$1 million needed for Christmas clean-up
Christmas clean-up programme under the UDP government
(CNS): The community affairs minister is looking for an extra million dollars in order to fund a Christmas clean-up job programme for next month. Osbourne Bodden revealed the plans during the Legislative Assembly meeting in October during one of a number of debates when the economic challenges caused by the local unemployment were discussed. Last week the minister told CNS that the plan was now in place but finding the funding remained an issue and his officials were trying to source the cash from across other ministries.
Bodden said he should be able to confirm whether the beautification project would happen or not this week.
While in opposition, the PPM had criticised the UDP administration for its roadside clean-up programme, which was managed by the then back-bench George Town MLA Ellio Solomon. Crticis had said it was a misuse of funds and had been abused by both the organisers and the participants. Speaking in the parliament last month, Bodden said that if he is able to find the money to fund the clean-up across the island and offer at least temporary employment, his ministry would “do it properly”.
He said, “Firstly, we will ensure it is properly managed and secondly, I want us to seriously look at the people that sign up for the job programme and not just forget about them when the programme is done … see which ones of them are really interested in working.”
The Bodden Town representative said he knew that in the past some people had signed up for it and had not done any work but still looked for payment at the end of each week. “I know about all that … and all about the managers running it through their personal checking account … but we won’t be doing it like that,” he added.
During the debate on a private member’s motion brought by Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush, asking government to create an emergency fund for those in dire need, Bodden noted the mounting poverty that the Needs Assessment Unit in his ministry is facing as it struggles to cope with the numbers of people who need help. He said that around 6,000 people are currently being helped by the unit in some way, from school lunches to rental and utility payments.
Bodden said he realised that the poverty and unemployment issues were much more than social assistance resources problems. He said Caymanians faced a number of challenges because past governments have neglected the development of local talent, leading to what appears to be entrenched unemployment.
Category: Government Finance, Jobs, Local News, Politics
This is not about the litter. Is about vote buying for the key junkie/drunk/criminal demographic.
This is just for Ossie the guy who calls expats “driftwood”. You know nothing about the cleanup bills were sent to the ministry by way of individual names and checks were cut for each and every person by treasury so how in hell could people be using their personal check acct. To run the cleanup. Get your facts right driftwood
To my belief I think we need this….yes we have criminals and yes we have people that are unemployed. But just think about that unemployed person who has children and bills to pay. It is not like they are not trying to find a job but they are some boundaries that stop them from getting the job, like lack of education because they didn’t graduate from high school or lack of experience. This will help us at least by making some families happy. Happy that they can hold a Christmas dinner or even buy gifts for their children. Cayman needs more opportunities for caymanians that needs a second chance, that haven’t been graduated….look at the premier scholarship that helped a lot we need something like that in placed again. Giving education free.
How much garbage each cruise ship passenger generates?Would be I retesting to know.
If is proportionate to their waistlines, a massive amount. Especially the Carnival crowd.
similar to caymanians….
Can the government post the names and pay of those cleaning up?????????
Name and shame?
Accountability for the proposed million dollar vote buying.
I had a job until they made me redundant and hired a 24 yr old to take my place. I have a master’s degree and 3 certifications in my field. I am being rejected to be hired as they say I am overqualified. I would clean roads for $10. I would work just about anywhere and I have applied ,but with over 2 decades of work experience and my education level, I am not having any luck. So before you call me lazy you may want to know the circumstances. I still think that the clean up should go to the students, inmates and those on welfare, which btw, I am not on welfare- just using my savings to survive.
I don’t believe you.
If this is true that you are an expert in your field, apply for a Gov’t startup loan and open a business that can hire more Caymanians. Why would anyone in your shoes wait for someone to create the perfect position for your skillset?
Lack of volume is why most small businesses do not make it here.
There are many people who are willing to give their time towards regular maintenance of public used property such as road sides, beaches, parks etc, however, I (and most of the people I know) refuse to spend time to clean up somebody else’s yard/property just because they are too lazy to do so. The same goes for littering along the road, if Government can’t enforce the anti-littering law then it will continue to be a one step forward, ten steps back situation. For that, there are laws that should be enforced.
The annual clean up dumpsters put in the district to encourage disposable of bulk items is also a joke! I don’t care if someone has an old couch in their living room they want to dispose of. I care about the areas residents and tourists see on a daily basis. If you can get your bulk item to the dumpster, you can drive it another three miles to the dump!
