iNews Briefs
Cruise passenger goes overboard in the Florida Keys
From WPTV
MARATHON, Fla. – Search crews are looking for a man who either voluntarily jumped or fell from a cruise ship overnight near the Florida Keys, according to U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss.
The incident happened aboard the Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas about 20 miles off Marathon.
A Coast Guard cutter out of Miami, a boat crew based in Marathon, two Canadian Coast Guard ships and a helicopter are assisting with the search.
The cruise ship has continued on its journey while the search continues for the victim.
For more and video: http://www.wptv.com/news/state/cruise-passenger-goes-overboard-in-florida-keys
Cayman Islands rugby team beat USA in Atlanta
After narrowly losing twice to USA South Cayman Islands RHSW National rugby team narrowly beat the USA team 25-24 in Atlanta.
Cayman Islands now face Mexico at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex in the SteppingStones Cayman Big Game on April 11th.
Coming from behind 8 points down and 9 minutes to play Jon Murphy forced a try that was converted by Morgan Hayward. Hayward then kicked a penalty close to the end to seal the victory.
Congratulations.
[US] Church vows to stop soaking homeless people
By Patrick Kulp From Mashable
A prominent San Francisco cathedral promised to remove a sprinkler system it had used to douse homeless people sleeping in its doorways after public outcry.
The sprinkler system was designed to periodically rain down water throughout each night, which warded away homeless people who regularly slept under the building’s sheltered alcoves.
St. Mary’s Cathedral said in a statement that it installed the mechanism about two years ago because “needles, feces and other dangerous items” were being found in the doorways. The church conceded that the method was “ill-conceived.”
The cathedral, which is the main church of the city’s archdiocese, claimed that the deluge was not meant to get rid of the occupants but rather to redirect them to its extensive homeless shelter programs. Despite the fact that no sign was posted, the cathedral said those who slept there were warned ahead of time that the sprinklers were being installed.
“The idea was not to remove those persons, but to encourage them to relocate to other areas of the cathedral, which are protected and safer,” the statement read.
Local radio station KCBS first reported the sprinkler system’s use on Wednesday.
According to the article, the sprinkler spouts off every 30 to 60 minutes for about 75 seconds at a time. It also fails to actually clean the ground below since the lack of drainage causes the water to pool and stagnate.
A nearby resident who witnessed the nightly drenching told the station it was shocking and “inhumane.”
“We’re going to be wet there all night, so hypothermia, cold, all that other stuff could set in. Keeping the church clean, but it could make people sick,” a homeless man named Robert told KCBS.
It may have also been illegal. In the statement, the church admitted it did not have the proper permitting from the city and the system may have violated San Francisco’s water use laws.
Aside from the mistreatment, many were outraged that the cathedral had been flushing gallons of water away as the state is in the midst of a devastating years-long drought.
Earlier this week, the state’s water board tightened emergency water restrictions, calling on local agencies to further limit the number of days on which people can water their yards. On Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed legislation that would allot $1 billion towards relieving parched communities and water infrastructure projects.
This is not the first time the archdiocese has caused a stir in the city. San Francisco archbishop Salvatore Cordileone recently prompted public backlash when he required schools to take strict stances against same-sex marriage, abortion and birth control, issues on which the city generally takes a more tolerant view.
The cathedral said the apparatus would be removed by the end of the day on Wednesday. At time of writing, it had not yet responded to our request to confirm whether it had been taken down.
IMAGE: Students, parents, and supporters line up at left as teachers, faculty and church attendees walk down the steps after Mass outside of St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, Friday, Feb. 6, 2015.IMAGE: JEFF CHIU/ASSOCIATED PRESS
For more on this story go to: http://mashable.com/2015/03/19/cathedral-water-homeless/?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_cid=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
Cayman Islands National Risk Assessment Surveys Q&A Seminar Hosted by Cayman Finance
When: March 24, 2015 – 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Cayman Finance invites you to a free question and answer seminar to learn more about the Cayman Islands Government Money Laundering/Terrorist Financing National Risk Assessment Surveys. With the deadline to the survey being at the end of this month, individuals from the financial services industry and other relevant industries are strongly encouraged to attend to obtain answers to questions you may have on this important topic.
