High of 88 Low of 76 Slight with wave of heights of 1 to 3 feet. EDITORIAL | PAGE 4 WHEN THERE’S TROUBLE, CAYMAN’S DIVERS JUMP RIGHT IN BUSINESS | PAGE 10 SMALL BUSINESS ASSOCIATION HOSTS EXPO ESTABLISHED 1965 www.caymancompass.com – 50 CENTS – WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 25, 2017 GM MOSQUITOES SWAT WILD POPULATION JAMES WHITTAKER jwhittaker@pinnaclemedialtd.com Genetically modified mosquitoes have made a significant impact in reducing wild populations of the disease-spreading insects in the West Bay release area. Researchers documented a “62 percent suppression rate” in the release area, com- pared with a control area, also in West Bay, where only traditional methods of containing mosquitoes were used. The results of this monitoring are revealed in the first report of the so-called “Friendly Aedes aegypti project,” a partnership between government’s Mosquito Research and Control Unit and British biotech firm Oxitec. It tracks the impact of the Oxitec mosquitoes from the first release in July 2016 through the end of June this year. The approach involves the release of ge- netically modified male mosquitoes, which carry a “self-limiting gene,” preventing their offspring from surviving to adulthood. The genetically modified strain also carries a Report: Cayman a destination for Fortune 500 subsidiaries Cayman Finance disputes ‘tax haven’ label KEN SILVA ksilva@pinnaclemedialtd.com A new study published last week provides a glimpse of the presence some of the largest U.S. corporations have in the Cayman Islands and other offshore finan- cial jurisdictions. At least 366 of the Fortune 500 companies have subsidiaries in “tax havens” as of the end of 2016, according to a report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the Institute on Taxa- tion and Economic Policy – two left-leaning think tanks in Wash- ington D.C. that call for higher taxes on corporations. The most popular jurisdic- tion among Fortune 500 com- panies is the Netherlands, with more than half of them setting up a subsidiary there. About 57 percent of the 366 companies set up one or more subsidiaries Garbage eating ‘Seabin’ goes on patrol in Cayman JAMES WHITTAKER jwhittaker@pinnaclemedialtd.com Imagine a bin that collects trash for you. The “Seabin” – capable of scooping half a ton of garbage from the water per year – went on patrol at the Cayman Islands Yacht Club Tuesday. Built to mop up everything that floats, from plastic bottles and paper to spilled oil or fuel, the contraption is described by de- signers as a floating rubbish bin. The Cayman Islands is one of eight coun- tries where the invention is being piloted as part of a project to reduce the amount of plastic and other trash in the ocean. The device is fitted with a pump that creates a flow of water that sucks floating rubbish toward it and into a fiber bag. It can be used in marinas and yacht clubs where conditions are relatively serene. Pete Ceglinski, managing director and co-founder of the Seabin Project, said he hoped the invention could be part of a worldwide solution for cleaner oceans. Butterfield Bank has partnered with the project founders to bring the Seabin to Cayman. Michael McWatt, managing director of Butterfield in Cayman, said clean, healthy oceans were imperative to the is- land economies in which the bank oper- ates, and it wanted to do its part to protect them. The project also includes an educa- tional component. Anthony Travers Pete Ceglinski, co-founder of the Seabin Project, demonstrates the floating trash can that is capable of scooping garbage from the ocean’s surface, at the Cayman Islands Yacht Club Tuesday. – PHOTO: TANEOS RAMSAY PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 » APPLEBY CONFIRMS DATA BREACH MICHAEL KLEIN mklein@pinnaclemedialtd.com Offshore law and fiduciary firm Ap- pleby confirmed it has received inquiries from the International Consortium of Inves- tigative Journalists in relation to documents that may have been subject to an alleged hack at the firm. The ICIJ is a global network of investiga- tive journalists that in 2015 released the so- called Panama Papers, a set of 11.5 million leaked documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. In a statement released Tuesday, the Ber- muda-headquartered firm said the inquiries “have arisen from documents that journal- ists claim to have seen and involve allegations made against our business and the business conducted by some of our clients.” Appleby admitted “a data security incident” happened at the firm last year and that some data had been compromised. “We are committed to protecting our clients’ data and we have reviewed our cybersecurity PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 »2 LOCAL&REGIONAL WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 25, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS than 50 people and knocking out electricity to the whole island. More than a month later, only 30 percent of cus- tomers have power, though Gov. Ricardo Rossello has pledged to get that to 95 per- cent by Dec. 31. Roughly 70 percent of the communica- tion network has been re- stored, and 70 percent of the water service is back. The main airport recently resumed full operations. Cruise ships are beginning to sail again. The Bacardi rum distillery will reopen Nov. 1. Nearly all the island’s casinos are open. Old San Juan’s colonial-era buildings mostly survived intact. “We don’t want to give up entirely on the high season,” said Izquierdo, who hopes business will be bolstered by Puerto Ricans coming home for the holidays, emergency federal officials working on the recovery and others coming with a sense of pur- pose to help rebuild. “And then post high-season, we continue to revamp the product,” he said. But for Patti Weiss, 54, of Gilbertsville Pennsyl- vania, the uncertainty was too much. She and her hus- band planned their Royal Caribbean cruise a year ago and regularly embark from Puerto Rico, staying through Christmas, but are leaving from Florida instead. “I just didn’t feel it was the right time to go, it was too iffy. I was still seeing pictures and the ho- tels lost the generators and I just couldn’t do it,” she said. “We were really disap- pointed, but I still have my house and drinking water so this is nothing com- pared to what they’re going through down there.” Scores of restaurants are open, but operating under truncated hours with limited menus and many without power. Some are offering dis- counted meals to locals who cannot cook. Chef Ariel Ro- driguez, owner of Ariel, a fine dining spot open for al- most 30 years where a two- course meal is $54, said it’s been nearly impossible to get ingredients. He was offering a meal of beef stew and rice for $5. For smaller eateries like gastropub Gallo Negro, it’s hard to pay the cost of diesel for generators, said Chef Maria Grubb. Her 52- seat restaurant has not been open for weeks. “It’s quite crushing,” she said. “Rent is still due. In- surance is still due, distribu- tors need to be paid. We have a staff of 14 people without any means of making money. That’s the toughest part of all this.” The financial impact of Maria on the industry will not be clear until after the season ends, but the visible impact of the storm is more obvious. Some of the island’s best-known attractions were battered, like El Yunque, a biologically diverse trop- ical rain forest of 45 square miles (11,700 hectares). Aerial footage shows massive defo- liation, plus landslides and downed trees. One of the is- land’s most famous resort hotels, El Conquistador in Fa- jardo, will be closed until the end of the year for repairs. The expansive grounds of the Castillo San Felipe del Morro are open around the breathtaking 250-year- old Spanish fort that winds through the cliffs overlooking San Juan Bay, but the fort itself is still shut. Beaches that were slammed by lashing rain and winds may also be contaminated after sewers overflowed; environ- mental officials say no one should go in yet. Even if people do come, finding a hotel will be tricky. There are roughly 100 hotels open, mostly powered by gen- erators, but nearly all are oc- cupied with recovery workers and it’s not clear how long they are staying, though tourism officials say they expect more rooms avail- able starting Dec. 20. Of the premier resorts, the Caribe Hilton is not accepting res- ervations until New Year’s. The Ritz-Carlton in San Juan will not open for guests until at least April. Meanwhile, hospitality of- ficials are encouraging do- gooders come to help rebuild. Local Guest, a website pro- moting sustainable tourism, is offering trips starting Dec. 1 for people to come stay with families in hard-hit areas to help them rebuild, said creator Carmen Portela. “After the hurricane I have to be honest, hearts were de- stroyed,” she said, and she tried to figure out how to help on a larger scale. “If we don’t help rebuild our country then there’s nothing, there’s nothing.” 