton Seafire Re- sort + Spa opened Nov. 15. Owner Dart Development plans a second five-star hotel nearby. In March, it will buy the former Hyatt Hotel and Britannia Golf Course. Also, the Iron- shore tourism/residential community is planned for Frank Sound, while another hotel is planned for Beach Bay. Cayman Enterprise City is scheduled to break ground this year on its 50- acre Fairbanks Road site. Meanwhile, the Depart- ment of Tourism registered just more than 345,000 air arrivals on 2016 and 1.5 million cruise visitors. “Stay-over visitors this year [2016] are at the highest percentages they’ve ever been,” Mr. Kirkconnell said. He said Cayman’s av- erage daily rate for hotel rooms, at US$350 easily the highest in the re- gion, is unlikely to dis- courage Southern Hemi- sphere visitors. “If you look at the U.S. zip codes [of Cayman tour- ists], they earn about US$200,000 per year. It’s the same in Latin America,” he said. Still, he said, growth could be impeded while the $55 million airport expan- sion, which is not sched- uled for completion until late 2018, is underway. Once completed, it is ex- pected to quadruple pas- senger capacity to 2.5 mil- lion per year. Cayman Islands stars in Robb Report ‘Travel Issue’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The Grand Cayman Penthouse living room at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Tourism Department seeks consultants on Latin America Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell MIGRANTS PROTEST CONDITIONS AT TWO ASYLUM CENTERS IN ITALY ROME (AP) – Italian po- lice early Tuesday quelled a protest by occupants of a migrant center near Venice that left fearful workers at the center barricaded inside offices. Carabinieri paramilitary police in Chioggia, about 45 miles east of the Cona migrant center, said the protest ended peacefully after a few hours. Some migrants told Italian television they were protesting the alleged delay in medical assistance Monday for an ill 25-year- old woman from Ivory Coast. She died shortly after an ambulance arrived. The Italian news agency ANSA quoted Venice Prose- cutor Lucia D’Alessandro as saying an autopsy indicated a pulmonary blood clot caused the woman’s death. Italian state radio said 25 frightened workers locked themselves in- side offices when the mi- grants allegedly set fires outside the center. No one was reported injured, and the protest ended after po- lice intervened. The migrant center in a former military barracks houses more than 1,000 asylum seekers, many of them Africans who arrived in Italy after paying migrant smugglers for perilous jour- neys from Libya on unsea- worthy, overcrowded fishing boats or dinghies. Il Sole-24 Ore radio said that before the unrest, the center’s management was being investigated for al- legations of fraud and maltreatment. Cona, a town of some 3,000 residents, is one of many Italian loca- tions hosting migrants while asylum requests are processed. S. Korean president refuses to testify in impeachment trial SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korean President Park Geun-hye refused to testify Tuesday in the impeachment trial that will decide her fu- ture, prompting the prosecu- tors to question why she has publicly denied the charges of corruption but will not do so before the court. After Park’s refusal, the Constitutional Court delayed the start of oral arguments and asked her to testify on Thursday, when some of her current and former aides are also scheduled to testify. The court cannot force her to ap- pear but can proceed without her if she refuses twice to ap- pear at the hearings. Lawmaker Kweon Seong Dong, the chief prosecutor in the trial, questioned why Park (pronounced Bahk) cannot defend herself in court when just two days ago she vehemently rejected the accusations of corruption in a hastily arranged meeting with reporters at Seoul’s presidential Blue House. “It’s not good etiquette to the justices and also in- appropriate for the presi- dent, as the defendant of the impeachment trial, to say this and that to the media outside of court,” Kweon told reporters. Lee Joong-hwan, Park’s lawyer, said she does not plan to appear Thursday and will probably not testify during the impeachment trial. The trial in the Consti- tutional Court must decide within six months of her Dec. 9 impeachment whether Park should permanently step down or should be reinstated to office. If the court formally removes Park from office, a presidential election will be held within 60 days. Park has been accused of colluding with confidante Choi (pronounced Chwey) Soon-sil to extort money and favors from companies and allowing the friend to ma- nipulate government affairs. Choi, Choi’s niece, and sev- eral former government and presidential officials have been indicted, and a special prosecution team has been investigating bribery suspi- cions between Park and busi- ness giant Samsung. The investigators want to bring home Choi’s daughter, Yoora Chung, who was ar- rested in Denmark on an international warrant, as they look into the suspicions that Samsung sponsored Choi in exchange for gov- ernment favors. Cho June-hyuck, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that