Capt Eugene to work on environment
Captain Eugene Ebanks
(CNS): The CDP member on the government back-benches, Capt Eugene Ebanks, the member for West Bay Central, will be working alongside Cabinet minister and independent member for Bodden Town East, Dwayne Seymour, as the councillor with responsibility for housing and the environment. Ebanks has served in the LA since 2000 but he has not played a significant part in political debate in the 17 years he has been a representative for West Bay. But on the occasions he has spoken out, it was to defend the rights of fishermen over environmental restrictions. He has also publicly opposed the expansion of the marine parks.
In a short release Thursday, the office of Premier Alden McLaughlin announced the assignments for the councillors who would support government. As well as Ebanks, Austin Harris, the independent member for Prospect, will be councillor in McLaughlin’s ministry.
Barbara Conolly, the new PPM member for George Town South, will work with Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, the Progressive member for Cayman Brac East, in her broad ministry but she will be focusing on education.
David Wight, the new PPM member for George Town East, will support both O’Connor-Connolly with sport and Deputy Premier Moses Kirkconnell with transport in his tourism ministry.
Bernie Bush is the only government back-bencher not assigned a councillor role, but has been appointed deputy speaker.
Tara Rivers, the new financial services and home affairs minister, Public Finance Minister Roy McTaggart and Planning Minister Joey Hew will not receive councillor support.
The allocation of Harris to the premier’s ministry as councillor for human resources, immigration and community affairs means that despite having pleaded guilty to a domestic violence offence, he will be involved with the gender affairs unit.
The appointment of Ebanks to the environment portfolio sends a clear signal, following McLaughlin’s comments on Tuesday that government will be amending the National Conservation Law, that the advances made under the previous minister for the enhanced protection of the environment are likely to be at best watered down or at worse reversed.
Government appears now to be unlikely to accept the current Department of Environment proposals, which are still before Cabinet, for the much-needed enhancement of the marine parks.
Category: Politics
Democracy doesn’t work.
These are not Cayman’s best and brightest leaders.
Cayman’s beautiful and critically important natural environment is doomed. Has been for some time. The destructive trends have only been worsening for decades now.
Wait, Captain Eugene is still in the LA? No way.
#lame
I understand that Whogene’s constituency ranks #1 in the world for the number of refrigerators per capita
I do believe in giving Capt. Eugene a chance to prove himself. Do what’s right for the environnent and our marine life for our children future. I know you can do this ! Make us proud.
He hasn’t done “bounce” in 16 years sitting in the LA – what will now cause him to do something worthwhile for our country in the next four years ?
Maybe two pints of Gloucose IV drip up the arm………may give him a bit of energy; but it would likely need to be given daily by Dr. Tomlinson or some other local physician who fully understands his absolute lacking.
Who?
Gene!
Who?
Gene!
Everybody knows no caymanian will provide a solution, but they need these bad-actor politicians to look like they will when they will just find a expert to do all their work. So rest assured a hack will not be putting the environment in jeopardy, but his travel and hiring of experts to see “how it is done” will take the duration upto to the next election so “nuttinh will get done” …and the politicians familiy are all safe not earning a cent of thier salary, and watching each others backs to make sure thier jobs will not be in jeopardy.
Wayne. Speak up. You are still a member of the PPM aren’t you?
“Captain Eugene to work on environment” – surely there is an oxymoron there!
You mean to work or on the environment?
Work
What a sad selection of characters to take care of our people and the Islands. Soon there will be no environment to take care of. So much Patriotism but our very own are the ones neglecting our land. Remember the times people complained about the Conch and Lobster restrictions. Thanks to those restrictions we still have the little we have. We poach our own territory for the almighty dollar and thinking as far as today. The future? Somebody else will deal with that. As the world celebrates talks about Ocean Day, we 3 little islands surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, put our environmental destiny in the hands of people who’s main priority is to change the very Law that intends to protect our country. We seem to go backwards instead of forward. The world is closing zoos and Dolphin prisons are closing…we open two of those. An environmental law is created to protect…we take it down. The world is determined to end gender violence…we select a guilty party to take care of gender affairs. You can not just make this stuff up. As a voter, very very disappointing and scared for our future.
I have to say bringing in David Wight into the sports portfolio was a good move. He was always a great sportsman in cricket, tennis and football. So at least he knows what he is talking about and is always a great enthusiast.
Chris, at least we can be confident David will have a long and successful innings and not be out first ball like the gentleman supposedly protecting the environment.
Haha…good one! But just like Jeff Webb David has never played on a competitive level now has he ever represented the country for the genre of sports. But still…Lol good one.
Being a fan does not qualify one when it comes to policy making or governance.
Trump probably inspired Cayman’s leadership when he appointed the toxic Scott Pruitt as head of the EPA. We’ve inherited a vulnerable and beautiful island ecosystem, but we’ve never accepted full responsibility for protecting it. Minister Panton and his supporters achieved miracles in passing the Conservation Law, without which we’d still be living in the environmental dark ages.