Also, why is Government continuously sponsoring sport teams/clubs without getting anything back? Perhaps those sport teams and clubs should be asked to participate/arrange/conduct clean-ups at a certain assigned areas prior to receiving any funding?
Why does NRA continue to maintain hedges that grow into the roads because the property owners are too lazy to cut them? Solution would be to send the property owner a letter, stating that they are to maintain the hedge to prevent obstruction of roads, if that is not done, NRA will maintain it, and that means the hedge will be cut down to the ground. That may spark some motivation.
Why does DoEH not put more garbage bins in public areas when bins are overflowing on a regular basis? Look for example at the South Sound boat ramp. Does the person who empties those bin not realize that it is regularly overflowing and perhaps draw the conclusion that another bin should be placed there?
The problem really is that Government continues to coddle the residents and civil servants. That needs to be changed, but it involves stepping on people’s toes and is Government willing to do that? If yes, I stand ready to be of assistance, if not, please don’t come and knocking at my door and ask for help because you are just wasting everyone’s time and efforts but even worse, you are wasting the public’s funds!
Is this for real ?!?!? A million dollars to clean up and then next week the garbage will be at the same level as before. Perhaps a little education on how to keep the island clean would go a bit further. But wait – if they mess it up, then they will get money to sort of half-a$$ clean it up. This is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard.
Paying to clean up is setting up a really bad precedent. Doesn’t the Chamber of some of the service clubs already clean the island up for FREE?
I am not on either political party line so not politically motivated to post – but this is a really really bad idea. You might as well just hand out the money to the few that have already been pre-selected.
I think we should cash in one of mckeewa’s pensions.
expats to this stuff for free or for charity….
yet the caymanians who already are paid by the state not work…want extra money….
welcome to wonderland…..
Guarantee, by the New Year it will be back to the same mess. The prisoners should be out every week, chained together, pink uniforms on, as I’ve seen in some U.S. states. Maybe if this was done, some may think twice about wanting to be in there. O but wait, human rights!!!!!
Another million dollars for what? This is the yearly campaign the government & politicians hail as their baby to beautify Cayman. Leave out your garden waste & old appliances / metal by ‘x’ date to be picked up. It stays on the street by our house until February.
Blow the dust off the finger printing equipment and sell it to raise the cash
Why don’t they only give this job to young people who can’t find a job? Aren’t they collecting a cheque for doing nothing already? I think its better to keep them working year round. That way we get something back and they stop stealing for weed,liquor and gas money
We would only need half million if Alden weren’t so generous with his Dominican buddies.
We would have tens of millions if mckeewa werent so generous with his dart and ryan buddies.
What amazes me is how many of the posters actually think this has something to do with cleaning up the island. It’s an excuse to give people cash for Christmas pure and simple. They may as well shovel the cash out of the police helicopter over Bodden Town.
No they cant do that cos then us furreners might get some…
Well far as I know it will employ 400 plus unemployed people who some might say are ex criminals well at least they won’t be robbing none of us this Christmas hopefully maybe it’s good thing to do make the guys earn a honest dollar what’s so wrong about that.
You assume that they will turn up and that they do anything if they do. Plus that giving someone who is otherwise inclined to criminality a few bucks is going to make a difference to crime over Christmas is hopeful indeed.
So funding a criminal on the hopes that he won’t rob you at Christmas is ok? What happens if he uses that money to buy a new gun? Didn’t see that one coming…..
Well it going be a shootout then
So pushing them to the side Like they don’t exist after they are released from prison is your brilliant idea really dude? How’s that working out for us I don’t know if you have be robbed before but it doesn’t feel good. The government needs more programs like this to keep these guys busy, if it’s done the right way like the minister suggested it should workout well
Genius! Paying criminal types not to commit crimes. A possible solution to a large part of the unemployment problem. It will probably be a bad idea for the drunks and junkies.
I am glad that I am not considered a “local”, because the employers favor foreigners like me. Us foreigners wouldn’t be here if the Cayman people did not take out work permits for us. So, to me it looks like Cayman is having its own civil war – keep “locals” unemployed while paying foreigners who send most of their cash back to Jamaica, Honduras and Philippines.