the ministry is preparing for the extradi- tion of Chung, and that her passport will be invalidated if she does not hand it in by next Monday. Speaking to Korean re- porters in Denmark, Chung said she’s willing to re- turn to South Korea if she could continue to be with her 19-month-old-son. She also said Samsung took back a horse and car it had provided her. Her Danish lawyer, Jan Schneider, said Chung denied any wrongdoing and that an appeal of her four-week de- tention had been filed. Prosecutor Mohammad Ahsan told The Associated Press that Denmark had not received yet a formal request from South Korea, adding it “will be treated with thor- oughness like any other sim- ilar case,” adding “any extra- dition will be assessed on what Danish law says.” “A decision would be made a few weeks after we have received a formal South Korean request,” Ashan said. “After that a decision will be sent to a court of law and can be appealed.” The country’s former health minister was arrested on allegations he forced the National Pension Service to support a merger between two Samsung affiliates last year. The deal shaved the fund’s stake in one of the companies by an estimated hundreds of millions of dol- lars, but allowed Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong to pro- mote a father-to-son suc- cession of leadership and boost corporate wealth at the group. Lee has apologized for the use of corporate funds to buy a horse for Chung, an equestrian athlete, but denied that Samsung sought favors from Choi or Park’s administration. There are also questions as to why Samsung finan- cially supported a winter sports center run by Choi’s niece and a sports man- agement firm Choi estab- lished in Germany. FRENCH LEFT-WING CANDIDATES TAKE RISKY STANCE: PRO-EUROPE PARIS (AP) – Two men hoping to clinch the left-wing nomination for France’s pres- idential race are pursuing a risky strategy: They want to save the much-maligned European Union. Manuel Valls and Vincent Peillon laid out their plat- forms Tuesday, pleading for unity and tolerance in the face of far-right candidate Ma- rine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, anti-EU campaign. Valls and Peillon are among seven candidates in the leftist primary Jan. 22 and 29, seeking a nomination that looks like a poisoned chalice. Polls sug- gest the mainstream left’s can- didate in France’s April-May election may not even make it past the first round of voting amid mass disappointment with Socialist Francois Hol- lande’s presidency. Both men sought Tuesday to distance themselves from the Socialists’ troubles – and to revive support for the EU. That may prove a hard sell in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the EU and amid frustration across the continent with a union seen as elitist and bogged down in bureaucracy. Valls, a Spanish-born former prime minister, called himself “profoundly European” and said the solution to disillusionment with the EU is to “re-found” and defend it, notably with higher taxes on imports from outside Europe’s single market.DISTRICT DAYS 6 District Days Sister Islands WEDNESDAY JANUARY 4, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS 50 YEARS AGO: Holiday church programs celebrate the yuletide season In the Jan. 4, 1967 edi- tion of the Caymanian Weekly, a precursor of the Cayman Compass, Cayman Brac correspondent Lil- lian Ritch wrote: “The Yuletide season in Cayman Brac passed qui- etly and peacefully with a general air of thankful con- tentment. A new note in the spirit of giving fell gently on the ear as some very needy ones in our midst received a Christmas package made up by local welfare thinkers. We are told that the mer- chants contributed gener- ously and a group of ladies under the leadership of our District Commissioner’s wife, Mrs. Reba Foster, as- sisted by Mrs. Maud Jervis and Mrs. Vernice Tibbetts distributed the gifts. “Programmes were given in all the churches and were refreshing and inspiring. “On Christmas Eve, Santa Claus was in the Eastern District at K.P. Tib- betts’ store, and the chil- dren really enjoyed get- ting close to him. He threw them candies. For the adults he had value prizes, first 3 pounds’ worth, second 2 pounds’ worth. During Friday and Saturday, cus- tomers received a ticket for every 20 shilling pur- chase. The winners drawn by Santa Claus were: La- dies – 1st place, Mrs. Estella Brown of Watering Place; 2nd place, Mrs. Ellen Yap of Creek. Gents – 1st place, Dwaine McLaughlin of Spot Bay; 2nd place, David Bryan of North East Bay. “To complete the eve- ning, Christmas music filled the air, floating down from the deco of the Trial, Capt. Keith’s newly con- structed boat resting on her stocks on the northern side of the road. Mr. Teddy Tibbetts of St. Petersburg, who is best known for his talent in church music, was expressing his happi- ness in being ‘home’ on the piano accordion. “On Monday, 26th, Spot Bay enjoyed an all day birthday party in which nearly everyone in the island seemed to have partaken. The Christmas birthday party of Mr. Daniel Lewis has become traditional. ‘Uncle Dan,’ as he is affec- tionately known, attained his 74th year. Of the old rugged stock, he is as active