Everyone should study aerial photographs of Cayman from the 60’S. They’ll be shocked and astounded at the complete eradication of well over half the trees and wildlife on the island. Things are happening ten times faster now. Are we rally going to stand by and allow the only thing preventing total eradication of Cayman’s natural ecosystems, to be ripped up by careless politicians?
We should pay close attention to the paid scientists who have dedicated their lives to understanding the implications of environmental mis-management. They have nothing invested in giving bad advice, just Science and Truth. We ignore these two at our peril.
Such misinformation. Grand Cayman is only around 20% developed
I get the shakes thinking that at sometime in the dim distant past I probably flew on a plane piloted by Eugene.
I don’t think he flew for very long and he was never a CAL captain. At least that is what I have been told by a CAL veteran pilot.
So very sad to witness the way some bash people all the time. Rarely anything positive.
Get over it! The people spoke and like it or not, the government is made up of MLA’s who made the effort to come together and form a Government.
Give them a chance wish them all the best and pray they are able to move our country forward positively for the betterment of all.
But that’s the point. They’ve had chances….. and chances…..for how long. You can wait for a log to grow legs and walk outside of your way, but I prefer to roll it to the side of the path and maybe stop giving hundreds of thousands of dollars TO A LOG.
I thought he served the drinks.
I thought he was a boat captain not an airplane captain.
He is a boat captain you nut cheese and can barely fly a kite. Cmon man.
How many years as Eugene been in office? Forgot he was even there. And now all of a sudden he is in charge of the Environment? Biggest joke I ever heard!!! This entire government is a joke!!!
Can we please stop calling Captain Eugene “Whogene”. I find it to be disrespectful. Can we please now call him Captain Planet instead?
Thank you!
Boldrick would be better
It’s actually Cap’n Eugene!
Like our little cartoon friend with the yummy breakfast cereal!
Are ya ready kids? Aye aye cap’n!
What a mess after all these years of doing NOTHING and getting paid. Good luck Alden in trying to get him to AN HONEST DAYS work. Good bye to what’s left of Cayman. He is going to give away what is left of Cayman. I, for one will be watching them very closely. We need to get away from this corruption, instead of enhancing it. SAD SITUATION, BAD, BAD CHOICE. captain??? shame should have made you sit and S…TFU. Wasting the peoples money. SHAME ON YOU.
True. Malden at his finest.
It is sad that a person that is against Marine Parks and protecting our resources gets appointed to “take care” of it, talk about oxymoron!
Consistent with appointing someone with a conviction for assaulting his girlfriend to gender affairs.
Note to Ezzard, Arden, Alva, Tony, Kenneth and Chris. You guys did the best thing by trying to hold together. This government will not last more than a year, and then we will need you guys to pick up the pieces and hold it together. It is quite obvious that the PPM picked the easily controlled, less intelligent of the Independents to add to their “team”. Thank God we have a strong opposition. this is going to be a bumpy ride. God forbid Bernie should have to take the speakers chair and run the proceedings. We are going to be the laughing stock of the region.
I like Jon Jon but I will tell you this, he was setup to fail, I am sure Ossie is rolling on the floor laughing.
Laughing with a cow cod perhaps?
This only shows how little regard the PPM have for the environment.
He’ll most likely just hand our dwindling environment over to Dart right after throwing the National Conservation Law in the trash.
For Fs sakes, he has ZERO. Qualifications for that position. ZERO! Who ever appointed him is an idiot of the highest nature. Whoever allows him to continue in that position is a stupid f’ing criminal.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!
Well he was “woted” in.
Until we wrest power from the hands of these illiterate, uneducated, greed mongers by establishing a truly representative government, we will have to put up with these Mickey Mouse politics.
Western “democracy” is nothing more than a poisoned chalice presented to us by our Illuminati overlords.
Drink deeply and perish.
I think ‘voted’ is the word you are struggling with.
Have you no sense of irony?
There are times and places to display your superiority, but I don’t think that this was one of them.
Poster at 2 am re ‘voted’
‘ vs ‘woted’ – you really haven’t been around here long have you.,
@11:00am
“Woted” is very much the correct word here.
As someone else points out if you don’t know what were are referring to you should probably take a few minutes to get the lay of the land.
I love how ‘truly representative government’ is code for ‘Cayman not run by Caymanians’. (And, no, I don’t support MLA Eugene Ebanks, or several of the others now in office. But I support less calls by others to take over my country. Because they did so well where they left.)
Ah, but they DID do well where they left.
Name One. USA? (Trump – love him or hate him) Europe? EU vs Brexit, take your choice. Central America? Asia-Pacific?
If anyone has the recipe for a ‘universally good’ social-economic-ecological-political system then they really aren’t sharing it.
These people were elected by Caymaninas. They are best this Island has to offer. They are a miirror of the people they represent. Dat what you are, Dats what you elect, Dats what you get.
… and there are more questions than answers!
To my knowledge 9.17, the only people with qualification for the job did not run for office, so it doesn’t matter who got the job..
