iNews Briefs
Cayman Islands Daylight Savings Time survey closes soon
Do you want Cayman Islands to implement Daylight Savings Time in line with the USA? Or do you want it to stay as it does now – the clock does not move?
The Department of Commerce and Investment is making a final appeal to the public to complete the government’s survey on the introduction of daylight savings time in the Cayman Islands. The on-line questionnaire will close at the end of this month.
The public are being urged to express their opinion on whether the Cayman Islands should adopt the practice of adjusting clocks one hour forward during the summer and back again in the fall in order to keep Cayman in time step with Miami and New York year-round.
Proponents of implementing the change believe that by keeping in time with the US east coast there will be benefits for the cruise and overnight tourist industry, as well as the offshore financial services sector. The survey takes about three minutes to complete.
Woman attacked in Rome over Ebola fears
From allAfrica
Cape Town — A woman from Guinea has reportedly been attacked by angry bus passengers who told her she was infected by Ebola and had to get off, according to media reports.
The 26-year-old was allegedly beaten by a group of teenagers after they accused her of having the deadly virus.
“They told me that I had Ebola and that I had to get off the bus,” said Fataomata Sompare, who has been living in Italy for four years.
People at Grotte Celoni Tube station reportedly managed to save the woman, the police arrived and she was taken to hospital.
For more: http://allafrica.com/stories/201410231457.html
Cayman Pickers treasure hunt to benefit Cayman Islands Breast Cancer Foundation
Pamela Kelly, who has been fighting breast cancer and has been in remission for 4 months, is hosting Cayman Pickers along with her fiancé, Marc Laurenson.
The Cayman Pickers is a lot like the American Pickers except they are looking for items that people would like to donate. They take the items and sell them on Friday October 24th and 100% of the proceeds benefit the Breast Cancer Foundation.
Date: Friday 24 October
Time: Flea market 4:00 p.m. | Live music 7:00 p.m.
Location: Calico Jacks
Cost: Free admission
$2 raffle tickets
Jamaica one of 30 Most-Pinned Places on Earth
From Caribbean360
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Wednesday October 22, 2014 – Jamaica’s popularity with international travellers was recently endorsed on Pinterest when it became the only Caribbean country to score in the top 30 most-pinned places on earth.
Securing Jamaica’s position with more than 750 million place pins was the world renowned Caves Resort, which placed 14th among some of the planet’s most famous destinations.
Perched on the limestone cliffs of Negril’s scenic West End, and located close to its stunning seven-mile beach, The Caves boasts two acres of seafront and a virtual museum of fossilized marine life in the honeycomb cliff walls.
The secluded 10-acre property offers twelve one and two-bedroom cliffside cottages and suites, as well as a luxurious four-bedroom villa.
Amenities include two main dining gazebos, private cave dining and The Blackwell Rum Bar, as well as a jacuzzi, sauna and salt-water swimming pool.
The ocean view Aveda Amenity Spa is a special attraction that was recently voted among the “Top Five Jamaican Spas” by Ocean magazine.
[Paris, France is #]
For more:
http://www.caribbean360.com/travel/jamaica-one-of-30-most-pinned-places-on-earth#ixzz3Gz5FxmOX
Cayman out in force at ASHRM
By Stephen Durham From Captive Insurance Times
Anaheim, California
A 31-strong Cayman delegation, including the Cayman Islands Premier, will be heading to Anaheim, California to represent the jurisdiction’s captive insurance industry at the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management annual conference (ASHRM), which takes place 26–29 October.
Representatives from the key insurance managers, law and audit firms, financial institutions and the regulator, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), will be joined by Alden McLaughlin, Roy McTaggart and Tamara Ebanks, deputy chief officer of the Ministry of Financial Services, to discuss captive insurance and regulatory issues.
Insurance Managers Association of Cayman (IMAC) chairperson Rob Leadbetter commented: “ASHRM is an excellent conference for Cayman to exhibit at. All of us have clients who attend each year, which gives us an opportunity to catch up with them and introduce them to senior government officials and senior management of CIMA.”
We also talk to scores of people who are not so familiar with captives about how these structures can be effectively used in their own healthcare companies.”
