Cops & Robbers

Is our police force up to scratch for the task? Things in Anguilla on the criminal front are bad so far as our tourist industry is concerned. Really bad. From what I am hearing, they are about to get worse. And, I am not sure our police are up to it. I am not saying they are keystone cops. But, some of our citizens are mad as hell at them.

And, let me not be misunderstood. There are some very good police officers. Unfortunately, they are overwhelmed by the numbers of lazy officers among them, and the total lack of leadership at the top.

I am sure we have all heard by now about the two and a half hour conference the police had with members of the much victimised restauranteurs last Wednesday. The meeting was chaired by Police Commissioner Keithley Benjamin. He answered all the questions. Supts Rudolph Proctor and Illidge Richardson had little or nothing to say. I'm told it was all classic Keithley. The body language signified everything. Keithley is hard to understand at the best of times, as he speaks in a muffled, tight-arsed style. On this occasion, he did nothing to make it easy for his audience to understand, far less take confidence in, his mind-numbing platitudes and assurances. For the entire duration of the meeting, he spoke with his elbows resting on the table, and his hands clasped together – in front of his mouth. He generally avoided eye-contact, making sure he was speaking only to his notes on the table in front of him. Several people had to ask him to speak up, all to no purpose. Even with straining to hear, few could understand what he was talking about.

Someone tells me that this type of body language indicates one of two things. Either you lack confidence in the truth of what you are saying. Or, it indicates the speaker's irritation at having been ordered to a meeting that he did not wish to attend.

Keithley referred to the three successful violent restaurant robberies, and the one attempted but repulsed, that have taken place in recent weeks. He suspects there may be a total of eight different individuals involved.

The Minister of Tourism, the Hon Victor Banks', main contribution was to urge restauranteurs not to arm themselves and act like Anguilla is the Wild West. Good advice, if the police can come up with a strategy to protect our restaurants. They are the only businesses likely to be carrying home large wads of cash late in the evening, and must be prime targets for villains of the night. If anyone in Anguilla deserves to be armed for protection, it is restaurant managers carrying home cash late at night. If it was me carrying the cash, I would not exit my restaurant late at night except with a gun in my hand.

A cellphone was found in the vicinity of the Barrel Stay, and one person is in custody over this incident. What he did not say is that it was civilians who discovered the evidence. They had to practically push the police, who responded to the report, out onto the beach to examine the foot prints in the sand.

Both Barrel Stay and Veya victims complained at the meeting that no written statements had been taken from them. They do not know what is happening with the investigation. Police took several hours in each case to examine the crime scene.

Pump House's Gabi was so upset at something that she walked out of the meeting. I must ask her what she was so mad about. I suspect that, as usual, no one in the police force has been in touch with her since the day of the robbery, and she feels frustrated and betrayed.

One classic Keithleyism was his, ”You do not like us, and you don’t believe in us, but we are still serving you!” All the time looking down at his notes, and refusing to look anyone in the face. Well, thanks, I say.

Another, when Keithley was asked if a murder had to happen before things change, was his response, “Well, then, we shall have to find the perpetrator.” I understand this pearl of wisdom had the room stunned for a moment. One or two got up and left. They all should have left the room.

Mango Dave was not reported to me to be present. Maybe he was still in the States. It would be useful to learn what his experience with our Royal police has been like since his robbery.

No update on the gun-toting robbers at Caprice Restaurant. But, no update is ever given to victims. That was one of the problems highlighted.

And, now the Koal Keel has been broken into and burglarized. The security guard is reported to have slept through the whole incident. But this is probably an exaggeration.

The one conclusion that everyone came away from the meeting with was that the police have no plan for dealing with the recent upsurge in gun-carrying, machete-wielding thugs. Victim complaints are all to the same effect. Police response time to crimes in progress stinks. Telephone calls are never returned. Written statements are seldom taken. Crime scene evidence is looked for days after the incident, when the crime scene has long been messed up.

All in all, the séance was standard bull-s+++. “Just permit the restaurant owners to let off steam, and then we can go back to business as usual”, must have been the plan.

Or, so I'm told. Maybe some of the participants can correct this impression if I have been misled.

Isn't there a Brinks equivalent who can visit all the restaurants in the island before closing up time with an armed guard and pick up bags of cash and deliver the bags to the banks for a fee? It would only take two vehicles to go out every night. One for the west and one for the east. Zaras is in a lonely spot, and I am sure Shamash's comfort level would increase. I know that most tourists do not bring cash to the island. Most of them use credit cards or travellers' cheques. But, the bandits do not seem to realise this.

As for the suggestion raised at the meeting that the security guards be armed, I recall during Hurricane Omar a sailboat washed up at Sherricks Bay at 3:00 in the morning. The owner sought refuge at one of the damaged villas at Cove Castles until it died down. He returned to his boat at 6:30 and found one of the security guards and another person at his boat “checking to make sure no one was hurt”. Later, examining the contents, he found his camera, video cam, binoculars, radio and gps missing. He confronted the guard, who got really indignant and walked away. He called the police and filed a report of the theft. You know the rest of the story. End of story.

Good luck with arming security guards!

Exploitation

Slave labour on the rise in Anguilla. The Chief Minister said to all of us in Anguilla just a few days ago that in these depressed economic times, it was necessary for the government to give preference to Anguillians over foreigners. He advised any foreign worker who was holding down a job that an Anguillian could do to leave our shores. He warned any unemployed foreign worker to leave the island immediately.

From the complaints that have been made to me, it seems that some of our legal foreign workers are being exploited mercilessly.

It is not as if this activity is new to Anguilla. How can we forget the amusement we all enjoyed back in the 1990s when Island Harbour fishermen took their boats to St Martin each morning. At the dock in Marigot they would hire Haitian illegal immigrants to dive for conch and lobster in deep water with defective scuba equipment. The Haitians were glad for the $5.00 a day they were offered. If one or two did not make it back to the surface, there was no one to complain. And, our fishermen’s bank accounts grew fat on the proceeds.

According to the Chief Minister’s PS, Foster Rogers, the number of work permits issued last year is 4,200. That is a lot of work permits for little Anguilla. That is about one third of our population [not counting the one thousand-odd Chinese and Indian workers who were initially confined to their containerized ghettos until our lax to non-existent enforcement authorities let them out to roam all over the island looking for work. For all statistical purposes, they are ghost workers who do not count.]