Tuesday March 24, 2015
4:00-6:00pm
The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, Capella Room
Free to attend but space is limited
Welcome Remarks: Jude Scott, Cayman Finance, Chief Executive Officer
Featured Speaker: Francis Arana | Head of the Anti-Money Laundering Unit, Attorney General’s Chambers
Please click here to RSVP: https://caymanfinance.wildapricot.org/event-1892302
Location:
The Ritz Carlton, Grand Cayman
West Bay Road, Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman
Apple users in the U.K. look to sue Google over Safari tracking scandal
By Dan Graziano from BGR
A group of Apple (AAPL) users in the United Kingdom are looking to take legal action against Google (GOOG) for its role in last year’s Safari tracking scandal. The group, known as Safari Users Against Google’s Secret Tracking, has instructed a law firm to coordinate the claims against Google and is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages and a public apology from the company.
“Google has a responsibility to consumers and should be accountable for the trust placed in them,” said Dan Tench, a partner at Olswang, the law firm representing the group. “We hope that they will take this opportunity to give Safari users a proper explanation about what happened, to apologise and, where appropriate, compensate the victims of their intrusion.”
It was discovered in early 2012 that the company was bypassing the privacy settings on the Safari Web browser to install unwanted third-party tracking cookies without users’ permission. Google ultimately settled with the Federal Trade Commission for $22.5 million and avoided a full-blown investigation by authorities in the United States.
For more: http://bgr.com/2013/01/28/google-safari-tracking-scandal-309710/
A black man was found hanging from a tree in Mississippi
By Natasha Bertrand And Reuters From Business Insider
The NAACP has called on the Department of Justice to investigate the death of an African American man found hanging from a tree earlier today, MSNewsNow reported.
Claiborne County Sheriff Marvin Lucas has confirmed that the body of Otis James Byrd was found Thursday roughly half a mile from his last known residence in Claiborne County. Byrd, 54, disappeared 10 days ago after a friend dropped him off at the Riverwalk Casino in Vicksburg, MS.
“Mr. Otis Byrd’s body was [found] today, Thursday, March 19, 2015. After several days of missing, he was found hanged to death,” the NAACP wrote in an email to the Justice Department.
The organization requested that the DOJ “join the current investigation of the suspicious hanging death of Mr. Otis Byrd,” according to MSNewsNow.
It is unclear if Byrd committed suicide or was murdered. An FBI forensics team is currently on the scene to determine whether any federal civil rights violations may have occurred, CNN reported.
“Investigators are currently processing the scene for evidence to determine the cause and manner of death,” according to a statement released by the FBI.
Lynching, or extrajudicial public execution by hanging, was once a common practice in parts of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By one estimate, some 3,500 African Americans and 1,300 whites were lynched from 1882 to 1968.
The incident comes seven months after a 17-year-old black male named Lennon Lacy was found hanging from a swing set in North Carolina, in a case local authorities initially ruled a suicide but which the FBI announced in December it was probing as suspicious.
Challenge to Rivers to cost Cayman Islands West Bay man ‘significant’ costs
Chief Justice Anthony Smellie has ordered Gordon Hewitt to reimburse Cayman Islands MLA Tara Rivers for her costs incurred during his lJune 2013 challenge to her election in West Bay.
Hewitt had challenged Rivers election on behalf of his wife, Velma Powery-Hewitt, who ran on the United Democratic Party ticket and finished fifth. He had alleged Rivers was not qualified to be an MLA as she held a foreign passport and had violated constitutionally mandated residency requirements.
The Chief Justice found for Rivers. The question of costs had been reserved.
