January 7 - 13, 2012
TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS
7
NATIONAL
A million and more came WHEN John and Alexandria Ducar of New York stepped off a JetBlue aircraft and burst through the doors of the Providenciales airport on December 31, they became the millionth and one and millionth and two visitors to Turks and Caicos for the 2011 calendar year. Earlier in the day on Grand Turk, Maggie Hanson of Bellingham, Washington alighted from a cruise ship to score the exact millionth visitor mark. But as important a landmark as are these numbers by themselves, the Turks and Caicos tourism industry is projecting to have exceeded them by far at the conclusion of the year. In fact up to press time numbers are still being tallied, and Director of Tourism Ralph Higgs told Weekly News that they are expecting a final count at approximately 1,008,000. This he describes as a cautious
estimate. He said that officials were still busy checking out and tabulating the estimated thousands more visitors who arrived that Saturday, December 31 by the hundreds of private jets that flew into Turks and Caicos before declaring a grand total. While the bean counters did their work the Ducar couple were throwing back and vacationing on Provo, enjoying their newfound celebrity status, soaking up the feting and hospitality brought on by the Tourism Department and the Turks and Caicos Hotel and Tourism Association. They even found time to drop into our Weekly News office, before being carted off to another sumptuous TCI lunch. “It’s the moment,” John Ducar said as he explained the feeling when told what number the arrival
‘This is the life’. Millionth and one visitor John Ducar spreads his arms to embrace all in the Weekly News office. From left are TCHTA Association Executive, Stacy Cox, Alexandria Ducar, John, and Director of Tourism, Ralph Higgs.
of himself meant. “You read about things like that, but I never thought it could happen to us.” When the couple arrived they were greeted by government tourism officials and TCHTA representatives, who called them out by name. “I thought they were going to strip-search us,” said Alexandria
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future bodes well for TCIS to be part of future growth. In 2012, I would like to see campaign finance reforms to control inevitable elections and to prevent investors from buying political parties and the country by extension. The results were that in 2007 investors were free to buy the government, there weren’t any controls, jobs, PRCS, Belongerships were sold and the TCIslander was displaced in his own Country. All of this made the commission and the need for the British to come in inevitable. With the right laws, this can avoided and the country can grow again. Elections in the future should be fair and free so that people who care about the TCI can be elected and not the usual players who are controlled by investors and are there to play games. I would like to see the SIPT funded by the UK Government, look into TCI Bank and the missing $20 Million or so of National Insurance Funds; let the SIPT open a probe on the Stevedoring Deal at South Dock because it is adding severely to cost of living. Let the SIPT, if it can, investigate the hospital scam so that unnecessary costs can be avoided. Let there be return of all the lands which were taken and sold for cents on the dollar returned to the Crown for the benefit of the people of the TCI. Let us chose political leaders who are sensible, mature, responsible, caring, educated and minded about the affairs of the TCI first and themselves last. These are some of the few things we ought to see for the future.
In addition to celebrity treatment, Mr and Mrs Ducar and Maggie Hanson were awarded visitorrelated prizes, including JetBlue airlines round trips to TCI, three nights at Sevenstars Penthouse and spa treatment; four nights a Regent Palms, and tickets for two each to North Caicos.
Giving civil servants a ... continued from
“Whoa! What me a celebrity,” is what John Ducar appears to be saying after being told he is the millionth and one tourist and handed a fruit and rum punch. In background is wife, Alexandria.
relating her first thoughts in being met by these strangers who knew them. The Ducars, who flew out Friday, January 06, said that in their VIP tours around Provo, the experience that stood out the most to them was the friendliness of the people and their general hospitality.
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of the CSA’s movement given the apparent determination by the UK to restore TCI coffers whatever the cost, will be persuaded by a string of victories. They include vast improvements to proffered voluntary redundancy packages and, Ewing is convinced, a u-turn on additional salary and allowance cuts. “Making noise has helped – but we need to make more noise,” he continues. “An initial proposal in the voluntary redundancy scheme was a total ban on ever returning to the service. “We got it down to a two-year ban with conditions attached such as training opportunities to help workers improve themselves.” The old adage ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune’ has never been more apt following Britain’s underwriting of the massive $260m rescue package. The monetary injection to drag the islands out of the fiscal doldrums came at a price. It had the result of shackling the TCI to an economic ultimatum. London insists the country must be on track to a fiscal surplus, despite the languid global economy, before an election date can be set. With precious UK taxpayers’ pounds at risk, British financiers are unlikely to budge on their contentious programme of restoring the islands’ cash-flow. “Because the British government guaranteed the loan, everything done and every policy made is scrutinised by them, so they call the shots on everything,” Ewing says ruefully. “I think that’s unfair, there’s no subjectivity.” While many islanders have been quick to lambaste the British officials overseeing the treasury, Ewing is more judicious.
“I tell them I have nothing against any of them personally, they are civil servants just like me who come to do a job on behalf of the politicians in the UK. “It’s the policy makers, not the robots who carry out the instructions, that I have a problem with.” In September last year, Ewing again made headlines when he resigned from his position as the TCI’s principle health chief. The forthright father-of-one pointed to a grievous litany of being barred from crucial information and decision-making. “I didn’t feel a part of the health team,” he states frankly. “I was giving advice which wasn’t being taken, yet, because I was chief medical officer, I was being blamed for it. I was not going to continue to put myself in a position like that. “I still feel I have a lot to give – and it reached the point where I felt I could do more from outside.” A qualified surgeon, Ewing is a keen supporter of a social health care system which caters to all, regardless of income. Nephew to celebrated nurse Myrtle Rigby, as a child growing up in Providenciales he spent much of his time at the old Blue Hills clinic. “I was always fascinated by what my aunt was doing. I remember stealing syringes and injecting lizards,” he laughs. “Later when I moved to Grand Turk I was exposed to more television; I used to love watching Trapper John MD and Quincy.” It was to fuel a deep-seated desire to work in medicine, his studies taking him across the Caribbean and UK before qualifying as a surgeon in 1998. The lucrative profession could easily have seen him taking a wellearned break these days. “I could be relaxing quite well in my own little cocoon but that’s not me and it does not serve me well for
my future and my family’s future. “I am not fighting for me but for the kids – and everyone else out there who can’t fight for themselves right now.” He admits the strain of the ongoing battle has been exhausting. “Many times along the way I just felt like giving up. Sometimes you ask yourself what you’re fighting for. “But the CSA are a great team and they take up the mantle and keep the flame burning. “Even when my presidency comes to an end I take comfort in the fact that the CSA have a number of people who can keep it going – and they will always have my support and advice.” As son of legendary politician Hilly Ewing, one might assume Ewing would follow in his father’s footsteps. While he says politics is not his desire, he concedes it may be his destiny. Many of his compatriots would be likely to back him but for now, he states, the resumption of elected government should be a primary focus for all. Ewing’s biggest source of strength, he says, is his wife, Dr Dawn Perry. “She feels like I do – I have done some good work but there’s still lots more to do.” It’s indeed a fight that’s far from over. The CSA is still negotiating with the government over a number of employment and redundancy conditions. While the association says it won’t accept a straight ‘no’, how successful it will ultimately be on the residual sticking points remains to be seen. “Many civil servants feel powerless and helpless, they feel like these people will do what they like anyway,” Ewing adds. “A lot of the population feels like that too – and I don’t know why when there’s so much power available collectively.”