Some of our Anguillian building contractors learned from our fishermen. The construction industry is the major engine that drives the economy of Anguilla. Our building contractors like to employ foreign workers in preference to Anguillians. There are a number of reasons for this.

One, Vincentians, Dominicans, and St Lucians are docile and manageable. Unlike some annoying Anguillians who insist on being treated with fairness. Actually, best of all, these foreigners live in a state of perpetual terror of deportation.

Two, they are better qualified and more skilled than the average Anguillian unemployed construction worker, drug-dependent, semi-literate, lazy, school-reject that he tends to be. Technical workers from off-island go to trade school and get a certificate of competence. Ours are more likely to just drop out of school and demand a pass by the nearest rum shop at 7:00 in the morning on the way to work.

Three, they are so grateful for a job. We can pay them half of what we bill for their work, and pocket the balance. And, sweetness of all, we can make them in their desperation pay for their own work permits.

Four, we do not have to pay them their statutory holiday pay or overtime rates. Unless we get caught for not paying it. And, then, the worst thing that will happen is that we’ll be forced to pay them what we should have paid in the first place. With no penalty or disincentive. In this way, government actually encourages employers to rip off their workers.

Five, we can easily avoid the need to pay social security for them. We can even deduct from their pay their social security contribution, and then pocket it. Who in Social Security bothers to check construction sites? When was the last time you heard of anyone in Anguilla being prosecuted for any contravention of the Social Security statutes?

Six, job-hopping is strictly prohibited. They are indentured to you for the duration of the time they are permitted to be remain and be exploited in Anguilla.

Seven, the moment they complain, with the help and cooperation of the Immigration Department and the Labour Department you can fire them and have them deported from the island. Just claim you have no more work for them. Or, you can no longer afford them, and, pouff . . .

Eight, it helps if your cousin is Russel Reid, the Labour Commissioner.

Come on, Russel, we expect higher standards from you. No, they are not going to come to your office and complain in person to you. Not if they want to keep their jobs. You have to take the initiative and look out for their interests. You are expected to go out to the job places and check the employers’ books to see how well they are complying with our laws and regulations. Check with the workers personally, and in private. You have to double check your findings with Social Security. That is what you have all those inspectors for.

I am sure that the Chief Minister did not mean that it was OK for us to cruelly and illegally exploit foreign workers from our sister West Indian islands.

Milestones

Passing the 100,000 visit mark. I nearly missed it. While I was in St Kitts attending the 90^th birthday of my aunt, this blog celebrated its 100,000^th visit. That is worth some sort of celebration. Join me in raising a glass to Corruption-free Anguilla.

I have configured the site meter so that it does not include my visits in the statistics. If I visit the blog four or five times a day, eg, to post comments, then my four or five visits are not counted in the statistics.

How it counts other persons I have never bothered to find out. It is very likely that if you visit once and then “refresh” five times, that will count as six separate visitors. I do not know if the figures are misleading in that way. It is possible that if you post a comment, then visit five or six times to see if anyone has responded to your comment, that will count as five or six separate visits. I do not know.

Even so, I am honoured that several of you have seen it fit to spend a few minutes each week visiting.

I am especially indebted to those of you who have posted explanations, elaborations, and even criticisms. They have all added to the interest. And, I have learned a thing or two.

My thanks to all of you.

PS: I stopped just in time spelling it “millstones”.

Access Tsar

Hon Donna Banks “Access Tsar” of Anguilla. There was much hoopla when we read in the 12 January edition of The Anguillian: “If all goes well, as planned, there will be a solution in the near future to the difficulty of full airlift from Puerto Rico into Wallblake Airport, Anguilla.” Great news.

But then I read on: “Hon Banks spoke about certain guarantees which the Anguilla Government were expected to meet in accordance with the new flight arrangements to the island.” Oh-oh – this sounds expensive, I thought.

I continued to read: “Replying to a question, Ms Banks said that the start of the service was being promoted for February 14 and it was hoped that Kirby Hodge would be in a position to secure the necessary finances for the aircraft. It is understood that such a 1900 D Turboprop Beechcraft would cost in the region of three million US dollars.”

Now the article really had my attention – How was Mr. Hodge going to find financing in today’s current economic climate? And, US$3 million for a turboprop plane? Sounds pretty expensive to me. And, service starting in one month when there is no financing, FAA clearance, insurance – not even a plane?

I thought I’d better investigate.

It turns out that the press release was only what the public was being told – there was actually a “secret” committee sending out “secret” emails that told a totally different story. At a board meeting on 13 January, after suitable prayers for direction by Anguilla’s Access Tsar, the Hon Donna Banks, an Air Services Development Programme was agreed by those present. It was decided to call a general meeting of the members of the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association for 21 January to try to persuade them to agree on the funding of the purchase of this aeroplane. It was also agreed to recommend funding of US$4.3 million for operating costs, with US$3.87 million, or US$322,500 per month, guaranteed by the government of Anguilla.

According to the plan, Cap Juluca, CuisinArt, Viceroy, and Island Dream Properties will pay the lion’s share of financing this private airline. But, restaurants and “allied members” will too.

It is appropriate for a number of questions to be asked in these very difficult times. Aircraft are being repossessed left and right. What is the great urgency in grabbing this wonderful offer before someone else does? Why the pressure for an instant decision? Why not just lease an aircraft instead of purchasing one?

Anguilla does not usually issue contracts of this size without competitive bidding. There are several Anguillians who can operate air services. Have they been invited to put in a bid? Is the Anguilla Tourism Board not required by law to use the Tenders Board before they can give out contracts to whoever smiles at them and talks sweetly?

And, why give this "no bid" contract and revenue to a Charlotte Amalie company? Would it not be better for all of us to give the contract to a locally based business? That would keep the revenue as well as all the ancillary support business for ourselves.

Even if Rainbow is a great option, should not the members of the AHTA be given the opportunity to explore all options before the Access Tsar presents them with a fait accomplis and literally hands them the pen to sign on the dotted line?

Why try to mortgage all the little hotels in Anguilla? Just so we can have what amounts to a national airline? Do these people not know the history of national airlines in the West Indies? Have they already forgotten the enormous deficits they have incurred for the governments and people that have guaranteed their expenses?

How is Kirby Hodge going to get financing for a venture like this when no one else is getting financing for anything? How is he going to get the ‘plane purchased, insured, FAA clearances, and landing and gate clearances in 30 days for a February 14 start up? If they are lucky, by the time this is all set up, the season will be over.

