McKeeva Bush: Poverty line relative

from the Cayman Compass

By Alan Markoff,

Responding to what he called a “misinterpretation of a scientific study for political motives” Leader of the Opposition McKeeva Bush said the National Assessment of Living Conditions report was not intended to measure poverty in the Cayman Islands.

Mr. Bush made the statement in press statement issued Monday concerning the recently released NALC report, which found only a 1.9 per cent poverty rate in the Cayman Islands.

“The NALC report reference to 1.9 per cent as the poverty rate is based on an absolute definition of extreme poverty and is only appropriate to be used for country comparisons,” Mr. Bush said. “The current conceptual interpretation of the meaning of poverty extends far beyond extreme poverty… and it is accepted that relative poverty studies rather than absolute studies are more appropriate.”

Mr. Bush pointed out that what is considered poor in the Cayman Islands may not be considered poor elsewhere.

“Such an understanding of poverty was also articulated by the Cayman Islands Human Rights Committee on 29 October, 2007, as they addressed the need to eradicate poverty in the Cayman Islands as a prerequisite to addressing human rights.”

The CIHC stated at the time that poverty was evident “when people are not able to achieve the standard of living that is usual for the community in which they live”.

Mr. Bush said the definition of poverty differs between developing countries and developed countries.

“As suggested by the NALC team, the Cayman Islands’ relatively high per capita gross domestic product makes it appropriate to assess poverty in line with acceptable methods in North America and Europe.”

Mr. Bush said that in the US and Europe, the poverty line is calculated as a percentage of median income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living.

“Even with the reality that the Government’s permanent financial assistance programme exceeds the absolute poverty used in the NALC, [Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts] still insisted on representing the 1.9 per cent poverty rate as the true picture of poverty in the Cayman Islands in an attempt to improve the standing of his PPM administration,” Mr. Bush said. “Under the UDP administration, the poverty line was established at CI$1,800 per month in 2003. This is a far more realistic poverty line at $21,600 [per annum] as compared to the $3,983 per annum [in the NALC report].”

Mr. Bush said the PPM’s policies to address poverty in the Cayman Islands were “distorted by the disconnect between them and the poor people”.

Although the Opposition said its review of the NALC report concluded it provided worthy information and was sound in its methodology, the faulty results of the study were a result of misinterpretation for political motives.

“Misinterpreted or sinuously used scientific studies are more dangerous than ignorance, as they elevate the position by giving it undeserved credence,” Mr. Bush said.

Turning to Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, Mr. Bush said one of the most significant findings of the NALC report had eluded Mr. Tibbetts, or had been intentionally ignored.

“This government has frequently been accused of making the rich richer and the poor poorer,” he said, adding that the NALC report determined that there was significant inequality in the Cayman Islands, especially in the Sister Islands.

“These important findings were suspiciously omitted from the statement by Mr. Tibbetts, leading to our conclusion that his statement and misinterpretations of the NALC report were all politically motivated.”

MLA slams Gov’t, poverty study

from the Cayman Compass

By Alan Markoff,

Opposition MLA Cline Glidden Jr. questioned the validity of the findings of the National Assessment of Living Conditions during his contribution to the budget debate Wednesday.

Mr. Glidden also criticised the way Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts suggested the findings contradicted statements made by Leader of the Opposition McKeeva Bush concerning the state of Cayman’s economy.

The NALC report set the poverty line at CI$3,983 per annum, which amounts to $10.90 per day. The amount of that allocated for a food was $1.83 per day.

“That number is not realistic,” Mr. Glidden said, noting that Mr. Tibbetts and the rest of the government must realise the figure was not realistic in Cayman.

“What surprises me is the Leader of Government Business would use the information [in the NALC report] to criticise the Leader of the Opposition.”

In announcing the findings of the NALC study last week, Mr. Tibbetts said the results were in sharp contrast with the doom and gloom picture of living conditions painted by Mr. Bush in his budget debate.

“There was a deliberate attempt, for obvious political reasons, to convey the impression that life here was a living hell. The NALC study confounds the jaundiced perspective of the Leader of the Opposition,” Mr. Tibbetts said in his address to the House.

Mr. Glidden said he looked up statistics at the United States Department of Health and Human Services and found that in 2007, the poverty line for the 48 contiguous states was set at US$10,210 for a single person in a household. He noted that since almost all consumer goods are imported to Cayman, they are even more expensive here.

