ESTABLISHED 1965 www.caymancompass.com – 50 CENTS – WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2017 High of 86 Low of 76 Moderate with wave heights of 3 to 5 feet. EDITORIAL | PAGE 4 EAST END PARENTS PUT PRIMARY SCHOOL IN ‘TIME OUT’ BUSINESS | PAGE 11 NASCAR’S DANICA PATRICK JOINS INVESTMENT SUMMIT LINEUP Gov’t agencies reject CINICO BRENT FULLER bfuller@pinnaclemedialtd.com Efforts to lower taxpayer-funded health- care premiums by encouraging government entities under private sector coverage plans to join the government-run insurer have failed, according to Cayman Islands National Insur- ance Company Chief Executive Lonny Tibbetts. CINICO currently covers more than 15,000 Cayman Islands residents, including all civil servants, civil service pensioners and their families, Mr. Tibbetts told members of the Legislative Assembly’s Finance Committee Friday. However, thousands of public sector employees, including many of those working in the government’s 19 statutory authorities and the seven government-owned companies, do not use CINICO coverage. Those entities have opted for private insurance coverage. Mr. Tibbetts said, in most cases, the au- thorities and companies will charge em- ployees a percentage of monthly premiums and those workers will also have to co-pay for certain doctors visits. Civil service employees do not pay monthly premiums for their health coverage, those costs are borne entirely by government. Government healthcare managers have talked for years about getting those re- maining authorities and companies to include their workers on CINICO’s plan as a way to share risk and, thereby, lower the monthly premiums the public sector pays. However, Mr. Tibbetts said efforts to en- courage this within the past year have been rejected, with the public sector entities stating government premium rates were much higher than the ones they pay now to private sector insurers. The statutory authority and government company workers, Mr. Tibbetts said, wanted to maintain private healthcare coverage, but that would come at a cost. He said that cost, which was estimated earlier this year, was about $1 million more in annual premiums for the CINICO plan when compared with the private sector offerings. PATIENT DIED AFTER COMPLICATIONS FROM SURGERY JAMES WHITTAKER jwhittaker@pinnaclemedialtd.com Long-time Cayman Islands resident Lisa Turner died as a result of complications fol- lowing surgery, according to an autopsy re- port given in evidence at an inquest Tuesday. Ms. Turner died at the Cayman Islands Hospital on Feb. 14 this year, four days after undergoing an ovarian cystectomy operation at the Chrissie Tomlinson Memorial Hospital (now known as CTMH Doctors Hospital), Cor- oner Eileen Nervik told the seven-person jury. The coroner said the purpose of the in- quest was to determine the circumstances of how she had died, but not to apportion blame. “We are not exploring anything that involves liability. We are not going there,” she said. An autopsy report, shown to jurors, PREMIER: TEMPORARY WORK PERMITS ‘NOT OBJECTIONABLE’ A long-established practice of Cayman businesses which employ foreign workers that allows the com- panies to “test out” employees before bringing them in on full work permits has been green-lighted by Premier Alden McLaughlin. For more, see page 6. Green iguana population tops 1 million Officials ponder next steps after test cull JAMES WHITTAKER jwhittaker@pinnaclemedialtd.com There are now more than a million invasive green iguanas on Grand Cayman, with culling efforts so far proving futile. A government-funded cull yielded 17,200 iguanas in the past six months, through to the end of Oct., with one more month to go. But environment officials have warned this is not enough to keep up with the rate of population growth. A De- partment of Environment an- nual survey conducted in August showed a population increase of nearly 200,000 in the past year. Fred Burton, head of the DoE’s Terrestrial Resources Unit, esti- mated at least 500,000 iguanas will have to be culled next year to have any meaningful impact on the iguana population. The DoE was allocated $1.1 million per year in government’s two-year budget plan to deal with iguana control. But questions have been raised over whether that will be enough to make a dent in the problem. Gina Ebanks-Petrie, speaking at a Conservation Council meeting before the budget West Bay students tour landfill Students from Sir John A. Cumber Primary School pose for a photograph at the George Town landfill last week. The students were on a tour of the facility, to get a first-hand look at the processing and recycling of Grand Cayman’s solid waste. For more, see page 6. PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 7 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 »2 LOCAL NEWS WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS In a story that ran on Nov. 10 titled, “Two charged in animal smuggling case,” the name of one of the two defendants was incorrect. The name of the defendant, charged with importing a live animal without a license, is Sabrina Walton. A story that ran on page 2 on Nov. 10, titled “Handmade ship joins Pirates Week,” incorrectly stated that the Sea Shepherd group is part of Greenpeace. Sea Shepherd’s founder Paul Watson is also one of the founders of Greenpeace, but the two organizations are separate. While Sea Shepherd attempts to block vessels hunting whales or endangering sea life, Greenpeace is against direct intervention. A story that appeared on the front page on Nov. 10, titled “Camana Bay celebrates a decade of development,” failed to identify that Dart Enterprises CEO Mark VanDevelde’s quotes initially appeared in the November 2017 edition of the Camana Bay Times, a monthly newspaper published by the Dart Group. The Compass had obtained permission beforehand to use the Times as source material, but did not include the appropriate attribution information in Friday’s story. 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 - MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (PG13) 12:30 VIP I 1:20 I 6:45 VIP I 9:15 GEOSTORM 3D (PG13) 1:15 2D I 4:00 I 7:10 2D I 9:50 BAD MOMS CHRISTMAS (R) 12:45 I 3:35 I 7:00 I 9:45 THOR: RAGNAROK 3D (PG13) 12:50 2D I 3:20 2D VIP I 3:55 I 6:55 2D 9:35 2D VIP I 9:55 TYLER PERRY’S BOO2! A MADEA HALLOWEEN (PG13) 12:55 I 3:40 I 7:20 I 9:50 Students return to East End Primary MARK MUCKENFUSS mmuckenfuss@pinnaclemedialtd.com Students returned to class at East End Primary School on Tuesday, but the ramifi- cations of a parent protest that shut the school down for two days last week will likely continue to ripple the educa- tional waters for a while. Parents, frustrated and angry that a qualified re- placement teacher had not been found for East End Pri- mary’s Year 5 class, refused to send their children to class last Thursday and Friday, ef- fectively shutting down the school. The class’s regular teacher was removed nearly four weeks ago, following a complaint that was referred to Family Protection Services. Since that time, an assistant teacher had been filling in, despite requests by parents for a credentialed teacher. “Everything is back to normal,” said East End principal Margaret Al- lison Greaves. The East End Primary PTA held an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the place- ment of the new teacher and whether it was a good enough solution for them to return their children to school. They had declined the Department of Education Services’ offer on Thursday to have a former principal and current senior school improvement officer take over the class. Kenia McFarland, 30, who has one child in recep- tion and one in year 2 at the school, said parents agreed to accept the new teacher. “All the parents decided we’ll give him a chance,” Ms. McFarland said. “We’re hoping for the best now for