And, what happens when in one month’s time American Eagle says, “We are adding two more flights to Anguilla”, and drops the fare? Does this fellow get a free ‘plane when the service goes bankrupt?

Does the Tourist Board think that setting up a service like this is like buying a used car? You just get a licence and off you go? What have they been smoking?

Even if it was a private enterprise, with no backing from anyone, these ventures take years to show a profit. Does Donna really think there will be 38 people just waiting to get on this ‘plane’s two flights? And, that the same thing will be repeated every day, for ever? And, Anguilla is expected to guarantee Mr Hodge US$8,000.00 per trip, or US$16,000.00 per day?

Has ExCo already approved this initiative?

Is there pressure to announce the service, which does not yet exist, at the upcoming New York marketing meeting?

Posts on various Anguilla forums indicate that the Rainbow International service was formally “announced” before Christmas. It has already reached an international audience.

Two postings on Anguilla Guide indicate that at least they are not taking people’s money. So, Islander posts, “Has anyone actually booked seats on Rainbow at the above rates? I am hearing conflicting stories about the reality of this new service?” Then, Beach Court Villa posts, “With great anticipation, I contacted Rainbow International Airways to purchase seats for the SJU-AXA legs. To my great disappointment, the hoped-for start date of around February 12, 2009 will not be realised. No one there would venture to estimate a new start date, which leads me to fear that it is quite some way off. What a shame for the owners and for all of us whose schedules have been so disrupted by AA and AE.”

All I can say is, this seems to me like a disaster waiting to happen.

But, according to Ms Banks, this is all secret. It is not for “public consumptions [sic]” by persons other than those designated to be on the committee.

Maybe, this will all come out when we get our new Freedom of Information Act?

Soft Opening

If Victor is counting on the closing fees at Viceroy to make up his 3% increase in the budget, he will be in trouble. The word on the street is that the planned April “soft opening” at Viceroy is off. Yes, I know that the date you last heard about was Christmas, 2008, then April. But, I am reliably informed that was changed to June without anyone officially telling us about it. Now, even the June date is said to be in doubt. I checked with Viceroy’s liason officer. He assures me that all is on schedule for the soft opening in April.

According to the newspaper report of the Hon Minister of Finance’s presentation on the Budget speech for 2009,

“He said the increase in revenue of $4 million over the 2008 figure was mainly expected from Stamp Duties resulting from alien landholders’ licenses to be issued to purchasers of real estate when the Viceroy project opens for operation in 2009.”

It would be interesting to try to do the math to see what kind of sales they need to generate this kind of revenue!

So, how are the World Class Pools coming on? I have been informed that several of the large pools have been given to local contractors for completion because World Class is way behind schedule. Good to see our local contractors get the business rather than the “professionals” from off-island!

Why are the managers being reassigned? I presume it is because there is nothing here for them to do.

How can they open in April when the restaurant they built on the point will have to be redone? The ground seas that I am told swept through it in December must have cooked the wiring by now.

And, how are the law suits coming along?

Claim No. AXA/HCV No. 2008/0051 - Thomas P Lydon and Sharon K Lydon -v- Barnes Bay Development Limited and Stewart Title Eastern Caribbean. The Claimants are represented by Webster Dyrud Mitchell, the 1st Defendant by Keithley Lake & Associates, and the 2nd Defendant by Caribbean Juris Chambers.

Claim No. AXA/HCV 2008/0061 - Mark Frederickson -v- Barnes Bay Development Ltd (dba Viceroy Resorts & Residences (Anguilla). The Claimant is represented by C.R Hodge & Associates, and the Defendant by Keithley Lake and Associates.

Anyone want to guess what the suits are about?

Not Happening

Who is Robert FX Sillerman? He is very big stuff, a media and entertainment billionaire in the USA. For years, he dealt in millions of dollars like you and I deal in tens and hundreds. Through his company, CKX Inc, he was acquiring the majority rights to Graceland, the Elvis Presley Estate, as well as the assets of Simon Fuller’s “American Idol”, part of the Idol franchise which airs in more than 100 countries. In 1990, when Sillerman and his wife celebrated their 25^th anniversary, he presented her with US$100 million to launch her charity, the Tomorrow Foundation. Additionally, for what it’s worth, he owns the rights to the name, image and likeness of Muhammad Ali.

Robert FX Sillerman

And so we come to Anguilla, and Sillerman’s flagship Flag Luxury Properties, and its associated Temenos Golf Club. This has been advertised to consist of a 114-room hotel with an 18,000 sq ft spa and fitness centre, 50 oceanfront residences, 18 “estate homes”, 10 villas, 38 spa villas, and a Greg Norman-designed golf course.

Greg Norman at the 2003 groundbreaking ceremony

The hotel was originally projected in 2003 to be coming on stream in 2006.

Local dignitaries at the 2003 groundbreaking

In the event, the golf course and club house were both ready by 2006. But, not any part of the hotel or villas.

Club house and golf course at its 2006 opening

We in Anguilla have been holding our breaths since St Regis dropped out of the picture and was replaced in January 2008 by Baccarat Hotels and Residences. We wondered about those villa purchasers who had invested mainly on the promise that St Regis was to manage the Temenos property. What would they think, and, more importantly, what would they do?

Late last year, even before the markets crashed and the world economies began to be exposed to fears of recession and depression, catastrophe struck. In August, we learned that the entire project was suspended indefinitely. All the hoopla about the resort being branded as a Baccarat Hotel has fallen through. I have my doubts that Baccarat is any longer associated with the closed hotel project. Once the announcement was made of Baccarat’s involvement, a website had immediately gone up. Over last summer, the website went completely inactive. Now the Baccarat hotels website does not even link to or mention anything about Baccarat Anguilla. Nor does the Temenos Anguilla website have any mention of the Baccarat hotel. All references to it have been removed.

Feverish moves during the last half of 2008 to obtain the necessary further financing to complete the project do not appear to have resulted in any real progress. And, now the world economies are sliding into a depression that is estimated by many commentators to be likely to last for at least the next year, perhaps two or three years. Meetings between the principals of Temenos and the government of Anguilla as recently as this month have not produced any news of new funding coming on stream to permit the project to pick up steam again. The construction company, Ashtrom, have departed, and the imported Chinese workers packed and housed 20 to a container are slowly trickling back to Beijing.

