S E P TE MBER 2 0 1 7 • W W W. CA YJO U R NAL . C OM 1 7 9 THIS ISSUE: Special report Page 13 MARKETS Investing with a conscience What’s driving the demand? >>PAGE 2 INVESTMENT Top Value Creators Rankings for best long-term stocks >>PAGE 3 BUSINESS Business Excellence awards Chamber of Commerce honors local contributions >>PAGE 4 B Y L A N D , SE A OR A I R Journal Special Report PAGE 13 <%M> <%Y> SPECIAL REPORT Journal Special Report PAGE 13 SPECIAL REPORT September 2017 Behind the scenes, Maritime Authority excels in yachting industry Data protection coming to Cayman in 2019 ■■ KEN SILVA Tucked away on the third floor of the Government Administration Building, the Maritime Author-ity of the Cayman Islands does much of its work out of the public spotlight.Even when the territory’s maritime sector is involved in high-profile events – such as last month when Goldman Sachs seized the Cayman-registered luxury yacht of a Texas billionaire who defaulted on a loan with the financial firm – the Maritime Authority plays very little role in such affairs. “If there’s need for courts to have ac- cess to the information, we’d step in,” said Maritime Authority CEO Joel Wal- ton, explaining that his department oth-erwise stays out of the high-profile dis-putes that make international headlines.While Mr. Walton said his depart-ment does not need attention for the work it does, the lack of prominence has contributed to misconceptions both locally and abroad about the Maritime Authority. Locally, perhaps because the statu-tory body is also commonly referred to as the Shipping Registry, “most people think we’re actually in the business of shipping products,” he said. Internationally, the misconception is more critical: People abroad under-stand that the Maritime Authority fa-cilitates the registration of yachts, but many of them think that millionaires and billionaires register their yachts here because “they’re tr ying to hide their assets,” said Mr. Walton, adding that such a conception is “nonsense.” What the Maritime Authority actu-ally does is far different from the con-ventional wisdom, he said. With some 50 employees and 40 subcontractors spread in more than 20 locations throughout the world, the department is primarily focused on conducting safety and other regulatory inspections on many of the hundreds of yachts under construction.“We focus heavily on technical competence,” said Mr. Walton. “That’s what we sell.” The authority has a large client base, being involved in the construc-tion process of roughly 40 percent of all the yachts being built at any given time, according to Mr. Walton. Owners can build their yachts to several dif- ferent passenger codes, which allows them to charter 12 to 36 passengers, depending on the code. So many shipyards choose to build their yachts to Cayman standards for good reason: The territory was recently ranked first on the “white list” of the 2016 annual report for the Paris MOU on Port State Control – the administrative agreement between 27 maritime au-thorities that deals with enforcing safety, environmental, and other regulations. “That means the vessels we regulate were considered by 26 European countries and Canada as ■■ BRENT FULLER At an unspecified date in 2019, the Cayman Islands will intro-duce far stricter privacy pro- tection rules affecting every business that processes customers’ or clients’ personal information. The Data Protection Law was ap-proved in the 11th hour of the previous government administration. The legisla- tion and accompanying regulations will have major implications for local busi- nesses and international firms in Cayman. The law is seen as a boon to the financial services industry, which is keen to access European markets – most of which have been operating under data protection laws since the mid-1990s. Acting Information Commissioner Jan Liebaers, who is responsible for the train- ing program leading up to the law’s im- plementation and for enforcement of the law once it goes into effect, said all of the specifics of the data protection regula-tions have not been worked out yet. That will be the main task of the data pro-tection working group, which Liebaers leads, for the next 18 months.The Data Protection Law applies to everyone in the Cayman Islands, public and private sector alike. It also applies to a number of entities outside the Cayman Islands that have certain data processing functions in the jurisdiction. “No country wants to export infor-mation to another country if it … doesn’t know what the rules are [for data process-ing] in that country,” Liebaers said. “[The legislation] has an impact on so many dif- ferent levels and contexts … an impact on education, health, finance, tourism, churches, strata, sports organizations … any of those are very likely to be ‘data con- trollers’ under the Data Protection Law.”Those data controllers are given the responsibility of using an individual’s records “fairly,” processing that information only for the legal purpose for which it was provided. For instance, a bank teller giving out details of a person’s accounts to a third party, or an accounts receivables clerk leaving records of personal information out in a space The Maritime Authority of the Cayman Islands licenses yachts, cargo ships and other vessels around the globe to world-class regulatory standards. PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 8 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 8 » THE CAYMAN ISLANDS JOURNAL Behind the scenes, Maritime Authority excels in yachting industry High of 90 Low of 80 Smooth with wave heights of less than 2 feet. EDITORIAL | PAGE 4 BYRNE DEMONSTRATES LEADERSHIP IN WAKE OF RCIPS CHILD ABUSE ERRORS ESTABLISHED 1965 www.caymancompass.com – 50 CENTS – WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 Hurricane Irma swells to historic strength Miami Beach visitors cautioned to be prepared to evacuate SPENCER FORDIN sfordin@pinnaclemedialtd.com Hurricane Irma strengthened to historic proportions and continued its trajectory through the Lesser and Greater Antilles on Tuesday, upgraded to a Category 5 storm. As it churns toward the eastern Caribbean, mul- tiple nations are bracing for impact over the next 24 hours. As of Tuesday afternoon, Irma had a max- imum sustained wind speed of 185 mph, ex- ceeded only by the 190 mph winds of Hur- ricane Allen in 1980. It is the strongest hurricane on record in the Atlantic basin and outside of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Several places in the Leeward Islands chain were expecting Irma to make landfall by Wednesday morning, and Puerto Rico is under a hurricane warning for Wednesday night. The Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and Cuba may also be hit as the storm arcs north- west to Florida. The Cayman Islands are now squarely outside of the storm’s expected path. Avalon Porter, a meteorologist for the Cayman Islands National Weather Service, expects them to stay that way. “It’s now moving west,” he said of Irma. “We expect it to kind of move more towards the west or northwest, which will basically take it up over the north of the islands and just north of the north coast of Cuba. If it keeps along that track, we would start seeing the effects of it on late Friday night.” Cayman can expect rough weather over the weekend even as it dodges the worst effects of the storm. “We expect mainly cloudy conditions, gusty winds, rough seas,” said Mr. Porter. “The winds would start off on Friday out of the north and back to the southwest by Sat- urday evening. We expect the heaviest weather activity and the strongest winds to be over the Sister Islands. It could get pretty rough along the west coast. Seven Mile Beach may see some erosion.” The conditions are more dire for some of GRAND COURT JUDGE ARRESTED IN SUSPECTED DUI BRENT FULLER bfuller@pinnaclemedialtd.com A Cayman Islands Grand Court judge was arrested Monday night on suspicion of drunken driving following an auto crash on West Bay Road. “The driver is a judge of the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands,” the Royal Cayman Is- lands Police Service noted in its statement. The driver was not named by police. The Cayman Compass has confirmed through multiple sources that Judge Ingrid Mangatal was ar- rested in the incident. According to police, the one-vehicle wreck happened around 10:15 p.m. when the vehicle collided with a wall in the vicinity of Lime Tree Bay Road. Shortly after the crash, the driver, who po- lice said was a 52-year-old woman, was ar- rested, suspected of driving under the influ- ence and careless driving. She had not been charged as of press time. The driver suffered minor injuries. No other vehicles were involved in the incident and no one else was hurt. The judge was released on police bail over- night. Calls to Chief Justice Anthony Smellie seeking to determine the current employ- ment status of the arrested judge were not re- turned on Tuesday. The Judicial Administration office released the following statement about the arrest late Tuesday: “It would be inappropriate for the court to provide comment during the course of the police investigation.” Watchdog group criticizes GM mosquito project KEN SILVA ksilva@pinnaclemedialtd.com While researchers hope to expand their genetically modi- fied mosquito program to the entire island of Grand Cayman around February, a U.K.