as ever as fisherman, farmer and cattle rearer. “The fishing boats Foster Ranger and Foster Runner came home for the holidays. Owned by the brothers Capts. Curwin and Lewis Foster of West End and Kingston, and mastered by the brothers Capts. Jo- seph (Jerry) and Orin (Shae Shae) Allenger of Spot Bay. We give a greeting to the owners and captains and their families, all of whom spent the Christmas here. “The Ranger in coming from Jamaica brought some ground provisions, season and green vegetables to add to the Christmas fare, both vessels are fishing around home waters, offsetting the negation of the Northeast- erly winds. The boats scale fish on the Mosquito Banks for the Jamaica market. “We greet our youngsters who attend school overseas and who came home on hol- iday and encourage them to press on with their oppor- tunities of secondary edu- cation. Students of the Sec- ondary Grammar School are Sharon Brown, Barbara Bodden, Daphne Porter and Carolyn Tatum of Spot Bay and Marilyn Ebanks of Wa- tering Place. Home from Tampa, Florida and vaca- tioning with their grandpar- ents, we have been glad to see Julie of the Edson Tib- betts’ family, and Donald Bodden with Mr. and Mrs. Edward Hurlston, all of Cotton Tree Bay. We wish Karon Ritch and Jennifer Foster of West End a happy new term at Hampton, Ja- maica. Best wishes also go with Shernette, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cleary Walton of Spot Bay, as she returns to school in Jamaica. “Welcome ‘home,’ Nurse Gwen Service after spending a family Christmas in Ja- maica and Dr. and Mrs. Roy Herram of Rochester, New York, who have come for their winter stay. “‘Is your place a small one? Tend it with care! He put you there!’ – John Oxenham. “Happy New Year!” Firemen bring Santa to Little Cayman On the Friday before Christmas, the Little Cayman Fire Department orga- nized a children’s Christmas party featuring Santa Claus, aka Victor Lopez of Public Works, who handed out pres- ents and candy. The organizers also pro- vided catered finger food. “We started the event last year for the first time, as a way to reach out to the community, and espe- cially the kids, over the hol- idays,” said Station Officer George Hurlston. “We had such a good re- sponse, we decided to do it again. We are so happy that it went well and ev- eryone had fun.” “It was great,” said Dacia Henriquez, one of the many attendees. Christmas cheer for families The Needs Assessment Unit raised money last year to sponsor a number of families for Christmas in Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac. The families were chosen based on their cir- cumstances and their demonstrated efforts to improve their situation, a press release said. The families were in- vited to meet with Fa- ther Christmas at the unit’s new location at Aqua Mall in George Town on Dec. 21, when they received their gifts and had their pictures taken with Santa. The Ministry of Finan- cial Services, Commerce and Environment, the Gen- eral Registry and mem- bers of the public also do- nated to the initiative.Santa teamed up with the Needs Assessment Unit to deliver Christmas cheer. The kids on top of the fire truck with Fire Officers Jason McCoy, Nicholas Connor and Miguel Thompson.Deah Tatum accepts a present from Santa.The islands’ most-trusted news source 7 CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY JANUARY 4, 2017 Iran activist ends 71-day hunger strike Imprisoned Iranian human rights activist Arash Sadeghi ended a 71-day hunger strike Tuesday as his detained wife won a temporary release from prison, a day after his case sparked a rare unauthorized protest in Tehran. Syrian rebels suspend talks over alleged truce violations BEIRUT (AP) – Syrian govern- ment forces pressed their of- fensive in a water-rich valley northwest of Damascus on Tuesday as 10 rebel groups announced they are sus- pending talks about planned peace negotiations because of what they described as government violations of a cease-fire deal. The truce, brokered by Russia and Turkey, is meant to be followed by talks later this month in the Kazakh cap- ital of Astana between main- stream rebel factions and government representatives. The U.N. Security Council on Saturday unanimously adopted a resolution sup- porting efforts by Russia and Turkey, which back op- posing sides in Syria’s civil war, to end the nearly six- year conflict and jump-start peace negotiations. But the nationwide four- day-old cease-fire is looking increasingly shaky, with op- position factions angered in particular about the on- going military offensive in the strategically important Barada Valley. The government and the opposition disagree about whether the region is part of the cease-fire agreement, which excludes extremist factions such as the Islamic State group and al-Qaida’s affiliate, known as the Fatah al-Sham Front. The text of the document was never released to the public. The Syrian government says the mountainous re- gion is not part of the cease- fire because of the presence of the Fatah al-Sham Front. Local activists deny any militant presence in the area. Opposition activists, in- cluding the Barada Valley Media Center, on Tuesday reported heavy bombard- ment