Meanwhile, in December 2008, the Hon Victor Banks presented a budget for Anguilla for the year 2009 of EC$339 million. This record amount was intended to meet the growing cost of Anguilla’s public services and capital programme for the coming year. As Mr Banks explained, his budgeted increase in revenue of $4 million over the 2008 figure was mainly expected from stamp duties resulting from alien landholding licences to purchasers of real estate when the Viceroy/Mubadala project opens for operations in 2009. Flag Luxury Properties was conspicuous by its absence from mention in the budget.

So, I wondered, what has really happened to block Flag Luxury Properties out of the Minister of Finance’s Anguilla budget calculations? Where is Mr Sillerman and his billions of US dollars in all of this? I did a Google search for Robert FX Sillerman. Fortunately for us, when you are a public company or a public figure in the United States, most of the information on you is published on the internet. This information is required by law to be public information. Go ahead, you can do it too! This is what is out there:

Credit Suisse was the last lender to the project that I could find. They put in a reported US$180 million in March 2006. Sillerman reportedly came up with additional financing for the project at the same time. The project was originally estimated to cost some US$200 million. So far, a reputed US$500 million has been invested.

Flag Luxury is owned by a company called FX Luxury. Flag Luxury, FX Luxury and FX Real Estate are so intertwined that I have been unable, even after multiple readings of this website, to untangle the relationships. Perhaps you can do better.

From yet another site, we learn who the directors of FX Real Estate are. They are, principally, Robert FX Sillerman as Chairman and CEO, Paul C Kavanos as President, and Barry A Shier as Chief Operating Officer. Sillerman is the founder of SFX Entertainment from which he made most of his money, upto and including its sale to Clear Channel Communications in August 2000. Kavanos is the founder of Flag, and previously developed Ritz-Carltons in the USA. Shier is an old pro in the gambling and hotel industries, having served in various capacities for Mirage Resorts and Golden Nugget of Las Vegas.

More searching of the internet reveals that FX Real Estate is not doing well. In the past year alone, its shares have dropped in value from US$8.00 to 10c.

FX Real Estate

An SEC filing of 5 November 2008 tells us that FX Real Estate appears to have lost its option to acquire the Elvis Presley Estate.

Subsequently, a December 2008 release informs us that FX Real Estate has defaulted on a US$475 million loan from Credit Suisse. As a result, the company appears to be at risk of losing its Las Vegas properties. It seems to me that these business reverses must negatively impact Mr Sillerman's ability to find the further resources needed to revive the Flag project in Anguilla.

Various government press conferences and speeches in the House of Assembly in November and December of last year indicate that some five to six million US dollars are owing to local creditors alone. Chinese workers abandoned by their employer on the island claimed they had not been paid for several months before they were picked up and deported. Word is that they were sent home, at government expense, after some of them began to threaten that they would complain to the nearest Chinese Embassy. The Blanchard-operated Zurra Restaurant is closed. All its signage has been taken down. Ashtrom, the general contractors for the project, have packed up their bags and left the island. The golf course was closed down, though the maintenance crew was kept on with the slimmest of budgets.

All in all, it is not surprising that the Hon Minister of Finance has ceased to factor into his projections for income in 2009 the Flag Luxury Properties hotel development project at Cove Bay. The Flag project is not likely to be completed anytime soon.

The likelihood is that Sillerman & Co have much more important business to attend to than little old Anguilla and its over-ambitious golf course. Unless, cynical and unworthy thought though it is, he was banking on buying out the Credit Suisse debt and his partners' equity on the cheap? Little hope of that. The law suits alone will likely take years to settle.

Now, the word on the street is that the remaining golf course workers have not been paid for weeks, and are very upset and worried about their future. Who can blame them?

So, who is thinking of playing golf now?

Governor

Anguilla has been presented with the means to prevent the British Government from abusing us in the future. Those of you who are following the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s efforts to negotiate a new constitutional arrangement with the few remaining British Overseas Territories who have not yet adopted a new Constitution, will have noticed the report that the British negotiating team is meeting with the Cayman Islands team in early February to hammer out the final issues. The British team is expected in Anguilla shortly after that to enter into preliminary discussions with the Government of Anguilla. [Quite what the discussions will be about is unknown to all Anguillians, since the Cabinet and the members of the House of Assembly have been strangely quiet about what exactly it is they have been agreeing to for the past several months. We gather that the major thrust of the Chief Minister’s Committee is to go for “full internal self-government”. But, what exactly does that will mean for us the people in terms of Constitutional drafting is a State secret.]

So, it is amazing to see by comparison the openness, frankness, transparency, and sheer ingenuity with which the government of the Cayman Islands are treating the constitutional issues that confront them. They debate every issue in public, not in secret, as we do.

Caymanian Compass has a fascinating article summing up these remaining issues between the British government and the Cayman Islands government. The article reveals that there are ten issues which remain. Only one of them caught my fancy. That is a demand that the Constitution provide that the Governor shall be obliged to act at all times in the best interests of the people of the Cayman Islands. The consequence of such a provision is pellucidly clear. It wourld mean that the British Governor of Anguilla would be required for the first time to take our side in any argument with the FCO on any decision of the FCO that adversely affects our rights.

The British contend that this is a “novel proposition”.

However, if we wish to avoid the trap of being treated as the Chagossians were recently by both the British Government and the House of Lords under the fascist Lord Hoffman, then this is the most interesting constitutional proposal that I have seen yet. It would provide us with a mechanism that would assist us in protecting ourselves from being abused in the future by the British Government. We will have a most influential ally in our dealings with the FCO, employed by them though he is.

Will our leaders have the wisdom to consider, if not adopt, the Cayman Islands demand?

I have no doubt that the Anguillian public would, if they were consulted, support such a proposal.

TCI

Rt Hon Sir Robin Auld

Turks and Caicos Islands

Commission of Inquiry. The inquiry ordered by the Foreign Affairs Committee into allegations of corruption in the TCI government is now into its third day. The Commissioner is the Rt Hon Sir Robin Auld. The counsel to the Commission who is questioning the witnesses is Alex Milne. The Commission's website contains all the relevant information. The transcripts are posted on the TCI Journal. The transcripts are long, but make gripping reading, if you have a few hours to spare.

I read the transcript of the evidence of Premier Michael Misick on day one [only click here if you want to have the entire 103 pages to come down in .pdf format].

I read the transcript of the continuation of his evidence on day two [189 pages of transcript].

I read the transcript of the continuation of his evidence on day three [192 pages].

I read the views of several TCI commentators. They are all spitting mad with the behaviour of their Premier.