-based nonprofit organization has re- leased a report questioning the efficacy of the initiative and crit- icizing the project’s public ap- proval process. According to GeneWatch UK, which describes itself as a watchdog for how genetic tech- nologies are developed and used, the initiative between Cayman’s Mosquito Research and Control Unit and U.K. company Oxitec to release genetically modified mosquitoes that produce off- spring that die before adulthood has been far less successful than the MRCU and Oxitec claim. The organization also says that Cayman’s National Con- servation Council did not con- sider important data before giving approval in June for the project to be expanded from West Bay to the entire island of Grand Cayman. The MRCU released a state- ment in response to GeneWatch Take a break, read a book Terry Cleaver, manager of Books & Books, poses with staff members, clockwise from bottom right, Silvia Rudon Figueroa, Montana Escalante and Lucia Espiga, at the ‘Read’ sign outside the store in Camana Bay, to promote Literacy Month. The store and Camana Bay are running a series of events this month to encourage a love of reading in the younger generation. – PHOTO: TANEOS RAMSAY PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 8 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 7 »2 REGIONAL NEWS WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS I Daily Matinees Every Day $8.00 Seniors, Mon-Fri Before 6pm Cayman Cinema@cbcinema6cbcinema6 *Additional charges will apply per 3D ticket requested. 640-FILM (640-3456) 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 - UNLOCKED (R) 12:30 I 2:55 I 5:20 I 7:45 I 10:10 THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD (R) 12:50 I 4:15 VIP I 7:10 I 9:55 VIP ANNABELLE CREATION (R) 1:30 VIP I 3:40 I 7:10 VIP I 10:00 DARK TOWER (PG13) 4:30 I 9:45 THE NUT JOB 2 3D (PG) 12:30 I 2:50 2D I 5:10 I 7:30 2D GIRLS TRIP (R) 1:40 I 6:55 I 10:00 THE GLASS CASTLE (PG13) 1:05 I 4:00 I 7:00 I 9:50 Cuba opens 5-month transition likely to end Castro reign HAVANA (AP) – Cuba on Monday began a five-month political transition expected to end with Raul Castro’s de- parture from the presidency, capping his family’s near-total dominance of the political system for nearly 60 years. Over the rest of Sep- tember, Cubans will meet in small groups to nominate municipal representatives, the first in a series of votes for local, provincial and, fi- nally, national officials. In the second electoral stage, a commission domi- nated by government-linked organizations will pick all the candidates for elections to provincial assemblies and Cuba’s national assembly. The national assembly is expected to pick the president and members of the powerful Council of State by February. Castro has said he will leave the presidency by that date but he is expected to remain head of the Communist Party, giving him power that may be equal to or greater than the new president’s. Cuban officials say 12,515 block-level districts will nominate candidates for city council elections to be held Oct. 22. An opposition coali- tion says it expects 170 dis- sidents to seek nomination in the block-level meetings that began Monday. A few op- position candidates made it to that stage previously but were defeated. The government does not allow the participation of parties other than the ruling Communist Party and has worked to quash the elec- tion of individual opposition candidates, leading critics to call the votes an empty ex- ercise meant to create the appearance of democratic participation. Cuban officials say dissi- dents are paid by foreign gov- ernments and exile groups as part of a plan to overthrow the island’s socialist system and reinstall the capitalism and U.S. dominance ended by the country’s 1959 revolution. At one session Monday evening, about 400 people gathered to choose their neighborhood’s candidate, meeting in front of a house adorned with photos of the late Fidel Castro and Cuban flags. Choosing between their current delegate and a young challenger, they re-nominated physician Orlando Gutierrez. Both men were praised as “revolutionary” and “honest.” “We have to be here to de- fend our revolution and the social gains we have won,” said one voter, Ivis Garcia, who works for a state-owned real estate enterprise. Raul Castro, 86, be- came president in 2008 and launched a series of slow- moving and limited socio- economic reforms after his brother Fidel stepped down due to illness. Fidel Castro died last year at age 90. Cuba’s new president has long been expected to be First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel, a 57-year-old ca- reer party official who has maintained a low public pro- file in recent years. Many Cubans’ greatest exposure to Diaz-Canel this year has been through an unusual video of the vice president speaking at a pri- vate Communist Party event, footage that was leaked to the public by an unknown culprit and widely distrib- uted on thumb drives and online. In the video, Diaz- Canel discusses plans for crackdowns on independent media, entrepreneurs and op- position groups trying to win municipal positions. “We’re taking all possible steps to discredit that,” he says in the footage. “We’re in- volved in this whole process.” The workings of the Cuban government are highly opaque and the public only rarely hears from high- ranking officials, with the exception of a few annual speeches and edited selec- tions of talks at twice-a-year sessions of congress and sim- ilarly infrequent party meet- ings. In addition, the govern- ment maintains tight control of the media and Internet use in the country and leaks of high-level meetings and speeches are highly unusual. The Diaz-Canel video may have been leaked by the gov- ernment itself to telegraph that Diaz-Canel will not ac- celerate the reform process started by Raul Castro, said Armando Chaguaceda, a Mexico-based Cuban polit- ical scientists. “It could serve to send a signal of official in- tentions not to create any po- litical opening, without being an official government state- ment,” Chaguaceda said. The national assembly is expected to pick the president and members of the powerful Council of State by February. Drivers whose cars were flooded by Harvey cannot find rentals BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) – His three vehicles flooded by Hurricane Harvey, Jason Bell checked at one car- rental office only to find about 2,500 people ahead of him on the waiting list. When he tried a more out- of-the-way location, the reservations still num- bered about 300. Many other storm victims have the same problem. Tens of thousands of personal vehicles were inundated by floodwaters or smashed by wind-tossed objects, creating a huge demand for rentals that has put the cars in pain- fully short supply in the Houston area and across eastern Texas. Rental companies say they are bringing in more vehicles from areas in- cluding the Southeast, but the logistics problems left by Harvey could get worse as Hurricane Irma threatens Florida. Cesar Garcia of Port Arthur, Texas, does not know when he will be driving again. “I tried renting a car and none of those places said there was availability from here to Houston,” Garcia, 28, said Monday. “I was told ‘good luck.’ Nothing.” Auto industry experts estimate as many as 1 mil- lion vehicles were dam- aged by Harvey, with most being total losses. State Farm, one of the largest U.S. auto insurers, said it has already received nearly 20,000 claims from the Houston area alone. The scope of the problem is evident in a field that has become a massive parking lot for storm-dam- aged vehicles at Royal Purple Raceway, a drag- strip located on 500 acres in Baytown, about 35 miles east of Houston. Tow trucks pulling or carrying flooded cars enter the parking area every few minutes, drop- ping them off so insurance adjusters can assess the damage. Water lines are evident on many of the ve- hicles, which workers say are mostly from the area east of Houston. Dealership advertise- ments are visible on some of the cars, but many ap- pear to be private vehicles. The owners may now be among those in lines at car rental counters. Enterprise Holdings – which includes the Enter- prise, National and Alamo car rental brands – said it has already moved more than 4,000 vehicles to southeast Texas and plans to bring in at least 17,000 more in coming weeks. Fugitive guilty of nearly $10M in bogus travel purchases (AP) – A man who escaped to Mexico in the 1990s to avoid sentencing in a New York credit card fraud case has pleaded guilty before a federal judge in Pittsburgh for a scheme to make nearly $10 million in fraudulent credit card purchases, most of them international airline tickets, while on the lam. Nicolas Frank Sucich, 48, likely faces more than four years in federal prison under a plea agreement struck Tuesday to charges of wire and access device fraud. He’ll return for sen- tencing Jan. 5, when pros- ecutors and his defense at- torney hope the judge will approve their agreed-upon 51-month sentence. Sucich and his co-defen- dant and former lover, Jimmy Lee Johnson, a petty criminal with a history of crack co- caine abuse and prostitution, worked the scheme while living together in Mexico, ac- cording to information from Tuesday’s hearing and sen- tencing documents filed in Johnson’s case. Johnson al- ready has pleaded guilty and was sentenced last year to the two years in prison he al- ready had served by the time he was convicted. Johnson “was poor, hungry, desperate and men- tally ill” when he was “re- cruited to join the scheme” by Sucich, according to a presentencing memorandum filed by his public defender. Sucich had been convicted in an unrelated credit card fraud in Duchess County, New York in 1996 and was awaiting sentencing there when he fled to Mexico, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Melucci and defense attorney Stephen Misko. Sucich set up a business called FCO Travels in Mexico. Using that business, he used a fraudulent Scotiabank Mas- terCard account to buy mil- lions of dollars’ worth of airline tickets from a legiti- mate Pittsburgh-area travel agency, then re-sold the tickets for cash at discounted rates to travelers, among other schemes. In this Aug. 29 file photo, cars are flooded near the Addicks Reservoir as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rise in Houston. - PHOTO: AP3 LOCAL NEWS CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 ✔ We’ll pay your switching costs up to USD$5000 ✔ Enjoy flexible payment terms ✔ Green energy loan also available ✔ Get a pre-approved credit card or switch your existing credit card too ✔ Property Insurance† available–one stop shop! *Conditions and normal lending criteria apply. †The CIBC FirstCaribbean Insurance Program (“Program”) is distributed by the CIBC FirstCaribbean Insurance Agent. The Program is underwritten and administered by Massy United Insurance Ltd, the insurer. The CIBC logo and “Banking that fits your life.®” are registered trademarks of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, used by FirstCaribbean International Bank under license. Imagine the possibilities Imagine what you could do with more money in your pocket! Switch your mortgage to CIBC FirstCaribbean and we’ll pay your switching cost.* Talk to one of our Sales Specialists today or email CX48CaymanRetailBanking@cibcfcib.com CLICK cibcfcib.com CALL 949-7300 POST cibcfcib TWEET cibc_fcib Teens earn ‘Passport to Success’ Eight teenagers gradu- ated Friday from the National Workplace Development Agency’s latest “Passport- 2Success” class. The teens are all Year 12 graduates of the Cayman Is- lands Further Education Centre (CIFEC). It was the first time the program had focused on CIFEC students. The teens were involved in a range of activities over 12 weeks, including classroom sessions and work experience, as well as volunteer work with the Cayman AIDS Foun- dation and Meals on Wheels. Addressing the gathering, Premier Alden McLaughlin told the students, “You have each demonstrated a willing- ness to succeed.” The ceremony marked the 23rd graduation from the public-private initiative which organizers say aims to “maximize the education, training and employment po- tential of local youths.” Each participant worked with a local business in their areas of interest. “I didn’t fool around at all,” said Abiann Gayle, who was awarded for her out- standing performance. “The NWDA and Passport2Success staff helped me to calm down and focus on my work and also on the tests.” The other students grad- uating from the program were: Lauroya Ebanks, Marygrace Hibbert, Tresaun Jacques, Amber McLean, Sha- nique Morrison, Brina Dil- bert and Tyrek Minzett. Brina and Tyrek received special awards for their efforts and accomplishments. Encouraging Tyrek to share the experience with his peers, Premier McLaughlin said, “We have to find a better way to engage the young men of our country …. You have a very big responsibility to convince your friends that this is a productive program.” Tyrek told the audience, “I was a rough and tough person, of few words …. At the start I felt like a weight was on my back, but when I de- cided to start coming on time, asking questions in class and getting my work done, things started to go good for me.” He said a highlight of the work experience was learning how to interact with customers and “meeting lots of successful people.” Amber McLean, who re- cently gave birth to a baby girl and was attached to the Courts Office during the in- ternship phase, also said she has high expectations for herself. In between jug- gling her new responsibili- ties, she said she is sharing the positive message of P2S with her friends. Half of the group are now continuing their educa- tion, and the other four are already employed. The government-funded Passport2Success work-pre- paredness program was initi- ated in 2010 to bridge the gap between leaving high school and entering the workforce. For more information, contact the National Workforce Development Agency, email nwda.training@gov.ky or call 945-3114. The participants engaged in a range of activities over 12 weeks, including classroom sessions and work experience, as well as volunteer work with the Cayman AIDS Foundation and Meals on Wheels. Graduate Abiann Gayle Premier Alden McLaughlin, front, center, and other officials with the graduates of the 23rd cohort of the Passport2Success.The 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. WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS Imagine: An 11-year-old girl gathers the courage to tell an adult that she’s been sexually assaulted by two relatives. She recounts for a stranger – a Royal Cayman Islands Police Service officer – all the details she can recall, reliving the horrors of that alleged crime. What happens next? The officer’s notes on the case are misplaced, and her report is allowed to languish. Her alleged assailants are not even questioned for nearly two years. By the time they finally are tried in court – four years later – the evidence is so poorly gathered and maintained that it was impossible for a judge to determine whether it proved the defendants’ guilt or innocence. Finally, the girl learns the reason her case was so mismanaged: The officers were busy. That is the conclusion reached by three U.K. officers tasked with reviewing the RCIPS Family Support Unit after a judge publicly lambasted police for the unraveling of the case mentioned above. Nearly a year after Justice Timothy Owen found two men not guilty of indecent assault, not because they dem- onstrated their innocence at trial but because of an inexplicably