Chief Justice Smellie delivered his decision on the costs on Friday, March 13th, which was made public on March 19th. The 13-page document calls the costs in the July 17, 18 and 19 Grand Court action “quite significant,” citing Ms. Rivers’s claim that “it would be neither fair nor appropriate that she should be required to bear them herself”. The exact amount of the costs was not disclosed.
Puerto Rico’s first luxury mall gets set to open
From Fox News Latino
U.S.-based developer Taubman Centers plans to open Puerto Rico’s first luxury mall this week in San Juan, a $475 million project that is bringing retailers like Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue to the island.
The company, which was founded in 1950, operates nearly 30 malls, the majority of them in the United States, and has a Hong Kong unit that runs similar properties in Asia.
The two-story Mall of San Juan will have 60,400 sq. meters (650,000 sq. feet) of space and offer shoppers more than 100 stores and restaurants.
The developer broke ground in September 2012 on the project, which is about three kilometers (1.8 miles) from the San Juan airport.
Taubman Centers chairman and CEO Robert S. Taubman, son of company founder Alfred Taubman, and The Mall of San Juan general manager Manuel Vazquez will officially open the shopping center on Thursday.
Puerto Rican shoppers have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Nordstrom, which will occupy 9,300 sq. meters (100,000 sq. feet), and Saks Fifth Avenue, whose store will sprawl over 13,000 sq. meters (138,000 sq. feet).
The two upscale U.S. retailers are making their debut in the Caribbean market.
The Mall of San Juan will also offer shoppers the Gucci, Kate Spade, Jimmy Choo, Louis Vuitton and Versace brands.
Taubman Centers, which owns some Florida malls popular with shoppers from the Caribbean, plans to open a hotel and casino at the complex outside San Juan.
The Mall of San Juan’s main competitor will be Plaza Las Americas, the biggest shopping center in the Caribbean with nearly 300 establishments, but executives from both companies said their businesses targeted different segments of the retail market. EFE
For more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2015/03/22/puerto-rico-first-luxury-mall-gets-set-to-open/
$55m Caribbean generation plant contract powered by Conyers Dill & Pearman
From Conyers Dill & Pearman
Conyers Dill & Pearman provided Cayman Islands legal advice to Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor of Denmark (BWSC) in connection with operating a local entity in the Cayman Islands to pursue a design and build contract with Caribbean Utilities Company including advice on the contract, structuring local operations and incorporating a resident company as well as licensing, corporate, pension, health and immigration requirements in respect of subsidiary BWSC Cayman Ltd.
CUC was selected to provide 39.7MW of additional electricity generation capacity following a bidding process. It was therefore necessary to construct a new generating plant as well as purchase additional engines and generators.
Conyers’ Olivaire Watler, counsel, and Jonathan McLean, associate, advised on the matter.
Man says Canadian embassy no help after wife dies on 60th anniversary Caribbean cruise 4
By Camille Laurin-Desjardins, QMI Agency From Toronto Sun
Saint-Mathias-Sur-Richelieu, Que. – What was supposed to be jubilant trip to the Caribbean to celebrate 60 years of marriage ended with Jean-Guy Langlois feeling his government abandoned him after his wife died.
“I went through hell in paradise,” said Langlois, who returned home to his town, 40 km east of Montreal, last week.
“My wife died before my eyes. I was alone in a country that I don’t know and I didn’t hear from the Canadian embassy.”
Langlois and wife Jeanne had left from Florida on a cruise on Jan. 17 to celebrate their anniversary.
Before they left, Jeanne had been feeling ill, but the two had gone at the urging of family and friends.
On the third day of the cruise, Jeanne began vomiting and coughing up blood. The boat’s doctor diagnosed a serious kidney problem and ordered she be hospitalized immediately, forcing the ship to head back to port in St. Kitts and Nevis.
“That’s when we started to panic,” Langlois said.
On Jan. 22, Jeanne died of a suspected pulmonary embolism.
As he tried to figure out how to repatriate Jeanne’s body, Langlois’ daughter repeatedly contacted the Canadian embassy, but calls were not returned.