of villages there. The opposition’s Civil Defense first responders reported at least nine government air- strikes since Sunday, as well as acute shortages of med- ical supplies. Six people have been killed and 73 have been wounded, it said. In a statement posted late Monday, 10 rebel factions said they were “freezing all discussions regarding the Astana negotiations or any other consultations regarding the cease-fire agreement until it is fully implemented.” They include the powerful Army of Islam group, which op- erates mainly outside the Syrian capital. It said the violations in the Barada Valley are continuing and “threaten the lives of hundreds of thou- sands of people.” The state- ment also said that the op- position will consider any military changes made on the ground to be a serious viola- tion of the cease-fire agree- ment “that renders it null.” The Barada Valley, which is controlled by rebels and is surrounded by pro-gov- ernment forces, including the Lebanese Iran-backed Hezbollah group, is the pri- mary source of water for Damascus and surrounding areas. The fighting has cut off the capital’s main sources of water, resulting in severe shortages since Dec. 22. Images from the valley’s Media Center indicate its Ain al-Fijeh spring and water pro- cessing facility have been de- stroyed, apparently by air- strikes. The government says rebels spoiled the water source with diesel fuel, forcing it to cut supplies to the capital. The cease-fire agreement, which went into effect early Friday, is supposed to pave the way for the government and the opposition to meet for talks for the first time in nearly a year in the second half of January. Those talks will be mediated by Russia, Turkey and Iran, though Rus- sian officials have said other key players, including the United States, are welcome to participate. In the northern prov- ince of Idlib, al-Qaida’s af- filiate, the Fatah al-Sham Front, said more than 20 people were killed as a re- sult of U.S.-led coalition air- strikes that targeted one of its command centers. This undated photo claims to show Russian military engineers operating in Aleppo, Syria. - PHOTO: RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE PHOTO VIA AP German interior minister proposes domestic security shake-up BERLIN (AP) – Germany’s in- terior minister is proposing a security shake-up that could include creating “federal de- parture centers” to ease the deportation of rejected asylum-seekers and central- izing the country’s domestic intelligence agency. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere’s suggestions in a guest article Tuesday in the daily Frankfurter Allge- meine Zeitung followed last month’s attack on a Berlin Christmas market. The government has promised to examine whether laws need to be changed fol- lowing the Dec. 19 attack that killed 12 people. A failed Tu- nisian asylum-seeker is the prime suspect. The Islamic State group has claimed re- sponsibility for the attack. The proposals from de Maiziere, a member of Chan- cellor Angela Merkel’s con- servative party, center on giving federal authorities greater power on do- mestic security issues – re- sponsibility for which is spread between the fed- eral government and 16 state governments. Deportations are now the responsibility of state au- thorities. De Maiziere called for better cooperation, sug- gesting federally run “de- parture centers” close to airports that could handle deportees in their “final days or weeks” in Germany. Each state has its own branch of the domestic intel- ligence agency, in addition to its federal office. De Maiziere called for a discussion of putting it entirely under fed- eral control, and also urged greater powers for the federal police to conduct traffic con- trols away from border areas. At European Union level, de Maiziere advocated a “real mass-influx mechanism” to enable quicker handling of large numbers of migrants. He argued that countries should be considered safe if there’s a “safe place” there with “humane and safe recep- tion conditions,” for example at facilities for which the EU could be partly responsible. It’s unclear how much traction de Maiziere’s ideas will gain. A national election is expected in September and the conservatives’ main ri- vals, the center-left Social Democrats, are part of the current governing coalition. Germany’s states, regardless of political color, are reluc- tant to give up powers. Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, the Social Democrats’ leader, questioned the wisdom of concentrating now on a major security restructuring. He said he was concerned that “if we started with this, security authorities would be preoccupied with them- selves for a few years rather than hunting criminals and terrorists.” BRITISH EU ENVOY DEPARTS AHEAD OF BREXIT NEGOTIATIONS BRUSSELS (AP) – Under- scoring the hectic prepara- tions for Britain’s divorce proceedings from the Euro- pean Union, London’s envoy to the EU has unexpectedly resigned only months before the negotiations are due to start and on the heels of a nasty controversy. Ivan Rogers decided to leave now so that a suc- cessor could be in place ahead of the official trig- gering of the exit talks set for the end of March, the British government said. Rogers was named to the Brussels post of permanent representative in 2013 and was due to stay until No- vember and help oversee the critical first half year of negotiations. Rogers was awarded a knighthood in 2016 for ser- vices including to Euro- pean policy and his exper- tise on complicated issues from trade to fisheries to foreign policy was consid- ered a major asset. British preparations for its divorce from the bloc after the June referendum have been anything but smooth and the sudden de- parture of the top diplomat is set to add to that. Rogers came under pres- sure last month following the leak of his suggestion to the prime minister that it could take up to a decade to have a trade deal with the EU in the wake of the so-called Brexit. Politicians backing an exit called him overly negative. The UK Independence Party immediately latched on to the news, with MEP Gerard Batten calling Rogers a “Europhile” and saying Prime Minister The- resa May should “have re- moved him long before.” Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said Rogers was one of the very few people at the top of the govern- ment “who understand EU.” His departure, Grant said, “makes a good deal on Brexit less likely.” German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere At European Union level, de Maiziere advocated a “real mass-influx mechanism” to enable quicker handling of large numbers of migrants.8 WORLD&REGIONAL WEDNESDAY JANUARY 4, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS FAST TRACK YOUR CAREER!! Train locally to compete globally! Intermediate Certificate in Financial & Management Accounting Diploma in Accounting & Business Advanced Diploma in Accounting & Business ACCA Qualification Get a Solid Foundation in Accounting! Get AAT Qualified AAT Foundation Certificate in Accounting AAT Foundation Certificate in Bookkeeping AAT Foundation Award in Accounting Software New Student Induction – Jan. 19th Classes begin week of Jan. 24th Upcoming Modules: (only 3 modules to be completed over a 12 to 18-‐month period) Accounting Fundamentals Investment Accounting Certifications – from ACCA (The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants – over 100 years strong ) OFFICE TEL FAX E-‐‑MAIL WEBSITE Unit 201 Alissta Towers 943-‐‑IMPT (4678) 943-‐‑4679 Info_impt@candw.ky www.impttraining.com ICSA® Certificate in International Finance & Administration Starts week of Jan. 24 th Starting week of Jan. 24 tt AAT QUALIFICATIONS (From the Association of Accounting Technicians) FAST TRACK YOUR CAREER!! Train locally to compete globally! Intermediate Accounting Diploma in Accounting & Business Advanced Diploma in Accounting & Business ACCA Qualification Get a Solid Foundation in Accounting! Get AAT Qualified AAT Foundation Certificate in Accounting AAT Foundation Certificate in Bookkeeping AAT Foundation Award in Accounting Software New Student Induction – Jan. 19th Classes begin week of Jan. 24th Upcoming Modules: (only 3 modules to be completed over a 12 to 18-‐month period) Accounting Fundamentals Investment Accounting Certifications – from ACCA (The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants – over 100 years strong ) OFFICE TEL FAX E-‐‑MAIL WEBSITE Unit 201 Alissta Towers 943-‐‑IMPT (4678) 943-‐‑4679 Info_impt@candw.ky www.impttraining.com ICSA® Certificate in International Finance & Administration Starts week of Jan. 24 th Starting week of Jan. 24 tt AAT QUALIFICATIONS (From the Association of Accounting Technicians) Turkey nightclub shooting suspect in grim selfie video in Istanbul ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkish state media aired new footage on Tuesday of a man believed to be the gunman who killed 39 people at a nightclub, showing a grim selfie video of the suspect as he circles Istanbul’s most famous square. The camera never leaves the man’s unsmiling face as he walks through Taksim square, one of Istanbul’s prime tourist spots, during the 44-second video broad- cast on state-run Anadolu television and other media. It was not immediately clear if it was filmed before or after the New Year’s mas- sacre at the Reina nightclub, or how the footage was ob- tained. The gunman, who has not been publicly identified, is still at large. The Islamic State group claimed the attack on Monday, saying a “soldier of the caliphate” had carried out the mass shooting to avenge Turkish military operations against IS in northern Syria. Layan Nasser, an 18-year- old Arab Israeli dental assis- tant who had traveled to Is- tanbul to celebrate the New Year with friends, was among the dead. Thousands attended the teen’s funeral on Tuesday in the Israeli city of Tira. “She had dreams to work, to progress, to study, to raise a family, but unfortunately the terror put an end to her dreams,” Tira mayor Mamoun Abd El Hai said. At least 14 people have been detained in connection with the attack. Two for- eigners were detained at Ataturk airport’s interna- tional terminal on Tuesday after police checked their cellphones and luggage, ac- cording to Anadolu. Hurriyet newspaper said that a woman identi- fied by Turkish media as the wife of the massacre sus- pect