our kids.” Joy Boucher, 30, has a son in Year 3 at the school and said she was happy that he was back in class. She said she and other parents will be closely monitoring how things progress with the new teacher. “We’re going to question and keep an eye on the kids,” Ms. Boucher said. “A few of the parents have decided they’re going to sit in on the [Year 5] class. We’re taking it one day at a time.” The protest and school shutdown gained the atten- tion of the Ministry of Ed- ucation. During the Legis- lative Assembly’s budget session Friday, Chief Officer Christen Suckoo said the sit- uation spotlighted an on- going problem. “There is not an adequate supply [of teachers],” Mr. Suckoo said. “We do struggle from time to time with that. One of the things we’ve been looking at is how do we ex- pand the supply list?” He said the ministry has looked at a number of strategies. “One of the ideas we’ve had is to employ a group of teachers full time as supply teachers,” he said. A call to Mr. Suckoo’s office on Tuesday to re- quest more information on that particular idea was not returned. Ms. Boucher said she was glad to see officials paying attention to the issue as a re- sult of the parents’ action. “I hope other parents in other districts, if they no- tice their kids are failing or they don’t have a qualified teacher, they need to let their voices be heard,” Ms. Boucher said, adding that such action would not necessarily involve shutting the school down. “I feel this will help other par- ents come out of that shell. If you don’t bring it to light, no one can help you. You have to join together as a commu- nity and a team.” Ms. McFarland said she and others feel empowered. “I’m so proud of the par- ents,” she said. “It took this much to get our mes- sage across. If we hadn’t done that, nothing would have happened.” Child abuse prevention expo this week Three-day expo will bring together welfare agencies The Department of Children and Family Services is hosting a Pre- vention of Child Abuse Expo this week. The expo, in which many local welfare agen- cies will participate, will be held at the Old Li- brary in George Town on Wednesday to Friday, Nov. 15-17, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Organizers said the expo aims to promote greater awareness lo- cally of child abuse prevention measures and resources. It will target the com- munity, children and par- ents/caregivers, as well as individuals regarded as mandatory reporters under the Children Law, 2012 (Revision). Those in- clude doctors, teachers, police officers, ministers of religion, child care providers, probation of- ficers, school employees, counselors and public servants that work with children. CORRECTIONS 11th person arrested in corruption probe Police and anti-corrup- tion investigators arrested a 57-year-old woman Tuesday in connection with an ongoing probe in which 11 people have been arrested since Jan- uary this year. According to a press re- lease from the Anti-Corrup- tion Commission, the woman, from George Town, was de- tained for questioning at the Prisoner Detention Centre at Fairbanks. She was arrested on suspi- cion of bribery of a public of- ficer, fraud on the government and breach of trust. Previous arrests in the investigation were made on Jan. 19, 24 and 27, May 31, and Nov. 7. All 10 people arrested on those occa- sions remain on bail. “The investigation con- tinues, therefore no further details will be released at this time,” a statement from the commission read. Parents, frustrated and angry that a qualified replacement teacher had not been found for East End Primary’s Year 5 class, refused to send their children to class last Thursday and Friday, effectively shutting down the school. Students and parents line the street outside East End Primary School last Thursday after a protest shut the school down. - PHOTO: MARK MUCKENFUSS RUN IN THE DARK CLOSES ROADS WEDNESDAY Drivers should be on alert Wednesday night as runners take to the road for the third annual Run In The Dark. A number of roads will be closed to vehicular traffic during the run. Harbour Drive and South Church Street will be closed between Fort Street and Boilers Road from 7:30 p.m. until 10 p.m. Shedden Road will also be closed between Elgin Av- enue and Harbour Drive. The run, which begins at 8 p.m., is a loop of a 5K cir- cuit that starts and finishes at Margaritaville in down- town George Town. From Margaritaville, par- ticipants will run south down South Church Street before turning left into Denham Thompson Way. At the end of Walkers Road, the runners will then turn left and head back toward Margaritaville. At the junction of Walkers Road and Goring Avenue, par- ticipants will turn left into Goring Avenue and left again toward South Church Street. After turning right onto South Church Street, they finish with the loop of Heroes Square, turning right into Cardinall Av- enue at the corner of Margari- taville, left up Edwards Street, left again into Fort Street and back down to Margaritaville.3 LOCAL NEWS CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2017 Opposition: Combine poor relief, seamen’s and veterans payments BRENT FULLER bfuller@pinnaclemedialtd.com The Cayman Islands gov- ernment plans to spend more than $36 million on poor re- lief, as well as stipends to former seamen and veterans over the next two budgets. Opposition Leader Ez- zard Miller noted that there may be some cases where local families are receiving assistance separately from a number of those programs, causing a duplication in gov- ernment bureaucracies en- listed to serve them. “Are some people getting three poor relief payments?” Mr. Miller asked. Premier Alden McLaughlin, whose ministry comprises community affairs services such as poor relief, said there is a distinct difference be- tween seamen’s and veterans’ benefits, which are paid to in- dividuals for their service to the country, and poor relief. “[The seamen and veterans] will not wish to see their pay- ment amalgamated under poor relief,” Mr. McLaughlin said. “The criteria is sim- ilar, if not the exact same, in terms of what their income actually is.” Mr. Miller asked whether it was possible for a seaman to receive the monthly as- sistance payment of $550, while their spouse received a similar payment for poor relief. The premier said it was possible. “What we need to be giving the people is $1,000 [per month] and you amalgamate them and give everybody the same thing,” Mr. Miller said. The premier said both poor relief and seamen’s/veterans’ benefits operate under an in- come ceiling which cannot be exceeded if that benefit is still to be paid out. Servicemen payments The government has pro- posed to increase the sea- men’s and veterans’ monthly benefits from the current $550 per month to $750 per month by Jan. 1, 2019. This proposal would boost the budget for veterans payments by more than $200,000 per year in 2018 and 2019. However, there appears to be a significant discrep- ancy in the number of vet- erans on the public dole and the numbers the veterans as- sociation believes qualify for those payments. The benefits are only ex- tended to people who served in World War II or who were on the previous benefits list, drawn up in 1995. At last check, there were more than 120 veterans on the list to re- ceive the monthly stipend. “We are still in discus- sions with [the veterans asso- ciation] about this mysterious issue,” Mr. McLaughlin said. Health insurance In addition to the rising costs associated with funding the monthly sti- pend to seamen and vet- erans, the Cayman Islands government is now paying between $2.5 million to $3.5 million each month to fund retired seamen, servicemen and uninsured Caymanians’ healthcare costs. Premier McLaughlin re- vealed the amounts in March during statements to the Leg- islative Assembly that de- tailed the