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 - THE SNOWMAN (R) 3:50 VIP I 7:00 I 9:35 VIP I 9:45 BLADE RUNNER 2049 3D (R) 3:15 I 6:30 2D I 9:25 AMERICAN MADE (R) 1:20 THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US (PG13) 12:35 I 6:45 I 10:00 THE FOREIGNER (R) 12:55 I 3:35 I 7:10 I 9:55 TYLER PERRY’S BOO2! 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The driver has said he never saw the check- point or a request to stop. “I want to be clear that a car not following a po- lice order does not justify shooting,” Cardoso told re- porters at a news con- ference Tuesday. He said that Lt. Davi dos Santos Ribeiro fired the fatal shot and was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. A judge later released Ri- beiro pending trial, saying he had an “immaculate record” and that there was no evi- dence that he would commit a crime if released. Cardoso said another of- ficer, who has not been named, shot into the air and was also arrested. It was un- clear if he was still in cus- tody late Tuesday. Six fire- arms have been seized. Mayor Marcelo Crivella called the death a tragedy but an exception, saying that “the rule is good police officers.” Human rights groups, how- ever, say Rio’s police force is exceptionally deadly. In May, Amnesty International said killings at the hands of po- lice in Rio had risen nearly 80 percent in the first two months of this year, as com- pared to last year. In 2015, police were responsible for one in every five murders in Rio, the group says. Jimenez Ruiz, who is from El Puerto de Santa Maria, was with her brother and sister-in-law and a guide as they left the Rocinha slum after a tour, Cardoso said. After the shots were fired, the car continued for about 30 meters before stopping at another police checkpoint, at which point the passen- gers realized Jimenez Ruiz had been hit. Rocinha has been the scene of intense firefights be- tween police and drug traf- fickers. The army has even occasionally been called in to support police operations. Authorities say they are in- vestigating why a tour com- pany would bring tourists to what they have labeled a “con- flict area” and will consider pressing criminal charges. Valeria Aragao, an in- spector with the tourism po- lice, has said that the tour- ists may have thought the heavy police presence in Ro- cinha meant it was safe, when it actually signals just the opposite. For years, tourist visits to slums, or favelas, were common. Many of the areas are culturally and architec- turally rich, and include top samba schools, musicians and artists. However, amid Brazil’s economic crisis in re- cent years and an uptick in violence, visits to favelas have become much less frequent. A story that ran on Oct. 17, titled “Eastern districts cargo port plan floated,” incorrectly stated the capacity of the Owen Roberts International Airport. The airport does operate a runway of sufficient length to accommodate Boeing 767 and 777 aircraft, with the arrival and departure of British Airways, which operates a Boeing 777-200 series aircraft to/from Nassau, Bahamas. A longer runway would enable the airport to accommodate aircraft flying longer routes at full load (such as direct flights to/from the U.K.). SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – The narrow blue cobble- stone streets of Old San Juan are deserted. Cigar shops are boarded up. Boutiques in bright colonial build- ings are closed. “It’s like a ghost town,” said Mike Maione, a 57-year- old tourist from Flanders, New Jersey, who was staying in the heart of the colonial city with his wife at a small hotel powered by a generator. “We’ve been here a number of times before, and the place is usually just crawling with tourists, but there’s nobody here.” Tourism, a rare thriving sector on the island in a deep economic slump, is practi- cally nonexistent a month after Hurricane Maria swept though. And part of the re- covery from the storm de- pends on how fast visi- tors reappear. About a third of the ho- tels in Puerto Rico remain shuttered. Restaurants and shops are still without power. Beaches are closed for swim- ming because of possible water contamination. The high season begins in December, and tourism offi- cials are hoping to lure some visitors, but that depends on when power is fully restored and how quickly hotels and attractions can repair the catastrophic damage. “We want Puerto Rico to be more like New Orleans post-Katrina and Detroit post-financial crisis,” said Jose Izquierdo, the execu- tive director of Puerto Rico’s government Tourism Com- pany. Though, he hopes, on a faster timeline. The U.S. territory usu- ally sees more than 5 mil- lion visitors a year, and they spend close to $4 bil- lion, creating jobs for more than 80,000 people. While that is a small portion of the overall economy, about 8 percent, money generated by visitors has been growing at the same time other sec- tors have shrunk during a 10- year recession. Maria roared across the island on Sept. 20 as a Cat- egory 4 storm, killing more “I want to be clear that a car not following a police order does not justify shooting.” FABIO CARDOSO, inspector with the civil police force Men push a generator along Fortaleza street, one month after Hurricane Maria in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Maria roared across the island on Sept. 20 and after a month, only 30 percent of residents have power. – PHOTO: AP3 LOCAL NEWS CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 25, 2017 Visit us at rbc.com/autoloans 1Oer valid October 27, 2017. *S pecial conditions a pply. Su bject to normal lending criteria. The c ost of borrowing will be made available upon a pplication. *All approved clients receive 60 days deferred payment. ®/™ Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Can ada. Used under licence. RBC Royal Bank ®, Prestige Motors Ltd and Tony’s Toys Get Great Low Rates and Spectacular Deals on Wheels Friday, October 27, 20171 RBC Royal Bank Prestige Motors at George Town branch - 9:00am to 4:30pm Tony’s Toys at Red Bay branch- 11:00am to 6:00pm Drive FREE for 60 days!