delayed and “grossly incompetent” police investigation into the report. Police released a summary of their review last Friday. It told a tale of overworked and under- resourced police officers at the Family Support Unit who were trying to juggle too many cases at one time. The review found the unit performed satisfactorily in 89 of the 92 investigations it considered since 2012. It flagged three cases that occurred between 2012 and 2014 that were not. Two of those cases likely will be abandoned. The third may be taken to court, despite its having “serious errors.” To his credit, Police Commissioner Derek Byrne (who arrived in Cayman in November 2016, well after the errors occurred) has responded with decency, integrity and true leadership. Rather than attempting to brush aside the report’s findings, or make scape- goats out of rank-and-file officers, Commissioner Byrne has called out the “corporate failures” that allowed such grave errors to be made. “You had people working down there … [in] small teams, [case] referrals being made, people running from one case to another without finishing it, not sup- ported by any process, or any structure, or any audit, or any regular meetings,” he said. “There was an over-reliance on some persons; some persons had a better capacity to manage their work. Other persons, unfortunately, didn’t have that self-man- agement capability or capacity,” Mr. Byrne said. Notably, the commissioner did not try to bury the critical report or send out an insipid press release late on a Friday afternoon; instead he called a news con- ference where, flanked by his top commanders, he took ownership of the issues, pledged to make needed improvements – and apologized to victims. “While we’re getting it wrong, it impacts upon the victim at some level,” he said. As a result of the investigation, one police con- stable and one supervisor have been reassigned. Since last year, police have overhauled procedures for handling family unit cases. Today, the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (the MASH unit) – a team of police officers, social workers and a Health Services Authority psychologist – inves- tigates reports of suspected child abuse and coordi- nates with other public agencies. As Commissioner Byrne said last week, “We have not met our obligations in the past, but we’re moving forward.” Byrne demonstrates leadership in wake of RCIPS child abuse errors The tax cut the US can not do without How much should corpo- rations pay in taxes? The late congressman and Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp, who was a major figure in U.S. economic policy from the 1970s to the 1990s, never tired of telling audi- ences of blue-collar workers that “you cannot love the em- ployee and hate the employer.” Jack, a former professional football quarterback, ironi- cally became the greatest salesman for Reaganomics. He was a man of enormous physical and mental energy, who read deeply in economics and then preached the gospel of economic growth as no one did before or after. He would ask his au- diences: “How many truck drivers would you hire if there were no trucks?” Jack Kemp’s parents owned a small trucking com- pany and, as a boy, he saw how hard they worked and saved to build their com- pany. When they accumulated enough money, they would buy another truck and then hire someone to drive it. The truck manufacturer created more jobs to build the trucks for the Kemp family and thousands of others. Whether it is a small family trucking company or a giant corporation, the pro- cess is the same. The com- pany needs to acquire the funds in order to acquire the machinery and hire the workers to operate them. The more savings and invest- ment is taxed, the less cap- ital formation, resulting in lower productivity, economic growth and job creation. The U.S. corporate income tax rate is comprised of a federal rate of 35 percent and an average of 5 percent for the states, giving an average 40 percent rate. The corpo- rate tax has long been recog- nized by economists as one of the worst taxes. Despite all of the talk about “greedy cor- porations,” corporations are merely a way of doing busi- ness. The corporation does not “pay” the tax, only indi- viduals pay taxes – so the corporate tax is passed along to consumers in terms of higher prices, to the stock- holders in terms of lower div- idends and capital gains, and to the workers in terms of lower wages. Recent studies have shown that most of the corporate tax falls on the workers. Consumers resist higher prices and can often buy similar goods and ser- vices from foreign producers where the tax rate is lower. Investors have many options – both in form and location, including the entire globe – as to where to put their money. The worker has fewer options and hence suffers most from the corporate tax. American companies have been fleeing to foreign coun- tries because of the huge dif- ferential in corporate tax rates. Their officers have a fi- duciary responsibility to the stockholders to protect their investment. And if their for- eign competitors have an ad- vantage in lower taxes, in order to survive and prosper, the American companies are forced to move. American corporations are now reported to have more than $3 trillion out- side the country, which they are reluctant to bring back to the United States because of how heavily it would be taxed. We now have the ab- surd situation where Apple borrows money (in the U.S.) to pay dividends to its stock- holders, while at the same time holding a couple of hun- dred billion dollars overseas. That means it is cheaper to pay the interest than to bring the money home be- cause of the tax. President Trump has pre- sented several very sound principles for tax reform. Yet, without the details being pre- sented, the tax reform effort is already being attacked by the Democratic leadership. Reasonable people can differ about how much to reduce the corporate tax rate, but to claim that any corporate tax rate cut is a giveaway to the rich is merely an appeal to ig- norance. As explained above, both consumers, investors and particularly workers are hurt by the corporate tax. Some who only view the world in static terms say we cannot afford a corpo- rate tax rate cut. Our rela- tive economic pie is getting smaller compared to the rest of the world. Without cutting our noncompetitive corporate tax rate, businesses will con- tinue to move to the rest of the world, leaving fewer jobs for Americans and less to tax. Rapid economic growth is the key to higher tax revenues, not high rates. And by the way, there are those $3 trillion that want to come back home, but only if it is taxed at rea- sonable rates. Properly struc- tured tax cuts do not “pay” for themselves immediately, but they do over time. The Reagan tax cuts took about seven years to “pay” for them- selves, but in the meantime many millions obtained jobs at higher real wages, which would not have happened without the tax cut. Congress should learn from that experi- ence and do it again. Richard W. Rahn is chairman of Improbable Success Productions and on the board of the American Council for Capital Formation. © 2017 The Washington Times, LLC. RICHARD W. RAHN RICHARD W. RAHN 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 find their own way”5 LOCAL NEWS CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 Woman leaves island on day of sentencing Guilty pleas entered in November CAROL WINKER cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com A woman scheduled to be sentenced for theft and false accounting on Monday afternoon left Grand Cayman for Honduras on Monday morning. Shekiera Ginell Watler, 27, had been charged with falsifying inventory records and stealing 16 cellphones valued at approximately $15,000 from her employer, CashWiz. The offenses oc- curred between October 2015 and March 2016. The matter first came be- fore the courts in August. Watler pleaded guilty on Nov. 22, 2016. This week, defense at- torney John Furniss at- tended Summary Court, pre- sided over by Magistrate Valdis Foldats. When his client did not appear at the appointed hour, Mr. Furniss obtained the court’s permis- sion to make several phone calls. After an attempt to contact the defendant di- rectly, he advised that the line was “dead.” He was able to contact the young woman who had stood as surety for the de- fendant and she quickly came to court. “She told me her court case was over,” the woman who posted her surety ex- plained. “I dropped her to the airport this morning to go to Honduras.” Questioned further, she said Watler told her the case had been sorted out – that she had to pay a fine and do community service. Asked whether or when Watler had said she would be re- turning, the woman said De- cember. She also confirmed that Watler had taken her child with her. The woman agreed she had signed as a surety in the sum of $2,000. Magistrate Foldats ex- pressed some uncertainty as to whether she was still liable. He explained, “When you signed, you were saying ‘I will be responsible to make sure she comes to all her court appearances.’ She didn’t come. Now the court looks to you.” Going through the his- tory of the case, he and Mr. Furniss compared their notes from various dates. There were times Watler had missed court because of the child. In March and April this year, she attended but the court did not pro- ceed to sentencing because the victim impact report was not ready. Her next scheduled date was June 5; she did not ap- pear and a warrant was is- sued for her arrest with no bail. However, Watler volun- tarily attended the next day. The magistrate said it was clear that the surety’s obligation continued until June 5, but it was not clear whether she was still re- sponsible once the “warrant, no bail” had been issued. To avoid doubt, he removed her from the recognizance and advised that she would not have to pay $2,000. He issued another war- rant for Watler’s arrest, also with no bail. “Warrant, no bail” means that the officer who arrests the wanted person cannot offer him or her bail but must produce the person to the court. HAMMER ATTACK DEFENDANT APPEARS IN COURT A man accused of striking another man with a hammer at a Savannah shopping center on Friday appeared in Summary Court on Tuesday. Dane Dameon McPherson, 31, was charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Defense attorney Johna- thon Hughes did not apply for bail. Crown counsel Scott Wainwright said the defen- dant and victim worked to- gether at Foster’s Food Fair, and closed circuit TV footage of what had occurred in the incident was clear. The wounding case was sent to Grand Court for men- tion on Sept. 22. A separate charge of carrying an of- fensive weapon remained in Summary Court and will be mentioned on Sept. 22. When his client did not appear at the appointed hour, Mr. Furniss obtained the court’s permission to make several phone calls. After an attempt to contact the defendant directly, he advised that the line was “dead.” BOAT STOLEN IN GEORGE TOWN A boat was stolen from a dock near Dixie’s Cemetery in George Town on Sunday, ac- cording to police. Police officers re- sponded to a report of the stolen boat, which had been docked between the Wharf and Dixie’s Cemetery near Harbor View Condos. The boat was last seen at 4 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 3, and was discovered missing at 7:30 a.m. The light blue-and- white, fiberglass vessel is 16 feet long, with a 28 horsepower Johnson en- gine and a steering wheel on the right side. MOTORCYCLIST, PEDESTRIAN INJURED IN SEPARATE ACCIDENTS A red and silver Zong- shen motorcycle being ridden by a 23-year-old man collided with the back of a purple Toyota driven by a 57-year-old woman on Pease Bay Road, Bodden Town, shortly after 10 a.m. on Friday. Both were from East End. The motorcyclist suffered a minor injury to his left leg and face, police said. On Sunday, a silver Honda Civic struck a pedestrian who had walked into the road at Sea View Road, near Fiddlers Way, around 6 p.m. on Sunday, police said. The man sustained minor injuries to his right arm and right foot. The vehicle had damage to the left side and a broken windscreen.DISTRICT DAYS 6 District Days Sister Islands WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS Residents save turtle trapped under porch BRENT FULLER bfuller@pinnaclemedialtd.com Two Little Cayman res- idents dug an adult fe- male sea turtle from under- neath the deck of a home last week when it became apparent the turtle could not free itself. Little Cayman native Frankie Bodden, an avid turtle-watcher, said green sea turtles often visit the yard of orthopedic surgeon Dr. Bill Watson this time of year to lay their eggs. “These turtles have been coming to his yard and the yard next door,” Mr. Bodden said. “It’s a good area for them because it’s a really nice, sandy beach.” Unfortunately, this female had gone a bit too far into the yard and found herself partly under the porch. “She just dug in there, laid her eggs and must have got its head and collar under the floor,” Mr. Bodden said. “Then she pulled herself under the flooring and couldn’t turn right or left, she couldn’t go backward and in front of her was a cement wall.” Dr. Watson was not home, so Mr. Bodden and another resident Joe Ploplys used a shovel to dig around the turtle, giving her enough space to get back out from underneath the deck. “When she came out, she didn’t move too fast at first, but when she found out she was free, she really moved out to the water,” he said. Musician Hinton Conolly celebrates 80th birthday G. NOWAK Cayman Brac has pro- duced a number of fine mu- sicians over the years, in- cluding the Martin brothers, consisting of Edlee, Conrad, Andy and Gary; Percy Whorms; Vernon Smith; Burman, Raymond and Eddie Scott; the Brac Beach Boys; and Quincy Brown. Then there’s Hinton Conolly, who will be celebrating his 80th birthday on Saturday, Sept. 9. At age 17, he signed up with National Bulk Car- riers and spent the next six and a half years sailing the globe, with a stop at nearly every port from Philadelphia to Venezuela to the Gulf. On ship, the crew would listen to radio stations from Nash- ville and Shreveport that played heartbreaking, tear- jerking country music, which was a perfect formula for homesickness. When he returned home to the Brac, Mr. Conolly did some farming and then started working for the Brac Power and Light Company. From there, he went on to be employed by Cable & Wireless where he worked for some 30 years. During this time, he would play his guitar and sing at any venue that would have him. He said he has always been fond of Merle Hag- gard and Jim Reeves and, like most of his cohort, he despises modern country music, which as he proclaims “is rock ‘n’ roll, not country.” In 1977, Mr. Conolly went to New York and recorded his first album “A Quick Drink at the Pool Bar.” The vinyl re- cord became an overnight success, not only on the Brac and Grand Cayman, but among audiences in the Bay Islands and Belize, who sup- ported the sales. Today, next to his home and caboose, is his “Las Vegas Hilton Recording Studio.” Compared to most modern digitally, automated studios, the Las Vegas Hilton is antique. However, that’s insignificant to Mr. Conolly, who still spends many hours there listening to the play- back of himself singing his favorite country tunes. He still listens to what’s playing on the local radio station but says he is dis- mayed at the lack of recogni- tion that local musicians are getting. “It seems older local songs are being placed on the shelf and swapped for older imported music,” he said. To celebrate his birthday, Mr. Conolly will be joined by his son and daughter who plan to travel to the Brac for the event. He says he plans on cooking lots of local food and is pretty sure other mu- sicians and singers on island who have a guitar and tune to share will stop by and spend the afternoon singing and reminiscing. 