Perhaps two of the best commentaries were written on 16 January. The first is by Diana de Gara. It is an accurate analysis and summary of what we have learned from Premier Misick on day two of his testimony about his own personal finances. The second is by Shaun Malcolm. For those who want a flavour of what has transpired up to now, but find it difficult to right click on a link and choose “Open Link in New Tab”, here is what they both write:

By Diana de Gara

If day 1 did not convince anyone, then day 2 really showed what Sir Robin and Alex Milne and company have been doing during those long continuances waiting for the Inquiry. They have been setting the traps and placing the nets for Michael Misick. So far he has not tripped on the pit with the sharpened bamboo stakes—maybe that is next.

After reading the second day’s transcript I have to say I can never call this man who is still the Premier, “Honorable”. Despicable, yes. Honorable, no.

To anyone who has read this transcript, even skimmed it, or read summaries, then there can be no mistake that our Premier has robbed us blind and is still at it as we speak.

Loans

He only owes about $23 million in loans for which he makes payments, he thinks. But he’s good for these loans because he has lots of assets he didn’t disclose at first. But, now he’s complied so he’s good to go in the honesty department.

$23 million owed. He claims many in the TCI owe more and that . When asked if this is common in the TCI he said it was.

He is amassing $5,433 a DAY in accrued interest. That is more than many TCI Belongers are making in a year right given unemployment. He is unfazed by the figure. That is about $2 million a year accruing in interest per year since he doesn’t pay down the loans.

What is more interesting is he doesn’t seem to have to make payments on these loans like the rest of us mere mortals.

The Premier does not find it odd that he does not have to conform to the contract terms either.

But, there is nothing suspect about that because everyone he owes money to knows he is good for it.

So, Mike, what if you wind up in one of those black and white striped suits dragging a ball and chain behind you…like in the game Monopoly? Will they still think you are good for it then?

Is it not odd that even with the Commission of Inquiry breathing down your neck and the populace polling to have you removed, that your creditors aren’t yet worried?

Maybe that is because they really were not loans, but payments for the deals you gave them? Is it possible that these deals which smell like bribes, look like bribes and act like bribes, are, well, bribes and not loans?

You owe J&T Banka (Salt Cay Development’s major investor—go to: http://www.jtfg.com/en/news-re-2046.html ) millions, yet you have no accounts with them. You applied for and got your Black American Express card with them. They make your payments and you pay them somehow. You think it is paid by a loan through a Lichtenstien group. Mario Hoffman of Salt Cay’s DevCo hooked you up with the J&T folks in Prague.

Surprise, they own DevCo too with Mario Hoffman. Isn’t that a coincidence while the Premier just happened to be visiting in Prague?

And then we have your ministers, Floyd Hall, Jeffrey Hall and Lillian Boyce, all humble government servants, lending you $150,000.0 by Floyd, and $100,000 from the other two. Where did they get that kind of money as government officials to lend you unsecured?

Was this money to buy or keep their jobs or the price of admission to your money laundry?

PNP Salary

Did all of you loyal PNP supporters know that your hard earned contributions to support your party and activities, actually went to pay your “leader” a salary? He was supposed to be paid $10,000 a month. But since the party didn’t always have the money they paid him in lump sums when they did have it.

There aren’t any records that Mike knows of because if they gave them then the PDM would have to give theirs. And if they do have records they are locked in a room where only the pregnant, ill, out of the country Chairman (sic) has the key to the room. Sir Robin told them to get a locksmith pronto and get the records.

No leader has ever gotten a salary until he became leader and decided it was needed.

Apparently if he lives well off the PNP and his salary and looks rich, then the entire country and all its people are uplifted. It doesn’t matter that the people are unemployed, broke and living in tents in some places because there is money for hurricane relief. But they are uplifted none the less.

Credit Cards:

The Premier was asked if he ever spent say $600,000 in one month with his American Express. He couldn’t recall if he did or not. He did. And of course we have seen on the pages of the Journal in November that he and the ex-wife Lisa Ray can spend $350,000 in a month as well.

What can you spend that much money on? TCI first of course.

He apparently makes his payments in large lump sumps to the J&T Banka in Prague because they pay American Express for him. And then he pays them with his draw down loan with the Lichtenstein lenders. He has no idea why this bank pays his bill for him. Doesn’t American Express do that for everyone?

Need I say more?

Real Estate Sales

Apparently our premier is so good at managing his time and his real estate sales that he is able to do private sales outside his real estate firm. He and his good friend the Deputy Premier managed to help sell some land for a company by finding a willing buyer. This willing buyer then lent the Premier some money. Just a million or so.

And Rodney Propps did not sell him his land where his little house is built. Maybe Lord Ashcroft had Leeward Ltd when he bought it. It’s such a busy company he cannot be sure. And he is so busy he has no idea who sold it to him.

And then we have the open land he got an “option” on and then sold half of that option to some Italian billionaires that were not Belongers (yet?) and turned it into a partnership where he spent nothing for the land, and got $1.9 million for his “half”. He had no idea if they were Belongers or not even though this was a sale of Crown Land. So, the Premier scores $1.9 million on property he never put a dime of money out for to obtain.

At least the Belongers are being uplifted by Crown Land sales…or at least one Belonger, the Premier.

When all is said and done after reading this it is clear that the Commission has the goods and the evidence on the Premier and his cronies. It is clear he is funneling money as fast as he can to Prague, at the least, to fund personal accounts.

And, of course, it is clear that these Prague money men are the same “developers” trying to steal Salt Cay from the TCI with the blessing of the government.

And how do we know this? Because today it came out that the Premier, with his Slovakian pal Mario Hoffman, owns 50% of the Salt Cay Development Company, again through his brother the shill/money mover, Chal Misick. And it has come out that he gave Mario Hoffman Crown land deals that stole the heritage and future of every Belonger on Salt Cay. Details to follow after reading Thursday’s transcripts.

Frankly, it would not surprise me in the least if the Premier took a private jet to someplace else before his testimony is complete. Probably someplace cold, where cabbage soup is a staple and they speak Slovakian dialects. Or you could go to Prague and check your bank balances in person.

Premier, if you plan to flee to Slovakia, please take Mario Hoffman, the folks from DevCo and J&T Investments with you so you can live in the style you have so recently become accustomed to living. It has been so uplifting for all us peasants to watch you steal us blind to support your lifestyle.

By the way, leave some cash to pay your bills and the gates open to the palace when you go.

This is what Shaun Malcolm writes about day three of the Commission’s hearing:

By Shaun Malcolm

Day three of the hearings covered a lot of ground and gave us insights into the broad nature of the corruption under Michael Misick. There were maybe ten or more topics covered.