additional cash the Ministry of Health had to pay in each of the last three budget years. Mr. McLaughlin said gov- ernment was spending about $1 million to $2 million per month for health services provided to those groups at the Health Services Authority and an additional $1.5 mil- lion per month for “tertiary” (specialist or prolonged healthcare) services at over- seas or local hospitals. There are an estimated 1,075 seamen and veterans receiving healthcare coverage in Cayman now and gov- ernment estimates between 1,300-1,400 “indigents” – Cay- manians who have no health- care coverage. The seamen and veterans are covered under a health plan, but any specialist overseas care they receive is paid directly from government coffers. Reformed offenders can have records expunged Reformed offenders who have stayed out of trouble since their release have the chance to have their criminal records removed. The Expungement Board, established under the new Criminal Records (Spent Con- victions) Law, is now accepting applications, according to a press release from the Deputy Governor’s Office. The law was changed last year to make it easier for offenders who had gen- uinely reformed to restore their reputations and to find employment. The new board deals with two types of expungement: ■■ Anyone who has served a sentence of five years or more and has remained crime free for 15 years can apply to have their records expunged ■■ The board will also con- sider the expungement of records relating to minor marijuana offenses where the sentence was non- custodial and the fine did not exceed $5,000. Sentences under five years, cautions, fines, com- munity-based orders or pro- bations will be dealt with separately by the Criminal Records Office. Some more serious of- fenses, including murder, manslaughter and child pornography offenses, are not eligible to be expunged under the legislation and legally reformed offenders will still be required to re- veal expunged convictions for certain professions or public roles. The Expungement Board consists of Kashka Hemans, Hugh Lockwood, Kayleigh Wright, Shimar Harding and Pastor Alson Ebanks. According to the Deputy Governor’s Office, appli- cations should include a letter requesting expunge- ment; a completed applica- tion form; a $25 fee (check or bank draft); an original Police Clearance Certificate (less than one month old); and two character references from individuals who are not family members. Application forms for expungement of records are available from the Government Administration Building or online at www.odg.gov.ky. Completed forms can be mailed or hand delivered to Office of the Deputy Governor, Government Administration Building, Box 103, Elgin Avenue, George Town, Grand Cayman, KY1-9000.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. 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” When it comes to the East End Primary School parents who protested the lack of a fully qualified teacher in their children’s Year 5 classroom, we have very divergent thoughts. First, whoever padlocked the gates of the school – no one is taking “credit” for that illegal act – disrupted the education of all the students in the primary school. This particular display of “civil disobedience” veered into “disturbance of the peace” territory. Their actions not only violated the law, they had the obvious result of denying education to all students in the school. To be clear, such behavior should not be allowed, applauded, emulated or tolerated. On the other hand, the East End parents’ “sit-out” demonstration certainly secured the attention of gov- ernment officials and resulted in the desired appoint- ment of a fully qualified teacher to lead the Year 5 class, three weeks after administrators had removed the original teacher, leaving an assistant teacher in charge. So as of Tuesday, the school gates are unlocked, a substitute teacher has been found and the children are back at their desks. All’s well that ends well, right? … Not really. Department of Education Services director Lyneth Monteith arrived at the scene of the protest Thursday to address the parents directly. Her courage in the face of adversity was admirable … Her explanations as to why there was no replacement teacher, however, were not. Ms. Monteith cited some of the usual reasons for public sector shortcomings, including a lack of resources and a limited pool of candidates. She assured parents that the department would find the right replacement through its strategy of “ask[ing] around to find someone who’s willing to come in.” The parents weren’t buying it – and, frankly, neither are we. “Asking around” is not an effective recruit- ment strategy. There is simply no excuse for a classroom not to have a qualified teacher for three weeks. Teacher absences – even extended absences – are not unusual. Filling them should be a routine matter as simple as roll call, not something that school administrators must wrestle with for nearly a month. That is a lesson the department should have learned 18 months ago, when the same students – in the same class, at the same school – were left without a qualified teacher for two months. Better, they should have learned it in 2013, when someone previously pad- locked the East End Primary School to protest another staff vacancy. We certainly applaud these parents for engaging actively, and yes, passionately, in the education of their children. In that regard, every parent of every student in these islands could, and should, take a lesson, namely that they will no longer tolerate second-class education in their first-class country. East End MLA Arden McLean applauded the parents for their protest and said the only way things will change is if more parents take similar actions. We disagree. Mr. McLean is far closer to the source of the problem than perhaps he realizes. As the district’s elected representative (during all three of the incidents we mentioned above), it is Mr. McLean’s duty to … well … represent his constitu- ents’ interests in government. That includes making sure the school in his district doesn’t have a chronic shortage of teachers. Rather than encouraging his constituents to protest to get the public services they deserve, Mr. McLean should be the one doing the protesting – in the Legis- lative Assembly and within the halls of government. East End parents put primary school in ‘time out’ WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS Claiming entitlement to their own facts On Nov. 4, a conference was held in London to com- memorate the 100th anniver- sary of the Bolshevik Rev- olution, which occurred in October 1917. Rather than learn from the untold human misery which stemmed from that event, many of those who participated were cele- brating the revolution or de- crying it as incomplete. The conference was sponsored by the Russian Revolution Centenary Committee and was attended by well-known left-leaning academics, poli- ticians and labor-movement leaders from Britain and many other countries. One of the attendees, the manager of the Marx Memorial Library, said: “As a library dedicated to Marxism and the history of socialism, this is a once in a generation event for the MML.” The “Soviet contribu- tion to arts and cinema” was also highlighted. For background, it is esti- mated that Stalin accounted for 40 million to 62 million deaths, and Mao for 45 mil- lion to 75 million deaths (far more than Hitler, who only ranks No. 3 as a mass mur- derer with an estimated 17 million to 20 million deaths). Other than killing, enslaving and impoverishing mil- lions of their own citizens, the communists and social- ists have also denied basic human liberties and prop- erty rights. Surely a record worth celebrating. It gets worse. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation has just released its annual report on U.S. At- titudes Toward Socialism, where it found that 44 per- cent of the millennials would prefer to live in a socialist country, or even a communist country (7 percent), than in a capitalist one (42 percent). The best that can be said is that most of these millen- nials are probably totaly ig- norant of the real tragic re- cord and lack of success of socialism and commu- nism anywhere. The others, and those who attended the London conference, are in de- nial – which is referred to as cognitive dissonance: “The mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new in- formation. The unease or ten- sion that the conflict arouses in people is relieved by one of several defensive maneuvers: They reject, explain away, or avoid the new information.” (Britannica). What is particularly sad and disturbing is that so many in the media also suffer from cognitive disso- nance, in that they have an inability to recognize any- thing that President Trump or the congressional Re- publicans do correctly (and they really do some things correctly). As an example, I checked the websites of sev- eral of the major media orga- nizations last week when the House Republicans released the new tax proposal. Most of them in their “news” de- scription (not editorial com- ment) of what the proposal contains focused on what de- ductions were being cut back, and not on the fact that it will actually reduce taxes for almost everyone but the “very rich,” and spur economic growth and higher wages. Their readers would still be left in a state of ignorance of how they will be affected by the proposed changes. A number of Democrats, including Minority Leaders Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer, were claiming the bill would only benefit the very rich. The fact is that very high-income people will have their tax burden increased because the top statutory rate remains the same, while some of their deductions would be phased out, and al- most everyone else will have a tax cut. The Democrats have been saying they want “the rich” to pay more and the middle- and lower-income people to get a tax cut, which is precisely what the Repub- licans have proposed. Again, people who cannot accept “yes” for an answer are suffering from cognitive dis- sonance or are so cynical that they are more interested in trying to gain political points by assuming that the media will keep the voters ignorant as to what will benefit them. There is plenty of room for an honest debate about the pro- posed tax reform, such as the impact on deficits, and what deductions should remain, so there is no legitimate reason to make stuff up. Another example of cogni- tive dissonance is in the dis- cussion of global warming. Some are so invested in the idea that a climate catas- trophe is just outside the door that they are in denial about any shred of information that the situation is not that se- rious. Steven E. Koonin, who was undersecretary of energy for science during President Obama’s first term, writing in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week titled “A Deceptive New Report on Climate,” de- scribed many misleading statements in the U.S. govern- ment’s Climate Science Spe- cial Report. He argued that the data misrepresentations he described “violate basic scientific norms.” Most people want real facts about issues that might affect their lives – so- cialism, taxes and environ- mental policy – so they can make their own judgments. Where are the examples of successful socialist and com- munist countries? Where are the examples of coun- tries that were not already rich, but became rich when they greatly increased the size of government and tax rates? Why did not one of the major climate models pre- dict the decade-long pause in global warming? How people answer those questions and others will in- dicate whether or not they are suffering from cogni- tive dissonance. 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. RAHN5 LOCAL NEWS CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2017 VIP package for two includes: • Round-tripairtravelandaccommodation • ProfessionalmakeoverbeforetheGRAMMYAwards® •Ticketstoattendthe60thGRAMMYAwards® • PrivatetourofNewYorkCity • Andmore! 186904-Ad-CompassJRpg-4colx12-MC-60th-Grammys.indd 111/7/17 5:57 PM North Side volunteers re- moved 150 cubic yards of bulk waste from the dis- trict this weekend in a two- day cleanup held in memory for the late Speaker of the House Edna Moyle. North Side residents were encouraged to put all trash, including heavier loads, in front of their homes for col- lection. A total of 60 cubic yards of bulk waste were collected from Island Waste dumpsters at Old Man Bay public dock on both days. In total, 45 bags of plastic were removed from loca- tions which included Old Man Bay public dock and launch ramp, Rum Point Public Beach and Kaibo Public Beach, in an effort to minimize the amount of dis- carded plastics that wash up on North Side shores. The majority of items col- lected will be recycled by Is- land Waste Carriers. “North Side boasts many of Cayman’s natural attrac- tions such as the Botanic Park, Crystal Caves, Mastic Trail, Starfish Point, local farms and some of the most beautiful beaches,” said Sean Moyle, event organizer and son of Ms. Moyle. “‘Keep North Side Clean’ was a popular saying of my mother,” he said. Mr. Moyle thanked par- ticipants, the people of North Side and event sponsors for doing a great job at keeping their locations spotless. A political stalwart, Ms. Moyle was elected as a member of the legislative assembly for North Side in 1992 and remained an MLA until May 2009. She served as the House deputy speaker for eight years, before becoming the minister of community development, sports, wom- en’s affairs and youth. In May 2005, she was elected Speaker of the House, a post she re- tained until her retirement. In North Side, she worked diligently on behalf of her district’s older residents and was active in establishing the library, the health center, civic center, police station and community park. She also worked to set up netball and basketball courts and to complete the Old Man Bay playing field. The North Side Primary School was named Edna M. Moyle Primary School in her honor. In 2009, she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire during the Queen Elizabeth II Birthday Honours for her contri- butions to politics in the Cayman Islands. Ms. Moyle passed away in 2013. Cleanup honors Edna Moyle From left, Jason Brown, Sean Moyle, Edward Chisholm, Ghita Benlarbi, Helen Chisholm and Ewan Chisholm line up bags of collected garbage. Young volunteer Blu Watler joins in the cleanup. A grapple truck clears the way. A total of 60 cubic yards of bulk waste were collected from Island Waste dumpsters at Old Man Bay public dock on both days.The islands’ most-trusted news source 6 WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS announcement, said the department had asked for double the allocation that was given. Based on the $3-a-head bounty currently offered to cullers, $1.1 million would be enough to cull 366,000 iguanas per year, before any administrative costs are considered. Statistics from the De- partment of Environment’s annual population moni- toring suggest that may not be sufficient. Between 2014 and 2017, the estimated green iguana population in Grand Cayman swelled from 254,162 to 1,060,687. Mr. Burton said efforts to control the growth of the in- vasive species through culling had so far proved ineffective. A pilot program, operating since May this year, offered registered hunters $3 a head to cull iguanas. Efforts to en- courage wider community in- volvement through a raffle were quickly discarded be- cause of lack of interest. Mr. Burton said 70 cullers had been registered but only 20 were active, with two op- erating full time. Mr. Burton said