iNews Briefs & Community Events
Community Meeting on Cayman Brac on Thursday, 21 July at Seamans Centre
On Thursday, 21 July, Acting Commissioner of Police Anthony Ennis and Chief Superintendent Kurt Walton will join Inspector Wendy Parchment, Area Commander for the Sister Islands, to hold an open meeting with the community of Cayman Brac.
The meeting will take place at Seamen’s Centre on Ashton Reed Drive at 7PM.
Please call the Cayman Brac Police Station at 948-0331 with any questions.
FundRiseHER™ to target Caribbean women entrepreneurs
From DiscoverMNI
Women entrepreneurs across the Caribbean will now have a new way to raise much needed capital for their ventures. FundRiseHER™, the first ever Commonwealth-wide crowdfunding initiative was announced on 05 July alongside the CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting, which took place in Guyana from 4 – 6 July, 2016.
FundRiseHER™ is the flagship initiative of Valrie Grant, Founder of GeoTechVision and the Commonwealth Woman Entrepreneur of the Year. It is created and powered by pitchandchoose.com the crowdfunding platform for the Caribbean that was founded by A. Cecile Watson and which seeks to leverage crowdfunding to attract new flows of capital to the region, and ultimately to create new jobs and drive economic growth.
FundRiseHER™ was announced by Valrie Grant, the Commonwealth Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, A. Cecile Watson, CEO of pitchandchoose.com, a crowdfunding platform and Arif Zaman, Executive Director, Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network in collaboration with the Caribbean Export Development Agency.
The announcement was made in the presence of Dominic Gaskin, Minister of Business, Catherine Hughes, Minister of Public Telecommunications, High Commissioner of Canada to Guyana Pierre Giroux, Deputy British High Commissioner Georgetown Ron Rimmer, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry and women entrepreneurs. It has been warmly welcomed by Heads of Government from across CARICOM as an innovative, important and much needed initiative to improve access to finance for women entrepreneurs to grow and scale their businesses and contribute to the economic development of the Caribbean.
The game changing FundRiseHER™ initiative, led by the two Caribbean women entrepreneurs, has been developed with input from the Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network. FundRiseHER™, which has been launched to be a proof of concept for crowdfunding as a vehicle of economic development in the Commonwealth, is being piloted in the Caribbean with crowdfunding campaigns starting in early September. The initiative will be spearheaded by Gr8Way Consulting Ltd. out of Jamaica, which will lead the charge throughout the region to deliver on the initiative’s 1:10:50 goal: $1 million grant funding target to be raised through a global rewards-based crowdfunding campaign by 10 participating Caribbean countries/territories and Commonwealth member states for the benefit of 50 women entrepreneurs. The size of grants will be between USD$10,000 and USD$25,000.
Valrie Grant, Founder of GeoTechVision and Commonwealth Businesswomen Ambassador said: “As a Caribbean woman who has been named as the Commonwealth Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, I feel obliged to drive an initiative that will not only foster the growth of women entrepreneurs throughout the Commonwealth but one that will also elevate the impact of Caribbean based women entrepreneurs on the world stage. FundRiseHER™ will do this and we will all benefit.”
Cecile Watson, Founder and CEO, pitchandchoose.com and the Caribbean Regional Ambassador for Women’s Entrepreneurship Day said: “The potential impact of FundRiseHER™ goes way beyond our aspiration to offer grants to 50 women entrepreneurs in the Caribbean. The outcome of this Caribbean lead initiative will inform its roll out throughout the Commonwealth. That’s huge. So I am inviting the Caribbean community globally to rally behind FundRiseHER™, to engage with us, and to provide robust tangible support in talent, time and/or treasure, to help us collectively create successful campaigns throughout the region.”