Jeanne had wished to be cremated, but St. Kitts and Nevis officials informed Langlois that to ship the body, she would need to be embalmed and no crematorium existed in the island nation. Finally, a crematorium was located in nearby St. Martin.
Three days after Jeanne’s death, the embassy finally called. Five days after departing the ship, Langlois was able to return home with Jeanne’s ashes.
“The worst is that they told me they could have done it differently,” he said. “It makes no sense. It was the kind of help I would have wanted from my government.”
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Nicolas Dora said, “the diplomatic mission is located in Bridgetown, Barbados.
“That’s why there were delays,” he said, adding that he couldn’t comment further for confidentiality reasons.
Caricom, GRA partnering in training for customs, border control officers
From Stabroek News
The Caricom Secretariat will be hosting a national workshop for customs and border control officers on Multilateral Environ-mental Agreements (MEAs) and their enforcement from March 24 to 26.
The session is being delivered under the Project for Capacity-Building related to in African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries in partnership with the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA). It is expected that there will be approximately 35 participants from the Customs Department, Ministry of Environment, the Guyana Hydrometeoro-logical Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, and related organisations, a statement from the Caricom Secretariat said. There will also be expert presenters from the Basel Convention Regio-nal Centre for Training and Technology Transfer for the Caribbean. The meeting will be held in the GRA’s Training Room at its Camp Street office.
According to Project Coordinator, Caribbean Hub Capacity Building ACP-MEAs, Dr Thérèse Yarde, the workshop is targeted specifically at Customs Officers and Border Controls officials, to raise their awareness about their role in enforcing MEAs that are intended to control trade in environmentally sensitive commodities.
Students told be aware of warning signs
By Lisa King From Barbados Nation News
Tsunamis are foreign to this part of the world, but schoolchildren are still being readied in case one of them visits these regional shores.
One of the ways to counter fallout from a tsunami is to know the signs that point to its arrival and students of the Alma Parris Memorial and Alexandra Secondary School got such an insight Monday when a team from the Caribbean Seismic Research Centre visited the schools.
The children were told when a tsunami wave – generated by earthquakes of magnitude six or greater – reaches land it is filled with debris like cars, houses, trees, sand and dirt which takes on the consistency of wet cement, making it impossible to swim.
clevon-ashClevon Ash (right), education officer of the centre, said on average the Caribbean region experienced a major earthquake every 100 years, which means the Caribbean was long overdue for a major quake which could be accompanied by a tsunami.
With this in mind, members of the centre and the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) are undertaking workshops at nine schools, most of which are close to the sea, to educate students about tsunamis and earthquakes and the measures they should take to save their lives.
Ash asked students how many of them could swim and told the few who raised their hands that they could not outrun a tsunami.
Joy Anne Johnson, programme officer of the Department of Emergency Management said Alma Parris was the first of nine schools to benefit from the tsunami and earthquake awareness workshops being held as part of Tsunami And Earthquake Smart Month.
The students were told to know how far they were away from the coastline, to learn the quickest route to high ground and to have an emergency plan and supplies. (LK)
Old Cayman Sign Language
Guyanese Sign Language
Native to Cayman Islands
Region Grand Cayman
Native speakers extinct? (date missing)[citation needed]
Language family village sign
Dialects Providence Island Sign Language?
Language codes ISO 639-3 None (mis)
Glottolog oldc1248[1]
Old Cayman Sign Language is, or was, the deaf sign language of Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands. It may be related to Providencia Sign Language.
SOURCE: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Cayman_Sign_Language
World faces 40% water shortfall in 15 years: U.N.
By Wallace Witkowski From Marketwatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)—As the global economy grows, the world is going to get a lot more thirsty in 2030 if steps aren’t taken to cut back on fresh water use now, the United Nations says.
At current usage rates, the world will have 40% less fresh water than it needs in 15 years, according to the United Nations World Water Assessment Program in its 2015 report, which came out ahead of the U.N.’s World Water Day on Sunday.
