Black Immigrant Daily News

Three Jamaicans are among four men charged after the boat in which they were travelling was intercepted by the Cayman Islands Coast Guard on Saturday.

All four are charged with being concerned with the importation of ganja.

They appeared in court on Monday 7 November and the Jamaican nationals were remanded in custody, while the West Bay man was offered bail. The four will next appear in court on 6 December.

One of the parcels of ganja recovered by the police.

According to a statement from the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, shortly after 12:00am on Saturday, 5 November, while on patrol, the crew of a Cayman Islands Coast Guard vessel observed a fishing canoe-type vessel approaching the northern coastline of West Bay.

Upon seeing the Coast Guard vessel, the canoe-type vessel attempted to evade the officers but was soon stopped and brought under control.

An initial search of the vessel revealed the presence of several large packages containing suspected ganja, totalling over 500lbs.

The three men who were aboard the vessel, Jamaican nationals ages 35, 42 and 57, were arrested on suspicion of importation of ganja.

RCIPS officers conducted searches of the shore in the vicinity and discovered a fourth man, age 40 of West Bay, who was in possession of several fuel drums.

He was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the importation of ganja. The others were subsequently arrested.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Tobago

Secretary of Tourism Tashia Burris, centre, talks with stakeholders on the opening day of World Travel Market 2022, at ExCel London, England, Monday. Photo courtesy THA

THA Secretary of Tourism, Culture and Antiquities Tashia Burris said the Caribbean must collaborate to grow the regional tourism industry. Burris was speaking on Monday at the opening day of World Travel Market 2022, in ExCel London, England.

On the Tobago Updates programme, Burris said she has attended Caribbean tourism forums and discussions have been held about more unity among stakeholders. She said some of the Caribbean tourism leaders are at the World Trade Market.

“One of things is selling the Caribbean as one destination. They talk about multi-destination tourism – that is something Tobago can begin to benefit from.”

Burris said Tobago does not have the market spend to rival Jamaica and Barbados. She said Tobago should partner with these tourism destinations and take advantage of their more mature and established brand. She claimed it would be a win-win situation for all involved.

“The Caribbean has to understand, we have to start to compete as a bloc and not necessary as individual islands. because we’re competing against destinations in the pacific, competing against destinations in Asia, competing among destinations like a Hawaii. for example.

“When we look at what we can do individually, it’s not as much as if we can get together and collectively sell the Caribbean as a region.”

She said a Caribbean single-entry visa would be required to achieve this. “That has to lie at the level of Caricom heads. It’s something that is critical for the survival of our tourism. One thing covid has taught us, is that we’re stronger together and we’re weaker apart.”

According to a report on globaldata.com, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas were the five most popular destinations in the Caribbean in 2021.

Burris said Tobago has to make a significant investment in marketing to crack previously untapped and unattained markets.

“In order for us to break through the noise, to remain relevant and remains on the minds of people, we have to make some significant investment in marketing.”

She said the aim is to grow the tourism sector into a sustainable industry.

“How do we build out the tourism sector to be a main pillar of the private sector, so the THA doesn’t have to bear the burden of employing the most amount of persons on the island. Now they can depend on the tourism sector to be a resilient pillar of the economy and ensure we can provide jobs that pay a comfortable wage. Persons who have a passion for the sector to gravitate to the sector because opportunities are available there.”

Burris said the THA delegation, which was led by Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, also includes Tobago Tourism Agency Ltd (TTAL) chairman Alicia Edwards, TTAL marketing co-ordinator, UK marketing partners, Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association president Chris James, hoteliers from Comfort Inn & Suites, Magdalena Grand Beach & Golf Resort, Coco Reef, Tropikist, a Sunshine Tours representative, the Tobago Performing Arts Company, drummers, pannists and soca artiste Adana Roberts.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

A postmortem examination has found that 30-year-old Oma Davi Virasamy died from shock and hemorrhage and a cut to an artery of the foot.

The autopsy was conducted by Government Pathologist Dr Vevakanand Bridgemohan.

Mahendra Paltoo, 35, also called “Ajay”, initially told investigators that his, wife was in the process of making up the bed for their child when she slipped and fell on a cutlass on Sunday evening.

