ESTABLISHED 1965 www.caymancompass.com – 50 CENTS – THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2018 High of 86 Low of 75 Slight with wave heights of 1 to 3 feet. EDITORIAL | PAGE 4 ALL ABOUT THE ‘PAPERS’: THE JOURNALISTIC ASSAULT ON GLOBAL FINANCE LOCAL | PAGE 2 QUICK ARREST IN POLICE CAR ARSON Road User Call 949-8699 www.britcay.ky cgigrp BRITISH CAYMANIAN INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED BritCay House, 236 Eastern Avenue, George Town, P.O. Box 74, KY1-1102 Tel. 949-8699 www.britcay.ky A member of Colonial Group International Ltd. : insurance, health, pensions, life Enjoy comprehensive cover with free roadside assistance, $200 deductible, zero windscreen deductible and many other free benefits! Ask for a quote! Public’s patience wears thin with erratic garbage pickups JAMES WHITTAKER jwhittaker@pinnaclemedialtd.com Dumpsters at the George Town landfill for people to drop off their own household waste overflowed into the car park Monday. “I think that was a protest from people,” said North Side MLA Ezzard Miller, who took a photograph of the parking lot cov- ered with trash bags and garden waste. He said more and more people were having to take their own trash to the landfill because of unreliable roadside collections. The Department of Environmental Health has acknowledged problems in every district with late roadside pick-ups over the last month but it attributed the pile of refuse to an “unplanned adjustment to the servicing schedule” at the landfill site over the weekend. “I go up there often because I never know when they are coming to North Side,” said Mr. Miller. “The bins are often full but I have never seen it like this. Everybody had dumped their garbage in the parking area [of the landfill].” Residents across Grand Cayman have been complaining for some time about in- consistent collections of their garbage. Mr. Miller, speaking Tuesday, said it had been almost three weeks between roadside col- lections in North Side. Similar problems have been reported in various districts on and off since be- fore Christmas. Al Suckoo, MLA for Newlands, circulated pictures of trash piling up by the roadside in his district Wednesday. He said, “I think we have hit the end of the road as far as this situation goes. Gov- ernment needs to put some priority on this Barbara Bush, ‘America’s grandmother,’ passes at age 92 HOUSTON (AP) – Barbara Bush did not hesitate to tell people that her trademark pearl neck- laces were fake. Americans liked that everything else about the snowy-haired first lady was real. The wife of the nation’s 41st president and mother of the 43rd brought a plainspoken, grand- motherly style to buttoned-down Washington, displaying an utter lack of vanity about her white hair and wrinkles. “What you see with me is what you get. I’m not running for presi- dent – George Bush is,” she said at the 1988 Republican National Convention, where her husband, then vice president, was nomi- nated to succeed Ronald Reagan. Mrs. Bush died Tuesday, ac- cording to a statement from family spokesman Jim Mc- Grath. She was 92. A funeral is planned Sat- urday at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston, which Mrs. Bush and her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, reg- ularly attended. Mrs. Bush will lie in repose Friday at the church for members of the public who want to pay respects. Saturday’s service will be by invitation only, according to the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation. The Bushes, who were married on Jan. 6, 1945, had the longest marriage of any presidential couple in American history. And Mrs. Bush was one of only two first ladies who had a child who was elected president. The other UPROAR OVER THE ‘RIGHT TO BE CAYMANIAN’ BRENT FULLER bfuller@pinnaclemedialtd.com Legal difficulties in proving the right to be a Caymanian, identified in reports by the Cayman Compass more than two years ago, have left the local government trying to explain to multigenerational citizens why they might need to visit the Immigra- tion Department. The latest social media blow-up over the question of who is and who is not a Cayma- nian happened this week after a voice mes- sage left by a Caymanian woman – warning about immigration procedures that could in some cases require long-time Cayman res- idents to obtain proof of their legal status – circulated the islands. According to legal experts, the issue is not new but it has become more crucial in recent years as a more populous Cayman Islands has grown its economy and brought in more non- Caymanian workers, some of whom have since gained permanent resident status, or the right to be Caymanian. Anyone who has received the right to be Caymanian during their lifetime here would be in possession of legal documents pro- vided by the Immigration Department. How- ever, formal acknowledgement of the right to be Caymanian may be needed in instances JAIL FOR MAN WHO HIT POLICE OFFICER Calling his original suspended sen- tence “unduly lenient,” Court of Appeal judges sentenced Seth O’Neil Watler, who knocked a policeman uncon- scious last year, to 12 months in jail Wednesday. See details on page 5. Former first lady Barbara Bush, pictured here in 1990, died Tuesday at the age of 92. - PHOTO: AP Trash piles up in the parking lot of an area designated for household waste drop-offs at the George Town landfill site. PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 8 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 8 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 8 »2 LOCAL NEWS THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2018 • CAYMAN COMPASS • Matinees Daily (matinee price before 6pm) • Seniors $8.00, Mon-Fri Before 6pm • Additional charges apply per 3D/VIP tickets Cayman Cinema@cbcinema6cbcinema6 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. - THURSDAY - 640-FILM (640-3456) BLOCKERS (R) 2:35 I 3:45 I 7:35 I 9:50 WRINKLE IN TIME 3D (PG) 1:15 I 4:00 2D I 6:40 2D I 9:35 BLACK PANTHER (PG13) 1:00 I 6:45 I 9:40 PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING (PG13) 1:25 I 5:00 I 7:15 I 10:00 RAMPAGE 3D (PG13) 1:10 2D I 4:00 2D VIP I 7:00 2D VIP I 9:15 READY PLAYER ONE 3D (PG13) 12:40 2D VIP I 4:10 I 6:30 2D I 9:30 2D VIP PETER RABBIT (PG) 12:15 I 4:00 St. Ignatius team wins Saxon Investment Challenge MARK MUCKENFUSS mmuckenfuss@pinnaclemedialtd.com Neither Kelsi Persad nor Justine Rhule have plans to play the market with the $2,500 prize they are split- ting after winning the Saxon Investment Challenge, an an- nual competition for Cayman high school students. Ten teams from several private and government high schools were given an imagi- nary $100,000 to invest over the course of six months. The winners were an- nounced Tuesday, April 17, at St. Ignatius Catholic School. Kelsi, 16, and Justine, 15, of St. Ignatius, said they both plan to save their winnings, rather than investing them in stocks. But they said the experience of creating and managing a stock portfolio for the competition would make them more likely to in- vest sometime in the future. For Justine, it may impact her career plans. “Doing this has inspired me to go in that direction,” she said, discussing what avenue she might pursue in her college studies. Prior to the competition, she said, she was thinking of a career in law. Now, she’s weighing that against working as an investor. Chief Officer of the Min- istry of Education Christen Suckoo said the contest was not necessarily designed to recruit students into the in- vestment industry. Rather, he said, the benefit is in teaching them how to think differently. “That’s why schools exist,” Mr. Suckoo said, “to teach you how to have strong char- acter and to teach you how to analyze. You’ve gained a skill set no one can take away from you.” This is the ninth year of the competition, which is sponsored by Saxon Smart Insurance, OneTRADEx and the Ministry of Edu- cation. The sponsors pro- vide the prize money. In ad- dition to the $2,500 for first place, the second-place team of Christian Murray and Ethan Cronier of St. Ig- natius won $1,500. Clifton Hunter High School’s Fabian O’Connor and Joel Lyn were awarded $500 for third place. There