Arif Zaman, Executive Director, Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network said “this provides a major opportunity to join the dots between women’s economic empowerment, technology and innovative financing to support SMEs with high growth potential. It also translates calls from Commonwealth governments into practical action that women entrepreneurs are taking forward. FundRiseHER as a crowdfunding initiative will be extended to Asia, Africa and the rest of the Commonwealth by 2019 in sync with rising levels of intra-Commonwealth trade.”
The initiative also foresees engaging entrepreneurs to support entrepreneurs. In the spirit of that type of collaboration, the FundRiseHER logo was conceptualised by Cecile, and designed through services contributed by iPrint Digital, a woman owned business in Kingston, Jamaica.
In 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government “called for innovative, inclusive and accessible financing mechanisms as well as capacity building to advance women’s entrepreneurship.’ In May 2016 in the Seychelles, Small States across the Commonwealth (home to 31 such states), specifically said that they ‘should also explore the potential of crowdfunding for accessing smaller scale financing for development’ and only in June in London, Commonwealth ICT Ministers committed to ‘continue to build capacity, paying particular attention to the emerging and over-the-horizon technologies and taking into account the needs of women.”
There is an urgent need to tap into new sources of finance and to find ways of delivering finance more effectively. The search for innovative finance is even more urgent given an ambitious Post-2015 development framework and a lacklustre global economy that has led to a dwindling of development finance. With support from governments and development organizations, crowdfunding has an exciting potential to support sustained and inclusive growth. It improves access to capital, helps better manage the supply and demand for capital, drives innovation and efficiency and funds new markets. It also offers an innovative mechanism which has significant potential to further operationalize the untapped potential of diaspora investment.
FundRiseHER™ is created and powered by pitchandchoose.com.
IMAGE: Valrie Grant, the Commonwealth Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, A. Cecile Watson, CEO of pitchandchoose.com and Dominic Gaskin, Minister of Business.
SOURCE: http://www.discovermni.com/2016/07/fundriseher-to-target-caribbean-women-entrepreneurs/
This Caribbean nation has essentially moved on up
By NAN Business Editor
News Americas, WASHINGTON, D.C.: One Caribbean nation was recently placed into a new economic classification by the World Bank.
As of July 1, 2016, the South American CARICOM nation of Guyana no longer is classified as a low income economy. Instead, using the World Bank Atlas method, Guyana is now classified as an upper middle-income economy with a gross national income (GNI) per capita of between US$4,036 and $12,475.
The updated GNI per capita estimates are used as input to the World Bank’s operational guidelines that determines lending eligibility.
The new classification comes as ExxonMobil announced another big oil find at its new well offshore Guyana, called Liza-2. It builds on the success of 2015’s Liza-1.
Together, the Lizas’ high-porosity sandstone reservoirs could hold more than 1.4 billion recoverable barrels of high-quality oil. Exxon has 45 percent of the Liza prospect while Hess Corp. has 30 percent and China’s Cnooc-Nexen 25 percent.
For more: http://www.newsamericasnow.com/this-caribbean-nation-has-essentially-moved-on-up/
Visitors spending more in Barbados
From Caribbean News Now
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — Long stay visitors to Barbados spent 20 percent more money during the first quarter of 2016 than during the same period in 2015.
These are the findings of the quarterly survey conducted by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) on behalf of the destination. According to the report, total visitor expenditure on island grew from US$280 million to US$337 million in the first quarter.
This was achieved through a 14.9 percent increase in visitor average length of stay and a total growth of 7.4 percent in visitor arrivals. The latter compensated for a decline in the average daily spend of 5.6 percent to generate the recorded growth in expenditure of US $57 million in the first quarter of 2016.
Overall, Barbados was able to achieve growth in the average length of stay for all markets during the period with the exception of the Caribbean which remained unchanged. This resulted in an overall increase of 8.9 percent in the visitor expenditure per person per trip.
Additionally, all markets, with the exception of the Caribbean, recorded increases in visitor expenditure per person per trip, with the USA leading the way with an significant 42.4 percent increase in spending by American guests.