“Strong income growth and rising living standards of a growing middle class have led to sharp increases in water use, which can be unsustainable, especially where supplies are vulnerable or scarce and where its use, distribution, price, consumption and management are poorly managed or regulated,” the report said.
Factors driving up demand for water include increased meat consumption, larger homes, more cars and trucks on the road, more appliances and energy-consuming devices, all staples of middle -class life, the report noted.
Population growth and increased urbanization also contribute to the problem. Water demand tends to grow at double the rate of population growth, the report said. The global population is expected to grow to 9.1 billion people by 2050, up from the current 7.2 billion.
More people living in cities also put strain on water supplies. The report estimates that 6.3 billion people, or about 69% of the world’s population, will be living in urban areas by 2050, up from the current 50%.
The biggest drain on water resources is agriculture, which uses about 70% of the world’s fresh water supplies. Tapping into groundwater supplies to make up for surface-water deficits strains resources. The report said that 50% of the world relies solely on groundwater to meet basic daily needs and that 20% of the world’s aquifers are already over-exploited.
The issue of water scarcity rose again to prominence recently when a NASA scientists warned that drought-stricken California only has about a year’s worth of water left. Recently, MarketWatch’s David Weidner looked into the California water crisis and Mark Hulbert pointed out seven ways of exploiting water shortage concerns.
For more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/world-faces-40-water-shortfall-in-15-years-un-2015-03-21
Educator urges St Lucia Government to carefully screen investors
From Jamaica Gleaner
CASTRIES, St.Lucia – General Secretary of the Caribbean Union of Teachers (CUT), Dr. Virginia Albert-Poyotte, has called on authorities here to take steps to reassure the rest of the world that this country is committed to adequately screening potential investors.
Her comments were made in the wake of the Lambirds Academy scandal in which 70 Asian students remained were stranded here – the victims of an Internet scam.
“We are a very fragile economy and when things slip through the cracks they can hurt us and our reputation,” Albert-Poyotte, a veteran St Lucian Educator, said.
She felt that in the case of Lambirds Academy being allowed to operate here, screening mechanisms must have been inadequate.
“We must not be seen as a safe haven for anyone and people should not lose confidence in us,” the former president of the Saint Lucia Teachers Union told reporters, adding that there was need for “tighter” background checks, which have been made easier through the use of modern technology.
Albert-Poyotte believes that the Lambirds affair could hurt St Lucia’s reputation.
She also feels that the government of St Lucia should work with authorities in the countries from which students were invited here by Lambirds Academy with unfulfilled promises of all inclusive boarding, an education and job placements overseas, to ensure that the students who have documentation proving their expenditure, are reimbursed.
Four men, including the president and CEO of Lambirds, have pleaded not guilty to human trafficking and money laundering in the alleged scam.
For more on this story go to: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/caribbean/20150322/educator-urges-st-lucia-government-carefully-screen-investors
How to Get a Job at Apple
By David Ruiz, From The Recorder
SAN FRANCISCO — A trademark and copyright attorney with a law degree from the University of Virginia. An ERISA specialist who spent seven years working at Electronic Arts Inc.
A Stanford Law School grad and former Cooley associate with a background in patents.
They’re among the three dozen or so lawyers Apple Inc. has hired since January 2014 to join its roughly 200-attorney legal department at Cupertino headquarters.
Apple has cachet as a legal employer. Its devices have a place in about a third of Americans’ homes or pockets. It offers Valley allure with more stability than a startup. And the company’s legal needs are immense and varied.
It turns out the paths lawyers take to land jobs at Apple are just as varied, passing through dozens of different law firms and companies, among them Oracle Corp., Intel Corp. and Rambus. Some alumni networks are stronger than others. For instance, Morrison & Foerster, one of the company’s lead counsel in high-stakes patent litigation, has nine alums at Apple, more than any other firm.
The Recorder conducted an analysis of the lawyers working for Apple in California using data from LinkedIn and the California State Bar to compile snapshots of 191 in-house attorneys. Though not a complete representation of the department, it provides a working picture of who Apple hires and what they do for the company. They are about 60 percent male/40 percent female, with degrees from more than 60 separate law schools, located in the Bay Area as well as Hawaii, Sweden, Ottawa and Australia.