were also monthly $100 prizes for the teams making the most in a given month. Kelsi and Justine had an investment return of 51.44 percent. They said they tried to look at not only how stocks might be performing his- torically, but also what was going on in the world that might affect market trends. “We bought Home Depot at a time when the hurri- canes were going on,” Jus- tine said, anticipating there would be a demand for building materials. “We were looking at things going on in our community.” They also tried to take in the big picture. “We looked at the market itself,” Justine said. “We looked at [major stocks] and how their yearly re- turns were. If a stock was going up consistently, we would buy it.” When stocks they had in- vested in went down, it was “nerve wracking,” she added. “Sometimes our money would go really low,” said Kelsi, “and we’d start freaking out.” While she might even- tually put some of her own money into the market, Kelsi said, she anticipated doing so might create even more anxiety than she experienced during the competition. “I think I would be more stressed,” she said, “because it would be real money that was being lost.” Police raid WB lottery operation Police in West Bay last week broke up a suspected il- legal gambling operation, ac- cording to the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service. Two people, a man and a woman, were arrested in an April 13 police search at a home in the area of Mount Pleasant Road and West Church Street. Officers found about $3,000 cash and other items “used for illegal gambling,” police said. The 42-year-old man and 26-year-old woman were ar- rested on suspicion of pos- sessing lottery tickets, selling lottery tickets, possession of criminal property and per- mitting a place to be used as a gambling house. Both were released on police bail. During a later search at the same address, a counter- feit $100 Cayman Islands note was found, Police Superinten- dent Robert Graham said. “The fact that counter- feit currency was also found shows that this type of il- legal activity often goes hand in hand with other crimes,” Mr. Graham said. JEWELRY THEFT SUSPECT NABBED BY OFF-DUTY OFFICER A George Town man sus- pected of stealing a bracelet from a Cardinall Avenue jew- elry store at 2:40 p.m. on Tuesday, April 10, was pursued and detained by an off-duty police officer. The bracelet was recovered, police officials said. Joseph Alexander Wil- liams, 22, appeared in court Friday on a single charge of theft of a diamond bracelet valued at US$7,500 from Milano Diamond Gallery. He was bailed to return to court April 24. Royal Cayman Islands Po- lice Service officials said Mr. Williams was pursued by a store employee as he fled to the street. Police constable Lazarus Moraes, who was off duty, saw what was happening and gave chase as well. Mr. Williams was appre- hended about a block away at Main Street, near First Ca- ribbean Bank, by Constable Moraes, the store worker and other members of the public, officials said. GUN SEIZED AT WB HOME Police seized a Wal- ther .380 semiautomatic handgun during a search of a residence in West Bay Tuesday morning. The search was car- ried out as part of an ongoing investigation into a robbery that took place on April 10 at Ba- tabano Plaza in West Bay, police said. No arrests were made in relation to the recovery of the firearm or the rob- bery investigation. Man arrested in police car arson BRENT FULLER bfuller@pinnaclemedialtd.com A George Town man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of arson in connection with Tues- day’s fire involving two po- lice vehicles. The 32-year-old man had not been charged and was in police custody as of press time Wednesday. He was arrested around 3 a.m. Wednesday, police said. The two new Royal Cayman Islands Police cars being outfitted for patrol service at a George Town auto dealership were set on fire early Tuesday. One of the police cars was severely damaged by the fire which broke out where it was parked in- side the security fence on the south side of the Vampt Motors Ford-Toyota dealer- ship lot on Walkers Road. The second police vehicle, also parked in the same area, had its interior seats and steering wheel dam- aged by flames. Four police vehicles were parked at the deal- ership lot at the time the fire broke out, but only two were damaged. No one was injured and the vehicles were un- occupied at the time they caught fire, around 2:45 a.m. Tuesday. Police seized a number of items in the April 13 gambling raid. – PHOTO: RCIPS Saxon Investment Challenge winners Justine Rhule, left, and Kelsi Persad, third from left, receive their top awards from Saxon CEO Brian Williams, second from left, and Education Chief Officer Christen Suckoo. - PHOTO: MARK MUCKENFUSS This Walther .380 gun was recovered at a residence in West Bay. - PHOTO: RCIPS Ten teams from several private and government high schools were given an imaginary $100,000 to invest over the course of six months.The islands’ most-trusted news source 3 CAYMAN COMPASS • THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2018 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. The Trump strategy to radically change trade and investment relations with China is well-intentioned but poorly conceived. Free trade is a simple idea when presented to the public. Tear down barriers, let each nation make more of what it does best and buy from others the rest, and more trade will raise living standards. Beneath what economists call this neoclassical model of trade lurks an assumption dismal scientists are wont to admit – the textbook the- orem implicitly assumes bal- anced trade accomplished by unmanaged exchange rate ad- justments and a reciprocal re- duction of trade barriers. We have not had an oversupply of those with the other three big economies – Japan, Germany and most of all China. Consequently, America’s trade deficit will exceed $675 billion in 2018 – more than 60 percent of it with China. The deficit creates winners but more losers – mostly, Middle Americans who lose their jobs to imports but were not redeployed to make exports. The West Coast high-tech executives who get rich ship- ping manufacturing jobs and technology to China, New York bankers who cut the deals to finance the process and Ivy League economists corrupted by corporate donations and speaking gigs tell us lower priced Chinese goods help us live better and consume more. They soft-peddle the massive foreign borrowing to finance the deficit that will soon leave the country vulnerable to bankruptcy – just as im- port gluttony crippled Greece, Spain and many others. In a nutshell, China started the trade war with well documented high tariffs and administrative barriers to imports. Those encourage U.S. companies to move factories to the Middle Kingdom, where they are compelled to form joint ventures and transfer technology. Beijing has tar- geted a succession of U.S. in- dustries with a combination of these measures and subsi- dies – for example, aluminum, autos, microprocessors and artificial intelligence. The United States and other Western nations per- mitted China to join the WTO in 2002 on the premise that more trade with the West would encourage pro-market reforms and democratic re- forms. Instead the regime has become more, not less mer- cantilist and repressive and with the help of American trade lawyers, it has tied in knots the WTO dispute settle- ment process – much to the frustration of the Obama Ad- ministration in its final years. Levying tariffs on $150 billion in goods from China will not move it – it sends the United States some $600 billion annually and can counter with tariffs on vir- tually all U.S. exports. That would create enormous do- mestic discomfort and polit- ical pressure on the Trump administration to back down. We have engaged China in negotiations for more than two decades, and its poli- cymakers are champion at using opaque controls over the Chinese economy to promise reforms at the mo- ment of crisis and then re- nege in seemingly intractable ways once the episode passes. This time, China’s Com- merce of Ministry is even denying negotiations are under way to resolve the im- broglio. Hence, we have