has told police she did not know her husband was an IS member. The woman was detained in the central town of Konya as part of the investigation. Neither she nor her hus- band has been identified by name. Hurriyet said on its online edition Tuesday that the woman said she learned about the attack on television and told police she did not know her husband harbored “sympathies toward” IS. Media reports say the gunman flew to Istanbul from Kyrgyzstan with his wife and children on Nov. 20. From there, they drove to the Turkish capital, Ankara, before arriving in Konya on Nov. 22. The family rented a studio in Konya, paying three months of rent upfront. The gunman told the real es- tate agent he had arrived in Konya in search of work, ac- cording to the report. Hurriyet said the gunman returned to Istanbul Dec. 29. Several media outlets on Monday, citing unnamed se- curity sources, said the man was believed to be from Central Asia and may have been part of the cell that staged a June attack on Is- tanbul’s Ataturk Airport that killed 45 people. Haber Turk newspaper on Tuesday said the man is thought to be a member of China’s Muslim Uighur mi- nority. A Kyrgyz passport cir- culated on Turkish media but police said it did not belong to the gunman. The nightclub assailant, armed with a long-barreled weapon, killed a policeman and a civilian in the early hours of 2017 outside the club before opening fire on the estimated 600 people in- side. The establishment is frequented by famous locals, including singers, actors and athletes. Most of the dead on Sunday were foreign tourists. Turkey has been rocked by violence in the past year, car- ried out by IS as well as by Kurdish militants. The gov- ernment survived a failed coup over the summer and is fighting against Kurdish insurgents. Parliament votes Tuesday on whether to extend the state of emergency de- clared after the coup attempt. The country launched an offensive to northern Syria in August in hopes of clearing a strategic border area of IS militants and stemming the gains of Kurdish fighters. Turkish jets regularly bomb IS targets in the Syrian town of al-Bab in support of Syrian opposition forces try to re-capture it from the extremists. Turkey’s interior minister told parliament Tuesday that authorities thwarted a total of 339 possible attacks in 2016, including 313 planned attempts by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and 22 by the Is- lamic State group. Migrants found hidden in suitcase, car MADRID (AP) – Guards on the border of Ceuta, Spain’s enclave in North Africa, say they have recently detained one Moroccan suspected of attempting to smuggle mi- grants concealed in a suit- case and another suspected of hiding migrants in a car. Custom agents found a 19-year-old migrant from Gabon hidden in a suitcase pushed on a trolley by a woman who tried to cross the land border from Morocco on Dec. 30, said a spokesman for the Guardia Civil in Ceuta. According to the spokesman, who spoke anon- ymously in accordance with the organization’s rules, the 22-year-old Moroccan woman raised suspicions by trying to avoid security checks. When officials asked her to open the luggage, they found the man curled up in the poorly ventilated space. Police said the man received immediate medical attention. On Monday, border po- lice found two more migrants hidden in false compart- ments built into a car ar- riving from Morocco. The migrants, both from Guinea, were found when the vehicle was stopped for an inspection as it entered Ceuta. The 20-year-old man was found between the rear seats of the car and the trunk and the woman, 24, in a hidden bottom built into the dashboard, guards said. The driver was a 30-year-old Moroccan na- tional who allegedly forged the number plates of the ve- hicle, stolen two years ago in Barcelona, police said. Thousands of sub-Sa- haran African migrants living illegally in Morocco try to get to Europe each year by sea, often in small craft unfit for open waters. Hundreds also risk their lives by climbing the 20-foot-tall barbed-wire fences surrounding Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s other North African enclave. On Sunday, around 1,100 African migrants stormed a border fence and at- tempted to enter Ceuta, leaving more than 50 Mo- roccan and Spanish border guards injured. The camera never leaves the man’s unsmiling face as he walks through Taksim square, one of Istanbul’s prime tourist spots, during the 44-second video. Image from video, believed to be of the Istanbul nightclub gunman. SEVERE STORMS KILL 5 IN SOUTHEAST US (AP) – Crews were as- sessing damage Tuesday in the aftermath of storms that killed at least five people and brought heavy rain and strong winds to the Southeast. The line of severe thun- derstorms spawned sev- eral possible tornadoes as the storms moved across Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. The worst of the storms had passed through the region by late Tuesday morning as the system headed toward the Atlantic Ocean. Four people were killed Monday evening when a tree fell on their mobile home in Rehobeth, Alabama, said Kris Ware, a spokeswoman for the Dothan Houston County Emergency Man- agement