Trouble in the sky
A Beaconite feels incredibly fortunate. Last year he flew from here to Barbados:
The plane touched down in St. Martin, and after a quick transfer in Antigua he was on to the final destination in a timely fashion. He didn’t lose his luggage, and he found the airline’s staff to be pleasant and accommodating. He feels so lucky because he was flying on LIAT. The Beaconite isn’t here to complain, only to reflect on the preposterous amount of complaints he’s seen — both from travelling friends, and plastered all over the Internet — in the past few weeks. It couldn’t be more obvious. Everyone’s saying it. Time for something to change.
Finders keepers?
Over $4.8 billion was lost by depositors and other creditors in Allen Stanford’s massive Ponzi scheme. Now, asset recovery specialists, including some in the Virgin Islands, are trying to get that money back. Some of that money may be relatively close at hand. A Beaconite who recently completed a lengthy article about the recovery efforts learned that Mr. Stanford’s auditor, Charles Hewlett, who died in 2008, maintained a bank account in the VI. The account, held at a Road Town bank, contains “a few hundred thousand” dollars, a VI practitioner said, adding that the funds there may represent bribes paid to Mr. Hewlett from Mr. Stanford. Though hundreds of thousands of dollars may seem like a lot, it could cost nearly that much to prove that the funds belong in the Stanford estate, and the potential return doesn’t justify the effort, the practitioner said. That made the Beaconite wonder what will happen to the funds. If they aren’t transferred to an heir of Mr. Hewlett or otherwise claimed, the VI government may eventually receive them under the 2010 Dormant Accounts Act. Barring that, though, if no one else wants the money, Beaconites would like to offer to assist the bank by withdrawing the funds.
Leading by example?
On Monday night, a Beaconite was walking along Station Avenue after 10 p.m. when she saw a police jeep run a red light. The officers didn’t appear to be in a hurry, and they weren’t flashing their lights or using a siren. The reporter isn’t sure if there’s a law that allows them to break traffic rules in this manner, but she doubts it. Fortunately, there were no other vehicles using the intersection at the time.
On the map
A Beaconite who has just returned from a trip to the United States had fun trying to describe the Virgin Islands to residents of the small Arkansas town she visited. People wondered how VI residents spend their time, where exactly the islands are, what kinds of foods are eaten here, and, over and over again, just how excellent the beaches are. The reporter enjoyed answering the questions about the territory, and was amused by the various reactions. The reporter’s cousins and siblings were relieved that she could get their antsy children to sit still when she opened up her laptop and showed them pictures of the territory. Her favourite reaction came from a 7-year-old nephew, who upon seeing some photos the reporter took during a recent visit to White Bay sagely declared that the reporter and her friends must have been posing in a swimming pool.
Yum: spiders
This weekend a Beaconite noticed that a wasp was paying frequent visits to his living room. He soon realised why: On one of the ceiling rafters, it had built a small nest out of what appeared to be clay. The Beaconite has no problem with wasps, but he decided he didn’t want one living in his house. So he waited until the insect flew away and whacked the nest with a broom handle. He was shocked when about a dozen spiders fell to the ground. He jumped back before realising that the spiders weren’t moving. Then he whacked the nest a few more times, knocking to the ground dozens more spiders of several different species. At one point, the wasp came back and grabbed one of the spiders from the partially destroyed nest and flew away with it. The Beaconite was mystified, but a Google search enlightened him. The wasp, he now believes, was an organ pipe mud dauber: The species is known to paralyse spiders with a sting before bringing them back to its nest. Then, in each of several compartments, it seals a single egg and several spiders for its offspring to eat upon hatching. After realising he had ruined all the wasp’s hard work, the Beaconite felt somewhat guilty. But he still doesn’t want a wasp nest in his living room.