From CayMAS

This post is in response to the latest false statements made by the Ministry in their latest abuse of free enterprise and constitutional abuse of Section 19 of OUR Constitution.

CayMAS was never in agreement with the date proposed, the second weekend of May, as this is Mothers Day weekend; simply because it makes absolutely NO sense, it will destroy the carnival tourism interest as we have built as the next major Boutique Carnival to flourish. As we have stated many times before, publicly and privately, the consensus is that people are not going to travel for a Carnival and leave their families on Mother’s Day weekend. We do not understand why this is not logical.

We have conducted an FOI based off of the statement made by the Minister of Culture on the false reports that the Government has received complaints from local businesses. The response we got was that Government has NO records of official complaints from any individual or business for interruption to business, physically nor electronically. These must be filed directly with Government. Furthermore, after the point of Conflict of Interest was risen about the Minister of Culture, Mr. Dwayne ‘John John’ Seymour, with direct association with a participating entity in one of the Carnivals, we were told that “this is Cayman, everyone is connected to everyone else and the conflict was pretty much laughed off. Just as it would be expected in any other Government involvement in any project, if there’s any conflicts the official should excuse themselves in the decision-making process. But the opposite has happened, Minister Seymour has been heavily involved in this process even after stating that the management and control of Festivals were being handed over to the CNCF. Have these been declared or made publicly known?

To the decision that was made, there was absolutely NO agreement on our part to hold our Carnival on Mother’s Day weekend. We were told in a meeting with the Government in May of this year, that it was not up to us it was his decision.

At this time, no road closures have been granted for neither Carnival but yet Batabano is promoting and marketing their dates. How? This is a breach of constitutional rights and is discrimination against a Cayman NPO (Non-Profit Organisation), and yes, we are registered with the Governor’s Office, one that receives no major funding from the Government in our efforts but are extremely appreciative of the support through waivers and such.

The Minister of Culture seems to be forcing his will on our organisation, no matter the consequences.

We have continued to remain professional and cooperative but that has been completely ignored and disregarded. All we are fighting for is a product that we, CayMAS, have developed and executed on levels that it should be at. We are fighting to create an incredible experience not just to our local participants but also to our overseas visitors who are increasing more and more. Take this as a sign, the world’s largest Social Media House for Carnival, is only involved with CayMAS Carnival because they see the potential for amazing international growth for our Carnival because of the offering we have given.

We have consulted with our legal consultants and our Constitution consultant as well, we have reached out to many people, whom all have said to continue to fight for this because of the potential it has for an amazing contribution to our Islands.

We don’t want to continue to fight with others for this, all we want and have been asking for is the allowance and support in what we have proven in three short Carnivals, with no major financial support, the premium product we have with CayMAS Carnival.