various test culls over the past two years had demonstrated that $3 per iguana was the min- imum price to attract any meaningful take-up from hunters. He said a two-week test cull in 2016 with a $5-a- head bounty had generated significant interest, but he believes this is unsustainable over a longer period of time because most cullers had other jobs to go to. “My own feeling from this is that the appropriate human resources needed to do the job are not available on the scale necessary, at the moment, and will need to be substantially developed somehow,” he added. The plan going forward is still in development as the DoE assesses its budget and looks at options. Mr. Burton warned it will take a major national ef- fort to bring the population under control. “Depending on how ‘good’ the breeding season is for the greens next year, the cull target to start effective con- trol must be between half a million and a million. To be sure of a result, it should be at the top end of that range. Anything less than the repro- ductive increase for the year would be a control failure, and the population would in- crease again.” indicated that Ms. Turner had disseminated intra- vascular coagulation, the formation of blood clots throughout the blood- stream. The report also listed sepsis among the au- topsy findings. Forensic pathologist Mi- chael Steckbauer gave his opinion in the report that Ms. Turner died “as a re- sult of complications of a left ovarian cystectomy and salpingectomy.” Dr. Suzanne Muise, the obstetrician/gynecologist who carried out the surgery on Friday, Feb. 10, told the hearing the operation had gone as planned and Ms. Turner was in a stable con- dition and able to be dis- charged the same evening. She said the patient had contacted her the fol- lowing day complaining of nausea and a fever. Reading from her po- lice statement, Dr. Muise described how these symp- toms worsened over the weekend and she advised Ms. Turner to come into the Chrissie Tomlinson Memorial Hospital on Sunday evening. Dr. Muise said tests showed an extremely low platelet count in her blood and she decided she needed to be transferred to the in- tensive care unit at the Cayman Islands Hospital. The transfer was de- layed because the hospital indicated that they only had one ambulance avail- able and it was in West Bay, Dr. Muise said. She said friends of Ms. Turner had helped transfer her themselves along with the doctor in an SUV. “While this was an un- usual course of action, my professional opinion was that it was by far the best option in the circumstances.” She said she was sur- prised to find, on arrival at the hospital, that there were two ambulances parked outside. At that point, she said, she gave her report to the doctors at the hospital who took over Ms. Turner’s care. Dr. Muise was still reading her statement at press time Tuesday. The in- quest continues. Patient died after complications from surgery CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Green iguana population tops 1 million GREEN IGUANA POPULATION ESTIMATES 2014: ....................254,162 2015: ....................408,749 2016: ....................814,855 2017: .................1,060,687 Source: Department of Environment surveys CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 West Bay primary students tour landfill JEWEL LEVY jlevy@pinnaclemedialtd.com A look behind the scenes of garbage and recycling at the George Town landfill re- vealed some interesting facts for students from Sir John A. Cumber Primary School. “Students didn’t expect to see what they saw,” said Sta- cey-Ann Anderson, public re- lations and education officer at the Department of Envi- ronmental Health. Ms. Anderson facilitated the tour, along with An- gelo Roye, the landfill’s recy- cling foreman. “Students were excited about the way the garbage was stored and that so many things on the island could be recycled, such as batteries, plastic, aluminum cans, bot- tles and tires,” she said. Students also toured the recycling facility, and saw the garbage going up a conveyor belt and coming out in a big block after being compacted by the baling machine. They got to see the sections of the landfill that houses oils, such as cooking or used motor oils. For recycling, they were in- troduced to the process that takes place before the items are sent off for processing. Exploring the topic “The Environment and Our Fu- ture,” Year 6 students agreed that touring the dump was a fascinating and educa- tional experience on what happens to the refuse taken from their homes. “Don’t throw away bot- tles and cans; recycle them,” said Nathan Arlett-Johnson. Classmate Aquinle Missick confessed she learned more than expected. Seaford Rus- sell, another sixth-grader, said it made sense to com- pact the garbage, otherwise it would be all over the place. “They smash bottles into cubes and ship them off to the USA. That’s amazing,” said Darion Anglin. Year 6 teacher Shekina Bush noted that the aware- ness of recycling and envi- ronmental conservation is especially important, as the students live on a beautiful set of islands. “Because of the field trip, our children, our scholars, are seeing a much bigger pic- ture. I’m hoping they will now push for changes around them. The trip was very infor- mational,” she said. She said the guides nur- tured the students’ interest and allowed them to be true inquirers. “I think this trip should be experienced by every child in our school system, as it opens their eyes to the won- derful programs that the De- partment of Environmental Health is trying to develop,” Ms. Bush added. She said the aim of the students’ visit was to in- quire into the role of the De- partment of Environmental Health in the protection of the environment. Resulting from this infor- mational tour, some students have decided to focus their research on taking action to increase recycling aware- ness among households for maximum participation. They have plans of making flyers, brochures and other means of public education to build that interest, Ms. Bush said. A student checks out piles of aluminum cans that will be processed, baled and recycled. Lisa Turner MILITARY OUTSIDE ZIMBABWE CAPITAL AFTER ARMY CHIEF’S THREAT HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) – Zimbabwe was on edge Tuesday as armored per- sonnel carriers were seen outside the capital a day after the army commander threatened to “step in” to calm political tensions over the president’s firing of his deputy. The Associated Press saw three armored per- sonnel carriers with sev- eral soldiers in a convoy on a road heading toward an army barracks just outside the capital, Harare. While it is routine for armored personnel car- riers to move along that route, the timing height- ened unease in this southern African country that for the first time is seeing an open rift be- tween the military and 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe. The mili- tary has been a key pillar of Mugabe’s power since independence from white minority rule in 1980. Mugabe last week fired Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and accused him of plotting to take power, including through witchcraft. Mnangagwa, who enjoyed the backing of the military and was once seen as a potential successor to Mugabe, fled the country and said he and his family had been threatened. Over 100 se- nior officials allegedly supporting him have been listed for disciplinary measures by a faction as- sociated with Mugabe’s wife, Grace Mugabe. The first lady, whose political profile has risen in the past few years, now appears positioned to re- place Mnangagwa at a special conference of the ruling party in December, leading many in Zim- babwe to suspect that she could succeed her hus- band as president. The green iguana population in Cayman is multiplying faster than current