no reason to believe those will result in anything more than more high sounding commit- ments to be followed by more broken promises. Instead, it would be better to hit China across the board – on all its sales – in a way that recognizes it’s not going to reform and we had better have WTO rules for the rest of the world and balance trade as best we can with the Middle Kingdom. The United States should require licenses to import Chinese goods. Exporters would be issued resalable import permits equal to the value of their sales in the Middle Kingdom. Those wishing to purchase items from China would then bid for those. Any attempt to retaliate against American exports would only reduce licenses for Americans to purchase Chinese exports. Unlike a tariff, the revenue generated, going to U.S. exporters, would serve to promote our sales to the Middle Kingdom. This could be phased in by at first issuing import li- censes of somewhat greater value than exports and gradually reducing those to parity over three years. And, it would challenge the Eu- ropeans, NAFTA allies and others to do the same. It would compel a whole- sale realignment of the U.S. economy around producing and exporting more, and Americas now sitting on the sidelines to return to fac- tories – instead of encour- aging Apple to make iPhones in China and New York bankers to arrange credit to buy those. Peter Morici is an economist and business professor at the University of Maryland, and a national columnist. © 2018, The Washington Times, LLC. THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2018 • CAYMAN COMPASS Our readers in the Cayman Islands may not have heard of the “International Consortium of Journalists,” but by now are certainly familiar with their work. The “Panama Papers” and “Paradise Papers” exposés gen- erated headlines around the world and garnered pres- tigious awards, including last year’s Pulitzer Prize. The series of investigative reports – based on troves of documents obtained surreptitiously from international law firms – have been hailed as examples of impact-oriented journalism in the tradition of Upton Sinclair and his exposure of abuses in the American meatpacking industry in the early 1900s. Nonsense. Amid a near-universal chorus of self-congratula- tory applause from within the media industry, we at the Cayman Compass have remained with our hands folded politely in our laps. As a news organization based in one of these so-called “nefarious tax havens,” we dissent from our journalistic brethren and, further, deplore and condemn the practice of publishing stolen privileged documents and correspondence between law firms and their clients. Appleby, a victim of the latest theft, appropriately is suing. One of the most shocking aspects of the reports on the Panama Papers – and the Paradise Papers – is the dearth of demonstrable illegal activity that has been uncovered. After all, the troves of informa- tion turned over to the ICIJ included decades’ worth of documents on the innermost workings of sprawling law firms Mossack Fonseca (in Panama) and Appleby (based in Bermuda). Apart from hypocrisy by some political figures, and maybe some new details on ques- tionable activity that had already been in the public domain, much of the investigatory reported consisted of “outing” celebrities, wealthy individuals and organiza- tions as innocuous clients in the global financial system. Someone needs to remind the ICIJ and its media members that there is a right of privacy central to the most basic concept of human rights. Certainly, privileged communications between lawyers and their clients, or priests and their penitents, fall into that category. In our opinion, the most secretive, outrageous and underreported part of the story is the so-called “leak” – or as Appleby’s Global Managing Partner Michael O’Connell phrased it, “an illegal theft” – of the docu- ments in the first place. At a panel including two key figures from the ICIJ at the recent OffshoreAlert Conference in Miami, former Bermuda Finance Minister Bob Richards pointed out the inherent inconsistency of the ICIJ’s position – that it had positioned itself as the arbiter of the privacy rights of the hundreds of individuals and companies appearing in the “purloined papers,” but at the same time had elected to protect the privacy of the source from whom it had obtained the documents. The ICIJ panelists responded that exposing the “secrecy” of the offshore world was in the “public interest” (the most murky and subjective of phrases), but somehow the source of the documents was not. Such hypocrisy is nothing short of stunning. For the record, we’re certainly interested in how – and from whom – the documents were obtained, and we’re sure we are joined by Mossack Fonseca, Appleby, and all the people whose private affairs were exposed. In the absence of illegality being exposed, the ICIJ and others have justified the publication of the law firms’ information by falling back on the position that, somehow by its very nature, the offshore (and by extension global) financial system is unjust. In other words, even though it’s not illegal – it’s immoral. This prejudiced opinion is as inaccurate as it is unfair, not only to the law firms and their clients, but also to the thousands of financial services profes- sionals in Cayman and elsewhere who have under- gone a top-tier level of education, possess any number of internationally recognized certifications, and have devoted their careers to preventing and rooting out precisely the sort of corrupt or illegal activity the ICIJ has failed to unearth. All about the ‘Papers’: The journalistic assault on global finance PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY: Caymanian Compass Limited (a subsidiary of Pinnacle Media Ltd) Compass Centre Shedden Road, George Town SEND US YOUR VIEWS OR NEWS: P.O. Box 1365 Grand Cayman KY1-1108, Cayman Islands Telephone: (345) 815-0095 Email: newsdesk@pinnaclemedialtd.com ADVERTISE WITH US: Telephone: (345) 949-5111 Email: sales@pinnaclemedialtd.com Website: www.caymancompass.com PUBLISHERS DAVID R. LEGGE AND VICKI L. LEGGE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DAVID R. LEGGE EXECUTIVE EDITOR PATRICK BRENDEL A MEMBER OF THE INTER-AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION “Give light and the people will find their own way” Cutting a deal with China PETER MORICI A cargo truck drives amid stacked shipping containers at the Yangshan port in Shanghai. – PHOTO: AP5 LOCAL NEWS CAYMAN COMPASS • THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2018 174091_PRINT-Avis-Payless-FleetSPage 1 4/6/18 1:16:44 PM Appeals court jails man for 12 months for knocking policeman unconscious Judges find original suspended sentence too lenient CAROL WINKER cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com The Cayman Islands Court of Appeal sentenced Seth O’Neil Watler to imme- diate imprisonment of 12 months on Wednesday, after finding his original sus- pended sentence for knocking a police officer unconscious “unduly lenient.” Mr. Watler, 25, received a suspended 10-month sen- tence in December last year, after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to Detective Superintendent Peter Lansdown. The Crown appealed the sentence. Court president Sir John Goldring said the sentencing judge had insufficiently re- garded the aggravating feature – that the victim was someone in service to the public. The sentence should have been 15 months, Jus- tice Goldring said. The court, comprised of three judges, recognized that Mr. Watler’s anxiety and distress must have been great after learning that the Crown was appealing his suspended sen- tence. In recognition of that fact, the court reduced 15 months to 12 months. How- ever, the judge added, that sentence must be served immediately. Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Pat- rick Moran brought the ap- peal on behalf of the Crown. Defense attorney Jonathon Hughes responded on behalf of Mr. Watler. Mr. Moran suggested that a prison sentence of two-and- a-half to three years would be appropriate based on the injuries caused to Detective Superintendent Lansdown. He said the sentencing judge, Justice Marlene Carter, ap- peared to have categorized the injuries as “lesser harm” on the basis that Mr. Watler had struck a single blow. Mr. Moran noted that the blow was so hard that the of- ficer fell to the ground, where he lay bleeding and uncon- scious. The injuries were such that Mr. Lansdown re- ceived seven stitches to his lip and five stitches to a lac- eration on his head. He also sustained a fractured rib, with an underlying area of bruising of his lung. The of- ficer spent three days in hos- pital and, two months later, still had numbness to his upper lip, Mr. Moran related. This was not a case of a suspect struggling with an officer or being mistaken that he needed to use force in a particular situation, Mr. Moran said – “This was a case of acting in anger over a situation of his own making.” The encounter between Mr. Watler and Detective Su- perintendent Lansdown oc- curred after a single-vehicle accident on the evening of Oct. 14, 2017. Mr. Moran agreed that the sentencing judge did ac- knowledge that Mr. Lans- down was a uniformed of- ficer on duty, but he argued that she did not pay suffi- cient regard to that aggra- vating factor. Mr. Hughes, in response, said his argument was straightforward – to be un- duly lenient, a sentence must be lower than the lowest sen- tence that could properly be passed. In the original case, the judge used a starting point of 15 months and reduced it by a third because of the early guilty plea. The Court of Ap- peal judges used a starting point of two years, reduced it to 15 months for the early plea, and then to 12 months. He said Justice Carter had considered the evidence and had heard from the victim/ complainant. She still found fit to suspend the “inevi- table” sentence of imprison- ment, based on Mr. Watler’s previous good character, re- morse and the fact that his offense was committed in “a single, unguarded moment.” Justice Goldring asked about other parts of Mr. Watler’s original sentence – the obligation to perform 100 hours of community service and attend an anger man- agement program. Mr. Hughes explained that these programs were coordi- nated by Probation Services and, once the appeal was lodged, Mr. Watler’s partici- pation was “put on ice.” Orders for the com- munity service and anger management counseling were quashed. MILO DACK mdack@pinnaclemedialtd.com Residents of North Sound Estates met with community leaders, RCIPS officers, and Newlands MLA Alva Suckoo Monday to discuss crime, de- lays in garbage collections, hurricane preparedness, and derelict vehicles in the area. Inspector Courtney Myles, who supervises the commu- nity policing division, at- tended the meeting at the Sa- vannah United Church Hall, along with police officers in- volved in the RCIPS’s com- munity policing scheme. Thirty-seven residents at- tended, as well as Heather Bodden, a former candidate for Savannah district, and former Minister of Finan- cial Services Wayne Panton, both of whom were involved in the creation of the Neigh- borhood Watch. Among the requests made to police was for the instal- lation of a CCTV camera at the Newlands Barcadere car park, on the end of Leeward Drive. The police officers said it is something that could be achieved relatively quickly. “The community and neighborhoods have re- ally come together,” said Carole Broadbelt, one of the founders of the Neighbor- hood Watch. “Our neighbor- hood has achieved so much in such a short time.” North Sound Estates has also set up a 65-member WhatsApp alert group to increase communica- tion to help combat crime in the area. Community meeting held at NewlandsThe islands’ most-trusted news source 6 Community CALENDAR ■ COMMUNITY CALENDAR is published TUESDAYS and THURSDAYS. It is available to charitable or nonprofit organizations. Items should be submitted at least three working days before publication. Information must include name of sender, signature and contact number. ■ Items may be faxed to 949-2662, brought to the Cayman Compass office on Shedden Rd. or emailed to cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com at least three days in advance of publication. THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2018 • CAYMAN COMPASS THURSDAY, APRIL 19 PUB QUIZ: Fidel Murphy’s. 7 p.m. To benefit the Humane Society. SATURDAY, APRIL 21 ROTARY SCIENCE FAIR: 10 a.m. until noon. The Arts and Recreation Centre. All are invited. INTERNATIONAL NIGHT: The principal and staff of Sir John A. Cumber Primary IB World School are inviting parents of students and members of the community to attend “International Night 2018 – Passport to the World, A Celebration of Cultures.” 6-8 p.m. At the school’s Shirley Kidd Memorial Hall. GT OLDER PERSONS: The Older Persons’ Council is seeking input from older persons and their families through a series of meetings in each of the Cayman Islands’ six districts. The meeting for George Town is today, 5:30-7 p.m. at the Family Life Centre. Light refreshments will be available. OVERCOMING DISABILITY: Jamaica’s first visually impaired member of the Parliament of Jamaica, Senator Dr. Floyd Morris, speaks at the Kings Seventh-day Adventist Church, off Walkers Road, adjacent to Cayman Academy, at 4:30 p.m. on the subject of public policies on disabilities and how they impact some core areas of people’s lives, such as religious liberty. All are invited. EARTH DAY FAIR: Sir John A. Cumber Primary School Field, 4-9 p.m. Music, food stalls, exhibits, kids zone, artists corner, eco-friendly vendors. Admission free. Organized by West Bay Central Earth Day Committee. SUNDAY, APRIL 22 CONVOCATION: The United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands Cayman Islands Regional Mission Council will host Convocation 2018 beginning at 9 a.m. at Cayman Prep and High School Auditorium on Walkers Road. All are invited to join this year’s Convocation with the theme Disciples of Peace. DG’S 5K CHALLENGE: Registration is open for the 2018 Deputy Governor’s 5K Challenge. The walk/ run is being held on Little Cayman today, and Grand Cayman Sunday, April 29. The event is raising money for five good causes. In Little Cayman, money will be used for a “grow box” at the island’s school. Register at www.caymanactive.com/dg5K. MONDAY, APRIL 23 OVERCOMING DISABILITY: Jamaica’s first visually impaired member of the Parliament of Jamaica, Senator Dr. Floyd Morris, will be at Camana Bay’s Books & Books, at 5 p.m. where he will be available to sign his book, “Not by Sight, But by Faith.” All are invited. TUESDAY, APRIL 24 JGHS OPEN DAY: The John Gray High School invites parents and guardians to an Open Day for the school 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. This is an initiative by the Prefect Body. Parents and guardians of the School are urged to come in during the course of the day to see classes in operation, plus displays and performances. Most performances will occur between noon and 1 p.m. with classes and displays accessible until 4 p.m. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25 NS OLDER PERSONS: The Older Persons’ Council is seeking input from older persons and their families through a series of meetings in each of the Cayman Islands’ six districts. The meeting for North Side is today, 7-8:30 p.m. at the Civic Centre. Light refreshments will be available. THURSDAY, APRIL 26 PUB QUIZ: The Alzheimer’s and Dementia Association holds a pub quiz at 7 p.m. at Fidel Murphy’s. Get your colleagues, friends and family together and come out for a night of brain challenge. Entry fee is $10 per person and teams are made up of 6 persons. Call 924-4170 to reserve a table. Lots of prizes and surprises. SATURDAY, APRIL 28 WB OLDER PERSONS: The Older Persons’ Council is seeking input from older persons and their families through a series of meetings in each of the Cayman Islands’ six districts. The meeting for West Bay is today, 5:30-7 p.m. at the Sir John A. Cumber Primary School Hall. Light refreshments will be available. LITTLE CAYMAN AGRICULTURE SHOW: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Blossom Village Park. Contact Roger Scott, 948-1051, or Chevala Burke at chevala.burke@gov.ky. DEALS ON WHEELS: The Red Cross mobile Thrift Shop will be in East End, close to Pirates Cove Bar, 6-10 a.m. SUNDAY, APRIL 29 HEALTH & WELLNESS EXPO: Free community event organized by the East End SDA Church. 