The review identified five lawyers who joined Apple in the 1990s, while the average tenure for an in-house attorney, based on the data set, is 4.3 years.
Mlegal recruiter Brad Bruner said that’s within the normal range for most Silicon Valley tech companies. The time employees remain at a tech company is very closely related to the amount of time it takes for equity to vest, he said.
“The typical vesting period for equity is three to four years, four years is common to be fully vested. After that, the question comes up about whether or not the company’s stock is still making money, and if they have an incentive to stay,” Bruner said. “People are always following the money.”
The hiring data also points to some of Apple’s recent legal concerns. In the past few years, Apple has built a five-lawyer privacy team led by Jane Horvath, a former Googler who started her legal career at Hogan & Hartson. The company has also added two former federal prosecutors to focus on in-house security. So far in 2015, Apple has hired five intellectual property and patent lawyers to join what has become its largest legal division.
Apple, which is known for keeping outside lawyers on a tight rein, declined to comment on the size or make-up of its legal department.
For more: http://www.therecorder.com/id=1202721286132/How-to-Get-a-Job-at-Apple#ixzz3VDFXFpVx
Rare Caribbean air show wows trendy St Barts
By Chris Roberts From Caribbean News Now
GUSTAVIA, St Barts — Old planes and air shows are nothing new. But when it happens in the Caribbean, it is to be revered.
Hundreds lined the approach road at Gustave III International Airport in the posh getaway island of St Barts to see history fly by.
A fine collection of vintage World War II aircraft made an appearance over the weekend for a spectacular sight, the likes of which have not been seen here since 2011. That’s the last time an air show was staged, all part of the annual Bucket Sailing Regatta.
“One of the regatta participants is a major shareholder in an air museum in Texas,” said Jerome Montoya, local tour operator and aircraft enthusiast. “He put the exhibition together. Everybody brought their ‘toys.’”
This normally busy prop-only airport (100 daily flights) rocked with superstar B-25 Mitchell bombers roaring by. Then came the Japanese Mitsubishi Zero, followed by a fully restored P-51 Mustang.
They scorched over the short commercial landing strip and exercised their WWII prowess. In comparison, commercial commuter flights from St Maarten took a back seat.
Besides a collection of 36 stunning yachts that sailed around the island, other ‘toys’ included two Grumman Tigercats and Grumman Avenger, a Lockheed P-38 Lightning, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk (painted with shark teeth) and Chance Vought F4U Corsair.
Such historic combat aircraft will always be remembered – and they do impress. The American raid on Tokyo in April 1942, led by Lt Col. Billy Mitchell, used the now immortalized B-25 medium bomber, built by North American Aviation.
The planes were flown in from Texas to Anguilla where they were on display between air shows during the three-day special event.
Chris Roberts is a freelance writer based in Hollywood, Florida.
For more: http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/headline-Rare-Caribbean-air-show-wows-trendy-St-Barts-25341.html
Tingyi Cayman Islands: 2014 Earned USD400mn, Down 1.97%
HONGKONG, March 23, SinoCast — Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holdings (SEHK: 0322) earned USD 400 million in 2014, falling 1.97% year on year.
Annual turnover dropped 6.43% to USD 10.238 billion; gross profits dropped 5.8% to USD 3.118 billion and gross margin grew 0.21 percentage points to 30.46%. Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) dropped 1.02% to USD 1.149 billion.
Turnover from beverage business dropped 7.46% to USD 5.801 billion, accounting for 56.66% of total turnover, gross margin rose by 1.17 percentage points to 31.92% and profits reached USD 71.956 million. Turnover from instant noodles fell 4.49% to USD 4.137 billion, accounting for 40.42% of total turnover, gross margin decreased by 0.91 percentage points to 28.33% and profits grew 7% to USD 360 million. sales value of instant food dropped 11.88% to USD 178 million, , gross margin was down 1.91 percentage points to 36.18% and losses reached USD 17.449 million.