First Mr. Milne continued to cover some issues related to Michael's personal spending and income and then focused upon issues related to allegations of government corruption. He ended by looking at a couple of high profile development projects and showing blatant conflicts of interest. The news about Salt Cay in particular stunned those present at the hearing.

Mr. Milne followed up on yesterday's questioning about credit cards and how there was not any evidence as to where approximately $1 million of payments to one set of those cards came from.

Mr. Milne also inquired why the Commission could not find any evidence of where payments and loans made by Saunders and Co. to Michael were deposited. They were not deposited into any known or declared accounts. There seems to be circumstantial evidence of other hidden bank accounts. Michael claimed that the $275,000 "loan" from Saunders and Co. went directly to pay for a debt that had built up for jewelery purchases made at Royal Jewels. On most of these questions, Michael's answers continued to be vague and he answered in generalities.

However, a listener was able to get an insight into what Misick's defense will be on many of these accusations. Along with the infamous "cross-party culture", he repeatedly used the phrase of "collective responsibility" referring to his fellow cabinet members and the Governor.

On a personal level there was the issue of the PNP party paying over $100,000 to a hair stylist for Lisa-Raye, expenses charged during his honeymoon, nightclub visits to the "Funky Buddha" in London and a whole assortment of personal charges that appeared to be being paid from political and official funds.

We learned for the first time that the land on which the Casablanca Casino, the one believed by most citizens to be related to Mario Hoffman, sits is owned by Michael Misick. Though he still claims not to have an ownership interest in the Casino itself.

On a governmental level we learned that the Tourist ministry, that he has headed since 2003, owes vendors millions of dollars and has regularly not adhered to its budget. Some vendors appear to be considering litigation against the Turks and Caicos Islands. All this while Misick's wife was receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from the PR firm hired by the Ministry (paid into a company jointly owned by Michael and LisaRaye).

We learned that for the seven areas designated as parks on Grand Turk there are 150 park keepers on the books. Likewise there are many street sweepers on the books, who too appear not to do any work. It appears there are hundreds of meaningless jobs on the books for which people of the right political persuasion collect pay cheques, but do not do any work.

We also learned that even though there are procedures for selecting scholarship recipients, according to an audit report, in over 130 cases Michael Misick intervened and approved scholarships without the selection committee looking at the case files. Michael was also questioned about the reports of certain educational institutions giving kick-backs to government members. Michael claimed that he had not heard of any such allegations.

I believe Mr. Milne is setting things up for when the Ministers of those departments testify to the Commission.

The most stunning news coming out of day three of the hearings however dealt with Salt Cay.

We learn that Mario Hoffman, the owner of Salt Cay DevCo, and Michael Misick know each other well and have traveled abroad socially. We also learned that Michael's brother Chal Misick is 50% owner, along with 50% for Mario Hoffman, in a company called Salt Cay Golf Club.

Salt Cay Golf Club was granted by Michael and his government a lease for 238 acres of Salt Cay for a $1 a year per acre. 238 acres of land, valued a number of years ago at $7.76 million, is being leased for less than $300 a year. Less than the price of a fine meal.

We also learn that this 50% ownership of this 238 acres is what Michael used as HIS collateral to borrow the $6 million from J&T Banka, the Czeck bank that is connected to Mario Hoffman.

Isn't Chal a wonderful brother to lend Michael his ownership interest !!

We also learned of an audit report that states that Mario Hoffman was allowed to purchase a piece of property on Salt Cay worth over $1 million for $160,000. We also learn that Mario Hoffman has Belonger status.

There is not enough space in this article to go into all the details that many of us have been struggling for over a year to bring to light regarding the issues surrounding the Salt Cay development. I and others associated with the TCI Journal have often pointed to the fact that it appeared as if Michael was using Salt Cay as a way to generate great personal wealth for himself by which he hoped to continue to influence events in the Turks and Caicos Islands for generations to come. What happens on Salt Cay is important regardless of which island one lives on.

The testimony before the Commission of Inquiry appears to reveal that Michael Misick is/was positioning himself (fronted by his family) right at the heart of what is described by Mario Hoffman and Mario's associates, on their websites, as a $600 million development.

There was so much more revealed yesterday that I encourage readers to read the other commentaries and the transcript that will be posted later today and over the weekend.

God Bless

Banking

I always thought my correspondence with my bank was supposed to be private. Someone in St Kitts has just sent me the most extraordinary bit of correspondence. It showed that some of our banks are not very sophisticated or cautious how they deal with their customers’ confidential correspondence. My correspondent had sent the Caribbean Commercial Bank an enquiry about banking procedures in Anguilla. He had got an automatic response from the CCB computer. He was upset, and he told me why.

I decided to contact CCB myself. I went to their contact page. I filled out their enquiry form. I asked them to send me the requirements to open a bank account. Sure enough, I got an email similar to the one my correspondent had got. This is what it said:

From: <idmitch@anguillanet.com>

To: <twoodley@ccb.ai>

Cc: <masonc@masonc.com>; <idmitch@anguillanet.com>

Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 4:57 PM

Subject: Contact Us

Name: Don Mitchell

Email: idmitch@anguillanet.com

Phone Number: 497 2139

Comments: Please let me know the requirements for opening a bank account.

So, what’s special, you ask? Well, if you look carefully, you will see that, besides Trevor Woodley, the bank computer’s automatic response has been copied to Chris Mason. Now, I know Chris Mason. He is a perfectly respectable project manager. One of my last meetings with him was when he was managing Altamer Hotel’s new project to expand into the West End. Altamer wanted me to do part of an Environmental Impact Assessment for them. Their expansion project involved negotiations with cousins of mine. I considered that would raise a conflict of interest for me. Anyway, what expertise do I have to prepare any part of an EIA? I decided to tell them I was not available to do it.

But, what in the world does Chris Mason have to do with having copies of confidential banking correspondence sent to him by a bank? Why would a bank set up its enquiry page so that every piece of correspondence sent to it is automatically copied to someone who has nothing to do with the correspondence of the bank’s customers?

Is this in compliance with CCB’s confidentiality obligations?

Now, I do all my banking at the National Bank of Anguilla. Does NBA make the same mistake, I wondered?

So, I went to the NBA website. I found their contact page. I checked it thoroughly. I was relieved to find that it did not have a form that would automatically get sent to anyone outside the bank. It seems that with NBA you have to personally email or telephone an individual at the bank with your enquiry. What a relief!