* ‘Colorful language’ resulted in arrest MARK MUCKENFUSS mmuckenfuss@pinnaclemedialtd.com A Royal Cayman Islands Police Service inspector tes- tified in court Monday that he arrested a man for using foul language. Mark Blake, 28, is charged with assaulting Inspector Ian Yearwood, when he at- tempted to remove the defen- dant from the car in which Blake was a passenger. The incident took place during a nighttime traffic stop on Dec. 10 last year. Under cross-examination from Blake’s attorney, An- thony Akiwumi, Mr. Yearwood admitted that it was Blake’s use of an expletive in two comments that led to the offi- cer’s determination that Blake was engaging in disorderly conduct. Mr. Akiwumi argued that no effort should have been made to arrest his client. Mr. Yearwood said he would not have made the ar- rest if Blake had made the identical comments without the expletives. “Help us understand where the public peace was at risk … simply because you don’t like him using swear words,” Mr. Akiwumi asked Mr. Yearwood. “You arrested him, really, for the use of col- orful language.” “Correct,” Mr. Yearwood said. Magistrate Angelyn Her- nandez followed up with her own question. “It was the use of the f-word that was the dis- orderly conduct?” Ms. Hernandez asked. “It was not just the in- decent [language],” Mr. Year- wood responded. “But that contradicts what you just said,” Ms. Hernandez said. Mr. Yearwood said that other civilians were nearby and could have heard the comments. In his estimation, that amounted to disorderly conduct, he said. Blake has not been charged with disorderly con- duct, only with assault. Mr. Akiwumi also ques- tioned Mr. Yearwood’s testi- mony that when he tried to remove Blake from the ve- hicle, Blake attempted to kick the officer and then punched him in the mouth. A video taken by the driver of the vehicle showed Blake being pepper sprayed but did not show any effort by him to strike Mr. Year- wood and another officer, Ju- lius Blackwood. Mr. Blackwood testified that the video shown to the court begins after the initial confrontation, when Mr. Year- wood opened the passenger door and grabbed Blake. Mr. Blackwood said he was ap- proaching the car during that point and saw both the police inspector and Blake striking one another. “Punches were being thrown by both men,” Mr. Blackwood said. He testified that he also tried to extricate Blake from the car, but the defen- dant refused, holding onto the seat he was in and com- plaining that he had not done anything wrong. Moments later, Mr. Black- wood said, pepper spray was deployed, Blake was re- moved from the vehicle and then handcuffed. The trial is scheduled to continue at 10 a.m. on Nov. 21. Mr. Yearwood said he would not have made the arrest if Blake had made the identical comments without the expletives. Inspector Ian Yearwood TROPICAL SYSTEM BREWS IN WESTERN CARIBBEAN Possibility of thunderstorms, mudslides and dangerous surf A broad, low-pres- sure weather system in the western Caribbean Sea is slowly moving northward, bringing with it widespread cloudiness and showers. Mapping by the U.S. Na- tional Hurricane Center showed the system pos- sibly affecting the Cayman Islands within the next few days. The system is expected to move into the north- western Caribbean late this week or during the weekend, before moving north toward the U.S. East Coast. The disturbance, cur- rently located off the north- eastern coast of Nicaragua, has a 50 percent chance of cyclone formation within five days and a 10 percent chance within 48 hours. The next name on the list of tropical storms is Philippe. Limited development was forecast Tuesday through Thursday, as the system sat close to land. After the system moves further north, however, environ- mental conditions are ex- pected to be conducive for storm development. Low wind shear and very warm sea surface tempera- tures favor tropical develop- ment, AccuWeather reported. A tropical wave moving from the east could interact with the system and promote storm organization. AccuWeather warned that even if the system does not form into a tropical storm, the northwestern Caribbean and southern Florida will be at risk of flash flooding. Areas of Central America, Cuba and Jamaica could ex- perience downpours, gusty thunderstorms, mudslides and dangerous surf. The tropical feature could quickly become a hurricane, resulting in a more north- eastern path toward cen- tral Cuba on Friday, Accu- Weather reported. The site encouraged res- idents from the central Ca- ribbean to Bermuda to mon- itor the storm.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. Are government-created institutions out of control? Domestic and international government institutions and agencies are created on the premise that they will make things better for the people. But all too often, those who lead these institutions and agencies drift from the core mission or become corrupted. When they do so, they under- mine faith in civil society. Government institutions become particularly dan- gerous when they have police powers or sufficient funds to threaten or intimidate critics. They often create walls to protect their own, including members of the media. These corrupt members of the gov- erning class not only reside in Washington, but in Paris, Brussels, Moscow, Beijing and numerous other places, from where they collude globally. Citizens rely on law en- forcement agencies to be com- petent, honest and impartial. Yet, Americans are faced with a situation where the previous two U.S. attorneys general – Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch – as well as former FBI Di- rector James Comey and cur- rent Internal Revenue Service Director John Koskinen, all apparently were not truthful while under oath. Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe was in charge of the Hillary Clinton email investiga- tion while his wife took a re- ported donation of more than $600,000 from close Hillary ally, Virginia Gov. Terry McAu- liffe and his cronies, in her failed bid for election (where she is legally allowed to keep the unspent funds). Mr. Mc- Cabe was shown in a video campaigning and soliciting funds for his wife, a clear vio- lation of the Hatch Act. He is also the subject of a sex dis- crimination suit by a former high-ranking FBI official – and yet he still has his job. Many are asking why he has not been fired. Some are spec- ulating that he may be up to the old J. Edgar Hoover trick of implicitly blackmailing his superiors and others by letting it be known that he has compromising infor- mation on them. It was also revealed this past week that the FBI appar- ently knew about the bribes and money laundering, in- cluding kickbacks, to the Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton that took place in conjunction with government officials, including Mr. Holder and Mrs. Clinton, approving a major sale of U.S. uranium assets to Russia. This hap- pened when current special prosecutor Robert Mueller, in charge of the Russian in- fluence on the elections in- quiry, was head of the FBI. The swamp investigating itself – hmmm. A number of international institutions have also gone rogue with dangerous impli- cations for economic growth and civil liberties around the world. Among them are the World Bank (WB), the In- ternational Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The motto of the World Bank is “working for a world free of poverty.” It has a long history of scandals, most often revolving around loans and grants to countries where government officials, or the well-connected, walked off with the funds, in effect, fur- ther enriching the powerful at the expense of the people. It is hard for a country to develop without relatively inexpensive electric power. As the distinguished econo- mist Deepak Lal has recently written, current World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, “has overruled the cost-benefit es- timates of the superiority of coal-based over solar- and wind-based power generation produced by his own eco- nomic staff, justifying this by reference to a wish to cut global emissions of green- house gases. [T]he bank ad- opted anti-coal funding pol- icies, which prioritizes the green environmental agenda over its core developmental mission of poverty reduction.” The IMF, not to be outdone by the World Bank, has just revealed its effort to quantify its program for bigger and more intrusive governments under the rubric of “Sustain- able Development Goals.” A frequent and learned critic of the IMF, economist Dan Mitchell produces a daily blog called “International