control efforts can keep up with. - PHOTO: MATT LAMERSThe islands’ most-trusted news source 7 CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2017 Generally speaking, the CINICO healthcare plan, in- cluding the choice option which allows employees to visit private-sector med- ical practitioners, was a far better quality coverage plan than the ones offered by var- ious private insurers, Mr. Tibbetts said. “[The statutory authori- ties and government com- panies] all desired the plan. The problem they had was they felt the probability of a major [healthcare] event was minimal and when it did happen, they could de- fault that individual back to the indigent plan – which falls back on the Cayman Is- lands government again,” Mr. Tibbetts said. “We’ve put CINICO in an untenable position,” said Bodden Town West MLA Chris Saunders. The current healthcare arrangement for those enti- ties creates an even larger problem when an older em- ployee retires and is typically offered three months of con- tinuing health insurance cov- erage, Mr. Tibbetts said. After that, they are on their own to find whatever healthcare cov- erage is available, if any. “The elderly people are being exposed,” Mr. Tib- betts said. “They’re being put out of the insurance plans and they’re being left on the streets without coverage. There’s nothing that forces that company to continue to insure that person [into retirement].” Mr. Tibbetts was asked whether CINICO would sup- port a move to a single-party insurer, making CINICO the lone healthcare insurance option in the Cayman Is- lands market. The idea here is that some 60,000 people in the Cayman Islands all in- sured under the same health plan would reduce risk and lower premiums charged to individuals. Mr. Tibbetts said this would likely create a health- care market where it took weeks or even months to ac- cess needed services. “I’ve never seen a mo- nopoly that was efficient,” Mr. Tibbetts said. “I do believe there is still a great value in having a private sector com- ponent to our market.” Lawmakers suggested that the private sector in- surers could still remain to offer choice to anyone CINICO covered, as long as they were willing to pay more for the health insurance premiums. This would require major legislative changes and would alter the nature of the current market, where there are now nine class A in- surers, CINICO included, Mr. Tibbetts said. “[There’s] no question CINICO, with significant cap- italization and resources, could be a single-source pro- vider,” he said. “But it would require change in laws.” Premier: Businesses’ use of temporary work permits ‘not objectionable’ BRENT FULLER bfuller@pinnaclemedialtd.com A long-established, al- though perhaps unspoken practice, of Cayman businesses which employ foreign workers that allows the companies to “test out” employees before bringing them in on full work permits has been green-lighted by Premier Alden McLaughlin. Premier McLaughlin told members of the Legislative As- sembly’s Finance Committee this week that his government would not object to businesses bringing in non-Caymanian workers on temporary three- or six-month permits before granting them full-year or multiyear permits. Any non-Caymanian worker who is hired by a Cay- manian company must first obtain a valid permit before taking up employment here. According to Immigration Law, that worker may only be hired if a suitably quali- fied Caymanian or permanent resident cannot be found for the position. Cayman has more than 24,000 non-Caymanians working in the territory on per- mits or government contracts, according to the latest Immi- gration Department figures. “There is no question that a number of companies do use the temporary work permit provision as a means of pro- bation,” Mr. McLaughlin said. “I don’t see anything at all wrong with that.” Mr. McLaughlin said a three- or six-month trial run for an employee might be advisable before a com- pany “invests huge sums of money” in a multiyear permit for that person. The premier also acknowl- edged that some companies use temporary permits to fill positions that they know are “not temporary,” bringing in some workers for a brief pe- riod and then sending them back home “before they are re- quired to pay pension.” Cayman’s National Pen- sions Law requires compa- nies to pay all workers they employ a pension based on a percentage of annual earn- ings once those employees have been at the business for six months. Bodden Town West MLA Chris Saunders opined that he did not believe those uses for the temporary permits were what was intended by the Im- migration Law framers. “[The temporary permits] are used in a number of ways which, perhaps, were not con- templated when the provi- sions were actually passed … none of which I see as par- ticularly objectionable,” Mr. McLaughlin said. Opposition Leader Ezzard Miller said the “barrier” to ob- tain a temporary work permit is less than what is required for a full-year or multiyear permit, in terms of the docu- mentation submitted to the Immigration Department for approval. The concern is that an employer could keep re- newing a temporary permit every three or six months, continuing to hire the same worker without going through the full range of checks against whether a Caymanian could take the job. Mr. McLaughlin said gov- ernment was looking into that issue and could direct that any extension of an initial tempo- rary permit be subjected to the same requirements as a full- year work permit would be. Also, he noted the Immi- gration and Human Resources Ministry was currently drawing up plans for a new department that would co- ordinate the listing and pub- lication of all jobs available in Cayman. Mr. McLaughlin said this would eventually allow immigration and other government officials to see whether Caymanians had ap- plied for a particular posi- tion and who ultimately re- ceived the job. Ministry Chief Officer Wesley Howell said the cre- ation of the human resources department was under way, but would likely constitute a two-year process. Government agencies reject CINICO “The elderly people are being exposed. They’re being put out of the insurance plans and they’re being left on the streets without coverage. There’s nothing that forces that company to continue to insure that person [into retirement].” LONNY TIBBETTS, CINICO CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “There is no question that a number of companies do use the temporary work permit provision as a means of probation. I don’t see anything at all wrong with that.” PREMIER ALDEN MCLAUGHLIN There are currently more than 24,000 non-Caymanians working in the Cayman Islands on permits or government contracts. - PHOTO: CHRIS COURT Lonny TibbettsThe islands’ most-trusted news source 8 Death toll rises in Iran quake Iran’s state-run news agency says the country’s death toll from the magnitude 7.3 earthquake that struck the Iran-Iraq border has risen to 530. The report said the number of injured in the temblor now stood at 7,460. The quake struck Sunday night, just as people were going to bed. WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS Plaza Venezia, North Sound Road, GT LUNCH SPECIAL EVERYDAY MON-SAT: 11:30-4PM DIM SUM SUNDAY 11AM-3PM OPEN FOR DINNER Delivery After 5PM MON THUR: 5pm - 9:30pm • FRI SUN: 5pm - 10pm 945-3490 chinavillage@candw.ky Trump: Asia trip, trade talks ‘tremendously successful’ MANILA, Philippines (AP) – Wrapping up his exten- sive tour of Asia, President Donald Trump on Tuesday hailed “tremendous amounts of work” on trade and said nations around the globe have been put on notice that the U.S. will demand im- proved trading conditions. Trump told reporters in Manila that the “fruits of our labor are going to be incred- ible.” He was closing a nearly two-week trip through Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines that in- cluded one-on-one meetings with the leaders of those nations during which he stressed trade. The president, who cam- paigned on shredding multi- lateral trade agreements he has deemed unfair, insisted during his travels that mul- tibillion-dollar deficits that favor U.S. trading partners will be reduced to zero, and that trade overall must be fair and mutually beneficial. “The United States has to be treated fairly and in a recip- rocal fashion,” Trump tweeted before heading back to Wash- ington, where he is scheduled to arrive later Tuesday. “The massive TRADE deficits must go down quickly!” Trump told reporters be- fore departing an interna- tional summit, “We’ve had a tremendously successful trip. Tremendous amounts of work was done on trade.” Among Trump’s newest friends in the region is Phil- ippine President Rodrigo Duterte, whom Trump repeat- edly praised and joked around with on Monday. Duterte has overseen a bloody crackdown on domestic drug dealing that has featured extrajudicial kill- ings, earning him scorn from human rights advocates. In Manila for the Associ- ation of Southeast Asian Na- tions conference, and the sub- sequent East Asia Summit, Trump looked to strengthen ties with Pacific Rim allies, aiming to strike one-on-one trade deals rather than mul- tinational trade agreements, and increase pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. He met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and highlighted their two na- tions’ “deeper and more com- prehensive” ties, looking to strengthen a relationship that is vital to the U.S. vision of an Indo-Pacific region that attempts to de-emphasize China’s influence. He jointly met with Aus- tralian Prime Minister Mal- colm Turnbull, with whom he had a contentious phone call last winter, and Japa- nese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who hosted the presi- dent in Tokyo earlier in the trip. Trump raved about his accomplishments on his five- nation journey, particularly on trade and on North Korea, which the White House has suggested may be designated a state sponsor of terror. Trump said he would wait until he was back in Wash- ington to elaborate with a “major statement” on those two topics, but hinted at progress while in Manila. “We’ve made some very big steps with regard to trade – far bigger than any- thing you know,” Trump told reporters, pointing to busi- ness deals forged between U.S. and foreign companies. Trump also said the trip had been “very fruitful” for the United States and pointed to the warm welcomes he had received in capitals like Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing. “It was red carpet like nobody, I think, has prob- ably ever received,” Trump said. “And that really is a sign of respect, perhaps for me a little, but really for our country. And I’m really proud of that.” Seoul: North Koreans fired 40 shots at fleeing defector, hit him with 5 SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Four North Korean soldiers fired about 40 rounds at a com- rade fleeing into South Korea and hit him five times in the first shooting at the jointly controlled area of the heavily fortified border in more than 30 years, the South’s military said Tuesday. South Korean soldiers did not fire their weapons, but Monday’s incident occurred at a time of high animosity over North Korea’s nuclear program. The North has ex- pressed intense anger over past high-profile defections. The soldier is being treated at a South Korean hos- pital after a five-hour opera- tion for the gunshot wounds he suffered during his es- cape across the Joint Security Area. His personal details and motive for defection are un- known and his exact medical condition is unclear. On Monday, he first drove a military jeep but left the ve- hicle when one of its wheels fell into a ditch. He then fled across the JSA, with fellow soldiers chasing and firing at him, South Korea’s mil- itary said, citing unspeci- fied surveillance systems in- stalled in the area. Suh Wook, chief director of operations for the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers that North Korea fired a total of about 40 rounds in a shooting that his office suggested started while the soldier was in the jeep. The solider was found be- neath a pile of leaves on the southern side of the JSA and South Korean troops crawled there to recover him. A U.N. Command helicopter later transported him to the Ajou medical center, according to South Korean officials. The North’s official media have not reported the case as of Tuesday afternoon. They have previously ac- cused South Korea of kidnap- ping or enticing North Ko- reans to defect. About 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea, mostly via China, since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The JSA is jointly over- seen by the American-led U.N. Command and by North Korea, with South Korean and North Korean border guards facing each other only feet apart. It is located inside the 2 1/2-mile wide Demilita- rized Zone, which forms the de facto border between the Koreas since the Korean War. While both sides of the DMZ are guarded by barbed wire fences, mines and tank traps, the JSA includes the truce village of Panmunjom which provides the site for rare talks and draws curious tourists. Monday’s incident was the first shooting at the Joint Security Area since North Ko- rean and U.N. Command sol- diers traded gunfire when a Soviet citizen defected by sprinting to the South Korean sector of the JSA in 1984. A North Korean soldier de- fected there in 1998 and an- other in 2007 but neither of those events involved gunfire between the rivals, according to South Korea’s military. The 1984 exchange of gunfire happened after North Korean soldiers crossed the border and fired, according to the U.N. Command. In Mon- day’s incident, it was not known if the North continued firing after the defector was officially in the southern part of the Joint Security Area. The U.N. Command said Tuesday that an investi- gation into the incident was under way. Leaders from left to right, Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, U.S. President Donald Trump, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong pose for a photo during the ASEAN-U.S. Summit in Manila, Philippines on Monday. – PHOTO: AP “We’ve made some very big steps with regard to trade – far bigger than anything you know.” PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP Monday’s incident was the first shooting at the Joint Security Area since North Korean and U.N. Command soldiers traded gunfire when a Soviet citizen defected by sprinting to the South Korean sector of the JSA in 19849 WORLD&REGIONAL CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2017 Central Cayman Islands Central Cayman Islands Montessori By The Se a Senate to explore president’s unchecked nuclear authority WASHINGTON (AP) – Here’s a question rarely raised be- fore Donald Trump ran for the White House: If the pres- ident ordered a pre-emp- tive nuclear strike, could anyone stop him? The answer is no. Not the Congress. Not his secretary of defense. And by design, not the military of- ficers who would be duty- bound to execute the order. As Bruce Blair, a former nuclear missile launch of- ficer and expert on nuclear command and control, has put it, “The protocol for or- dering the use of nuclear weapons endows every presi- dent with civilization-ending power.” Trump, he wrote in a Washington Post column last summer, “has unchecked au- thority to order a preventive nuclear strike against any nation he wants with a single verbal direction to the Pen- tagon war room.” Or, as then-Vice President Dick Cheney explained in De- cember 2008, the president “could launch a kind of dev- astating attack the world’s never seen. He doesn’t have to check with anybody. He