Focus on growth
From The Barbados Advocate
Barbados and other Caribbean countries must promote policies that can improve economic growth, similar to what other developing countries are presently enjoying.
This advice has come from Dr. Peter Blair Henry, Dean of New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business. Dr. Henry, who is an expert on the global economy, is on a sabbatical with the Central Bank of Barbados until March 25.
Addressing a Caribbean Forum at the Grande Salle of the Tom Adams Financial Centre on Thursday night, Dr. Henry said that if one looks at the developing world – of which the Caribbean is a part – there have been dramatic changes since the 1970s.
Many of those countries have reported growth rates averaging about three per cent or more.
However, he told the audience that this has not been the case with Barbados and other Caribbean islands, which have been averaging growth rates of one per cent to 1.5 per cent and even lower.
Dr. Henry said that one of the reasons this is happening in the region is because some leaders have not demonstrated “the discipline, clarity and trust, which are of vital importance in promoting economic growth and development”.
However, he said that the countries which have experienced positive growth benefited from strong leadership employing those three principles.
Discipline, he explained, has to build up the momentum.
“Economic policies have to follow along those same general principles. There has to be vision on what is a pragmatic growth strategy for a country and what is good for Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, for example,” he said in response to a query from prominent Barbadian broadcaster, Julian Rogers.
Jamaican-born Dr. Henry said there should also be a willingness to undertake steps to achieve that vision. “Sometimes it might mean having to change course,” he advised, while noting that discipline also means how one is able to harness the market for the good of the people.
He argued that governments cannot do everything for people, and suggested that those who can afford to pay for education and health care should be made to do so.
The economist indicated that countries that have shown economic improvements did so because their leaders demonstrated a clear commitment to a change in strategy.
IMAGE: From left: Dr. Delisle Worrell, Governor of the Central bank of Barbados in conversation with Julian Rogers and Dr. Peter Blair Henry, Dean of New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business
For more: http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/newsitem.asp?more=local&NewsID=42372
Apple Pay has a long, long way to go
By Brad Reed From BGR
Do consumers actually want to buy things using their smartphones? It’s a very good question and right now the answer would appear to be, “No.” AppleInsider cites a new study from market research firm InfoScout that claims only 6% of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners have actually tried using Apple Pay in stores while 85% have never bothered with it.
That’s obviously a very low rate of adoption, although to be fair the technology is still young and not available everywhere. All the same, it raises a real question: Is buying things with a credit card really such a burden that people will want to take the time to learn a whole system that may or may not be available at the stores they use?
“Not only do you have to have consumers with Apple Pay, you have to have consumers with iPhone 6,” said PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster this week, in a quote cited by AppleInsider. “So, you have to have a consumer with the right hardware and the merchant with the right hardware in order for it to work.”
Apple Pay has won acclaim for being the easiest to use mobile payments method but that still might not be enough to save it from the same fate as Google Wallet.
For more: http://bgr.com/2015/03/19/apple-pay-adoption-rate/
Political pressure to pass CISA quickly could pose ‘big problem’ for civil liberties
By Cat Zakrzewski from techcrunch
For years lawmakers and civil liberties advocates have sparred over cybersecurity legislation that would allow companies to share information with government agencies and each other.
Now the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, better known as CISA, is back. Despite recent amendments intended to bolster protection of consumers’ personal information, privacy advocates worry that political pressure arising from a recent string of high-profile cyberattacks on companies such as Sony could result in Congress pushing through a bill, as ACLU legislative counsel/policy advisor Gabe Rottman said, “recklessly.”
“This is a surveillance bill by another name,” said Rottman, who said the bill would create exceptions to privacy law and too broadly defines what the government can do with information it collects under CISA.
Last year CISA failed to reach the floor after civil liberties advocates denounced the bill, and the White House promised to veto it. But after a closed mark-up session this week, the bill sailed through the Intelligence Committee with a 14-1 vote of support.