Liberty” (https://danieljmitchell.word- press.com), where he exposes the IMF folly of pushing for higher tax rates, less tax com- petition between nations, and “asserting that lower living standards are desirable if ev- eryone is more equal.” These policies diminish growth and poverty reduction. The IMF has increased global financial systemic risk, and many of its programs have not only failed but disregarded the liberties and the wishes of the people subject to them. The OECD started out with the laudable goal of in- creasing world trade and economic progress, but over the last two decades, it has morphed into an organiza- tion that pushes for higher tax rates and fights desirable international tax competition. It has put the interests of high-tax countries over those of low-tax countries, and par- ticularly those without an in- come tax. No country became rich by having high tax rates. It was only after some coun- tries became rich that they pushed up tax rates. What the high-tax countries have man- aged to do is reduce growth – a policy they now want to in- flict on poor countries. The World Bank and In- ternational Monetary Fund require sovereign immu- nity from countries they deal with. This enables them to escape all legal liability and accountability for their ac- tions. Their employees, and those of the OECD, also enjoy tax-free salaries. Part of the solution is to shrink the size of the rogue institutions while requiring greater transparency and accountability. 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. Ask any scuba diver in the Cayman Islands why they do it, and expect a faraway look as they struggle to find words for their otherworldly underwater experiences. But ask our diving community for help – whether it be to protect their aquatic havens or assist a fellow diver – and they won’t miss a single beat or skip a single breath. For issues large and small, when trouble happens under water, our local divers jump right in to help. Most recently, scuba divers scouted out and helped clear debris from the USS Kittiwake dive site, which was damaged during its impromptu “relocation” by Hurricane Nate. Earlier this year, when a vacationing diver lost her wedding ring at the Kittiwake, dive staff did some sleuthing and were able to find and recover the ring. (We’ve all heard of the “needle in a haystack,” but a “wedding ring in a submarine rescue vessel”?) United by a common passion, Cayman’s divers don’t waste time finger pointing or hand wringing; they don’t complicate problems by convening blue-ribbon panels or constructing elaborate hierarchies of com- mittees and subcommittees. They don’t even ask for much by way of resources. They contribute what they can – be it boats, tanks, time or expertise. They self-organize to clean trash and fishing line from the reefs they treasure. They turn do-gooding into a sport, holding lionfish culls that attract dozens of divers and help protect our ecosystem from these voracious predators. Photos of smiling divers show- casing their catch are clear evidence that the groups know how to have a good time, even as they perform good works that benefit us all. And in more serious circumstances – on those rare but grave occasions when a swimmer, snorkeler or fellow diver goes missing – volunteer divers spread the word on social media. Those who are able to head straight for the shoreline, suit up and join the search. Seemingly no project is too big for divers to tackle: In 2014, after a cruise ship mistakenly dropped its anchor in an unauthorized zone, crushing the pristine reef in front of Don Foster’s Dive Cayman, divers flocked to remediate the damage. Together, forming the Magic Reef Recovery Project with sustained support from the Department of Environment, divers spent more than a thousand hours underwater, pains- takingly removing tons of debris from the site and rebuilding it over the course of more than a year. With so much focus nowadays on “high-end luxury tourism,” it can be easy to forget how important the diving community has been to Cayman. After World War II, scuba pioneers on our islands helped conceive the recreational diving industry. Today, Cayman is well-represented on lists of the world’s top places to dive, thanks to our crystal- line waters, abundant natural wonders and highly respected dive operators. Even for locals, Cayman’s diving resources are prac- tically inexhaustible. The country has 365 named dive sites – as tourism officials like to point out – one for every day of the year. The way that Cayman’s transient but tight-knit dive community works together to steward our under- water environment presents a model of civic responsi- bility and self-reliance that, among the broader general public, is worthy of admiration – and emulation. When there’s trouble, Cayman’s divers jump right in WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 25, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS Hiding bad behavior behind noble causes 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 findtheirownway”5 LOCAL NEWS CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 25, 2017 A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER A LITTLE PARTY NEVER KILLED NOBODY… SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28 FREE ADMISSION IN THE LICENSE TO CHILL LOBBY BAR MARGARITAvILLE STAYCATION AwARDED TO BEST COSTUME. Police carrying out roadside checks Drivers throughout the districts this week will have noticed police checkpoints on some major roads. According to Royal Cayman Islands Police Ser- vice spokeswoman Jacque- line Carpenter, the checks are part of an ongoing operation to improve road safety. Ms. Carpenter said police were on the lookout for ex- pired registration coupons, tinted windows and expired temporary license plates, among other infractions. “The temporary plates should have been changed out by now,” she said, refer- ring to temporary license numbers that were issued by the Department of Vehicle and Drivers’ Licensing as it prepared to introduce its new electronic vehicle regis- tration system. Police officers are also stopping drivers for talking on their mobile phones while driving, she said. The RCIPS is working with the Rotary Clubs of Grand Cayman on the “Share the Road” safety ini- tiative and is handing out fliers about the campaign to drivers at checkpoints. Offi- cers are also giving drivers some other reminders of the Share the Road cam- paign, such as fridge magnets and air fresheners. “We are reminding people that the road is a communal space,” Ms. Carpenter said. She said the police were “moving around quite a bit” to cover wide areas of the island and also to en- sure that the operation, which began Monday, was a highly visible one. Police Media Officer Jodi-Ann Powery, who was on the road with the offi- cers Monday, said that the RCIPS was using the on- going operation “as an ed- ucational opportunity, but enforcing certain things we determine are a nuisance,” such as tinted windows and talking on mobile devices while driving. Police Media Officer Jodi-Ann Powery displays some ‘Share the Road’ fliers during a police check point on West Bay Road Monday. Royal Cayman Islands Police Service officers speak to drivers at a checkpoint on West Bay Road Monday. - PHOTOS: ALVARO SEREY SENIOR TOURISM OFFICER RETIRES AFTER 27 YEARS Alma McKenzie, senior tourism training and devel- opment officer for the De- partment of Tourism, retired this month after 27 years of service focusing on the devel- opment of youth and infusion of tourism education into the schools’ curriculum. A luncheon in her honor was held at Grand Old House, which was attended by Deputy Governor Franz Manderson, who is also head of the civil service; MLA David Wight, councillor for the Ministry of Tourism; Stran Bodden, chief officer in the Ministry of Tourism; and Director of Tourism Rosa Harris, along with manage- ment and staff of the