Conversely, the Caribbean was the only market that did not record an increase in the visitor expenditure per person per trip. Instead, there was a 28 percent reduction in average daily spend from that market.
A breakdown of the spending by market during the first quarter revealed that the visitors from the US market spent the most on average per day: US$240.78 representing an increase of 22 percent or US$43.75.
For more: http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstory-Visitors-spending-more-in-Barbados-31087.html
More deaths
By Winston Barnes From South Florida Caribbean News
SOUTH FLORIDA – The killing of scores of people in France on Thursday (July 14) suggests terrorism has become a way of life, and in particular, in France.
Wall to wall coverage of the incident again played out across mainly Cable Network News Thursday evening.
Thanks to my High School Headmaster, I have long held a special affection for France and the people I know some personally.
Deaths in France
Yet, we should not allow another incident, horrific as it is to distract us from what continues to play out in this country.
It is about time for this country to seek ways to understand what has prompted people, some of them Black to have now developed a pattern of making threats against the lives of police officers.
In his television show of decades ago, the character Fred Sanford declared less than innocently, that he believed the top killer of Black men was not some disease, but police officers. That was on network television in the 1970s!
What also needs to be gleaned is that a young Black man in 2016 thinks completely differently from that same person of even the 1970s.
This young man not only has no fear, but in many cases has no hope.
That young man who believes he is not going to live beyond his 21st birthday, but has seen images of privilege and wealth does not think like a pacifist, and again I say, dreaded weapons are so easily available today that that alone makes this country way more scary than even the most hopeful among us want to believe.
For more: http://sflcn.com/commentary-winston-barnes-deaths/
US company takes over management of hotel in Havana
IMAGE: The new Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Havana
HAVANA, Cuba (ACN) — A US company has taken on, for the first time in over half a century, the management of a hotel in Havana, even though Washington continues to block investment and trade with Cuba.
According to the website of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, the Fifth Avenue Hotel, located in the Havana neighborhood of Miramar, began to be managed by the multinational on Tuesday, the Granma daily reported on Thursday.
The transfer complies with an agreement signed in March with Cuban authorities, just hours before the visit to Havana of US President Barack Obama.
The contract also includes the iconic Inglaterra Hotel, which will be incorporated into the Luxury Collection of Starwood on August 31, according to the company.
The Fifth Avenue, renamed Four Points by Sheraton, is the most recent example of the new chapter of relations between Cuba and the United States, which opened on December 17, 2014.
The Starwood agreement is the first to take advantage in the tourism industry of the limited space opened by the executive actions of the current administration, which have transformed the application of some aspects of the trade embargo.
The American Association of Travel Agents estimated that at least two million US citizens would travel to Cuba in 2018 if the travel restriction is lifted this year.
In addition, analysts agree that this issue, which touches a constitutional right, is one of those most likely to advance in a legislative dominated by Republicans opposed to the Democrat administration.
In fact, a bill to lift the restriction on travel already has a simple majority in the Senate, but hopes to achieve a qualified majority before taking a vote to avoid any kind of maneuver. An amendment with similar purposes was included in a draft budget law for financial services in the Senate and a vote is expected soon in the House of Representatives.
Red Bay Summer Roadworks Cayman Islands
Roadworks continue in the Prospect and Red Bay areas; to reconfigure the Red Bay roundabout and enhance the east-west arterial.
Most work is being done during off-peak times to avoid disruptions to traffic.
While work is being done, one of the lanes will be open for traffic as usual, but drivers may also use an alternate lane, as directed.
Please drive carefully, and pay attention to signs indicating lane closures or diversions.
Work in this area is to be completed before the end of August.
Click on images to enlarge.