IMAC is also making final preparations for their own Cayman Captive Forum, which is now the world’s largest captive conference.
With already more than 900 delegates confirmed, registrations are in advance of last year.
For more: http://www.captiveinsurancetimes.com/captiveinsurancenews/article.php?article_id=3677#.VEkcRIc023o
Two shot, killed in St Vincent including young mother
From Caribbean360
KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, Wednesday October 22, 2014, CMC – Police are searching for the gunmen who shot and killed two people here including a 24-year-old woman on Monday night.
Police said that Aninka Stowe, a mother of an eight-year-old girl, died at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, where she had been taken after being shot in the chest in the Central Kingstown village of Green Hill.
In the other incident, an unidentified male was shot and killed in Calder. The police say they have no motive for the killings that bring the homicide count this year to 30.
The deaths come two days after residents of Glen staged a peace rally to highlight and recommend solutions to the crime situation in that East St. George community, where a number of murders has taken place this year, including two in September.
For more: http://www.caribbean360.com/news/two-shot-killed-in-st-vincent-including-young-mother#ixzz3Gz64H2wN
Ironwood says proposed Cayman Islands golf course would host PGA events
Ironwood developer, David Moffitt told CITN/Cayman27 last Wednesday (22) that “Once built, the proposed Cayman Golf Club at Ironwood would host Professional Golf Association (PGA) events.”
“We intend to have different types of celebrity tournaments and that kind of thing and eventually work our way up to some of the PGA events,” he added. “The intent is to have — whether it’s a father-son type PGA tournament here or other things like that.”
This is all dependent on a lot of things and the biggest is an agreement with the Cayman Islands Government to extend the East-West arterial road.
London: Urban infrastructure gets a second life
From CNN
London’s famed modern art museum is housed in a former oil-fired power plant on the banks of the River Thames.
Built in two stages between 1947 and 1963, the power plant featured a massive turbine hall over 100 feet high and nearly 500 feet long — as well as a towering smoke stack in the center.
The building was nearly dormant from 1981 until work on the museum began in the late 1990s. The turbine hall was transformed into a grand entrance and display area — its vastness often showcasing large pieces of art “to jaw-dropping effect,” as Time Out London put it. The boiler rooms became the galleries. It opened in 2000, and is now one of the top three tourist attractions in the U.K.
For more; http://money.cnn.com/gallery/news/economy/2014/10/16/urban-projects-infrastructure/index.html?iid=GM
The Cayman Investment Forum : Marc Faber Keynote Speaker on Oct. 30 at the Marriott Beach Resort
From MarcFaberNews
The CFA Society Cayman Islands will host the Cayman Investment Forum on Oct. 30 at the Marriott Beach Resort.
Swiss investor Marc Faber will be the keynote speaker. He publishes a monthly investment newsletter “The Gloom Boom & Doom” report, and is known for his “contrarian” investment approach.
Mr. Faber is the author of several books, including “Tomorrow’s Gold – Asia’s Age of Discovery,” which was first published in 2002 and highlighted future investment opportunities around the world. He is also a regular contributor to several leading financial publications around the world.
For more; http://www.marcfabernews.com/2014/10/the-cayman-investment-forum-marc-faber.html#.VEktpL5-RIc
Caribbean hotel occupancy rises for fifth straight month
From Caribbean Journal
After a sluggish start to the year, the Caribbean hotel sector has rebounded of late, with hotel occupancy rising for the fifth consecutive month in October.
The region’s hotel occupancy was 51.2 percent in the typically slow month of September, but that represented a 2.1 percent increase over the same period in 2013, according to the monthly report from hotel analytics firm STR.
It could be a telling statistic for a usually sluggish month; indeed, in September 2013, hotel occupancy actually fell by 0.8 percent over the same period in the previous year.
For the year, hotel occupancy in the region stood at 69 percent for the end of September, up 0.7 percent over the first nine months of 2013.
In September, the average daily rate rose 4 percent to $131.93 and revenue per available room, or RevPAR, rose by 4 percent to $67.53.
STR’s data surveyed 1,861 properties comprising 222,582 rooms.
