Mickey Mouse has now joined Carnival
and Royal Caribbean to provide all the financing for our proposed new
cruise ship berthing facility.

This was announced by our Premier last
Thursday at the Chamber of Commerce Legislative Lunch when he said
Disney was now part of the trio.

When it was just the original two
cruise companies, both the premier and his Deputy, tourism minister,
Moses Kirkconnell said “no public money will be required to build
the new cruise berths and enhanced cargo facility”. Presumably, the
original budgetary costs have risen for Disney to join in.

How all this financing will work is
anyone's guess as nothing has been disclosed? The name of the
preferred bidder, we don't even know officially who any of the
bidders are, was going to be announced 'shortly'. Now it's “by the
Summer”. Any advances...? How long is our Summer...?

What puzzles me is the tender process
has always been touted as 'design, build and finance’ .I suppose
that doesn't now mean all the finance...?

This is borne out by McLaughlin saying
“the cruise line agreements along with the finance to be provided
by the preferred bidder effectively ensured that no public money will
be required”.

He once again emphasised the importance
of the facility, and I am not saying I do not agree with him, saying,
“The new cruise dock is vital to safeguard the future of Cayman’s
tourism industry, whilst the new cargo facilities will receive larger
cargo ships and help support the islands’ growing population and,
by allowing greater economies of scale, help to mitigate some of the
cost pressures impacting our cost of living.”

We also don't have to worry about
paying for all the remedial works that will need to be done to
restore the large impacts to our environment the facility will
destroy. This is because all of the geographical surveys and studies
as well as the environmental impact reports will be the
responsibility of, and paid for by, the winning bidder.

Hmm.

Our Premier did tackle the claims by
the opposition that “ no economic benefit can outweigh the
environmental concerns”. This statement is included in the petition
that thousands of people signed under the disguise they were signing
something to make government be more open about the project. “We
need to know more”, they cried out and vast numbers signed without
bothering to read everything the petition said. Petitions were thrust
under the nose of busy shoppers with wailing children in tow. I know
this because I saw it with my own eyes and got into a heated argument
with one of the petitioners who tried to get me to sign it.

It's not just the government who aren't
giving us all the facts. The other side are blatantly disguising it.

Government isn't the only game with
Mickey Mouse on their side. Sorry, perhaps one side has Donald Duck.

Quack. Quack.