“Yet lo and behold, we’re able to get the poverty level to 1/3 that of the United States,” he said. “What kind of creative math is that?”

Mr. Glidden noted that in Alaska, where consumer goods cost more because of shipping costs, the poverty line was set even higher, at US$12,770. Because of shipping and duty cost to of consumer goods to Cayman, Mr. Glidden suggested the poverty line would have to be at the very least $15,000 in Cayman.

He added that he would have expected the government or Mr. Tibbetts, whose budget speech was themed “keeping the faith” give some reasoning as to how the poverty line could be so low for Cayman.

Although the NALC report found only 1.9 per cent of Cayman’s population was living at or under the poverty line, Mr. Glidden suggested it had to be higher than that.

“I hope the government is not making a lot of decisions based on [the NALC] report’s math.”

Boatswain’s Beach

Mr. Glidden responded to comments made by Cabinet Minister Alden McLaughlin during his debate last week. Mr. McLaughlin criticised Mr. Bush for Boatswain’s Beach losing money because he said it was built on a false premise and without a “properly articulated financial strategy”. He suggested changing the name of the tourist attraction to “McKeeva’s Folly”.

Mr. Glidden repeated the figures cited by Mr. McLaughlin during his debate, when he rattled off the losses of Boatswain’s Beach. Those losses were $557,841 in 2004; $953,000 in 2005; $4,265,000 in 2006 and $7,672,000 in 2007. Mr. McLaughlin said Boatswain’s Beach’s losses were projected to be $10 million by the end of this year.

Mr. Glidden said he was surprised the government was still trying to blame the Boatswain’s Beach losses on the previous administration three years after assuming office.

“They say the reason is bad boy McKeeva Bush, who didn’t have a plan in place,” he said, noting that three years later, the PPM had not come up with a plan to reduce losses.

“They were so happy to put their name on Boatswain’s Beach, but when it comes to losses, it’s the previous administration,” he said.

Despite the rising losses since the PPM government took office, Mr. Glidden said they persist in blaming that “bad boy from West Bay”.

“But what worked in 2005, blaming everything on the former Leader of Government Business, that’s not working any more. People aren’t listening to that tale any more.”

Balanced budget illusion

Mr. Glidden spoke about the claims of the Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson and cabinet members concerning the balanced budget.

“They have been bragging we have a balanced budget, but what does that really prove? What is that to hang your hat on?”

Mr. Glidden said the budgets presented by governments are often just a way of fooling the public “to create a balanced budget illusion”.

He used an example of last year when the judiciary needed $1.8 million for legal aid, but because the Opposition wanted to see a report on why the cost was so high for Cayman, only half was allocated in the initial budget. But without the report ever being done, the government came back and added another $900,000 at the end of the year with a supplemental appropriation. Mr. Glidden said the same $900,000 is budgeted in the upcoming financial year, even though the government knows full well it will have to come back and make a supplemental appropriation for an amount the judiciary knows it needs.

“When at the beginning of the financial year the government says it has a balanced budget, that doesn’t carry a lot of weight or comfort to our people because they know how the system works,” he said, adding that people must wait until the end of the financial year to make judgments about a budget being balanced or not.”

Mr. Glidden said the government was quick to condemn the opposition for questioning the budget because it was insulting to the financial secretary. He noted that Mr. Jefferson also presented the previous government’s budget, which drew the criticism of the same people who are now praising him.

“Now [Mr. Jefferson] is a good man, a conservative individual, and the country should have confidence in any budget he presents,” he said. “Back then it was the government’s budget and he was just the messenger.”

Mr. Glidden also raised the point of the Cayman General Insurance Hurricane Ivan settlement, which Mr. McLaughlin said during his debate “robbed this country of $70 million in insurance payments that we ought to have had”.

Cayman poverty ‘marginal’

from the Cayman Compass

By Alan Markoff,

The National Assessment of Living Conditions study indicates only 1.9 per cent of the population in the Cayman Islands – which would amount to just more than 1,000 people – live below the poverty line.

The majority of those classified as poor are non–Caymanians, Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts said in a statement in Legislative Assembly Wednesday.

“It is an immense source of pride to Government – and should be for Caymanians as well – to learn that the study found we have the lowest rate of poverty in the entire English–speaking Caribbean,” Mr. Tibbetts said.

Cayman’s 1.9 per cent poverty level compared to 9.3 per cent in the Bahamas in 2001 and 11 per cent in the British Virgin Islands in 2002, he pointed out.