Depart- ment of Tourism. Ms. McKenzie was a re- cipient of an early pioneer of tourism award at this year’s Heroes Day celebra- tion in January. Deputy Governor Franz Manderson presents Alma McKenzie with a plaque to mark her retirement after 27 years with the Department of Tourism.The islands’ most-trusted news source 6 WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 25, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS Nonprofit Plastic Free Cayman and the Cayman In- ternational School are on board to help deliver educa- tion and awareness programs on ocean technology and the problem of pollution in the marine environment. Matt Bishop, chief oper- ating officer of Active Capital which manages the Cayman Islands Yacht Club, said he had first seen the Seabin as a viral Facebook video and was honored to now see it in op- eration at the yacht club. “It is great to see the Cayman Islands Yacht Club is the first to have it and we hope to see it replicated across the islands,” he said. in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands, states the report, “Offshore Shell Games 2017.” The Fortune 500 firm with the largest presence in Cayman is Goldman Sachs, which had 511 subsidiaries registered here at the end of 2016, according to the report. Other corporations with companies registered in Cayman include Pepsi, Mar- riott, and Pfizer. Multina- tionals report roughly US$46 billion in profits here, the report states. The think tanks define a “tax haven” as a jurisdic- tion with low or zero taxes, laws that encourage finan- cial secrecy, and a “general lack of transparency in leg- islative, legal or administra- tive practices.” The report put Cayman under this defi- nition – a classification that Cayman Finance strongly disputed in a press release on Monday, and one that Cayman attorney Anthony Travers called a “confused pseudo analysis of a highly complicated subject.” The think tanks estimated that the U.S. multinational corporations hold some US$2.6 trillion offshore, costing the U.S. federal gov- ernment some US$100 bil- lion in tax revenue per year. The organizations compiled their data and estimates by analyzing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fil- ings, Federal Reserve statis- tics and other studies. To solve that alleged shortfall, the think tanks rec- ommended that the federal government taxes the foreign profits of U.S. corporations. Currently, foreign profits are only taxed once they are re- patriated to the U.S. “The most comprehensive solution to ending tax haven abuse would be to stop per- mitting U.S. multinational corporations to indefinitely defer paying U.S. taxes on profits they attribute to their foreign subsidiaries,” the re- port states. “In other words, companies should pay taxes on their foreign income at the same rate and time that they pay them on their do- mestic income.” Such a proposal is con- tained in U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to change the country’s fed- eral tax system. “To prevent companies from shifting profits to tax havens, the framework in- cludes rules to protect the U.S. tax base by taxing at a reduced rate and on a global basis the foreign profits of U.S. multinational corpora- tions,” the proposal reads. Mr. Trump is also pro- posing a one-time repa- triation tax rate for mul- tinationals, rumored to be around 10 percent, according to a Bloomberg article ear- lier this month. In response to the re- port, Cayman Finance issued a statement on Monday af- firming that the territory is a valuable contributor to the global economy. “Cayman is a premier global financial hub, efficiently connecting law abiding users and providers of investment capital and fi- nancing around the world,” said Cayman Finance CEO Jude Scott. “Cayman is an excellent extender of value for the U.S., U.K. and other major economies, helping to pool global investment cap- ital and financing for major initiatives like infrastructure development.” Mr. Scott also disputed the study’s characterization that Cayman encourages fi- nancial secrecy, pointing to a raft of transparency agreements the territory is committed to. “Cayman is a transparent jurisdiction due to our com- bination of a verified ben- eficial ownership regime, the adoption of more than twenty global financial stan- dards and adherence to both U.S. FATCA and the EU’s Common Reporting Stan- dards,” he said, adding, “We meet none of the descrip- tions used by entities such as the OECD or Transpar- ency International to define a tax haven.” Mr. Travers, a senior partner of Travers Thorp Al- berga, disputed the think tanks’ findings in much harsher terms. “The use of the Cayman Islands in these circum- stances is firmly rooted in United States tax law which intends that U.S. corporations should be in a position to trade globally without being subject to double taxation and therefore provides very specific deferral provisions. These are not ‘loopholes,’ but have a firm and incontrovert- ible foundation in U.S. tax law,” he said in an email to the Cayman Compass. “Reports such as the U.S. PIRG report, which lack dis- cipline in their analysis, serve no useful basis for any tech- nical analysis of prospective revisions to U.S. tax law. “Any such revisions need to contemplate and protect the preeminent competitive standing of U.S. corpora- tions engaged in legitimate global trade or propose al- ternative effective mea- sures,” he said. fluorescent marker, which is passed on to their offspring, enabling researchers to track the extent at which they are mating with wild females. Monitoring of larvae found in traps shows that the genetically modi- fied males are successfully mating with wild females and “competitively over- whelming the wild males in the release area,” according to the report. “The impact on the wild population is already visible and we are now observing a 62 percent suppression of the Ae. aegypti popula- tion in the area after the start of the wet season,” the report states. Renaud Lacroix, Oxitec project manager, told the Compass the results were in line with what was expected. He said the effect would in- crease over time with the continued release of geneti- cally modified males. The report notes that the Oxitec mosqui- toes were initially slow to make an impact. The number of insects re- leased into the wild had to be increased from 300,000 per week to around 400,000 per week at the end of 2016. At that stage, the level of mating between the ge- netically modified and wild mosquito populations was lower than expected, which project leaders attributed to a higher than anticipated wild population. Increasing the number of genetically modified males released helped overwhelm and suppress the wild mos- quitoes during that period, according to the report. The report indicates that the tactic was effec- tive. Between November 2016 and May 2017, mon- itoring of traps indicated that the target of 50 percent of larvae coming from Ox- itec males had been reached and surpassed. Despite seasonal varia- tion in both the release area and the control area, the re- port indicates sustained im- pact of the genetically modi- fied mosquitoes throughout this year: “The release area has shown consistent lower levels of infestation for the whole of 2017, confirming that the population has been suppressed.” Report: Cayman a destination for Fortune 500 subsidiaries A CORPORATE DESTINATION Here are the Fortune 500 com- panies with the greatest number of subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, according to a recent study published by two think tanks: ■■ Goldman Sachs Group – 511 ■■ Morgan Stanley – 251 ■■ AES – 68 ■■ Bank of New York Mellon Corp. – 66 ■■ Wells Fargo – 48 ■■ Apache – 43 ■■ PNC Financial Ser- vices Group – 38 ■■ J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. – 25 ■■ Las Vegas Sands – 22 ■■ Citigroup – 18 Other well-known Fortune 500 companies