doesn’t have to call the Con- gress. He doesn’t have to check with the courts.” And the world has changed even more in the de- cade since, with North Korea posing a bigger and more im- mediate nuclear threat than had seemed possible. The nature of the U.S. po- litical world has changed, too, and Trump’s opponents – even within his own party – question whether he has too much power over nu- clear weapons. These realities will con- verge in a Senate hearing room where the Foreign Re- lations Committee – headed by one of Trump’s stron- gest Republican critics, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee – will hear testimony from a former commander of the Pentagon’s nuclear war fighting command and other witnesses. The topic: “Au- thority to order the use of nuclear weapons.” Corker said numerous lawmakers have raised ques- tions about legislative and presidential war-making authorities and the use of America’s nuclear arsenal. “This discussion is long overdue,” Corker said in an- nouncing the hearing. Alex Wellerstein, a histo- rian of science at the Stevens Institute of Technology who has researched and written extensively about presiden- tial nuclear authority, said he hopes the discussion “might shed some more light on as- pects of the procedures for presidential use of nuclear weapons that I think re- ally needs to be known and talked about.” He said the U.S. system has evolved through tradi- tion and precedent more than by laws. “The technology of the bomb itself does not compel this sort of arrangement,” he wrote in an email exchange. “This is a product of cir- cumstances. I think the cir- cumstances under which the system was created, and the world we now live in, are sufficiently different that we could, and perhaps should, contemplate revision of the system.” Asked about this Monday in an impromptu exchange at the Pentagon, Defense Sec- retary Jim Mattis was re- luctant to describe his role in nuclear strike decision- making. “I’m the president’s principal adviser on the use of force,” he said. Asked whether he was comfortable with the system as it ex- ists, he said, “I am,” but did not elaborate. Some aspects of presi- dential nuclear war-making powers are secret and there- fore not well understood by the public. The system is built for fast decision- making, not debate. That is because speed is seen as es- sential in a crisis with a nu- clear peer like Russia. Un- like North Korea, Russia has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the U.S. in minutes. Russia’s long-range mis- siles could reach the U.S. in about 30 minutes. Subma- rine-launched missiles fired from nearer U.S. shores might arrive in half that time. Given that some of the U.S. re- sponse time would be taken up by administrative steps, the president would have less than 10 minutes to ab- sorb the information, review his options and make his de- cision, according to a De- cember 2016 report by nu- clear arms specialist Amy Woolf of the Congressional Research Service. A president who decided to launch a nuclear attack – either in retaliation for a nuclear strike or in antici- pation of one – would first hold an emergency confer- ence with the defense sec- retary, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman and other advisers. The commander of U.S. Strategic Command, now Air Force Gen. John Hyten, would brief the pres- ident on strike options, and the president would make his decision. If the president decided to order a strike, he would iden- tify himself to military of- ficials at the Pentagon with codes unique to him. These codes are recorded on a card known as the biscuit that is carried by the president at all times. He would then transmit the launch order to the Pentagon and Stra- tegic Command. Blair, the former missile launch officer, said there is no way to reverse the presi- dent’s order. And there would be no recalling missiles once launched. Although fielded and as- signed for use by the mili- tary, the nuclear bomb is in- herently a political weapon, given its almost unimagi- nable destructive capacity. That explains why the system for controlling the use of U.S. nuclear weapons has been designed to concen- trate decision-making power in the ultimate political of- fice: the presidency. POPE’S CHILE-PERU TRIP TO INCLUDE FOCUS ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLE VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis’ trip to Chile and Peru in January is likely to focus on the plight of indig- enous peoples, with a day dedicated to the Amazon and a visit to a region wracked by tensions with Chile’s Mapuche group. The Vatican on Monday released the itinerary for the Jan. 15-22 trip, which will be the pope’s 22nd for- eign visit and his fifth to his home continent. The trip also is expected to cover issues important to Francis – poverty, migration and the environment. And it will feature the protocol visits, speeches to bishops and meetings with local Je- suits that are part of any Francis foreign trip. It also could create tension. Vandals recently burned a bus and scattered pamphlets to protest Francis’ Jan. 17 visit to the southern Chilean region claimed by the Mapuche as ancestral territory. The Mapuche are Chile’s largest indigenous group and they resisted conquest for 300 years, until military de- feats in the late 19th century forced them into Araucania, south of the Bio Bio river, about 500 miles south of the capital. The government then encouraged European immi- grants to colonize the area. Most of the 700,000 Ma- puche are peaceful as they live in poverty on the fringes of timber companies or ranches owned by the Europeans’ de- scendants. But their desire for autonomy remains strong. Some Mapuche commu- nities include radical fac- tions that have occupied and burned farms and lumber trucks to demand the re- turn of the land. Police have also been accused of violent abuses, including storming into Mapuche homes during raids and shooting rubber bullets and tear gas at women and children. Francis will fly into Temuco on Jan. 17, celebrate Mass and have lunch with res- idents, for a total of six hours on the ground. He has not re- quested any special security, Chilean organizers said. His itinerary in Temuco “reflects his concern for a re- gion that has experienced significant tensions, where he wants to share a message of peace and try to bring words of hope that can bring about encounters among peoples,” said Monsignor Fernando Ramos, auxiliary bishop of Santiago, who is in charge of organizing the trip. Francis has long drawn attention to the plight of Latin America’s indigenous peoples, who he says are dis- proportionately harmed by the effects of environmental degradation, the lingering ef- fects of colonization and a modern global economy that exploits the natural resources of poor countries for the ben- efit of the rich. Francis will focus on the Amazon during his first full day in Lima, lunching with indigenous in the Peru- vian capital and delivering a speech Jan. 19. Other highlights of the trip include a stop at a wom- en’s jail in Santiago – the first time he will visit a women’s detention center. Francis has met with male inmates on many of his trips, part of his long-standing commitment to urging society’s outcasts to not give up hope. He will also likely address migration issues in Iquique, a city in northern Chile where migrants from across the region live in poverty- wracked slums. As he has done on pre- vious trips, Francis will pay special honor to a local Je- suit – in this case St. Al- berto Hurtado, a 20th century Chilean priest. The system is built for fast decision-making, not debate. That is because speed is seen as essential in a crisis with a nuclear peer like Russia. Unlike North Korea, Russia has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the U.S. in minutes.Next >