Agency. Teams of surveyors were headed out Tuesday to assess apparent tornado damage at three sites in southeastern Alabama and southwestern Georgia, said Mark Wool, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Talla- hassee, Florida. Wool said authorities be- lieve a tornado is respon- sible for damage that left the four people dead in Alabama, but he said the weather ser- vice will not be able to say for sure until experts visit the site.9 ENTERTAINMENT CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY JANUARY 4, 2017 Lucas museum cliffhanger: LA or SF? SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – George Lucas is no stranger to epic struggles on the big screen, but he did not expect one off- camera when it came to his art collection. For nearly a decade, the filmmaker has tried to build a museum to house an ex- tensive personal collec- tion that includes 40,000 paintings, illustrations and film-related items. But legal entanglements and other complications have thwarted his efforts. After several false starts, Lucas and his art team say they will decide later this month whether to put the museum in San Francisco or Los Angeles, a strategy that has stirred a Cali- fornia rivalry. The prize is big, and both cities want it badly. “This is the largest civic gift in American history,” LA Mayor Eric Garcetti told The Associated Press. “I think Los Angeles is the natural home for it” – a notion that San Francisco officials enthusias- tically contest. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, as it will be called, promises hundreds of jobs and a high-profile attrac- tion – and it’s essentially free. The “Star Wars” creator is financing the project himself. He plans to spend more than $1 billion to build the mu- seum, endow it and provide a trove of initial artworks valued at over $400 million. Together with Chinese archi- tect Ma Yansong, Lucas has proposed a sleek, futuristic design looks like a cross be- tween the Guggenheim and a galactic starfighter. The museum’s bold de- sign and concept make clear that the 72-year-old film- maker sees it as part of his legacy, and he is increasingly impatient to break ground. “It’s not just an enormous philanthropic gift to a city and to the world, but it is a unique museum in the way it is envisioned,” said Don Bac- igalupi, an art historian and respected museum director Lucas hired as its founding president. “Certainly, we’ll be looking forward to the day we can move the art into a museum.” The museum will not, as many assume, be a repository for “Star Wars” memorabilia. It will, however, show how Lucas spent some of his filmmaking fortune and that his interest in art extends beyond movies. An avid collector for more than 40 years, Lucas is giving the museum some 10,000 paintings and illus- trations that include dozens of Norman Rockwells and works from French impres- sionist Edgar Degas to Amer- ican contemporary artist Keith Haring. There are il- lustrations for classic chil- dren’s books by Beatrix Potter of “Peter Rabbit” fame and Jean de Brunhoff, who created “Babar.” The museum gets its pick from some 30,000 film-related pieces including storyboards and costumes from “The Wizard of Oz,” “Casablanca,” and, naturally, “Star Wars.” There’s art from comic books, graphic novels and other popular works that Lucas hopes will attract people who do not typically visit museums. In 2010, Lucas first pitched his project to San Francisco and considered a site in the Presidio, but the trust that oversaw the park ultimately rebuffed him. He then took his project to Chi- cago, his wife’s hometown, but preservationists sued to keep it off the lakefront. Lengthy delays prompted Lucas to abandon that bid in June and change strategy. In October, Lucas unveiled similar but competing de- signs for Los Angeles and San Francisco sites, turning the project into a public competi- tion. It seems to have worked. Government leaders in both cities have unanimously approved it. And officials are quick to stress that this time there is no apparent opposi- tion, and construction could begin quickly ahead of a pro- jected 2020 finish date. Later this month, Lucas is convening the museum’s board to decide between two distinct locations. In San Francisco, his project would virtually have an island unto itself. The city offered Lucas a 4-acre waterfront plot on Treasure Island, a man-made creation in the middle of the bay with cinematic views of the city skyline. The island was built for the 1939 World’s Fair, then used as a World War II naval base. These days it’s pop- ulated mainly by seagulls, boarded-up barracks, some art studios and old ware- houses, but officials hope the museum triggers its trans- formation. A massive $6 bil- lion redevelopment project includes apartments, hotels and a ferry terminal. “It’s a risk they would be taking, but it’s a bet on the future,” said Adam Van De Water, project manager for the museum at San Francisco City Hall. “We think his heart is here in the Bay Area.” Lucas has spent most of his life in the San Francisco area, and Lucasfilm was based in the city before he sold it in 2012 to Disney Co. “Put yourself in his shoes. You could be on Treasure Is- land, where