with Cayman sub- sidiaries include: ■■ Berkshire Hathaway – 1 ■■ CBS – 7 ■■ Clorox – 1 ■■ Coca-Cola – 3 ■■ Comcast – 1 ■■ ConocoPhillips – 7 ■■ ExxonMobil – 1 ■■ Halliburton – 3 ■■ Hanes – 16 ■■ Icahn Enterprises – 1 ■■ IHeartMedia – 4 ■■ Intel – 7 ■■ Marriott International – 14 ■■ Office Depot – 1 ■■ PepsiCo – 6 ■■ Pfizer – 2 ■■ Reynolds American – 1 ■■ Sherwin-Williams – 1 ■■ Starbucks – 1 ■■ Tesla – 3 ■■ Tyson Foods – 1 ■■ UnitedHealth Group – 3 ■■ Valero Energy – 2 ■■ Walgreen – 9 ■■ Yahoo – 2 Garbage eating ‘Seabin’ goes on patrol in Cayman CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Pete Ceglinski, left, demonstrates how the Seabin works during a launch event at the Cayman Islands Yacht Club Tuesday. – PHOTO: TANEOS RAMSAY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 GM mosquitoes swat wild population CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 and data access arrangements following a data security inci- dent last year which involved some of our data being com- promised,” the statement said. “These arrangements were re- viewed and tested by a leading IT forensics team and we are confident that our data integ- rity is secure.” English newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported that the law firm was in the process of warning clients that they may be implicated in a mas- sive leak of sensitive informa- tion in Bermuda. Appleby, however, denied that any of the allegations lev- eled against the firm and its cli- ents involved misconduct. “Appleby has thoroughly and vigorously investigated the allegations and we are satisfied that there is no evidence of any wrongdoing, either on the part of ourselves or our clients. We refute any allegations which may suggest otherwise and we would be happy to cooperate fully with any legitimate and authorized investigation of the allegations by the appropriate and relevant authorities.” Having researched the ICIJ’s allegations, Appleby said, it believes they are unfounded and based on a lack of under- standing of the legitimate and lawful structures used in the offshore sector. The firm said it operates in highly regulated jurisdictions and like other professional or- ganizations is subject to fre- quent regulatory checks. Appleby has offices in Ber- muda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Hong Kong, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Mauritius, Shanghai and the Seychelles. “We are committed to achieving the high standards set by our regulators. We are also committed to the highest standards of client service and confidentiality. It is what we stand for. This commitment is unequivocal,” Appleby said in its prepared statement. The firm said it does “not tolerate illegal behavior” but ad- mitted “it is true that we are not infallible.” “Where we find that mistakes have happened we act quickly to put things right and we make the necessary notifications to the relevant authorities.” Appleby also criticized media organizations for using information that may have been obtained through a cyberse- curity breach. “We are disappointed that the media may choose to use information which could have emanated from material ob- tained illegally and that this may result in exposing inno- cent parties to data protec- tion breaches.” CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Researchers documented a “62 percent suppression rate” in the release area, compared with a control area, also in West Bay, where only traditional methods of containing mosquitoes were used. Appleby confirms data breachThe islands’ most-trusted news source 7 CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 25, 2017 Tickets available from resellers, A.L. 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Apply today and get a bonus of up to $50.* Visit your nearest branch or go to ky.scotiabank.com/sayyes Get the most cash back ever on all your everyday purchases with Scotiabank Gold MasterCard®. Earn 4% cash back at grocery stores & gas stations, 2% at pharmacies and 1% everywhere else.* Apply today and get a bonus of up to $50. EN H A N C E D C H I P S E C U R IT Y #SayYesToMore China’s leader elevated to the level of Mao in Communist pantheon BEIJING – China’s Commu- nist Party formally elevated President Xi Jinping to the same status as party leg- ends Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping on Tuesday, writing his name into its constitu- tion and setting the nation’s leader up for an extended stay in power. The move will make Xi the most powerful Chinese leader in decades, with am- bitions to tighten party con- trol over society and make his country a superpower on the world stage. The unanimous vote to enshrine “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in a New Era” in the constitution came on the final day of the week- long 19th Party Congress, a gathering of the party elite held once every five years in the imposing and cavernous Great Hall of the People on the western side of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. There is no Little Red Book of pithy quotations as there was under Mao, but in- stead a mightier, drier tome of his speeches on “The Gov- ernance of China.” Neverthe- less, Xi’s ideas will now be- come compulsory learning for Chinese students from primary schools through universities. On Wednesday, more ev- idence of Xi’s power will emerge when he introduces the other members of the Communist Party’s top lead- ership, the Politburo Standing Committee, to the media. Ex- perts say it is unlikely that a clear successor will emerge or be anointed, leaving Xi’s preeminent position free of an obvious challenge. The Party Congress ef- fectively marks the start of Xi’s second five-year-term as party general secretary. But the chances are now higher that this will not be his last – or at least that he will remain the most powerful person in China beyond 2022. “The amendment of the party constitution effectively confirms Xi Jinping’s aspi- ration to be the Mao Zedong of the 21st century – that means a top leader with no constraints on tenure or re- tirement age,” said Willy Wo- Lap Lam, a political expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The inclusion of Xi’s name in the party’s doc- ument makes him only the third Chinese leader to be so honored, with his ideology joining Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory as a “guide to action.” China’s Communist Party imposed a system of col- lective leadership after the death of Mao. It was a party scarred by the madness, cru- elty and famine that one man had imposed through disas- trous policies, notably the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. As a result, Xi’s two pre- decessors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, ruled through con- sensus – as the “first among equals” at the top of the ladder – and were limited to two terms in power. Now the party is moving back in the other direction. Xi’s power is not unlim- ited, and many of his key policy measures reflect ideas adopted by the party be- fore he took power. Yet the past week has seen an ex- plosion of sycophancy to- ward China’s leader, after his mammoth 3 1/2-hour speech kicked off proceedings last Wednesday. This is a per- sonal style of rule, much like Vladimir Putin’s in Russia. Throughout the week, se- nior officials lined up, one after the other, to laud what they described as Xi’s pro- found, courageous, thrilling, insightful masterpiece of a speech, that shone “the light of Marxist Truth” and moved some of them from the bottom of their hearts. “In retrospect, it was an overwhelming assertion of authority to a degree un- seen since Mao,” said Fran- çois Godement, director of the China-Asia program at the European Council on For- eign Relations. Nevertheless, the fact that Xi’s name figures in the con- stitution puts him on a par with the party’s “immortals,” Mao and Deng, who had no term limits and did not re- tire, said Xie. “The introduction of Xi Thought makes the question of succession while Xi is alive a moot issue,” said Bill Bishop, publisher of the Sinocism newsletter. “So long as Xi has not met Marx, he is the man with an eponymous theory in the party constitution, so no one will have more authority than him” – no matter what title Xi holds, Bishop said. Xi Jinping, China’s president, speaks during the opening of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday, Oct. 18. – PHOTO: QILAI SHEN/BLOOMBERG San Juan, Puerto Rico on Lonely Planet list Lonely Planet has put San Juan, Puerto Rico, on its list of best cities to visit in 2018. The list was compiled before Hurricane Maria hit, but a Lonely Planet editor says the publisher believes San Juan ‘will be back on its feet for travelers in 2018.’ San Juan is No. 8 on the list.8 WORLD&REGIONAL WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 25, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS GAO report: Climate change already costing U.S. billions WASHINGTON (AP) – A non- partisan federal watchdog says climate change is al- ready costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars each year, with those costs expected to rise as devastating storms, floods, wildfires and droughts become more frequent in the coming decades. A Government Account- ability Office report released Monday said the federal gov- ernment has spent more than $350 billion over the last decade on disaster assis- tance programs and losses from flood and crop insur- ance. That tally does not in- clude the massive toll from this year’s wildfires and three major hurricanes, expected to be among the most costly in the nation’s history. The Senate on Monday gave preliminary approval to a $36.5 billion hurricane relief package that would provide Puerto Rico with a much-needed infusion of cash and keep the federal flood insurance program from running out of money to pay claims from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. That is on top of another $15.3 billion aid package ap- proved last month. The report predicts these costs will only grow in the future, averaging a budget busting $35 billion each year by 2050 – a figure that recent history would suggest is a conservative estimate. “Climate change impacts are already costing the fed- eral government money, and these costs will likely in- crease over time as the cli- mate continues to change,” the report said. Calculating just how much of the spending from disasters is directly attrib- utable to the changing cli- mate is not possible, the re- port’s authors conclude, but the trend is clear: “The im- pacts and costs of extreme events – such as floods, drought and other events – will increase in signifi- cance as what are consid- ered rare events become more common and intense because of climate change.” The federal govern- ment does not effectively plan for these recurring costs, the report said, classi- fying the financial exposure from climate-related costs as “high risk.” “The federal government has not undertaken stra- tegic governmentwide plan- ning to manage climate risks by using information on the potential economic effects of climate change to identify significant risks and craft ap- propriate federal responses,” the study said. “By using such information, the federal government could take the initial step in establishing governmentwide priorities to manage such risks.” GAO undertook the study following a request from Re- publican Sen. Susan Col- lins of Maine and Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. “This nonpartisan GAO report Senator Cantwell and I requested contains aston- ishing numbers about the consequences of climate change for our economy and for the federal budget in particular,” said Collins. “In Maine, our economy is in- extricably linked to the en- vironment. We are experi- encing a real change in the sea life, which has serious implications for the liveli- hoods of many people across our state, including those who work in our iconic lob- ster industry.” The report’s authors re- viewed 30 government and academic studies exam- ining the national and re- gional impacts of climate change. They also inter- viewed 28 experts familiar with the strengths and limi- tations of the studies, which rely on future projections of climate impacts to estimate likely costs. The report says the fiscal impacts of climate change are likely to vary widely by region. The Southeast is at increased risk because of coastal property that could be swamped by storm surge and sea level rise. The North- east is also under threat from storm surge and sea level rise, though not as much as the Southeast. The Midwest and Great Plains are susceptible to de- creased crop yields, the report said. The West is expected to see increased drought, wild- fires and deadly heat waves. Advance copies were pro- vided to the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency, which provided no official comments for inclu- sion in the GAO report. Requests for com- ment from The Associated Press also received no re- sponse on Monday. President Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax, announcing his in- tent to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accords and revoke Obama- era initiatives to curb green- house gas emissions. Trump has also appointed officials such as EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Energy Secre- tary Rick Perry and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, all of whom question the scien- tific consensus that carbon released into the atmo- sphere from burning fossil fuels is the primary driver of global warming. This Aug. 29 file photo shows businesses surrounded by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey in Humble, Texas. – PHOTO: AP New Zealand aims to go green with electricity, tree planting WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – New Zealand’s incoming government is hoping to make the nation greener by planting 100 million trees each year, ensuring the elec- tricity grid runs entirely from renewable energy, and spending more money on cy- cleways and rail transport. Jacinda Ardern, who takes over as prime minister this week, on Tuesday outlined agreements her Labour Party reached with other political parties joining them in the new government. In addition to the envi- ronmental initiatives, Ardern also outlined plans to raise the minimum wage, stop for- eigners from buying existing homes, and possibly change how New Zealand’s Reserve Bank operates. The 37-year-old will be New Zealand’s youngest leader in more than 150 years and hopes to take the country on a more liberal path following nine years of rule by the conservative National Party. “I don’t need to be influ- enced on climate change,” she said. “It will sit at the heart of what this government does.” Ardern’s plan is for New Zealand to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by the year 2050. Some of the targets will require only incremental changes. New Zealand al- ready generates about 85 per- cent of its electricity from re- newable sources including hydroelectric, geothermal and wind. Ardern plans to in- crease that to 100 percent by 2035, in part by investigating whether solar panels can be used atop schools. She said the country will need to double the amount of trees it plants each year, a goal she said was “abso- lutely achievable” by using land that was marginal for farming animals. Her plans also call for the govern- ment’s vehicle fleet to be green within a decade. Not everybody is happy with the plans. Many farmers are worried they will be required to pay more if they are absorbed into an emissions trading scheme. “There is concern that if this should happen, New Zea- land will become less com- petitive with other food- producing nations,” said Katie Milne, the president of advocacy