A sad day, moving backwards yet again.
beginning of end? now they gonna ruin the marine environment all in the name of greed!?? now there will probably be a canal from north sound to seven mile beach…sooo, what about allowing mobile homes on island in order to help the poor?
It’s almost as though, in this regime’s Minister allocation huddle, they went out of their way to chose the least caring, most poorly-suited candidates for each job. How can a professed environmental backlasher now be the caretaker of very those resources?!? Is the Governor agreeing to these appointments?
Unfortunately there is no alternative. The opposition are ALL anti environment no matter what they say – just look at their track record.
The problem is the PPM is playing the hand it was dealt by the people and those persons grossly distorting the political process throwing tons of money around to buy a government.
All the same those of us who care about the environment do not have to sit by idly – participate in democracy AND MAKE YOUR VIEWS KNOWN at every opportunity. I encourage young people in particular to speak up – conservation is more for you and your children than the older amongst us!
He will work
… at destroying the ecology.
Ha,,,,Ha…Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Someone stop me, please. Captain Eugine?
Last night I had a dream. I dreamed that Austin Harris was a councilor for Gender Affairs, Capt Eugine was a councilor for the environment, David was councilor for two ministries including sports…… and Bernie Bush got NOTHING.
Please don’t wake me up.
Ha,,,,Ha…Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Someone stop me, please
What a joke! How do you sleep at night Eugene? You’ve literally stolen a salary for the past 20 years!
I’m sure but not having coffee past 7:30pm
It’s the sleeping in the day that bothers me.
Did I read correctly or will I have to get my eyes re-examined very soon ?
OMG – the great Captain of Land, Air and Sea will be assigned as a Councilor to the Ministry of Environment.
How rewarding that must be for him and his great supporters of West Bay Central. It’s like they put the great captain to run the 100 meter dash and somehow they succeeded in getting him to beat Usain Bolt by two yards. WOW – does he get a pay rise for being a Councillor as well, upon that fat double dipping salary he has been receiving for so many years with “very little” to show in return for his services ?
FOI please.
I believe this and many other developments are going to cause most of the civil servants at DOE on North Sound Road to have an Absolute $H!# Hemorrhage. Someone please alert the HSA to have lot’s of electrolytes on hand for them poor folks.
Gina and her team are good people so it’s with a very sad heart, that we have to learn what they will be facing over the next four years.
God Bless the Cayman Islands.
I think you will find he is an Admiral now. At least in his mind.
Apparently to those who get their small annual supply of flour, coffee, sugar and creme – he is not an Admiral but a KING !!
I hope that Captain Eugene remembers how abundant the marine resources were in Cayman islands just a few years ago, and how short they are today, he should think about having a marine environment with resources for his grand kids and the future generations before you make your drastic move to repeal the now
Marine Conservation Laws.
Captain please don’t be like some others I know that only thinks about today. I am shure that Mr Panton was thinking about the future when he drafted the Laws.
Do the Islands and the People a favor leave the now Marine Conservation Laws alone and everyone would love you.
If that is the case we will have a beautiful eco environment. Ocean will be bountiful, turtles will come back and lobsters will be plenty, the over development of our lovely island will cease and born Caymans will remember the culture and heritage without knocking each other. Capt. Eugene as a spiritual culture we the true Caymanians wish you all the best in your role. Prove the critics wrong that you are more than capable of doing a wonderful job. I can see from the various negative input on this sight they do not know your contribution to our culture, history, etc. Disagraceful for those who are not from the soil and shame on those Caymanians who are born and bred to downtrodden their own.
Does this mean Captain WhoGene may actually have to do something for the $130,000 he is paid. Surely not!
I believe that is a treasonous remark 9.36. How dare you suggest such a thing.
Am I the only person thinking this is the worst government we have had in at least 10 years? This is not progressive, pardon the pun. We’re going in reverse.
You are definitely not alone. CIG was so much better before it morphed into the reckless monster full of incompetents. When you really think of the extent of the problems and then listen to our leaders… it’s like they just don’t get it at all. It’s all gotten too complicated for them to even comprehend let alone fix it. They are clearly out of their depth and it’s so scary watching the downfall of a country right before your very eyes. No place in the world is perfect but Cayman use to be much better than it is today. That’s a fact.
What say you Alden? You think we’re in a good place? A better place? Do you really? You might actually since you just finagled the Premiership by the skinny skin skin of your teeth… so I guess to you things couldn’t be better. You’re breathing a sigh of relief while we wait for the other stiletto to fall from the sky.
The worst Gov’t we’ve had in 4 years.
How quickly we forget.
Great news.
Better news yet would be that field of thousands of radioactive, mustard gas asteroids was on target for a direct hit on earth.
Now that would be some great news.
I give up and now welcome the end of everything.
Ahhhh, sweet relief.
It’s about time
… it’s about space….
About a guy, that’s a disgrace.
Whogene where? How? Does he know where environment is? It’s not in West Bay for sure!
For eff sake. We’re going in a hand basket. Capt. Eugene gonna take us 30 years backwards in environment.