50 years ago: First storm of the hurricane season forms In the Sept. 6, 1967 edi- tion of The Caymanian Weekly, a precursor to the Cayman Compass, a story titled “Season’s first storm,” about Tropical Storm Arlene, appeared on the front page. Fifty years later, the first named storm of 2017 was also called Ar- lene, but appeared much earlier in the year – in April. There were eight named storms in 1967, the last being Heidi. The page 1 story read: “The first tropical storm of the present season, Ar- lene, formed in the Eastern Atlantic and was first re- ported on Aug. 30. The storm developed out of a depression that moved off the African coast sev- eral days before the indicated date. “Tropical Storm Arlene travelled towards the west- northwest and then to the northwest over the ocean with maximum winds of about 60 miles per hour. Finally, on Sept. 2, Arlene recurved to the north and north-northeast and at- tained hurricane force with winds of about 90 miles per hour. This has been an open ocean storm since it never approached any land area close enough to affect it. “Arlene passed about 440 miles to the north- east, off Bermuda, and to the southeast and not far distant off the Terranova coast, Canada.” Little Cayman resident Frankie Bodden digs an adult female sea turtle out from underneath a deck Wednesday.The turtle wedged itself underneath the deck before laying its eggs. Hinton Conolly doing one of his favorite things: strumming his guitar.The islands’ most-trusted news source 7 CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 HOSPITALS & CLINICS SPECIALISTS PHARMACISTS PHYSICIANS DENTISTS WELLNESS FITNESS REHABILITATION INSURANCE PROVIDERS BEAUTY & COSMETIC TREATMENTS SALON & SPA SERVICES Announcing the 2018 edition of Cayman Health Directory BE PART OF THIS VITAL ISLAND-WIDE RESOURCE FOR HEALTH & WELLNESS Integrating print and digital technology, Pinnacle Media Ltd. has created the most dynamic, essential and authoritative health and wellness resources for the Cayman Islands with Cayman Health Directory, Cayman Health Website and Cayman Health App. Directory DIRECTOR Y AD SPACE DEADLINE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 caymanhealthsales@pinnaclemedialtd.com (345) 949-5111 • info@caymanhealth.com www.caymanhealth.com Free to every household in Cayman Cayman’s neighbors. The sparsely populated is- land of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands chain staged an evacuation on Tuesday, and Monroe County, Florida, which in- cludes the Keys, has is- sued a mandatory evacua- tion for all visitors starting Wednesday. Residents are likely to be evacuated Wednesday or Thursday. Miami-Dade Coun- ty’s mayor said Tuesday that residents and visi- tors should be prepared to evacuate Miami Beach and most of the county’s coastal areas as Hurricane Irma heads toward Florida, The Associated Press reported. Mayor Carlos Gimenez said the voluntary evacu- ations could begin as soon as Wednesday evening. Evacuation will begin Wednesday morning for special needs residents. All Miami-Dade County offices will be closed Thursday and Friday. Florida Gov. Rick Scott activated 100 members of the Florida Air and Army National Guard on Tuesday to assist in preparation for impact from Hurri- cane Irma. All 7,000 mem- bers of Florida’s National Guard will report for duty Friday in advance of the storm’s anticipated arrival this weekend. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have both is- sued a state of emergency as Irma approaches. A spokesman for Jet Blue corporate communi- cations said they do not expect to see service to Cayman interrupted, but they also said they are monitoring the storm along with everyone else. Cayman Airways an- nounced Tuesday that it will waive the change fees for any customers who booked flights on or before Sept. 5 and are booked for travel between the Cayman Islands and Miami, Tampa or Havana between Sept. 5 and Sept. 12. Alan Neesome, general manager for Sol Petroleum in the Cayman Islands, said he does not expect to see any fuel supply dis- ruptions. Sol has multiple supply options beyond the U.S. Gulf Coast, he said, and a vessel is due to load in St. Lucia in the next few days and should be unaf- fected by Irma. Increased storm activity Tropical Storm Jose is forming right behind Irma and may continue on the same initial path before veering off into the Atlantic. For McCleary Frederick, director of Hazard Man- agement Cayman Islands, the increased storm ac- tivity is just a reminder that it’s never too early to be prepared. “This is why we do all the drills,” he said. “This is why we do all the public education and awareness. We’re living out in the middle of the ocean in Hur- ricane Alley. While it’s been a few years we haven’t been affected, we always have that risk of a storm af- fecting us during the hur- ricane season.” Mr. Frederick stressed that concerned residents can find information on Facebook and Twitter in addition to HMCI’s website, www.cayman- prepared.gov.ky. The organization sug- gests how people can be prepared and supplied for any crisis in storm season, and it also lists the many approved hurri- cane shelters that dot the Cayman Islands. “If the storm was headed this way, there would be a time we’d have activated the shelters and put that information out to the public,” he said. “The message would’ve been the same. Prepare your prop- erty, prepare yourselves and your family. Make sure you’ve got all your stuff in order. We actu- ally shouldn’t have to be doing this now. “We just had Harvey pass by, and it’s been all over the media the destruc- tion that that’s caused. Now we have one of the largest storms ever, bearing down on the Caribbean.” Hurricane Irma swells to historic strength CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 KENYAN OPPOSITION LEADER REJECTS NEW PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION NAIROBI – Kenyan op- position politician Raila Odinga vowed Tuesday that he would not participate in a new presidential election scheduled for next month without “legal and constitu- tional guarantees” against alleged electoral fraud. Odinga, who has dis- puted the results of Kenya’s Aug. 8 presidential election, spoke a day after the coun- try’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commis- sion (IEBC) set Oct. 17 as the new date for polls. Ke- nya’s Supreme Court de- cided Friday to annul the election results, saying that major “irregularities and il- legalities” marred the bal- loting. The court ordered the commission to hold a new election within 60 days. According to official re- turns issued by the electoral commission last month, President Uhuru Kenyatta easily won reelection, re- ceiving 54 percent of the vote to Odinga’s 45 percent. Addressing journal- ists in Nairobi, Odinga said Tuesday that he was not consulted on matters re- garding the fresh polls. “The electoral commis- sion did not see fit to con- sult the stakeholders before they announced the date of elections,” he said. He added that the commission re- neged on a pledge to hold consultations with the op- position and ruling parties “so that we could agree not only on the date of election but how the elections are going to be conducted.” Odinga charged that Ke- nyatta’s ruling Jubilee Party “decided on the date and not the electoral commis- sion, which puts to ques- tion the independence of the electoral commission.” He said that a French firm, Safran Identity and Se- curity, which won a contract to supply election equip- ment, should be investi- gated and “should give a full account” of what happened. “We know exactly what transpired in these last elec- tions,” he said. “We know what the IEBC did, and we know that if we were to go back there will be no dif- ferent results, and that’s why we say there will be no elections” on Oct. 17. Odinga also demanded the sacking of several elec- toral commission offi- cials. “The commission as it is currently constituted should not conduct this election, because the com- mission itself has been in- dicted,” he said. “Some of them should be investigated and pros- ecuted for the kind of hei- nous crimes that they com- mitted in this last election,” Odinga said. “These officials should not conduct elec- tions, and therefore we are saying that we are not ready to participate in the elec- tions on the 17th of October without legal and constitu- tional guarantees because we cannot do a mistake twice and expect to get dif- ferent results.”The islands’ most-trusted news source 8 WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS but did not address any of the environmental group’s specific claims. “MRCU and Oxitec are en- gaged in ongoing discussions regarding the expansion of the ‘Friendly Aedes aegypti program,’” the Mosquito Re- search and Control Unit stated. “MRCU has followed due process to comply with all regulatory requirements. The program is a public health initiative to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is an invasive species in the Cayman Islands and the primary vector of viruses, including