2-5 p.m. Cooking lessons and tastings, massages, hydrotherapy and facials, blood pressure and sugar testing, Ask the Doctor booth. SDA Church, 2638 Sea View Road. All are invited. TUESDAY, MAY 1 HURRICANE SHELTER VOLUNTEERS: The Department of Children and Family Services wants people to sign up as hurricane shelter volunteers for the 2018 hurricane season. Today is the deadline to register for training to offer support and immediate on-scene assistance. Training sessions are Tuesday and Wednesday, May 8 and 9 from 6-8:30 p.m. For further information and to register, please call the Department on 949-0290 or email dcfs.smt@gov.ky. SATURDAY, MAY 5 BT OLDER PERSONS: The Older Persons’ Council is seeking input from older persons and their families through a series of meetings in each of the Cayman Islands’ six districts. The meeting for Bodden Town is today, 5:30-7 p.m. at the Civic Centre. Light refreshments will be available. SATURDAY, MAY 12 EE OLDER PERSONS: The Older Persons’ Council is seeking input from older persons and their families through a series of meetings in each of the Cayman Islands’ six districts. The meeting for East End is today, 5:30-7 p.m. at the East End United Church Hall, Gun Bay. Light refreshments will be available. GENERAL INTEREST VEHICLE & LICENSING DEPT.: The Crewe Road office of the Department of Vehicle and Drivers’ Licensing has resumed its normal hours of operations. The office will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. No extended hours for license plate exchanges on Wednesdays. No Saturday openings. CADET CORPS: The Cayman Islands Cadet Corps is looking for new recruits, ages 11-16, to join the Band Detachment or the Marine Detachment and School Detachments at John Gray High School, Clifton Hunter High School, Layman E. Scott High School and Triple C School. Program includes drilling, field craft and adventure, navigation, first-aid, competition shooting, physical and leadership training, music and band, water- based activities. For more information, contact the Cadet Corps at 938-8821/22, 946-9810 or email cadetcorps@gov.ky. On Cayman Brac, call 948-8824 or 938-8824. Website is www.cicadetcorps.ky. EARLY CHILDHOOD FEES: The Ministry of Education provides financial assistance for Caymanian children between 3 and 4 years of age before Sept. 1, 2018, to assist with payment of fees at an early childhood center between September and June 30. Application forms can be downloaded from www.education.gov.ky or collected from the Government Administration Building, the Department of Education Services and all early childhood centres. Contact Renee Barnes at 244-5735, Turnette Stewart at 244-5724 or email ecap@gov.ky. BETHESDA COUNSELLING CENTRE: Caters to all who seek help. Open Monday to Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at 68 Mary St. Appointments available Saturdays and late evenings. Owned and operated by the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Call 946-6575. HUMANE SOCIETY BOOK LOFT: North Sound Road. Open Monday 12:30-4 p.m.; Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday 5:30-7:30 p.m. Volunteers needed for front desk a few hours per week. Email humanesocietybookloft@ candw.ky or call 946-8053. Donations of books, games, CDs, stationery, DVDs, cards etc., in good condition always needed. COMMUNITY CHESS: Tuesdays 5-8 p.m., West Indies Wine Company. Join the Cayman Chess Club for a complimentary chess class and open challenges weekly. Anyone can learn to play and enjoy chess, even beginners. OPEN CANVAS: Every Wednesday. Visual Arts Society supports this event at KARoo Restaurant located in Camana Bay. 7-11 p.m. No fee. Easels provided for artist of all levels to come out and enjoy painting and socializing with other artists. Email info@visualartcayman.com or jar.was@gmail.com. MUSEUM TOURS: The National Museum provides guided tours for students and school groups free of cost. Students will gain an understanding of Cayman’s geological formation, flora and fauna, seafaring and rope-making heritage, political history and more. Contact the museum to book a tour in advance at 949-8368 or email info@museum.ky. CLUBS, ORGANIZATIONS ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS: Meets daily to help with drinking problems. Call 926-9044 or visit www.caymanaa.org. NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS: Is available for substance abuse help. Call the info line at 929–NANA (6262). AL-ANON GROUP MEETING: Are you troubled by someone’s drinking? Al-Anon Family Groups can help. Call 928-8843 or email caymanalanon@gmail.com for meeting times. OVERCOMERS OUTREACH: A Christ-centered 12-step recovery group addresses addictions and those affected by them. Meetings at Cayman Islands Baptist Church, Pedro Castle Road, Mondays, 7 p.m. For details, contact Virginia Castillo at 946-2422, or visit www.overcomersoutreach.org. DEMENTIA/ALZHEIMER’S SUPPORT GROUP: This group meets on the last Wednesday of each month at ADACI’s office, 4th floor Cardinall Plaza, 30 Cardinall Ave., George Town. All are invited to attend. Call 924-4170 or email info@adacyman.com. GRAND CAYMAN TOASTMASTERS: Club meets each Thursday 6-7:15 p.m. on 3rd Floor, George Town Public Library. Visitors and guests welcome. Local contact is George R. Ebanks, 322-9369 or Grand Cayman Toastmasters club on Facebook. Email info@ toastmastersclub2686.org. ROTARACT BLUE OF CAYMAN: Meets Wednesdays 6 p.m., at Royal Palms Beach Club, West Bay Road. Contact rotaractblue@gmail.com or www.rotaractblue.org. LEO CLUB OF GRAND CAYMAN: Meets first and third Wednesdays of the month, 6:30 p.m. at the Lions Community Centre. For more information, contact Secretary Letisha Allen at 924-2819. THE LIONS CLUB OF GRAND CAYMAN: Meets every first and third Thursday 7:30 p.m. at the Lions Community Centre. For more information, email LionsClubGCM@hotmail.com. For more Community Calendar events, visit www.caymancompass.com/events. Jamaica’s first visually impaired member of the Parliament of Jamaica, Senator Dr. Floyd Morris, will speak at the Kings Seventh-day Adventist Church, on Saturday, April 21.7 LOCAL NEWS CAYMAN COMPASS • THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2018 lcome cetin Hon. Mckeeva Bush, OBE, JP, MLA Speaker & Member for WBW Hon. Tara Rivers, JP, MLA Minister & Member for WBS Capt. Eugene Ebanks, JP, MLA Councillor & Member for WBC Hon Bernie Bush, MLA Deputy Speaker & Member for WBN INVITE THE RESIDENTS OF WEST BAY TO A MEET AND GREET RECEPTION IN HONOUR OF HIS EXCELLENCY, THE GOVERNOR & HIS FAMILY ACCOMPANIED BY THE DEPUTY GOVERNOR HON. FRANZ MANDERSON TURTLE FARM | FRIDAY 20TH APRIL 2018 | 7:00 PM Herrman land donated to Brac’s National Trust The Herrman family from the United States has do- nated another parcel of land to the Brac’s National Trust. Minister of Culture and Environment Dwayne Sey- mour unveiled a commemo- rative plaque on the prop- erty in Southeast Bay on Friday, April 13. The plaque acknowledges the donation of the 12-acre parcel, which was made in mid-November 2017, by the daughters of the late Dr. Roy and Mrs. Estelle Herrman, through the offices of the In- ternational Reptile Conserva- tion Foundation. This orga- nization works closely with the National Trust in sup- port of the Blue Iguana Re- covery Program and has as- sisted with several donations of land by owners who re- side in the U.S. This is the third dona- tion to the Trust by the Her- rman sisters, following a gift of 17.5 acres of land in 2004 and 8.6 acres in 2013. Those donations make up a parcel of land known as “The Splits.” In total, the family has do- nated about 38 acres of land to the National Trust. Dr. Herrman is well-re- membered among the older generation of Brackers. He was part of a small group of Americans who built houses on the south side of the Brac in the 1950s when that part of the island was almost in- accessible. Barbara Wolfe, one of Dr. Herrman’s four daughters, traveled from New York to the Brac for the un- veiling ceremony. Just before the unveiling ceremony, Cayman Brac East MLA Juliana O’Connor-Con- nolly