Thank you. You don’t even have to be a criminal. We have people that dropped out of school and can’t get the opportunity to get a job.
Not true. They just don’t want the many many jobs that are available.
So Fred the piemaker why don’t you make some positive suggestions about what to do. Why you picking on Bodden Town? Hard times all over Cayman, people showering at public beach, sleeping in tents, begging at grocery stores.
Cayman 7 mile beach was voted one of the most beautiful. I don’t see why Caymanians are proud of this recognition. It is expats that work for the hotels, condos, and estate owners who keep the beaches and landscape clean and beautiful. Look at the beaches and roads and yards that locals own and are responsible to clean and maintain. It is proof that there is no shame in their lazy slothful game. I have watched police drive by as people threw their Pizza box, napkins, and beer cans into the bush. I have picked up 2 full garbage bags of beer cans, crappy baby diapers, booze bottles, and clothing in the 2 blocks between the Esso and El Fresco once or twice a week for over 3 years. It is not the tourists that are too lazy to clean up after themselves. It is the backward Cayman or Namyac who are Cayman’s Shame. So now spend $1,000,000, just another shame.
I bet there are tourists out there who would do this for free if you advertised it as eco-tourism. Heck, they’d even pay all their own expenses if you packaged it right.
In the Brac the DP gives a contract to do this to someone who has no Trade and Business Licence and she pays no pension for her workers
Well then complain about the DP to the police.
none are so blind as those who will not see. You sure have a lot of confidence in the police if you think anyone is stupid enough to file that kind of complaint.
2:47PM, this person does a very good job at getting things done – matter of facts two teams were led by “local” ladies using “locals” (hard working people that I know, they can’t get regular work here due to that fact that contractors/hotel/restaurants/quarry are hiring cheap Filipino, Jamaican and Honduranian labour).
Be careful about unfounded assertions that you make concerning Trade and Business License. Also read the Labour Law concerning pensions – not compulsory.
Cayman needs to remove the blinders and actually clean up, beautify, and landscape the things that matter – like all the main thoroughfares between our tourist zone and the airport. ie. The dump fence is buckled with fallen or poorly felled trees, an arborist needs to prune the trees properly, it reeks, etc etc. Private landowners need to clean up their own crap too. Driving along the new Red Gate Lane extension to the airport provides the visuals of Beirut with burned out vehicles and other industrial waste in clear line of sight. It also reeks. “Permissible behaviors” in these zones should be changed as the roads were – or fenced in and out of sight. DoT should get out their clipboards, drive these routes, and spend a little bit of money on fixing these immediate aesthetic issues before High Season. PWD should be more organized and taking care of public trash all year long.
thank you!
Yes 2.41 and have you noticed that it is us furreners who get out on our annual service days to clean up Cayman’s mess….if we left (as some wish us to) the whole of Cayman would be mount Trashmore within a month.
Ohh..thats why you are here
Think you mean DEH there Butch
At some point the need to tidy up 3rd world crap becomes a Department of Tourism issue. DEH can’t clear private land owner properties, and Public Works should be involved in a National effort to beautify this place and keep it tidy through the most important time of the year for our local economy.
OMG- never heard such nonesense! Have a clean-up day for the schools- get the students out there! Get the prisoners out there! Get the people on welfare out there! Unbelievable!!! Geez….If you are paying- I will even come down there and you can pay me…I need a job!
+1 to that….dont we already employ people to do this?
so caymanian
Have to be paid to clean up your own Country. And there you have it folks. Community Service obviously is a foreign concept to you and many others. Sheer laziness, plain and simple. Perhaps if you turned up, busted your ass and worked for free, you might actually get offered a job at the end of it! Ever thought about that?
More money for 345 Beer, Christmas weed & coke and then go knock up some more baby mommas to help increase cayman population by September 2016.
And the beat goes on …………….
The Coke already here
So is the weed, albeit in the police container behind GT Central Station…..wait a minute…..
How about residents and tourists don’t act like pigs dropping litter randomly, that way we don’t need to spend an extra $1m picking it back up?
It is not about the litter. Is about vote buying for the key junkie/drunk/criminal demographic.
Typical PPM hypocrisy! PPM said was a bad idea, creating a welfare state and waste of money under UDP but it’s ok to buy votes with the same program under the PPM. SMH
Didn’t the private sector do this for free for earth day? Is the goal to clean up the island or the goal is to pay these ppl some money?