Zika, dengue, chi- kungunya and yellow fever.” National Conservation Council Chairwoman Chris- tine Rose-Smyth said her de- partment would not com- ment on the matter until all its members have the oppor- tunity to consider the matter. Though the GM mos- quito program did not yield its desired results right after it started in July 2016, by late November the mos- quito populations were sup- pressed when compared to the populations of the con- trol area a few miles east, according to the MRCU’s report on phase one, which was published in June. Sup- pression levels were de- termined by comparing the number of eggs and adult mosquitoes caught in the traps laid in the re- spective areas. The report states that by March, the amount of eggs per trap in the target area was 35 percent of that in the control area. The adults trapped showed “a sim- ilar trend, though of a lower amplitude initially,” the report added. “This outcome is within expectations according to previous field suppression observed in [the] Cayman Is- lands, Brazil, and Panama with substantial suppres- sion observed within four to six months following start of releases at an adequate rate,” the report concludes. The GeneWatch report paints a far different pic- ture. According to that report, while the project did achieve population suppression as measured by comparing eggs per trap, Oxitec and the MRCU had to release far more GM mosquitoes than they originally stated. GeneWatch said Oxitec initially stated in May 2016 that it would release between 100,000 and 200,000 GM male mosquitoes weekly, and that the population levels of the Aedes aegypti mosquito would fall dramatically a few months later. However, the number of mosquitoes to be released weekly had to be in- creased to 500,000 to achieve any observable effect, Ge- neWatch stated. These claims differ from the MRCU’s report, which stated that the unit initially released 300,000 on July 28, 2016 and continued to re- lease that number weekly until late November, when it bumped the number up to 400,000 per week. “In- crease in production from initial rates was in response to the high mosquito popula- tion, due to seasonality,” the MRCU stated. From March until now, the number of GM mosquitoes being released has dropped to 250,000, the MRCU added. GeneWatch also stated that the number of females “spiked” during the monitored period. While the number of females was higher in the target area than in the con- trol area in late 2016 and early 2017, the population reached consistent suppres- sion levels by early May, ac- cording to the MRCU. GeneWatch further stated that the National Conserva- tion Council approved the islandwide rollout of the project on June 15, which was before the MRCU re- leased its results of phase one on June 25. The council relied on pre- vious risk assessments from Cayman, Malaysia, Brazil and the U.S. But the Cayman risk assessment does not “meet international standards,” the Malaysia and U.S. as- sessments “have both been withdrawn,” and the Brazil assessment “includes a dis- senting opinion from both experts,” according to the Ge- neWatch report. Despite the criticism from GeneWatch, Oxitec’s Cayman project manager, Renaud La- croix, said the plan is to implement the islandwide program by February. Mr. La- croix said that is the ideal time to start releasing GM mosquitoes because that is when populations are gen- erally the lowest, making it easier to suppress those pop- ulations when they grow. Officials have not re- sponded to inquiries about how much the project will cost government. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Watchdog group criticizes GM mosquito project Rohingya crisis intensifies; India’s Modi arrives in Myanmar for talks Nearly 125,000 refugees belonging to the Rohingya minority ethnic group have fled Myanmar for neigh- boring Bangladesh in just the past week and a half, ac- cording to local aid organi- zations. They have relayed testimony of indiscriminate executions, gunfire from he- licopters, and a scorched- earth campaign seemingly aimed at destroying Ro- hingya villages and driving the mostly Muslim popula- tion out of predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. Hun- dreds have died making the journey to Bangladesh, in- cluding 46 who drowned when a boat carrying them capsized last week. As the crisis deepens, gov- ernments and influential in- ternational figures – pri- marily, but not exclusively, from the Muslim world – have begun to speak out against the Myanmar govern- ment and its de facto leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the Myanmar capital on Tuesday to discuss trade, but he was also expected to bring up the Rohingya issue. The most recent spate of violence in Myanmar’s southwestern Rakhine state broke out Aug. 25, when Ro- hingya militants attacked local security forces, killing at least 12. The attack mir- rored a similar one in Oc- tober that killed nine border police personnel and spurred almost 90,000 Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh, which has been a refuge for the group for decades, though increas- ingly reluctantly. This year’s violence ap- pears to be more widespread and intense. The Myanmar military has acknowl- edged killing at least 370 Rohingyas in what it calls “clearance operations.” The government maintains that all those killed belonged to the Arakan Rohingya Sal- vation Army (ARSA), a mil- itant group that has been building up its ranks since last year’s violence. It is unclear how much local and international sup- port ARSA has, but videos of its training camps show only small numbers of shabbily dressed and ill- equipped fighters. Myanmar officials, in- cluding Suu Kyi, argue that the Rohingya are migrants from Bangladesh who should not be considered Myanmar citizens, despite historical evidence of their presence in what is now Myanmar – also known as Burma – for gener- ations. The government offi- cially refers to the Rohingya as Bengalis. Speaking to the Myanmar newspaper Fron- tier Myanmar on Tuesday, government spokesman Zaw Htay seemed to imply that he viewed all Rohingya men as militants. “Those who have fled can be of two types: the ones who made the terror attack and escaped, and the others who are women and chil- dren,” he said. “The terror- ists are mixed in with ordi- nary civilians. Soldiers from the United States are al- lowed to shoot if their life is under threat. Now Ben- galis are holding weapons – swords, daggers, catapults and homemade rifles. If they are going to harm you, you can shoot them.” On Tuesday, Malaysia re- called its ambassador from Myanmar, citing “sustained violence and discrimina- tion against the Rohingyas.” Maldives, which, like Ma- laysia, is largely Muslim, an- nounced the cessation of all its trade ties with Myanmar. Tens of thousands in Rus- sia’s Muslim-majority re- public of Chechnya marched in support of the Rohingya, and large protests were held in Australia and Indo- nesia, where someone lobbed a gasoline bomb at the Myanmar Embassy. Pakistan’s Foreign Min- istry also issued a strongly worded condemnation of the violence against the Ro- hingya, but many in that country wondered why it had not opened its doors to more Rohingya refugees, given that Pakistan is the only nation established spe- cifically as a refuge for Mus- lims. Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize winner, took to Twitter to ex- press dismay with Suu Kyi. © 2017, The Washington Post Hundreds of Rohingya people gather on a beach in Maungdaw, Rakhine state, Myanmar, waiting to cross the border into Bangladesh. They fled their village after Myanmar soldiers set fire to their homes. - PHOTO: AP This modified van was used to release GM mosquitoes in West Bay last year. - PHOTO: TANEOS RAMSAYThe islands’ most-trusted news source 9 CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 France to arm military drones France’s defense minister says that the French military will arm drones that are currently used for surveillance and intelligence only. Florence Parly said Tuesday that ‘armed drones will have endurance, discretion, surveillance and strike capability at the right place and the right moment.’ FOR SALE 3 Gallon Pots- $30.00 each Call (345) 916 2416 or (345) 917 4634 Unit #125 Cannon Place GT (Formerly Mirco Centre) caymankarateacademy@gmail.com www.caymankarateacademy.com Telephone: 926-5425 Back to School SPECIAL 1 Week Trial Program Including Uniform for $ 29 Trump rescinds ‘Dreamers’ program UK Brexit chief faces jeering lawmakers LONDON (AP) – Britain’s chief Brexit negotiator faced a jeering House of Commons on Tuesday, as lawmakers re- turning from summer recess challenged government plans to “intensify” talks with the European Union. David Davis ticked off what he described as accom- plishments thus far in the negotiations and described Britain’s position as “flex- ible and pragmatic.” As the heckles rose, a languid Davis leaned against the dispatch box and said his message to the European Commis- sion had always been to “put people above process.” “Ultimately, businesses and citizens on both sides want us to move swiftly on to discussing the future part- nership and we want that to happen after the European Council in October, if pos- sible,” he said. Britain wants to per- suade the 27 other EU na- tions to start negotiating a future relationship that would include a free trade deal between Britain and the EU by the fall. The EU says those nego- tiations cannot start until sufficient progress has been made on three initial is- sues: how much money the U.K. will have to pay to leave the bloc; whether security checks and customs duties will be instituted on the Irish border; and the status of EU nationals living in Britain. Brussels has expressed frustration on the course of the talks. As Davis argued prog- ress had been made on citi- zens’ rights, financial settle- ments, Ireland and Northern Ireland, the chamber erupted into laughter and still more jeers. Unfazed, Davis pressed on. “Nobody has ever pre- tended this would be simple or easy,” he said. The opposition Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, ar- gued that “too many prom- ises” had been made about Brexit which “can’t be kept.” “It is a fantasy to think that you can have a deep and comprehensive trade deal without shared institution and the sooner we face up to that the better,” Starmer said. Prime Minister The- resa May is bracing for the first test of the govern- ment’s new term of office. Lawmakers this week will begin debating the Brexit Repeal Bill, which will ef- fectively transfer EU law to U.K. statute books on the day Britain leaves the bloc. Opposition Labour Party members have said they will vote against the bill, arguing it would allow ministers to “grab power from Parliament.” Some members of May’s Conservative Party are sug- gesting they may vote against the bill in the later stages of the legislative process. Program launched in 2012 by executive order of President Obama WASHINGTON (AP) – Pres- ident Donald Trump on Tuesday began disman- tling the government pro- gram protecting hundreds of thousands of young im- migrants who were brought into the country illegally as children. Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared the Obama administration’s pro- gram “an unconstitutional exercise of authority” that must be revoked. New applications will be halted for President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals pro- gram, which was launched in 2012 by executive order. The program has provided nearly 800,000 young immi- grants a reprieve from de- portation and the ability to work legally in the U.S. in the form of two-year, renewable work permits. “I’m here today to an- nounce that the program known as DACA that was ef- fectuated under the Obama administration is being re- scinded,” Sessions announced. But the administration is giving Congress six months to come up with a legisla- tive fix – “should it choose to,” Sessions said – before the government stops renewing permits for people already covered by the program. According to Department of Homeland Security offi- cials, people with permits whose renewals are set to ex- pire between now and March 5, 2018, will be able to re- apply – so long as their ap- plications are submitted by Oct. 5, 2017, one month from Tuesday. No permits will be revoked before their existing expiration dates, and applica- tions already in the pipeline will be processed, they said. Trump, in a statement, said the change would be “a gradual process, not a sudden phase out.” “Thus, in effect, I am not going to just cut DACA off, but rather provide a window of opportunity for Congress to finally act,” he said. He said he did not favor pun- ishing children for the ac- tions of their parents. At the same time, though, “we must also recognize that we are a nation of opportunity be- cause we are a nation of law” and “young Americans have dreams, too.” His action drew swift crit- icism from many immigra- tion advocates and Demo- cratic lawmakers. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called Trump’s decision “a deeply shameful act of political cowardice and a despicable assault on inno- cent young people in commu- nities across America.” Some Republicans objected, too. Sen. John McCain of Ari- zona said Trump was taking “the wrong approach,” and he added: “The federal govern- ment has a responsibility to defend and secure our bor- ders, but we must do so in a way that upholds all that is decent and exceptional about our nation.” Trump’s announcement came the same day as a deadline set by a group of Republican state officials who said they would chal- lenge DACA in court unless the Trump administration re- scinded the program. Admin- istration officials argued the program might not hold up in court – and said that al- lowing the lawsuit to proceed would throw the program into far more chaos than the move they chose. Trump has spent months wrestling with what to do with DACA, which he slammed during his campaign as illegal “amnesty.” Many of his closest advisers, including Sessions, policy adviser Stephen Miller, and former chief strategist Steve Bannon argue that the program is unconstitutional and have urged Trump to follow through on his cam- paign promise to end it. But Trump has repeat- edly expressed sympathy for the young people protected by the program. “I think the Dreamers are terrific,” Trump said last week, using a term popular- ized by supporters of the program, which was cre- ated in 2012 as a stopgap as the Obama administration pushed unsuccessfully for a broader immigration over- haul in Congress. His approach – essen- tially kicking the can down the road and letting Congress deal with it – is fraught with potential peril for his own party. Trump’s decision to take a harder line on young immigrants unless Congress intervenes threatens to em- phasize deep divisions among Republicans who have long struggled with the issue. House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement he hoped the “House and Senate, with the president’s leadership, will be able to find consensus on a permanent legislative solution that includes en- suring that those who have done nothing wrong can still contribute as a valued part of this great country.” “Congress writes laws, not the president, and ending this program fulfills a promise that President Trump made to restore the proper role of the executive and legisla- tive branches. But now there is more to do, and the presi- dent has called on Congress to act,” he said. But Congress has repeat- edly tried – and failed – to come together on immigra- tion overhaul legislation, and it remains uncertain whether the House would succeed in passing anything on the divisive topic. One bill addressing the issue that has received the most attention, introduced by Sens. Lindsey Graham, a Re- publican, and Dick Durbin, a Democrat, would grant per- manent legal status to more than 1 million young people who arrived in the United States before they turned 18, passed security checks and met other criteria, including enrolling in college, joining the military or finding jobs. It’s unclear, however, whether the president would support that or any other ex- isting legislation. Trump’s decision to take a harder line on young immigrants unless Congress intervenes threatens to emphasize deep divisions among Republicans who have long struggled with the issue. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions Supporters of Britain staying in the EU take part in a protest to coincide with politicians returning to work after the summer recess, outside the Houses of Parliament in London on Tuesday. - PHOTO: APNext >