Head of Caribbean Medical School Arrested on Arson Charges

The board chairman of a Caribbean medical school with ties to George Mason University has been charged with arson for a series of fires on the island of Curaçao, although none of them affected the school, according to reports in the local news media.

The official, John Daryanani, has been harried for years by rumors of money troubles, and at least one of the fires struck a business in which his family holds an interest.

The medical school, known as the St. Martinus University Faculty of Medicine, began operating in 2003, part of a boom in such for-profit institutions over the last decade. During a Chronicle reporter’s visit in mid-2005, St. Martinus had seven full-time professors and 35 students, half of the enrollment that Mr. Daryanani said it required to break even. At that time, several professors but no students were from the United States.

St. Martinus employees who answered the telephone recently said that they could not comment on events there or state whether the school’s operations had been affected by Mr. Daryanani’s arrest.

Last year St. Martinus signed an agreement with George Mason to enable “qualified Mason undergraduates” to apply 12 biology credits toward their first year of studies at St. Martinus. The deal also created a need-based scholarship for a George Mason graduate to study at St. Martinus.

George Mason representatives said they did not know whether anybody associated with George Mason had been at St. Martinus or was affected by events there. Local news reports did not indicate that students or university operations had been affected.

St. Martinus is one of dozens of medical colleges in Caribbean nations that teach in English and enroll students from the United States or other wealthy nations who plan to return home to practice medicine. However, no American or international agency monitors the schools’ educational quality. —Mike Ceaser

Am I surprised no. People and arson in the Caribbean is like bears and shitting in the woods. Them Indians in partuclar have a love or fascination with fire and burning shit down for insurance money. I was in St Lucia this year and about seven buildings or business properties got burnt down in next to no time. They even raided on manufacturer tied up the employees took them outside to safety and burnt the building down..

Normal tings in many Caribbean islands.

Thanks,

May I ask you do you think this force serious investors to avoid and not implement a serious year by year like 20 year investment down?

If this is considered common.

I keep hearing about long-term investing but these actions are the kind of effort we usually see and 'smell'

I see that the university is not burned...with American affiliation (hope someone catches it)

Defyfear..I got to thank you in many ways for the posts and questions you and usually you post and raise in Caribbean and regional affairs.

To your question yes and no. The majority or plenty of people from abroad invest their money in the Caribbean quite safely. But me and my people take a different view which shapes our complete approach to investing in the region.

When you operate as a loner or small group with little serious understanding of the environment which you are operating in you are at risk...because the potential forces against you will be greater than your own resources. So shit may never happen but if it does you are at a major disadvantage depending on what kind of business you are in. I mean you can invest in the Caribbean banking system or through it because it is world standard in most parts and you will get the same level of service there as here or in the US although the product range is smaller obviously. I mean you can purchase almost any investment vehicle from stocks, to bond and even indirectly enter the commodity market in big Western banks..which you cannot in most Caribbean banks with some exceptions. But it is safe and financial investing does not require a physical pressence and exposure to risk no matter how small.

You can buy property to your hearts content on the any number of developments in most islands which are very secure from that type of risk or violence. But in other areas of business you need far more knowledge and inside intelligence before I would advise people to invest their money. A bit like going into competition with a business owned by the Sorpranos and not know it until shit kicks off.

This how me and my people make a lot of business, because intelligence is power and it takes a very long time and know how to really understand the way a community or sector works and who have invested interests and the type of resources they have or whether they are straight business people or people who utilise thugs when needed or with a reputation of not being straight. It sometimes boils down to areas or sectors and if your interests cross, but you can be in business and never have anything to do with these people and to be honest by western standards most of these boys are jokers and we have no problem putting the fear of god into them. It is just ordinary folk who are small in numbers and have no preparation or background in that type of stuff who will be frightened off or panicked.

In St Lucia for example most of the guys setting these fires I know or it wouldn't take me long to find out and in fact the police probably worked out who is behind these things by who gains by these fires and what little crew they paid $300.00 if that to set these fires. I remember in the same island about say 7 years ago a successful Bajan supermarket created a branch there in line with economic integration and all that and really started to do some real good business and taking on supermarkets owned by the island's red skinned elite..Well if they had done their research properly and found out who own their main competitors and something about how these respectable flex when exposed to serious competition they would either not set up there or come with the kind of approach we would come with which sends a clear message that we are here to do business and here for good until we say otherwise.

But to come there with three or four people...they were having a laugh or asking for it..I mean its not like they are white because white woman will come by herself and compete with their arse and shit aint happening to her....