realized she had an un- expected connection to the Herrman family. She learned that she had been deliv- ered by Dr. Herrman, who had saved the lives of both her and her mother, Shirley Mae O’Connor, during a com- plicated birth. During the ceremony, she told Ms. Wolfe that she had waited “57 years to say thank you for saving my life.” The donated parcel of land, which stretches from the Bluff to the sea, includes the first beachfront land to be owned by the National Trust on the Brac, where the District Committee members are involved in protecting turtle nesting sites. The rest of the property is mostly sea- sonal wetland with a strip of dry forest under the foot of the Bluff. This is the third donation to the Trust by the Herrman sisters, following a gift of 17.5 acres of land in 2004 and 8.6 acres in 2013. NAIL SALON DONATES TO CRISIS CENTRE Polished nail salon re- cently raised $600 in support of the Cayman Islands Crisis Centre through a campaign to help support women. In recognition of Interna- tional Women’s Month, salon owner Cindy Oostvogels said customers were offered 20 percent off pedicures for every $10 donated to the Crisis Centre. “When one of our clients asked if we would be in- terested in supporting the Cayman Islands Crisis Centre for the month of March, we knew immediately how we could get involved,” Ms. Oost- vogels said. “We are grateful to our generous clients for continuing to support the charities we select. Our hope is that this donation will as- sist those in need and let them know they’re not alone and that the community supports them.” Ania Milanowska, execu- tive director of the Cayman Islands Crisis Centre, said that she is grateful for the donation from Polished. “Because of donations such as these, the Crisis Centre can provide continued support for men, women and children who are victims of domestic abuse,” said Ms. Mi- lanowska, “We have a number of initiatives which these funds will support, including our TAYA lounge after-school program and our goal to open a new purpose-built shelter.” Polished’s Cindy Oostvogels and Natalie Baldwin show the money raised through their fundraising efforts. From left, Dr. Roy Herrman’s daughter Barbara Wolfe, Minister Dwayne Seymour, Minister Juliana O’Connor- Connolly, Capt. Eugene Ebanks and Chris Randall unveil the land donation plaque. “Our hope is that this donation will assist those in need and let them know they’re not alone.” CINDY OOSTVOGELS, Polished salon ownerThe islands’ most-trusted news source 8 THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2018 • CAYMAN COMPASS SaxonMG Insurance is seeking witnesses to a serious motor vehicle/motorcycle accident which occurred on Tuesday 6 January 2015 on the Esterley Tibbetts Highway at around 6 p.m. in the vicinity of Raleigh Quay, West Bay and involving a Toyota Windom and a Kawasaki motorcycle, and possibly witnessed by the driver of a green Honda. If you witnessed this accident would you please call 623-7788. Compensation may be available for your time. SEEKING WITNESS issue.” Mr. Suckoo is orga- nizing a petition to present to government. Mr. Miller, leader of the opposition, said it was time for Minister Dwayne Sey- mour to step in and sort it out. “The minister and chief officer have ultimate re- sponsibility,” he said. “No- body knows what has hap- pened to the director. Who is in charge? I am calling on the minister to sort it out.” Roydell Carter, the di- rector of the Department of Environmental Health, has been on leave since before Christmas. An in- ternal audit service in- quiry into the management of overtime in the depart- ment has been going on since December. Mr. Seymour responded to concerns in a statement, saying he was monitoring the situation closely. “I am fully aware of the ongoing challenges at DEH,” he said. “I realize residents are frustrated when gar- bage is not collected and share in their concerns.” He said his ministry was doing everything it could to ensure the garbage sched- ules were adhered to and urged residents to contact the Department of Environ- mental Health when trash was not collected. Mr. Miller said there were clearly systemic is- sues that needed to be dealt with. “Whenever we ob- ject, they say they are dealing with it and they hope to have a solution next week, and then a few weeks later it’s happening again,” he said. He added that all resi- dents wanted was a consis- tent weekly trash collection. “How hard would it be to put a schedule in the Compass and stick to it?” he asked. Mr. Suckoo said he was increasingly fielding calls from constituents about late garbage pickups. On certain streets, he said trash was piling up by the roadside. “People are pretty pa- tient; they don’t complain right away, but when it goes two weeks with no garbage being picked up, they get frustrated,” he said. “I think there are management is- sues and they have got to sort it out. I don’t want anyone to blame the guys on the road.” At a meeting on the North Sound Estates neigh- borhood watch and commu- nity group Monday, concern over garbage collections was among the main topics. Carole Broadbelt, one of the leaders of the group, said Tuesday it had been almost two weeks since the trash had been col- lected in the area. She said they had in- vited the Department of Environmental Health to send a representative to the meeting, but they had declined. “All the residents want to know what is happening with the garbage pickups? “We have asked for a roll-top dumpster so there is somewhere to put it until they get back on a regular schedule,” she added. Stacey Ann-Anderson, public relations officer for the Department of Envi- ronmental Health, said all residential communities throughout Grand Cayman had experienced delays in pickups over the past month, though she said it was rare for delays to be longer than 48 hours. She did not highlight a specific reason for the de- lays, saying, “Late pickups are usually as a result of resource constraints due to mechanical breakdown or worker absenteeism.” was Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams and mother of John Quincy Adams. “I had the best job in America,” she wrote in a 1994 memoir describing her time in the White House. “Every single day was interesting, rewarding, and sometimes just plain fun.” The publisher’s daughter and oilman’s wife could be caustic in private, but her public image was that of a self-sacrificing, supportive spouse who referred to her husband as her “hero.” In the White House, “you need a friend, someone who loves you, who’s going to say, ‘You are great,’” Mrs. Bush said in a 1992 televi- sion interview. Her appearance often provoked jokes that she looked more like the boyish president’s mother than his wife. Late-night co- medians quipped that her bright white hair and pale features also imparted an uncanny resemblance to George Washington. Eight years after leaving the nation’s capital, Mrs. Bush stood with her husband as their son George W. was sworn in as president. They returned four years later when he won a second term. Unlike Mrs. Bush, Abigail Adams did not live to see her son’s inauguration. She died in 1818, six years before John Quincy Adams was elected. Mrs. Bush insisted she did not try to influence her hus- band’s politics. “I don’t fool around with his office,” she said, “and he doesn’t fool around with my household.” In 1984, her quick wit got her into trouble when she was quoted as referring to Geraldine Ferraro, the Demo- cratic vice presidential nom- inee at the time, as “that $4 million – I can’t say it, but it rhymes with rich.” “It was dumb of me. I shouldn’t have said it,” Mrs. Bush acknowledged in 1988. “It was not attractive, and I’ve been very shamed. I apol- ogized to Mrs. Ferraro, and I would apologize again.” Daughter-in-law Laura Bush, another first lady, said Mrs. Bush was “ferociously tart-tongued” from the start. “She’s never shied away from saying what she thinks …. She’s managed to in- sult nearly all of my friends with one or another per- fectly timed acerbic com- ment,” Laura Bush said in her 2010 book, “Spoken from the Heart.” In her 1994 autobiog- raphy, “Barbara Bush: A Memoir,” she said she did her best to keep her opin- ions