Next Wednesday (26) evening at the Family Life Center, Walkers Road, at 6:30pm there will be a Public Meeting titled “Want to hear the FACTS about the cruise berthing project?”.

What these facts are going to be and whether we will learn anything new is how Deputy Premier and Minister of Tourism, Moses Kirkconnell actually tells us.

For the sake of all of the people who are for the project I pray he will be frank and answer the many questions and put to bed the lies that are ever increasingly being circulated.

Even my wife, Joan, was ‘tricked’. Into signing the petition for a referendum. She is not alone.

With some other media outlets now disguising their opinions as ‘factual news’ our Deputy Premier had best not fall into the trap of not backing up his words with hard facts.

When the minister correctly claimed that mega cruise ships are the future of cruising and the main reason why Cayman must have piers he should have said these were the shipping lines that most frequently call in here and state who they are. By not providing this information the detractors to the cruise ships berthing facility plans ceased on this. They also correctly said “that only 15 out of more than 100 cruise ships in the pipeline over the next decade fall into that category.” They left out that at least 75% of them do not come here or are being phased out!

Apparently it not OK to change your mind when the full facts of a project are known. MLA Austin Harris is one of these and has been soundly criticized by some of the local media here for doing this.

I hope just by this one instance from opposition to pro since learning the facts, will make Kirkconnell be open. If he doesn’t know the answer to a question say so and tell us he will find out quickly and not fob us off with he knows but can’t tell because we are still negotiating. That reply will not wash and will leave all of us with our own answer: “You have something to hide”.

The list of media unconfirmed reports gets bigger every time one reads certain media reports. Some of these outlets that I have always respected have left me shocked at what they are reporting. Cayman is a small place and I have been in the media business here a lot longer than most. I get the same ‘tips’ and most are Marl Road ‘facts’! I will never even put in the proviso in this publication ‘we have unconfirmed reports’ or ‘sources tell us’. NEVER!!

Facts we need to know:

Are the changes to the plans more environmentally friendly than the original plans and if so by how much?

Who estimated the cost of the project at $200M – CI or US?

Why do we need the project?

What will happen if we don’t go ahead with it?
Who are the final bidders? Yes we MUST have their names. And PLEASE don’t announce that one of them is China Harbour Engineering Company!!!

How much of our infrastructure will be impacted and at what cost and what can be remedied?

How many of our important wrecks will be impacted? What can be done to rectify any?

How much damage will be done to the natural coral reefs and comparisons to the damage already being done every year?

Will any marine habitat be in danger? If so the remedies.

Name the pros and cons to tourism –
project going ahead as planned.,
project not going ahead.

Why wasn’t another site for the cruise ship berthing facility considered and if it was why was George Town selected? South Sound is constantly suggested – Spotts!

I expect the Minister will say he has already gone into most of this but he needs to spell it all out again so an ass can understand it. And I don’t mean an ass called Trump!

Any window dressing Hon. Minister will not be tolerated. Hon. is also short for HONESTY!! And that is a FACT.