I think between prisoners and having the kids involved in doing this as part of an education program on how littering is bad for the environment, and private individuals taking pride in their surroundings, then this initiative should not be happening. For on million, I could do this for 500-750 and hire some cheaper labour and get it down faster and more efficiently. Educate the population, start with the school children. Why not have the school children do this once a month? Clean -up Cayman Initiative. When the kids get older, have them dive and clean up under the sea from trash to the lionfish. It will teach them life long lessons.
Ole tired a** PPM, criticized Poor ole UDP for this same thing now they doing it…… What a mess
That’s what happens when you are out of your depth, you start grasping for straws, even if those straws belong to your enemies. What a complete clown, stick to drinking rum and beating people with cow cod Ozzie because you are good at that and clearly unfit for the position you hold in leading this Country.
Yes he’s good at that, and we encourage to do what you are good at Ozzie, but we request that you move your personal office space to Northward and carry it on there, they could use it..
The islands should be cleaned for Christmas with a combined effort by all MLAs, their assistance and Northward Prisoners. This will help those MLAs lose some of those fat bellies and teach some young gangsters what real work is all about.
I agree, let the non violent criminals in HMP do some work for a change! they sit there every day getting 3 meals a day doing nothing. there are many projects around the island such as this that they should be assisting with.
I’ll do it for 500K, seriously.
Obviously you are new here Uncivil Servant, but I will help you. What you need to do is say you will do it for $999,999 (competitive bid so it gets past audit) and then contact the organizers on the side to tell them they get $499,999 back in commission if you get the contract. Its the system…don’t go trying to break it…
$475,000. !
Let’s see how we can save the 1 million. Oh yeah, use the prisoners at Northwood and those 1000 welfare recipients. They well enough to be walking the streets and out drinking in the bars, then they can work. Let them all work for all the money the government is doling out. How hard is that? If they are not on the NWDA list then they can’t be employed for this. I saw a retired high ranking government worker doing the clean-up one year.
I do it fairly regularly myself – and for no payment. Where I come from it’s called, “cleaning up after selfish slobs”.
this incenses me!!! what a load of hogwash!! Why isn’t anti littering an everyday habit? why aren’t there district committees in place to oversee and engineer the regular cleaning of each district? why are the prisoners not used used for things like this? why do we have to pay people to do this?. Government’s money would be better spent instilling civic pride so that ignoramuses will take pride in their surrounding and not want to litter. Has anyone seen a ‘no littering’ sign anywhere? Are there any ‘spots’ on the radio or TV to remind natives to be civic minded? and not litter?
Is the ‘anti-littering’ law still in place which carries a $500.00 fine? If the police themselves stopped littering long enough and were vigilant they could catch a few litter bugs.
There are some people who take the time to pick up litter from main roadsides but low and behold before they can get back to their home the roadside is littered again.
I am sorry Ozzie but this band-aid type of clean-up is not cutting it……Let Cayman do something to teach people to have pride in themselves, their homes and yards and our island. A financial fine would be a good deterrent, don’t you think?
Bring back CIVIC PRIDE which was one of our hallmarks in times past.
Frangipani…owing to low education standards Civil Pride will get confused with Gay Pride…suggest you come up with a new turn of phrase…
If the PWD employees were doing their jobs in the first place, government wouldn’t have to fund extra money for these cleanup projects. Don’t get me wrong, they are doing a fantastic job beautifying the islands, that is why I believe those people should be employed full time and get rid of the lazy employees that PWD do have that aren’t doing nothing but collecting a pay check. This will save government millions of dollars.
But if only PWD could do all the beaches and not just the public ones.
more welfare state nonsense….
what about the already underworked, overpaid public works department?????
If they are under-worked there is plenty for them to do along the beaches of North Side to Rum Point – cleaning up the piles of trash that have washed ashore over the years and never been cleaned up. You can barely see a spot of sand anymore.
$10/HR x 8HR x 5 days x 100 ppl= 40,000/week, plus overhead. where did the 1Mil figure came from?
You forgot to include all the kickbacks, backhanders, no shows and multiple levels of administration. Easily get to $1m when you take those into account ?.
Perks 😉
Hey Oz – be honest. How many of the 6,000 needing help have been imported? Now, can the Premier tell us how this has happened as all persons coming to live in Cayman have to be self sufficient?