“In most other Caribbean countries, the average rate is above 10 per cent.”

The National Assessment of Living Conditions, which was done in association with the Caribbean Development Bank, was the first scientific study of its kind ever conducted in the Cayman Islands. The final report will be released to the public Friday.

“The study has yielded a considerable amount of valuable information,” Mr. Tibbetts said. “Government intends to put it to effective use in designing a social development strategy to benefit the poor and disadvantaged among us.”

Mr. Tibbetts said the government would target “the few pockets of poverty” identified by the report for relief. Speaking of the non–Caymanian poor, Mr. Tibbetts said many of them choose to live in poverty because they send the bulk of their earnings back home.

The finding that the majority of those classified as poor are non–Caymanian “contradicts the false view being peddled that non–Caymanians, generally speaking, are doing better than Caymanians,” Mr. Tibbetts said.

Another key finding of the report concerned health care satisfaction.

“Where health care is concerned, the majority of respondents, – 93.5 per cent – said they were either very satisfied or satisfied with treatment they have received,” Mr. Tibbetts said. “This finding, too, contradicts the picture of our health services that is painted by mostly critics of the Government.”

Mr. Tibbetts said the findings of the study, based on scientifically gathered data, counters fiction with fact.

Government earmarks $2 million for poverty eradication

from The Cayman Net News

Minister for Human Services, Hon. Anthony Eden, has given assurances that the eagerly anticipated poverty study will be tabled in the Legislative Assembly when it is completed.

The Minister told a Cabinet press briefing last week that action would be taken immediately after its findings are known, saying that $2 million has been earmarked for that purpose.

One of the criteria to receive funding of the National Assessment of Living Conditions (NALC) study, known as the Poverty Study, by the Caribbean Development Bank, was that the document would be made public when it is finalised, according to Mr Eden.

“I would like to put at rest the idea that this is going to be something that is not going to be dealt with,” said Mr Eden. “I have commitment from my Cabinet and my colleagues, the back benchers, that they will support us in this report and it will be tabled. It will not sit on the shelf.”

Moreover, Mr Eden said Government will commit up to $2 million for improvements to social services that are recommended by the study after it is tabled in the Legislative Assembly.

The poverty study intends to assess and quantify the social and economic problems of people who are living below the poverty level, as well as determine the demographic make up of the vulnerable sectors of the population. It will also form the basis for developing social programmes and services that would be most effective in meeting their needs.

The study will give people the opportunity to relate their experiences through individual and group discussions and talk about how they are coping.

There are two phases to the study: the participatory poverty assessment and the survey of living conditions/household budgeting survey.

The participatory poverty assessment phase will involve community meetings, focus groups and in-depth interview in targeted communities.

The participatory poverty phase will focus on key areas: how people sustain their livelihoods; public services currently available and the obstacles people face in accessing them.

In addition, the participatory poverty phase will also gather information on people’s concerns, needs and priorities, interventions and actions that are needed in order to improve their living conditions.

To get the participatory poverty phase off the ground, numerous volunteers are needed to be trained as enumerators. According to Mr Eden the National Assessment Team (NAT) visited all districts from including Cayman Brac to meet 150 volunteers who are interested in becoming enumerators from 8 through 18 January.

Through this series of meetings the ideas and feedback from volunteers was sought by the NAT in how to carry out the study.

In some of the district meetings, there were some concerns raised by the community that there may be issues in getting people who they don’t know to share such personal information about their lives.

Members from the NAT team stated that they were sensitive to this issue and that careful screening and training of facilitators and enumerators and training is being done to deal with this issue and to protect the anonymity of people who participate in the study.

The information obtained from both phases of the study will be combined into one report, which will be submitted to Government and released to the public.

The large number of 150 volunteers indicates that there is a significant amount of public support behind the study and Mr Eden has high hopes that the results will help Government be more effective in providing social services to vulnerable sectors of the population.

Mr Eden added that this study will take nine months, and no study of this magnitude has ever been done before in the Cayman Islands.

“This study is not just about poverty. It is across the board as so many of my people have said. It is to chart a path as we go forward for social development in the Cayman Islands.

“We all await and look forward improve the way we do business as a government and as we provide services to the less fortunate. I keenly await the final results and look forward with my colleagues to do the necessary implementation to make life better for all residents, not necessarily Caymanians, but all residents here in the Cayman Islands,” said Mr Eden.