COMMUNITY EVENTS (Date Order)
MON JULY 18
Vacation Bible School
The Churches of God Holiness Spot Bay and Watering Place are hosting Vacation Bible School Monday — Friday (18 — 22 Jul) from 6-8pm daily at the Watering Place location. Call 948-0214 for more information
TUE JULY 19
Cayman Islands Seafarers Association
“The Cayman Islands Seafarers Association wishes to inform all Members that there will be a General Meeting, on Tuesday 19 July 2016 at 7:30 PM. in the Seafarer’s Hall, 11 Victory Ave. Prospect. THU JULY 21
THU JULY 21
CNCF Cultural Jam
READ WITH US AT CULTURE JAM AND
EXPERIENCE CAYMANIAN THEATRE AT ITS BEST!
CHARACTERS
(Sign up to read!)
Timothy Hydes – Caymanian Sailor / Grandpa’s Grandson
Nettie Christian – Mama Liza’s Daughter / Dressmaker
Grandfather Daniel – Timothy’s Grandfather/Caymanian
Mama Liza – Nettie’s Mother
Sammie Hislop – Caymanian / Phillip’s Friend
Phillip Ebanks – Sailer / Fisherman / Caymanian
Leighton Ebanks – Phillip’s Dad
Isabel Blake – James’ Fiancée
Leila – Nettie’s Neighbor
John John – Leila’s Boyfriend
Maggie – Caymanian Child
Montgomery – Caymanian Child
Agnes Ebanks – Phillip’s Mother / Caymanian
James – Isabel’s Fiancé
Charlotte – James’ Mother
Basic Writing and Grammar Skills Part 1
The Chamber of Commerce is hosting a seminar on Basic Writing and Grammar Skills Part 1 at their offices in Governor’s Square on Thursday (21 Jul) at 9am. Sign up at caymanchamber.ky.
THU JULY 28
Basic Writing and Grammar Skills Part 2
The Chamber of Commerce is hosting a seminar on Basic Writing and Grammar Skills Part 2 at their offices in Governor’s Square on Thursday (28 Jul) at 9am. Sign up at caymanchamber.ky.
World Hepatitis Day
Thursday (28 Jul) is World Hepatitis Day under the theme ‘It’s Up To You.’ Log on to caymanactive.com for information about local events.
July Events at Camana Bay
Next month’s public holiday on Monday, 4 July will have a fireworks extravaganza not to be missed. Kids won’t be bored this summer with a variety of camps for all ages, outdoor movies shown under the stars every Tuesday and a summer splash party with prizes to be won. Grownups will enjoy summer savings as the shops mark down prices for one day only and ladies will have the chance to enjoy a ‘healthified’ three-course menu. Moviegoers are also in for a real treat as Regal Cinemas shows the ballet classic, One Man, Two Guvnors.
For more details on our summer festivities, camps and offers; visit camanabay.com/summer.
Here is a quick look at our summer camps:
6th Annual Multi-Sport Camp
5 through 8 July (Week 1), 11 through 15 July (Week 2) and
25 through 29 July (Week 3)
8am-12pm
Camana Bay Sports Complex
Starfish Village Summer Camp
5 July through 25 August
8am-3pm
Starfish Village
Shutterbugs Photography Camp
Mondays, 11 July through 15 August (Ages 8-11) and
Fridays, 15 July through 19 August (Ages 11-16)
9am-12pm,
Picture This Studios
Budding Chef Summer Camp
11 through 15 July
12-1pm
Bon Vivant
8th Annual Basketball Camp
18 through 22 July
8:30am-4pm
The Arts & Recreation Centre
Here is a quick look at our special events:
End-of-School Kids Disco Party
Moonlight & Movies
Tuesdays, July through August
7pm
Gardenia Court
Patriotic Festival
Friday 15 July
6:30pm
Books & Books
Culture at the Cinema: One Man, Two Guvnors
Saturday 16 July
7pm
Regal Cinemas
Floetry
Wednesday 20 July
6:30-7:30pm
Books & Books
Summer Splash
Saturday 23 July
2-7pm
The Crescent