The cutlass was reportedly hidden between two mattresses in their bedroom at their Lot 171 Bloomfield New Housing Scheme home.

The husband said the woman received a cut on her right ankle, and as such, he assisted her to dress the wound after which she retired to bed.

He further claimed that he woke up at about 04:40h on Monday and discovered his wife lying motionlessly.

The man’s father Mukish Paltoo said he handed over his son to the police after learning that Virasamy had died.

According to the 60-year-old man, his son telephoned them and requested help in taking her to the hospital.

The elder Paltoo said he initially declined, making reference to his fading sight and suggested that his son seeks the assistance of a neighbour.

Paltoo who lives about five miles away at Hampshire, eventually made the trip to his son’s residence after the neighbour was unable to help.

When we reach me ask what happen and they say the girl was dead, so I tell my wife that I got to carry this boy to the station. I take him and carry him to Whim Police Station and he go and meet the policeman come and see what happen and he tell me that I can’t be around,” the father revealed.

“He say the girl fall on a cutlass… that she go to tie the netting and the cutlass de brace on the wall and she fall on it. That is what he tell me.”

Meanwhile, police said that after Paltoo was questioned he changed his story and told them that he and his reputed wife had a misunderstanding where she accused him of being unfaithful.

Police said during the said argument the woman pushed the man which resulted in him arming himself with a cutlass and dealt her several lashes about her body causing her to receive a cut to her right ankle and injuries to other parts of her body including under her left eye.

The victim’s uncle Deodat Arjuman says the family wants a thorough probe into the incident.

Paltoo was previously charged with wounding and sentenced to prison for one year and was released in March of this year. Paltoo remains in police custody as investigations continue.Meanwhile, the couple has an 18-month-old daughter who is physically challenged. Paltoo also has a 17-year-old son.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Customers of the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service will now find it much easier to receive attention, with the recent launch of its Customer Support Portal.

Director of Customer Service at the Ministry, Rory Stennett, explained that the portal will allow the Ministry’s customers to get responses to their queries quickly.

“We have an online platform that allows us to receive emails or allows customers to create a profile and log in and talk to us directly about a service they want to access. We call it the Customer Support Portal. We are adding a range of services to it but, essentially, customers can initiate several of our services from that platform,” Stennett said.

Once persons visit the Ministry’s website, there is a chat box available. When a member of the Ministry’s Customer Service team is available to chat, an icon will be displayed, and the customer can click and interact with a team member directly.

He explained the various ways persons can access the portal. “If you email us using custserve@mof.gov.jm a ticket is automatically generated, and it will also give you a link to access the portal. At that link, you can create a password or just log in without a password, it has what’s called a one-time password,” Mr. Stennett explained.

“You can click ‘contact us on our website, which will give you a link to log on to the portal. And there’s another link on the same page, which is on the footer, which says ‘customer service’. So, those are the methods to get in there. If you call our team and you want to give us something verbally that we have to escalate or work on over a longer time, we will create a ticket for you. We’ll collect your email address, and then that will generate a ticket to you with the way to log into the portal,” he added.

Stennett said the team usually has a quick response time to queries of one to two days.

“But our team has been responding within a day, generally, or even faster, depending on how many of our people are available,” he added.

The Customer Service Director noted that the resolution time to queries varies based on the nature of the issues.

“If it’s Access to Information (ATI), the legislation allows us 30 days to track down the information you need and to give it to you. So that’s built into the portal,” he said.

The Customer Support Portal was launched in April and became fully operational in July.

The Ministry says it has received positive feedback from its customers and plans to build out additional features to make the system even more efficient.

“Customers are quite surprised when they first interface with it because they’re surprised they get an instant ticket. But, over time, they’ve got the confidence that this thing will be handled, that we haven’t forgotten it.” Mr. Stennett said.

“There is a portion of this platform where when we resolve tickets, we send it back to the customer through the platform to say we think we’ve solved your issue, go ahead and close if you believe this. I’m surprised that customers are actually going in and closing it themselves, to show they are satisfied with the service,” he noted.

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