group Fed- erated Farmers. The government also plans to raise the minimum wage to 20 New Zealand dol- lars (US$14) per hour over the next few years, a 27 per- cent increase over its current level. And Ardern said a re- view of the way the Reserve Bank operates would take into account factors such as employment levels and price stability. Currently the bank pri- marily considers inflation when setting interest rates. Ardern also outlined a plan to spend 1 billion New Zealand dollars (US$693 mil- lion) a year on the country’s smaller towns and regions to improve rail and other infrastructure. “You’d be hard-pressed to find a region that hasn’t ex- perienced neglect,” she said.9 WORLD&REGIONAL CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 25, 2017 ® Trademark of The Bank of Nova Scotia, used under licence (where applicable). ky.scotiabank.com #StartWithYou You’re always moving forward in your life. That is why every loan we offer—from auto to education to home loans—always helps you to do just that. Because with a good start, there’s no stopping where you can go. It’s about giving you the best start. Mysterious braid-chopping bandits have Kashmiris in panic SRINAGAR, India (AP) – Hun- dreds of young men – armed with knives, cricket bats and iron rods – patrol the night- time streets of India-con- trolled Kashmir these days, hoping their ad hoc vigi- lante groups will deter the mysterious bandits report- edly chopping off women’s long, woven hair. In more than 100 cases confounding police over the past month, women said they were attacked by masked men who sliced off their braids. The attacks – most report- edly occurring inside peo- ple’s homes – are so strange that police initially sug- gested women were suffering from hallucinations, until the government-run Wom- en’s Commission warned them against making dismis- sive comments. The region’s top elected official, Chief Minister Me- hbooba Mufti, tweeted re- cently that the braid-chop- ping was an attempt “to create mass hysteria and un- dermine the dignity of the women in the state.” Still, police have no sus- pects and no leads, and no clue about the motives for the attacks. “We’re frightened,” said Tasleema Bilal, a 40-year- old woman whose hair was hacked off last week while she was in her home in Sri- nagar, the region’s main city. She said she tried to remove the man’s mask, but “he was very strong, and like a com- mando almost snapped my neck” before escaping, leaving her hair behind. Just days earlier, Bilal’s 16-year-old niece had also been knocked out by a blow to the head with a brick, only to wake up later in a hospital to find her hair also gone. Other women have said they were knocked unconscious with a mysterious chemical spray that authorities have yet to identify. The mysterious braid thefts have spread fear and panic in the heavily milita- rized and disputed Hima- layan region, where many among the mostly Muslim population already feel trau- matized after decades of conflict between separatist rebels and India soldiers. Similar incidents of hair banditry were reported ear- lier this year elsewhere in India, including in the northern states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. But no- where have the attacks sparked such panic and vigi- lantism as in Kashmir. While Kashmiri Muslim women traditionally wear their hair long like women in other parts of India, most cover it with headscarves out of cultural modesty. Separatist leaders, angry at the initial reactions by po- lice, said the attacks were the “handiwork of Indian agen- cies” trying to cower Kash- mir’s rebellious population, which is widely opposed to Indian rule. Residents are also suspi- cious of the Indian authori- ties, and some have accused soldiers and police of staging the attacks or protecting those responsible. “We want to know who the culprit is: police, army or civilians?” Bilal said. Police Inspector-General Muneer Ahmed Khan said it was ludicrous to think au- thorities were involved. Au- thorities said they would pay about $9,000 for clues leading to any of the culprits. “It’s important to first know the motive behind such acts rather than who the cul- prit is,” Khan said. “Once the motive is established, it would be easy for us to solve such cases.” This is not the first time bizarre reports have spread fear in Kashmir, which has known little else but con- flict since India and Pakistan gained independence in 1947 and each claimed the region as its own. The rival coun- tries have since fought two wars over the mountain terri- tory, and each administers a part of it. On the Indian side, an ongoing rebellion has left at least 70,000 people dead in rebel attacks and subse- quent Indian military crack- downs since 1989. Amid massive anti-India demonstrations in the early 1990s, some began reporting ghosts haunting neighbor- hoods across the region at night. Eventually, many blamed Indian paramilitary commandos for dressing up as ghosts to spook the local population. When the braid-hacking incidents were first reported in July across northern India, officials brought psy- chiatrists into the investiga- tion to determine whether the women reporting the cases were suffering mental illness. The suspicion that women could be imagining the at- tacks grew stronger once the attacks spread to Kashmir, where the territorial conflict had caused widespread psy- chological trauma and other issues such as suicidal ten- dencies. Patient numbers at Srinagar’s lone psychiatric hospital jumped from 1,700 a year to more than 100,000 annually after the conflict heated up in 1989. One-third of Kashmiris questioned in a 2006 Doc- tors Without Borders survey said they had thought of killing themselves in the previous month. While health experts dis- missed the idea that women were imagining the attacks, pending scientific verifica- tion, they warned that the braid banditry could push an already edgy population fur- ther to the brink. “These instances will fur- ther complicate psychiatric problems present here,” said Dr. Mohammed Maqbool, who heads the psychiatry de- partment at Srinagar’s Gov- ernment Medical College. Another scholar who studied psychiatric issues in Kashmir said it was not hard to believe women’s bodies would be targeted in this way. “Hair has historically symbolized sexuality and a certain excessive feminine energy, which is a direct threat, not just a target of militarized masculine forces,” said Saiba Varma of the Uni- versity of California, San Diego. “The braid-chopping seems to be a clear example of someone trying to curtail these feminine energies.” With the mystery un- solved, many Kashmiris have stopped traveling out- side their neighborhoods after dusk, dealing a blow to local businesses. “Our business has shrunk to 10 percent of what we had before this braid-chopping started,” cafe owner Syed Mukhtar said in Srinagar. Meanwhile, men take turns on nighttime vigilante patrols, and some have beaten up so- called suspects only to find later that they were innocent, police said. One 70-year-old man died after vigilantes in a southern village mistook him for a suspect and smashed his head with a brick. Several soldiers and po- lice officials also have been thrashed by vigilantes. Po- lice have arrested nearly two dozen people so far on charges of spreading rumors and beating people. The hair-chopping at- tackers “are behaving like a typical Bollywood film vil- lain who tries to harm fe- male family members of the hero after failing to pin him down,” said Srinagar univer- sity student Basharat Ahmed. “And through these (braid) choppers, the government is trying to convey to us that we can’t protect our women. But they’ll fail in this scheme, too, God willing.” Unidentified assailants have chopped off the long braided hair of over 100 mostly teenage girls and young women since last month in Indian-controlled Kashmir. - PHOTO: APNext >