For more: http://www.caribjournal.com/2014/10/22/caribbean-hotel-occupancy-rises-for-fifth-straight-month/
The 4th Bi-annual international African-Caribbean Cancer Consortium conference:
From 7th Space
Building capacity to address cancer health disparities in populations of african descent
This is a brief summary of the 4th International Meeting of the African-Caribbean Cancer Consortium (AC3), organized and sponsored by Fox Chase Cancer Center (FCCC), and held on July 21-22, 2012 at the Lincoln University Graduate Center, Lincoln Plaza, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. AC3 investigators gathered in Philadelphia, PA to present the results of our ongoing collaborative research efforts throughout the African Diaspora.
The general theme addressed cancer health disparities and presentations represented all cancer types. However, there was particular emphasis on women’s cancers, related to human papillomavirus (HPV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections.
Author: Elizabeth BlackmanJasmine CampbellCarlene BowenErnestine DelmoorGilda Jean-LouisRaphiatou NoumbissiYvonne O¿GarroOni Richards-WaritayStanley StraughterVera TolbertBarbara WilsonCamille Ragin
Credits/Source: Infectious Agents and Cancer 2014
Elstow headteacher, Jenny Winder, cancels term-time holiday to Caribbean after facing parent and governor backlash
By Bedfordshire On Sunday | Posted: October 22, 2014
A HEADTEACHER has cancelled plans to take a term-time break to the Caribbean after facing pressure from parents and one of her school’s own governors.
Jenny Winder came under fire after it emerged a request for ‘special leave’ in January had been granted by the board of governors at Elstow School.
Some parents – who face a fine of £60 if they take their child out of school in Bedford Borough for more than five days over the course of a year – branded Ms Winder a ‘hypocrite’ for seeking approval for the term-time break.
One parent told BoS: “This is so unfair as teachers already get so many holidays and yet we wouldn’t be allowed to take our children out of school for even a day.”
Bedford Borough Council – the authority in charge of running the school – has now confirmed Mrs Winder has ‘cancelled the proposed leave and will be in work from the start of the new spring term on the January 5, 2015’.
In a letter sent to Bedfordshire on Sunday yesterday, parent governor Reverend Jeremy Crocker urged the resignation of chair of governors, Kevin Hunter, and called on Mrs Winder to cancel her holiday.
For more: http://www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/as/story-23346285-detail/story.html#ixzz3GzXYITbN
See also iNews Cayman related story “Head teacher defends term-time Caribbean holiday” with related link at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/head-teacher-defends-term-time-caribbean-holiday/
Cayman Islands businesswomen discuss schizophrenia
Last Wednesday (22) the Cayman Islands Business and Professional Women’s Club gathered to discuss living with schizophrenia.
It is estimated 1 in 100 people suffer from schizophrenia, which means approx. 600 people in the Caymans are living with the disorder.
Speaking at their monthly meeting was Dr. Alexandra Bodden who said, “We really wanted to take a really general approach, providing really basic information to help the Caymanian community become more informed about mental illness as well as mental health.”
Dr Bodden said the Mental Health Commission is a step in the right direction and Cayman has more active mental health professionals than other countries in the region.
Colombian navy rescues Spaniard, 2 Guatemalans in Caribbean
From Fox News Latino
Colombia’s navy said Wednesday it rescued a Spaniard and two Guatemalans whose U.S.-flagged yacht ran aground while they were sailing in the Caribbean Sea.
The three had set sail on board the Princess from the Low Cay sector of the island of Providencia, part of Colombia’s San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina archipelago, and were heading for the Honduran island of Roatan.
Miguel Gomez Castro, a 68-year-old Spanish retiree and amateur sailor, is the skipper of the yacht and he is being accompanied by Guatemalans Armando Sanchez and Adrian Jacob, Colombian navy Capt. Omar Enrique Soto, head of the Specific Command of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina, told Efe by telephone.
“Strong winds and currents battered the boat and caused it to run aground on a coral reef and take in water,” although coast guard personnel were able to control the situation in time, the navy said.
The three men were unharmed and their yacht suffered no damage, and they were therefore able to continue their trip to Honduras, Soto said. EFE