The answer is they ignore our laws to get votes in preference to a sustainable future for Cayman.
This might seem harsh, however we are going to spend $1m on sum people who decide they better work at Christmas to get some money, and then disappear back to their welfare checks thereafter. How about educating people properly so they can get proper jobs, and even more educate them not to litter!! Its a disgrace, I see people throwing rubbish out of vehicles, including bottles. Just walk around Safe haven, and bottles and other trash on the side of the road everywhere. What is wrong with people?
Again with the ‘finding money’? Either you budgeted properly, and ‘found’ money means a ‘budget cut’ for someone else, or you didn’t. Man Up and do it right. Budget for the cleanup in the first place.
Cayman is broke , why not have the folks in Northwood clean up the island..
I have been campaigning for the prisoners to be sent out early morning to clean up all the beaches for the longest time.
They can’t vote it’s as simple as that..
I remember a prisoner detail clearing out all the crap at Smith Cove in 2007 and they did a real good job of that.
Northward prisoners cleaned up a stretch of Northside beaches a couple of years ago – it must be true it was on Cayman 27
Will JuJu’s college friend come back to manage the Brac clean up?
If not,maybe her campaign manager from Grand Cayman who was on Brac for last election will grace us with his presence! Only seen him once since he was removed as Chairman of affordable housing.
Christmas Clean Up = Annual wote buying exercise.
Certainly was for the UDP – lets see if the PPM do it any differently
They won’t. Same crap, different acronym.
It’s not even pretending to be anything else – if only there was an ACC…
How do these guys come up with random numbers like $1mln, let alone the idea that there is a “spare” mln somewhere? Shouldn’t min security inmates be cleaning the roads to earn their keep? Don’t we need any spare mlns for other priorities like GT landfill remediation or finishing JGHS? This is not their money to pander around at Christmas every year! We would hope that others in the LA would put their hand up and object to these pet projects.
PPM proving once again they are no different from UDP.
Just Another Day in Absurdistan
UDP for life….
I already suggested previously that the best workers from each district should be retained to keep those districts clean throughout the year. Hopefully they could also maintain the beaches that never get cleaned over East, which shames the beauty of the island to those visiting anywhere other than SMB area.
Great idea but open it to everyone.
It will be a way to track unemployment numbers. Pay them $10 an hour. Anyone that refuses to sign up evidently doesn’t really need or want a job. So however many people sign up, that is the number of truly motivated Caymanian job-seekers.
Or, idiots could just stop expecting people to pick up after them = free.
Well if we can give away 500K in a heartbeat I’m sure the government can find the cash to do this clean up that will actually help the people and in the process have the island looking nice and clean for the holidays heck they should do a clean up every three months how about they start enforcing the $500 littering fine that’s where the money can come from to keep the island clean
PPM practices = UDP policies
There is nothing wrong with replicatiing a practice that has merit so I see no problem with the PPM doing so, This is probably the only practice that can be brought forward from the UDP so all of you UDPers who seem to be upset with this should be proud, at least they were not completely useless. However, if the opportunity to register with the NWDA is given and they do not, then those persons should be deleted from any other assistance that they might be getting. If the PPM monitor this exercise to eliminate all shannigans that went on under the UDP then as far as I can see it will be a win win situation. Also in future I think that whoever owns the land on road side that will be cleaned up should be legally responsible to cleaning up the mess whether they made the mess or not. After all it is their land. Until people change their bad habits of throwing junk out of car windows and stop throwing thrash on others people’s property Governments will always have to spend money on this. Government should not have to repeatedly have these clean up exercise every year, to pick up other people’s thrash. Government should not have to hire more environmental staff to keep tabs on the public so they ” will not litter” it is past time that we act responsibly and stop littering. Back in the day, Cayman was clean, I don’t know what has happen to all of us who call Cayman home! We should have more respect for this little Rock that we are blessed to occupy. I also hope that once the landfill is fixed and Government starts charging for picking up the garbage based on volume that there will be a huge penalty for all those who I know will not even try to separate their garbage and recycle. It is so easy, I usually throw all vegetable scraps in a bin and each October I turn it over in the back garden and for years now I have not had to buy papayas, tomatoes and peppers. As I said it is easy and it saves money as well.