If you want to take on the big boys in Caribbean business..you need a serious hard core security and intelligence capacity and know how to use it..Outside of that play safe and avoid serious competition.in business matters...Unless that is you are bringing something fresh and new and catch them fools flat-footed and then protect your knowledge. We have been working on a business area for years and it is as top secret as you can get because of this. Once they realise raass they will want to muscle in on your contacts or suppliers etc so we had to lock them things down first and long in advance because we know how those boys flex when they hear new tings....Think Sopranos and you will be in good shape.

Defyfear just to drive the point home. White and foreign serious investment don't need protection because they are the ones who have the most $100 thugs along with the local elite. It is black serious investment which requires the things I am talking about, because the irony is this while all Caribbean governments can't stop talking about the need for black investment and in fact in talks with a major financial institution from the region who wants to do business here..So it is an ongoing discussion..

None of these governments have even thought on a serious level how they protect our people from the type of thing which could happen or eliminate those risks. Most of them cannot protect their own citizens in inner cities from the rise in crime. So we as ever do for self with their cooperation usually but without if if necessary. They can't have it both ways and we know how to politically manoeuvre them so they look the other way if necessary.

About ten years ago there when guns broke out in a few Eastern Caribbean islands and the police went on a crackdown with road blocks and massive random searches. We had a very important business appointment, about 8 of us from abroad and we had to go through a very notorious area with a very narrow road on a cliff where they jack people at gun point, because you can't step out of your vehicle on one side unless you want to risk falling to your death.

We had no choice but to go through that route. No problem, but worse was the amount of police check points and one major one in particular we had to go through. Just spoke to one of my close people in senior ranks of the police and explained about 20 of us had to go through that check point without being searched as we were armed to the teeth. My man knows we aint no gangsters or drug dealers and know what we are here for. Once we return safely I assured him I would l personally make sure all the weapons and bullets are collected and if he wanted to send an officer to check no problems. We got what we wanted and was not stopped at the check points.

The point is the system and government cannot have it both ways. You want our money you better protect us and if you can't allow us to protect our own within a clear understanding how things go. Simple as.

And this is why we spend so much time and money doing what we do because we know there is massive opportunities in the Caribbean and Latin America region but like the wild west we got to tame some shit first before the rest of our people can really benefit.

Thanks in response to what you mention

Do any of these big money operating businesses ever complain about crime to the government in a public way like how the media report citizens concerns on crimes including local business?

DF..As I said many of these organised crimes of the type I mentioned big business is behind it..For example when Walmart wanted to open some superstores in the Eastern CAribbean the people wanted the elite did not and stopped it but anyhow Walmart did open trust me fire fi dem they would burn or bomb that shit out of existence or did what they did to Julien's from Barbados hire local thugs to rob them every other week and shut shit down.

Tourism is the thing as ever which forces the elite to complain about the crime they do not run or shall i say other members of their crew don't run..They all have big money in tourism and as you know it is the sacred cow in our world and rightly so because it brings in serious dollars..Here is the augment. Killing in the cities etc stop cruise ship passengers wandering around..Bad for business..Bus tour operators can't drop people off to walk around how they want in particular parts of the cities..bad for business so forth and so on..So yes they complain selectively about crime while they oversee other crimes which are less visible..But anything which hits tourism affects the elite and members of society who are not eliet but depend on it from bus operators to prostitutes right down..

Right now in St Lucia there is a guy called Richard Fredricks an ex cop who is a serious gangster who everybody in the know they better stop this dude now before it is too late. Drug smuggler and defender of bent cops, specialising in drug cases and defending cops who never lost a case because his boys steal evidence and all kinds of shit. i mean the evidence I have on this dude alone never mind others who are on his arse 24/7 and he is organised or trying to introduce Jamaican garrison politics by organising ghetto youth and splashing his drugs money around to buy them. Compton for all his faults knew about this bitch and did his best to remove him from Parliament but old Compie died and the bitch is back.

We need to ice that dude for real take him out because the shit he is going to cause in the region is frightening Big boys run crime in these places. The thing about Fredericks he is a little punk who could not even take a bitch slap but he has nuff drugs money to buy ignorant boys..But their level of technical skills is piss poor and no threat for people on their game. But the elite and law enforcement got my man marked and only time before they move on him and in fact the Customs and Excecise are already on him as the first phase of putting this bitch out of business for tax dodging and the police are going in for the second prong..They are after him but I would take him out simple as..because he is successfully building a urban constituency as a poor urban boy come good who the elite want to put of business because they are jealous when the reality he is big time criminal.