Intelligence Committee chairman Senator Richard Burr yesterday praised the adjusted bill, which could see a vote as early as April.
“This legislation protects the privacy rights of Americans while also minimizing our vulnerability to cyberattacks,” he said. “Information sharing is purely voluntary and companies can only share cyber-threat information and the government may only use shared data for cybersecurity purposes.”
The lone dissenting vote came from Senator Ron Wyden, who said in the wake of its passage out of committee that the bill would “have a limited impact on U.S. cybersecurity,” while at the same time lacking “adequate protections for the privacy rights of American consumers.” The bill was amended and passed in a closed committee session, which Rottman pointed to as a sign of a lack of transparency.
Despite the concern of Wyden and privacy advocates, the bill may mark a change of heart from the White House. Diane Feinstein told The Hill that she talked to the White House chief of staff and believes the administration will come around to the new bill.
The core thrusts of the bill include the sharing of data relating to cybersecurity, and the legal protection of private corporations who do so. The context of the bill is twofold in that it is predicated on an increasingly dangerous digital threat climate, buttressed by the fact that American corporations are hacking targets. Last year produced a litany of hacks, including the sensational Sony compromise, keeping the issue at the top of the White House’s policy agenda this year.
Those in favor of the bill claim it will bolster the ability of private entities and the government to share data among themselves that could improve protection from data breaches.
But civil liberties advocates say the bill needs more safeguards to protect consumer information that is being shared with government entities. If corporations are legally protected when they share data into the government, where does the individual user look for recourse?
Rottman noted this year there have been many cybersecurity bills proposed in the wake of the hacks from Sony to Home Depot. He said although laws need to be passed to protect consumers and businesses, acting too quickly may jeopardize privacy rights.
FCCA President touts Caribbean as dominant cruise tourism market
By Denise Maycock From Tribune 242
With more than 20 million expected cruise passenger arrivals in the Caribbean this year, Florida Caribbean Cruise Association President Michelle Paige told the 2015 Cruise Shipping Miami Conference that the Caribbean has evolved into a “dominant cruise tourism market.”
Describing the Caribbean as the most important cruising market, Ms Paige reported that passenger arrivals have grown from about eight million 20 years ago to more than 20 million expected from FCCA member lines this year.
She also revealed that passenger spending has increased significantly from $70m 20 years ago to $96m in 2012.
The Bahamas welcomes more than four million cruise passengers every year. “No one else in the Caribbean does that, and we continue to see cruise vessels coming to our nation because of what God gave us,” Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe said.
Ms Paige noted that the Caribbean offers a unique assortment of cultures and cuisines, as well as a history that creates a completely individual identity.
She said these attributes are crucial, noting that Cruise Tourism Organisation’s Future Caribbean Cruise Travel Survey confirmed that cruise passengers are more interested in destinations than ships, particularly valuing cultural heritage and culinary experiences.
The FCCA president also talked about the growing global competition in Asia.
“Most of you know that cruise markets now face global competition, with destinations like China growing exponentially and the Mediterranean predicting a record year. In fact, the Caribbean again holds the overwhelming lead in global deployment capacity share with nearly 36 per cent; this figure decreased almost two per cent from last year, whereas Asia increased more than two per cent,” she said.
In order to continue to grow with the cruise industry, Ms Paige said the Caribbean’s ability to stimulate the required demand will be directly dependent on its capacity to refresh and reinvent its tourism economies.
FCCA, she said, helps Caribbean destinations brand themselves, using their unique history and offerings to entice passengers, driving demand for repeat cruisers.
She reported that there are 33 new ocean vessels and more than 100,000 berths on the order books.
Ms Paige said destinations and stakeholders must partner with cruise lines to offer tailored destination products that appeal to cruise brands demographics.
IMAGE: Michelle Paige
For more: http://www.tribune242.com/news/2015/mar/21/fcca-president-touts-caribbean-dominant-cruise-tou/
