EDITORIAL

Are we coming apart? (Part Two)

 Thursday  April 7, 2005

To take the public pulse on this April morning in the Cayman Islands is to find much agreement with yesterday’s Cayman Net News editorial that our country is clearly not the place it used to be. 

The combination of irregular government practices, political arrogance, infrastructure askew, and most recently, serious violent crime, has left this community reeling.

In political meetings and in media discussion, the phrase “we have to take our country back”, or similar sentiments, is now being heard with a frequency and intensity that is unusual for our beloved Cayman Islands.

This newspaper, sharing the concern, is contending that a fundamental contributor to this dismal condition is the Caymanian reluctance to speak out, to stand up and be counted, to confront rather than be conciliatory.

It is the Caymanian way to take a benign approach, and it is an integral part of the natural warmth of our people, but we cannot “take back our country” by simply uttering the phrase. 

It will take more than lip service to stop the slide; it could be said that the Caymanian character must adapt to these perilous times, and we are not afraid to say so. We must all become involved, openly and clearly, by letting the people who make decisions affecting our lives know when we consider them to be wrong.

The slide, for example, into government decisions or approaches that fly in the face of good order, will stop only when citizens declare their opposition.

Whether it is a Million Man march on Washington, a human rights protest in London, or people on the street in the recent Schiavo issue, enlightened citizens know how to steer or influence the directions of their societies. 

Caymanians must begin to do that. In a peaceful, orderly fashion, we must do more than complain to each other on the phone and in the sly.

The slide within families requires individuals who are responsible to take responsibility. Harsh words may have to be spoken, scuffles may ensue, but unless we confront the small aberrations as they surface far worse behaviour is ahead as we are now seeing here in the rise in domestic abuse and crimes of anger. 

On the matter of public protest, one of the 2005 election candidates made the point recently that when problems arise here Caymanians tend to grumble about it for a while but the condition remains.

In the case of the 3000-plus mass Caymanian status grants in 2003, for example, this candidate said protest lines at the Glass House would have caused a reduction or halt in the grants. But that, said the candidate, is not the Caymanian way. 

The stance the candidate describes may have been suitable in the Cayman of the 1960s; today, worrying forces are taking advantage of that diffidence to our increasing detriment.

It is going to be argued that what we are proposing is essentially a change in the Caymanian character, the Caymanian way, and that that will be a retrograde step, but we are at a stage now where there are choices to be made. If Caymanians don’t become more assertive, the slide we are seeing around us will continue. 

We are not proposing a nation of confrontational activists, screaming invective or burning tyres in the streets. That is one end of the spectrum. But Caymanians are at the other end where, apart from a few talk-show calls, their voices on major issues are generally muted. 

In the language of Bob Dylan, “the times they are a-changin’” – indeed, and Caymanians have to change with them. If we decide not to, it will be at our own peril; the signs are already all around us. So indeed, let’s take advantage of these trying times – because, change is good.

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