from the public while her husband was in office. But she revealed that she dis- agreed with him on two is- sues: She supported legal abortion and opposed the sale of assault weapons. She also disclosed a bout with depression in the mid- 1970s, saying she some- times feared she would de- liberately crash her car. She blamed hormonal changes and stress. “Night after night, George held me weeping in his arms while I tried to ex- plain my feelings,” she wrote. “I almost wonder why he didn’t leave me.” She said she snapped out of it in a few months. Mrs. Bush raised five children: George W., Jeb, Neil, Marvin and Dorothy. A sixth child, 3-year-old daughter Robin, died of leu- kemia in 1953. In a speech in 1985, she recalled the stress of raising a family while married to a man whose ambitions carried him from the Texas oil fields to Congress and then into in- fluential political positions that included ambassador to the United Nations, GOP chairman and CIA director. where such status is created automatically by the law; for example, in cases where a person obtains that right by virtue of their birth to Cay- manian parents which gen- erates “no subsequent doc- umentation,” according to the government. Put another way, a mul- tigenerational Caymanian might have no “papers” proving their legal status where a “new” Caymanian – one who obtained Cayma- nian status through marriage or extended residence here – would have those documents. “Acknowledgement letters may be required by private sector employers or other en- tities [that] wish to confirm that a person possesses Cay- manian status,” a statement from the Immigration Min- istry issued Tuesday noted. “Noting that it may not al- ways be practical for persons to produce the documenta- tion necessary to prove Cay- manian status every time they need to do so, the Immi- gration Law allows such in- dividuals to apply for formal acknowledgment in the pre- scribed manner.” There is no charge for a person who is Caymanian “by right” to obtain proof of their status, although some addi- tional documentation may be required to present to the Im- migration Department, min- istry officials said Tuesday. There is a $50 charge per request for a person who is Caymanian ‘by entitlement.’ Entitlement rights can en- compass a number of dif- ferent situations, but the most common is the right of a child born in Cayman to non-Caymanian parents who later receive Caymanian status while the child is still a minor. That child has the right to be Caymanian until reaching age 18, but must apply to become Caymanian on their own upon reaching the age of the majority – called becoming Caymanian “by entitlement.” The failure of many younger people in the above situation to regularize their immigration status before reaching age 18 has led to the creation of what some local immigration professionals have called “ghost Cayma- nians” – meaning people who have lived here their entire lives and who believed they had the right to be Cayma- nian. However, when asked to prove that status when ap- plying for a student loan or a job, they were unable to do so. The Caymanian Bar as- sociation acknowledged the difficulty facing the younger generations of Caymanians in an analysis of the issue done in 2017. According to the Immi- gration Law, those individ- uals are expected to apply for continuation of Cayma- nian status after reaching age 17, and preferably before they turn 18. If they fail to apply for continuation of that status, they are “seemingly not Caymanian,” according to the Bar association’s anal- ysis. A section of the Immi- gration Law allows those individuals to apply and re- ceive that status up until age 24, but if they do not do so, legal problems may ensue. Nicolas Joseph, a partner at the HSM Chambers law firm, has researched this issue for years. “It appears to me that nu- merous persons [who are] Caymanian by Entitlement [receiving Caymanian status prior to reaching age 18, via their parents] may not be ap- plying for continuation as prescribed/required by law,” Mr. Joseph said in a separate analysis he wrote to the Com- pass in 2015. “I do not know what is becoming of them.” “We have for some years been seeing an increase of such persons who seem to be here with no express im- migration permission, and may have fallen through the cracks,” Mr. Joseph con- tinued. “It may be that a sub- stantial number of status grants will be required to re- solve the issue.” It is estimated the number of “ghost Caymanians” could be anywhere from several hundred to a few thousand. Premier Alden McLaughlin told the Legislative Assembly in late 2017 that resolving the issue on behalf of both the multigenerational Cay- manians and the so-called “ghost Caymanians” is not a simple task, as there is ap- parently no one place within government that lists all in- dividuals who hold Cay- manian status. “Some entity or some indi- vidual has got to make a pro- nouncement as to whether or not a person is Cayma- nian. That has fallen to immi- gration who, believe you me, would rather not have to deal with it,” Mr. McLaughlin said. Barbara Bush, ‘America’s grandmother,’ passes at age 92 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Uproar over the ‘right to be Caymanian’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Public’s patience wears thin with erratic garbage pickups CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Cayman immigration officials are struggling to sort out legal troubles with local citizenship status. – PHOTO: TANEOS RAMSAYThe islands’ most-trusted news source 9 CAYMAN COMPASS • THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2018 Trump to host Merkel for Iran talks President Donald Trump will host German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Washington following a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, as he mulls the fate of the nuclear deal with Iran. The agreement’s future may depend on the success of last-minute European interventions with Trump. The family of Clifford Asmond Ebanks regrets to announce his death on Monday, 16 April, 2018. A funeral service will take place 2:00 p.m. Saturday, 21 April 2018 at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Walkers Rd. Viewing will be from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. Thursday, 19 April 2018 at Bodden Funeral Service, 117 Walkers Rd. Interment will follow in Prospect Cemetery Condolences can be registered at boddenfuneralservices.com & Bodden Funeral Service Facebook page. Diaz-Canel to be next president of Cuba Excavator blamed for islandwide blackout in Puerto Rico SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – An islandwide blackout hit Puerto Rico on Wednesday as the U.S. territory strug- gles to repair an increasingly unstable power grid nearly seven months after Hurricane Maria. Officials said an exca- vator accidentally downed a transmission line. Officials said it could take 24 to 36 hours to fully re- store power to more than 1.4 million customers as out- rage grew across the island about the state of Puerto Ri- co’s Electric Power Authority. It is the second major outage in less than a week, with the previous one affecting some 840,000 customers. “This is too much,” said Luis Oscar Rivera, a 42-year- old computer technician who just got normal power back at his house less than two months ago. “It’s like the first day of Maria all over again.” Several large power out- ages have hit Puerto Rico in recent months, but Wednesday was the first time since the Category 4 storm struck on Sept. 20 that the U.S. territory has experienced a full islandwide blackout. It snarled traffic across the is- land, interrupted classes and work and forced dozens of businesses to temporarily close, including the island’s largest mall and popular tourist attractions like a 16th- century fort in the historic part of Puerto Rico’s capital. Backup generators roared to life at the island’s largest public hospital and at its main international airport, where officials reported no cancellations or delays. Meanwhile, the power com- pany said its own customer service center was out of ser- vice and asked people to go online or use the phone. Officials said restoring