LOCAL COMMENTARY

MY TAKE … for what it’s worth

By Carol Hay

Wednesday,  September 14, 2005

(The opinions presented in these articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the Hay family!) 

I’m not a week into my column and already people are stopping me and asking “Who you going to pick on next?”

I had to ask myself, am I sounding that cynical already? But as an old saying goes, if you throw a rock into a pig pen, the one who hollers loudest is the one that got hit…or something along those lines. I try to evoke people’s thoughts, not provoke them, honest!  Think of me more as a female Andy Rooney of the famed 60 Minutes news show.  Although Andy’s getting pretty long in the tooth and I get the urge to take a weed whacker to his eyebrows, I think when the results come in, they will show that we share the same DNA. 

I know it won’t be long before I get a slew of letters giving me other sides to my arguments. Yeah yeah yeah, I know everyone’s entitled to an opinion, but, to be frank, I often have to wonder when I get some people’s view on things, if there’s any air on their planet.

This week’s commentary, Hurricane Katrina, of course. The total inability of the US Government and other volunteers to get to those poor unfortunate people in New Orleans begs this question: If there was a massive earthquake in Beverly Hills, California, (assuming of course the logistics were the same), would it have taken 48 plus hours to get to them? The answer in my opinion is clearly, NO.

Other than the lightning-quick response that would have been effected, they would have probably dropped bottles of Dom Perignom and flute glasses instead of Aquafina! I just don’t get it, a great country like America that put the first man on the moon, can’t deal efficiently with a natural disaster that scientists have been warning about for decades.

In response to the US Government’s sluggishness to deal with the matter, I think it was best said by the President of Jefferson Parish, Aaron Broussard, when he asked Congress (this guy has as much tact as me!), to “Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot.  Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don’t give me the same idiot.”

And then, we have all these do-gooders on the TV – sports personalities and the likes, proclaiming they’re not helping out for the publicity. My question then is, what’s your sanctimonious mug doing all over my TV screen if you do not want the exposure?

How come you didn’t insist that the networks shadow your face and give you a voice-over like they do in those witness protection programmes?  Gimme a break.

Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with do-gooders being publicized, in fact it can be good because it encourages others to do the same – creates a case of one-upmanship if you like.  But, spare me the hypocrisy.

I may get a little long winded on the Katrina subject but bear with me just a while longer. Even closer to home, I just don’t understand why Cayman is rallying round helping Katrina victims while we still have one hell of a mess in our own country?

We have a contingent of people here knocking themselves out 24-7 to raise money for our own unfortunates and a similar set hell bent on assisting those ill-fated ones on the Gulf Coast. ‘Scuse me, but is there a US cheque being held in escrow somewhere that was sent by Americans to bail us out after Ivan? I just heard that Congress passed a 62 BILLION dollar bill towards the recovery fund, bearing in mind that sum doesn’t cover all the other donations that have come in.

However, I believe the World Press is holding off giving the final tally; they’re waiting for the Cayman donation to come in!

I don’t have a mean-spirited bone in my body but Cayman’s contribution will make naught difference to anything over there, but it would make one huge difference to some poor Ivan sufferer here.

And why are we doing this? Publicity, plain and simple. So the world can declare that the little Cayman Islands, the ones that got smacked last year by Ivan, are extending a helping hand to their US neighbours.  I bet we’ll get some good PR out of this one … just wait and see.

Spare me any comments you may have on this subject, I will never see another point when it comes to compromising Cayman’s present dire needs. Yes, we are our brother’s keepers, but, look around you; our ‘brothers’ are camping in our own backyard right now.

I tell you what impresses me; anonymous donations … love those nameless, faceless people to death. 

I’ll lighten up next week, promise!

    Back...