19 Dec. 2021 (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!)
Weekly Current (archived version)
Year in Review 2021. New board members for LIFE. ‘Pandemic in Paradise’ series.
And more!
Welcome to this week’s newsletter on education in the Cayman Islands.
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Message from the Editor
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
It’s been a tremendous year for the Cayman Current, local nonprofit journalism and the Cayman Islands education system.
As 2021 draws to a close, we want to take a step back and consider all that the Current and our community of supporters have been able to accomplish in this short period of time.
To our readers, donors and supporters, we extend our deepest gratitude. We look forward to even bigger and better things to come in the year (and years) ahead.
(Visit our Donation page here.)
We give special thanks to our Founding Sponsors: Broadhurst Law Firm and Health City Cayman Islands.
We also want to acknowledge the Project Sponsors of our upcoming mini-documentary series on TVET and STEM Education: Dart, Health City and Enterprise Cayman.
Without the support of our sponsors and individual donors, the Current simply would not exist.
As our readers know, the Current is the Cayman Islands’ first non-profit public service journalism organisation. Our mission is to improve the country’s education system by informing the public, engaging the community and facilitating discourse on this vital issue.
Allow me to share with you our ‘Year in Review’, which is a month-by-month summary of some of the highlights from the Current since it was established.
(Read our ‘Cayman Current: Year in Review 2021’ here.)
I won’t ‘resummarise’ the summary in this newsletter, but I strongly encourage you to read the Year in Review and consider two things: 1) The impact that the Current already has had on Cayman’s education system, and 2) The tremendous positive change that the Current could potentially have in the future — not just on Education, but in other significant areas of public interest, including Sustainability, Innovation, Health, Accountability, Justice and People.
Our only limitation is the amount of funding and support that we receive from the community.
If you believe as I do, that high-quality, trustworthy public service journalism is vital to society, and if you think that, unfortunately, this sort of journalism in Cayman is in diminishing supply — please, please show your support for the Current and our mission by making a donation, in any amount, right now.
(Visit our Donation page here.)
You can donate via online bank transfer, secure debit/credit card transaction or PayPal. Or you can send a message that you will make an offline donation by cheque or cash.
Regardless of whether you personally are in a position to make a financial contribution, please help us by spreading the word about the Current to your family, friends and colleagues. Also, please tell your company or employer about the Current and suggest that they consider becoming a sponsor of our non-profit news organisation.
Fundraising doesn’t come naturally to me, and it’s not easy for me to ask for money. But funding is vital for the Current to survive, thrive and grow.
(Visit our Donation page here.)
I promise you, the Current will always be a responsible steward of your trust, and we will apply our resources efficiently, transparently and directly to our mission and our public service journalism.
Thank you for being a part of the Cayman Current community. Together we can effect positive change on the Cayman Islands, for this and future generations.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours.
Best regards,
Patrick Brendel
Founder and Editor, Cayman Current
Programming Note: Due to the holiday, the Current will be ‘closed’ for the next two weeks. The next issue of the Weekly Current newsletter will come out on 9 Jan. 2022. (As always, during this time we will continue to update the www.CaymanCurrent.org website with any important or ‘breaking’ news that may arise.)
(Read our ‘Cayman Current: Year in Review 2021’ here.)
Week In Review
Local charity Literacy Is For Everyone (LIFE) has two new board members: Lynne Byles of Tower Marketing and Sam Nehra of Real Vision.
“LIFE is so pleased to welcome these ladies to our team of committed Directors. Both bring a lot of experience and expertise to the table. Low literacy is a driver of inequality, which can pose serious socio-economic consequences. We are thrilled to continue to grow our organisation and empower future generations of the Cayman Islands,” said Woody Foster, LIFE Chairman.
(Read the press release on Byles’s and Nehra’s appointments here.)
This week we continued publishing ‘Pandemic in Paradise’, a series of stories by Caribbean journalists, enabled by Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI in Spanish).
The third story in the series, ‘The Setbacks of the Management of COVID-19 in Haiti‘, shows that “Lack of government resources, cultural beliefs, political turmoil and natural disasters have made it impossible for the ruined Haiti’s healthcare system to adequately respond to and monitor the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The fourth story, ‘Mortality Skyrockets in the French Caribbean during the Post-Vaccine Pandemic‘, states that it is difficult to know how many people in Guadeloupe and Martinique have died from COVID-19 outside hospitals. The story also details the “state of insurrection” in Guadelouope sparked by popular anti-vaccination sentiments and broader anti-colonial concerns.
We’ll continue publishing the CPI series as new stories become available. Stay tuned …
Around The Web
The Current is a central resource for education journalism by others, including regional and international news relevant to Cayman education. (Find our running collection of links here.)
- Loop News Cayman: Leonora Mendoza-Hydes to join Triple C School as new principal
- Jamaica Observer: UTech fury!
- Jamaica Gleaner: Government fires unvaccinated teachers in St Vincent
- Eye Witness News (Bahamas): NO EXCUSES: Education director says uniform not a necessity to return to the classroom
The Week Ahead
- Merry Christmas!
- Happy New Year!
- The Weekly Current will return 9 Jan. 2022
- Current Year in Review