you’re visible throughout downtown San Francisco,” said Van De Water, pausing to take a swipe at Los Angeles. “Or you could be a museum in a park with other museums.” Los Angeles has offered Lucas a 7-acre spot in Expo- sition Park, a sprawling cul- tural compound that holds three other museums and the Coliseum, home to the LA Rams. It has its own light rail station and is near the main campus of the Uni- versity of Southern Cali- fornia, where Lucas went to film school. “A museum should not be cloistered away from the people,” LA Mayor Garcetti said. “We don’t live life on islands.” Exposition Park also is near eight public high schools and could help ex- pose young people to Lucas’ collection, Garcetti says. If Lucas has a favorite, Bacigalupi will not say. But Bacigalupi calls Trea- sure Island “sort of magical.” Not only does it offer stun- ning views, but the island would give the museum an iconic location on the water’s edge, which he compares to the Sydney Opera House. And, he says, Lucas is deeply devoted to the Bay Area. Los Angeles is exciting for different reasons, he said. Its proximity to schools and being part of a community of museums “is certainly attrac- tive,” he said. And, like San Francisco, Los Angeles is part of Lucas’ history. “These are two spectac- ular places. Two great cities,” Bacigalupi says. “It’s a tough decision. But for all the right reasons.” John Berger, pioneering art critic and author, dies at 90 NEW YORK (AP) – John Berger, the British art critic, intellectual and prodigious author whose pioneering 1972 book and the BBC se- ries it spawned, “Ways of Seeing,” redefined the way a generation saw art, died Monday. He was 90. Simon McBurney, the British actor and a friend of Berger’s, told The Associ- ated Press that Berger died at his home in the Paris suburb of Antony. Berger had been ill for about a year, McBurney said. The author of criti- cism, novels, poetry, screen- plays and many less clas- sifiable books, Berger had considerable influence as a late 20th-century thinker. He consistently, provocatively challenged traditional inter- pretations of art and society and the connections be- tween the two. He examined the role con- sumerism played in the rise of Picasso in 1965’s “The Suc- cess and Failure of Picasso.” He claimed that cubism an- ticipated the Russian rev- olution in “The Moment of Cubism, and Other Essays.” When he won the presti- gious Booker Prize in 1972 for his novel “G,” Berger spoke against the prize’s roots in Caribbean slave labor and pledged to give half his reward to the Black Panthers, a group he said more accurately reflected his own politics. That same year, Berger – with a head of wavy brown hair, a beige ‘70s shirt and a magnetic authority – capti- vated the British public with “Ways of Seeing,” a series of four 30-minute films. In it, he mined imagery for larger cultural discoveries. How women were depicted in art, for example, revealed much about a time period’s attitude toward gender. “It is seeing which estab- lishes our place in the sur- rounding world,” Berger wrote in “Ways of Seeing,” which became a common curriculum of universities. “We explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The re- lation between what we see and what we know is never settled.” Born to a middle-class London family on Nov. 5, 1926, Berger never attended university. He was drafted into the British Army in 1944 and was dispatched to Northern Ireland. “I lived among these raw recruits,” he told the Guardian in 2005, “and it was the first time I re- ally met working-class con- temporaries. I used to write letters for them, to their par- ents and occasionally their girlfriends.” Berger also wrote sev- eral screenplays, among them 1976s’ “John Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000,” a drama set amid the 1968 pro- tests in Paris. The artist John Christie, who collaborated with Berger on films and books, remem- bered Berger as “the most wonderful collaborator and a man generous with his friendship.” “He loved bringing people together,” said Christie. Berger’s considerable output ran right up until last year, when he published a collection of essays, “Con- fabulations.” A documen- tary on Berger, produced by Tilda Swinton, was also re- leased in 2016. In “The Sea- sons in Quincy: Four Por- traits of John Berger,” Berger and Swinton, a longtime friend of his, converse in the French Alpine village he lived in for much of his life. Swinton calls him “a rad- ical humanist.” “If I’m a storyteller, it’s be- cause I listen,” Berger says in the film. “For me, a storyteller, he’s like a passer, that’s to say like somebody who gets contraband across a frontier.” The author of criticism, novels, poetry, screenplays and many less classifiable books, Berger had considerable influence as a late 20th-century thinker. After several false starts, Lucas and his art team say they will decide later this month whether to put the museum in San Francisco or Los Angeles, a strategy that has stirred a California rivalry. This concept design shows a rendering of the proposed Lucas Museum on Treasure Island in San Francisco. – PHOTO: LUCAS MUSEUM OF NARRATIVE ART VIA AP John BergerNext >