I would urge the CCB Board to have their website tightened up. I do not think that customers, or potential customers, for that matter, should have their confidential queries sent to any person, no matter how respectable, outside of the bank.

Now, having made the enquiry, I’m wondering if the bank is going to efficiently respond to it.

Awards

Nominations being accepted for Anguilla 2008 Awards of Shame. Several of you have sent in suggestions for additional Anguillian awards. Most of them are unprintable. But, you sound very angry. Some of us need to ‘vent’. So, I am inviting those of you who have not yet done so to send me your nominations for the year 2008. Please do not just send a name. Add a few words in support of your nominee. We need to understand why you think your person should win. You may do it anonymously by email or on this blog.

Here, in alphabetical order, are some of the areas in which prizes are available:

Chickens Come Home to Roost Award

Concealment of Information Award

Creative Advertising Cup

Conflict of Interest Prize

Cultural Vandalism Award

Environmental Destroyer Prize

Bernard L Madoff Award for Fiscal Prudence and Creative Borrowing

Outstanding Architecture Plaque

Political Genius Award

Public Service Misachievement

Spammer of the year Medal

Sustainable Developer of the Year Trophy

Rules: Nominees not limited to Anguillians, but must relate to 2008 activities in, or in connection with, Anguilla. All submissions to be in by the end of January, more or less. Prizes to be announced during February, hopefully. Value of all prizes to be in the sole discretion of the Corruption-free Anguilla management and staff. Management reserves the right to exclude nominees/comments deemed inappropriate.

Heritage

Nominations for the gold medal in cultural vandalism for 2009. The New Year has just begun. We already have the first nomination for the gold medal for cultural vandalism for 2009. It is a new award, invented today. The nominee is the Hon Hubert Hughes, proprietor of the old Cotton Gin Factory in The Valley.

The gin itself was erected in 1910. It last worked in about the year 1950. Then the world market price for cotton collapsed and the industry closed down in Anguilla. That means that the machinery was nearly one hundred years old. Up to the end of last year, the disused equipment was standing there as if waiting for the factory workers to return from lunch. There was a bale of compressed cotton still in the bailer, and a sprinkling of lint stuck on the belts. Everything was as it was when Carter Rey locked the door for the last time. Years later, someone was to remove and steal the bronze plaque presented to the Factory by the textile industry of Lancashire, congratulating the Anguillian cotton gin for having produced the best cotton lint that they had ever seen in England.

Last week, the cotton gin was demolished and ordered to be taken to the Corito garbage dump.

Corito Dump: Anguilla's graveyard for used machinery

I have not checked with Mr Hughes for confirmation that he gave the order, but he owns the property, and only the owner could have given permission for such a drastic alteration in the structure.

Empty space where the cotton gin used to be

Close-up of empty space

Remnants of equipment in the ceiling above

Some Anguillians are outraged. I have no idea why. After all, it was done so that the otherwise wasted space could be used as a Chinese Restaurant. It is going to look so much neater now. So much more modern, as befits an up-market destination such as Anguilla is.

Why would anyone think that Hubert should have considered the Cotton Gin to be an important part of Anguilla’s built heritage? What an idiotic concept, anyway. Built heritage! Just a fancy name for broken down old buildings and rusting machinery. Much more merciful to put them out of their misery, and tear them down. Only effete foreigners could find such a thing of interest. Little do these foreigners know that the old cotton ginnery symbolized nothing more than the state of near slavery that our Anguillian forebears were forced to live in right up to the modern time. We must get rid of these last remnants of exploitation in order to expunge our shame at the poverty of our grandparents.

Besides, it is not as if Anguilla is not already blessed with an abundance of monuments to the industrial endeavours of our Anguillian ancestors. There are magnificent old mansions scattered around the island that anyone who is determined to visit old structures can take their pick of. We don’t have to go to Jamaica or Barbados to find Great Houses. We have them right here.

Antique Anguillian house

So what if the Cotton Gin was one of the last pieces of Anguilla’s built heritage that was in relatively good working condition. There are other mementos of Anguilla’s rich economic history, for those sentimental fools who want to waste their time looking at that sort of thing. They can still go to Sandy Hill and admire the Sugar Works ruins of Governor Richardson.

Gov Richardson’s minimalist animal round foundations

What about the benefits to the living Anguillians? Is it not better for us to look after the financial needs of those who are living today, and those yet to come, rather than wasting time worrying about worn out machinery. As the US industrialist Henry Ford said, “History is bunk”.

It isn’t as if Anguilla already has too many Chinese restaurants. Anguilla desperately needs this Chinese restaurant. In the circumstances, the loss of Anguilla’s most famous surviving part of our built heritage is a small price to pay. I understand Anna wanted the equipment removed. It was occupying valuable space in her proposed new restaurant. Anyway, it was just old junk, wasn’t it? Hubert was glad to oblige. Anything for Anna.

Those idiot heritage persons should be grateful the truckers telephoned Colville Petty at his Heritage Museum, “Do you want this stuff, or should we take it to Corito?” He agreed to rescue what they offered him.

Cotton gin equipment dumped outside Petty’s museum

The rest of the rubbish is, presumably, now buried at the public dump. Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say.

If the Public Health Department insisted on its removal for health concerns, congratulations to them for their foresightedness.

If the Planning Department permitted it, in authorizing the change of use, kudos to them for their long sightedness.

If the Environment Department encouraged it when their views were sought, bravo to them for their concern and dedication!

This decision was an inspired one. In the race for the gold medal, it will be hard to beat for the rest of 2009.

ATB

Anguilla Tourist Board. It is generally agreed that tourism is the number one industry in Anguilla. I have my doubts. In my opinion, construction is really the number one industry in Anguilla. Anyway, tourism is officially the number one industry in Anguilla. If it is, it should be awarded the highest degree of care and supervision by the relevant authorities. These authorities are the Anguilla Tourist Board and the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association. The first is the government statutory board charged with marketing the destination and setting and ensuring standards. The second is a non-governmental organization, the trade association of the industry, so to say. What about their own standards?

Over the years I have had many friends and family visit. I used to be amazed, ten years ago, at their arriving with a thick dossier of information about Anguilla garnered from the internet. Persons arriving for the first time on the island sometimes had more information about what was going on, what was available, than the average resident knew about. They got it all from websites on the internet. The phenomenon is even more widespread now. Websites give all the important information. No one reads paper anymore. So, we have to expect that the websites for our two premier marketing and regulatory organizations are being maintained to a high standard. At the very least, they will not be giving downright false and misleading information. Is that too much to expect?