power to hospitals, air- ports, banking centers and water pumping systems was their priority. Following that would be businesses and then homes. Carmen Yulin Cruz, mayor of the capital of San Juan, said the outage would not interrupt the last of a two- game series between the Cleveland Indians and Min- nesota Twins, which is being played on the island. She said all emergency systems at Hiram Bithorn stadium are functioning and that tower lights and additional secu- rity will be placed at the sta- dium’s parking lot. Justo Gonzalez, the power company’s executive sub-di- rector, told reporters that a private contractor removing a collapsed tower during unrelated power restora- tion efforts near the south coast hit the transmission line on Wednesday with an excavator. “We are working in areas that are quite crowded with high voltage lines,” he said. It is the second such in- cident in less than a week. On Thursday, a tree fell on a power line as the same private contractor cleared land in central Puerto Rico, leading to a widespread power outage. A backup line that was supposed to prevent that outage failed. Fredyson Martinez, vice president of a union that represents power company workers in Puerto Rico, told The Associated Press that he was concerned about the two back-to-back incidents. “That is not normal,” he said. Government officials said that a company hired by Cobra Energy known as Dgrimm was involved in both incidents that led to the power outages. Dgrimm had been asked to change its security protocols after the first incident, and it has since been terminated, said William Rios, power genera- tion director. “This is unacceptable for us,” he said, adding that government attorneys are meeting with officials at Cobra Energy, a Mammoth Energy subsidiary hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engi- neers to help with power res- toration efforts. HAVANA (AP) — The Cuban government on Wednesday selected 57-year-old First Vice President Miguel Mario Diaz- Canel Bermudez as the sole candidate to succeed Presi- dent Raul Castro in a transi- tion aimed at ensuring that the country’s single-party system outlasts the aging rev- olutionaries who created it. The certain approval of Diaz-Canel by members of the unfailingly unanimous National Assembly will in- stall someone from out- side the Castro family in the country’s highest government office for the first time in nearly six decades. The 86-year-old Castro will remain head of the Com- munist Party, designated by the constitution as “the su- perior guiding force of so- ciety and the state.” As a re- sult, Castro will remain the most powerful person in Cuba for the time being. His departure from the presi- dency is nonetheless a sym- bolically charged moment for a country accustomed to 60 years of absolute rule first by revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and, for the last de- cade, his younger brother. Facing biological reality but still active and appar- ently healthy, Raul Castro is stepping down as presi- dent in an effort to guarantee that new leaders can main- tain the government’s grip on power in the face of eco- nomic stagnation, an aging population and increasing disenchantment among younger generations. “I like sticking with the ideas of President Fidel Castro because he did a lot for the people of Cuba, but we need rejuvenation, above all in the economy,” said Me- lissa Mederos, a 21-year-old schoolteacher. “Diaz-Canel needs to work hard on the economy, because people need to live a little better.” Most Cubans know their first vice president as an un- charismatic figure who until recently maintained a public profile so low it was virtu- ally nonexistent. That image changed slightly this year as state media placed an in- creasing spotlight on Diaz- Canel’s public appearances, including remarks to the press last month that in- cluded his promise to make Cuba’s government more re- sponsive to its people. “We’re building a rela- tionship between the govern- ment and the people here,” he said then after casting a ballot for members of the Na- tional Assembly. “The lives of those who will be elected have to be focused on re- lating to the people, listening to the people, investigating their problems and encour- aging debate.” Diaz-Canel gained prom- inence in central Villa Clara province as the top Com- munist Party official, a post equivalent to governor. There, people described him as a hard-working, modest- living technocrat dedicated to improving public ser- vices. He became higher ed- ucation minister in 2009 before moving into the vice presidency. In a video of a Commu- nist Party meeting that inex- plicably leaked to the public last year, Diaz-Canel ex- pressed a series of orthodox positions that included som- berly pledging to shutter some independent media and labeling some European em- bassies as outposts of for- eign subversion. But he has also defended academics and bloggers who became targets of hard- liners, leading some to de- scribe him a potential advo- cate for greater openness in a system intolerant of virtu- ally any criticism or dissent. International observers and Cubans alike will be scruti- nizing every move he makes after he officially takes of- fice on Thursday. Two years after taking over from his ailing brother in 2006, Castro launched a series of reforms that ex- panded Cuba’s private sector to nearly 600,000 people and allowed citizens greater freedom to travel and access to information. He has failed to fix the generally unproduc- tive and highly subsidized state-run businesses that, along with a Soviet-model bureaucracy, employ three of every four Cubans. State sal- aries average $30 a month, leaving workers struggling to feed their families, and often dependent on corrup- tion or remittances from rela- tives overseas. Castro’s moves to open the economy have largely been frozen or reversed as soon as they began to gen- erate conspicuous shows of wealth by the new entrepre- neurial class in a country of- ficially dedicated to equality among its citizens. “I don’t want to see a cap- italist system, hopefully that doesn’t come here, but we have to fix the economy,” said Roberto Sanchez, a 41-year- old construction worker. “I’d like to have more opportu- nity, to buy a car, and have a few possessions.” As in Cuba’s legislative elections, all of the leaders selected Wednesday were se- lected by a government-ap- pointed commission. Ballots offer only the option of ap- proval or disapproval and candidates generally receive more than 95 percent of the votes in their favor. The Candidacy Commis- sion also nominated an- other six vice presidents of the Council of State, Cuba’s highest government body. Only one, 85-year-old Ramiro Valdez, was among the revo- lutionaries who fought with the Castros in the late 1950s in the eastern Sierra Mae- stra mountains. State media went into overdrive Wednesday with a single message: Cuba’s system is continuing in the face of change. Commenta- tors on state television and online offered lengthy ex- planations of why Cuba’s single-party politics and so- cialist economy are supe- rior to multi-party democ- racy and free markets, and assured Cubans that no fun- damental changes were oc- curring, despite some new faces at the top. Castro entered the Na- tional Assembly just after 9 a.m. accompanied by a broadly smiling Diaz-Canel. Ceremonies continued through lunchtime and broke until Thursday morning, when the new national lead- ership is expected to be offi- cially announced on the an- niversary of the defeat of U.S.-backed invaders at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. Fidel Castro was prime minister and president from 1959 until he fell ill in 2006. Although Osvaldo Dor- ticos was president of Cuba during Fidel Castro’s time as prime minister, he was con- sidered a figurehead beside the man who led Cuba’s rev- olution, forged its single- party socialist system and ruled by fiat. In this July 6, 2013 file photo, Cuba’s President Raul Castro, left, and Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez attend the opening of the National Assembly in Havana, Cuba. Diaz-Canel will take over as Cuba’s next president. - PHOTO: APNext >