So, when the 14 December 2008 issue of the New York Daily News carried an article by Jared McCalister on wedding packages in Anguilla, my interest was piqued. Anguilla has long been a marriage haven. I like to think I played my part in developing that industry in the late 1970s when, as a marriage officer, I lobbied successfully to have the period of residence for visitors to get married reduced from two weeks to one day. [My argument was that such a requirement was immoral. It forced young couples coming to Anguilla, intending to get married, to have the two-week honeymoon first so that they could earn the qualification period to get married on the last day of their honeymoon!] The Daily News article read:

Wedded bliss for less
With a little help, love does conquer all - including an economic recession, says the Anguilla Tourist Board, which is kicking off a special “Wedding OFF the Rocks” package next month.

Brides, grooms, friends and families are invited to take part in the travel special, which offers couples the wedding ceremony and the wedding night free at one of the island’s affordable Charming Escapes Collection properties.

The special elopement packages are available from January 5 through March 31, 2009. Guests must book a minimum of four nights to qualify for the “Wedding OFF the Rocks” package, which also includes discounts for family and friends, a civil ceremony, champagne and wedding cake.

For information on the “Wedding OFF the Rocks” Packages, call the Anguilla Tourist Board at 877-4-ANGUILLA, or visit www.anguilla-vacation.com.

There is only one problem with this story. I challenge you to find any mention of this package on the indicated Anguilla Tourist Board website.

And, if you agree with me that this is very poor marketing by the ATB, visit the AHTA website. There you will come across such gems as:

· Bid on rooms on their auction site (nothing listed for the past year +)

· Make a reservation at Rendezvous Bay Hotel (closed for over a year)

· Under Restaurants, eat at Flavours or Straw Hat at The Forest (the first long closed and the second long removed to Frangipani at Meads Bay)

· Under Tourism, play golf at Temenos, Swim with the Dolphins, visit Irie Life at Sandy Ground, or take a day trip on Sea Grape charters (none of which exist any longer).

If you check the banner ads at the top, you’ll find one for Rendezvous Bay Hotel, and another for live weather at Altamer Resort site (down for the last 6 months). There are plenty more misleading bits of misinformation, but I give up.

“Is everything in Anguilla destined for mediocrity or failure?” David Carty, ca 1989.

Tourism

How to lure wealthy golfers to Anguilla and make them feel betrayed and defrauded. Tell them in December 2008, on a major website, not on some obscure blog, that golfing is still available in Anguilla. To be exact, let the Anguilla Tourist Board have a page for daytime activities that contains a section that includes golf:

Let that section have a hot link to Land Activities. Let it link back to the same home page that depicts the information above.

If that does not work, tell them on Travel and Leisure, a major travel website claiming to be up to date as of January 2009, not on some obscure blog:

Include a link to Temenos Golf Club that will confirm their expectations:

Have 80 references to “golf” on the Government website, not one of which mentions that the golf course is closed.

Have a government, a Minister of Tourism, a Tourist Board and a tourism sector NGO that are so befuddled by the whole situation of the close down of Flag Luxury Resorts and the Temenos Golf Club that they do nothing effective to prevent wealthy travelers from coming here, feeling ripped off, and damn angry about it.

It always helps to have a public relations page featuring “Today's Stories, none of which is more recent at the time of writing than 8 December 2008.

For those of you that are lost, go back for a moment to the first extract featured above. You will note that there are three golfing opportunities suggested. The first is closed. The second no longer exists. The third has not yet opened for the season when I drove by it a few days ago.

Now that Mr Sillerman is here in Anguilla with ten of his best friends to play a round or two of golf on his golf course, perhaps he can tell us where we went wrong?

Apartments

New Apartments Approved by Planning During 2008. Someone thought I would be interested in seeing the published lists of the planning applications approved by the Land Development Control Committee for January-August 2008. That is only two-thirds of the year, not the whole year. The Committee has not published the lists for the remaining months of the year 2008. Why might the lists be of interest, I enquired. The reply was: because they indicate the volume of persons who intended, during the first part of 2008, to invest in building rental apartments. These were the brave souls taking up the challenge to invest in Anguilla’s construction boom. This boom has lasted all of this decade. Government ministers went on radio and in the House of Assembly to encourage this investment in rental apartments. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Some of the applicants may never have gone ahead with their project. They may have applied for planning permission, got permission, and, for one reason or the other, not proceeded with the construction of their apartments. Some of the approved apartments may not have been intended for rental: they may be additions to private homes intended for friends and family to occupy while visiting. The vast majority, we can be sure, were intended to be rental apartments.

I have counted the names on the lists. I include those who were deferred or refused. There are good reasons for this. As we all know, when Planning does not immediately approve your application, the law permits the applicant to appeal to the Ministers. They, if they are favourably inclined to you, which they can be expected usually to be if you have a vote, may overturn the decision of Planning.

I make it 102 separate applications to construct apartments. That is a lot of people investing in rental apartments. That is 100 out of a total of only about 4,000 adults in our population. And these relate only to the first eight months of 2008. There may be another 50 by the end of the year, unless new applications have begun to dry up. And, who knows how many were approved in the preceeding years?

The list shows the large number of persons who have probably gone to their bank and borrowed the huge amounts of US dollars needed to build and furnish rental apartment buildings. This might have seemed at the time to be good business for the banks. But certainly, during the economic depression that is now upon us, it will not have been such a good idea for some of those of us who had to do the borrowing.

I am sure you remember that just a few months ago people were desperate for a place to live. People were advertising their need for an apartment to rent. Since then, major hotel construction projects have gone on hold due to lack of financing. There will be no more highly-paid workers to occupy new apartments coming on stream. This week there are 7 ads in the paper for residential rentals. Last week there were 8. Rental income for existing apartments will be drying up for the next year or two.

And, the owners of “Flavors Restaurant’ just converted it to flats. Bad timing . . .

If you drive around the island, and look off the main road, it is unbelievable the number of apartments you see. Many, many of them are sitting vacant.

Financial woe lies ahead for some of us. I hope and expect that things will work out in the long run. Once the banks are thoughtful, and do not act too hastily when some of these apartment loans run into arrears.

It is, of course, an outrage that we are not told about these applications in time for us to comment on them if we wish to do so, and that it takes until December for us to learn what the LDCC did in August on our behalf.