COMMENTARY

My Take... For what it’s worth

Wednesday,  February 15, 2006

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

I really don’t know what’s coming over Cayman lately, but I don’t like the sound of things.

I am referring to the undercurrents surfacing recently between the haves and have-nots of these Islands. It’s scary to say the least. Let me be quite blunt for a moment, the sad fate of my beloved Cayman Islands will come when the indigenous people believe they have a “right” to be richer, and those who are already rich and affluent are standing in their way.

It is not surprising that the good-for-nothing, less productive or unlucky among us should envy them, but it would be disastrous if this envy should become the motive behind a nationalistic movement.

The successful advancement of any underdeveloped country (make no mistake, Cayman falls into that pot), requires capital and plenty of it. If we despise the injection of foreigners and their money then we are doomed to return to smoke pot days and relying on the bounty of the sea to stave off hunger pangs.

No more air-conditioning, reliable cell phones, shopping sprees to Miami and all the other creature comforts that we have grown to love and expect in today’s modern age.

What makes America so great and powerful is not that they have Burger Kings conveniently located on every street corner; it is that they have embraced a multitude of people, tapped into their talents and knowledge and claimed them as their own.

If you were to check it out, many famous or mega wealthy Americans aren’t really Stars and Stripers at all. 

In the last 30 or so years Caymanians have married outside their circle so to speak. Does that make the spouses interlopers? I feel that any minority that keeps itself too much to itself will remain just that, a minority.

It seems to be an ongoing battle to describe a Caymanian, but truth be told, we in Cayman are as much a mixture of races and nations as the USA. The emphasis should therefore be on ‘unification’ not division.

So, the tricky troublesome question is still posed – What is a Caymanian? – It could very well be, as legend suggests, descendants of Cromwell’s army who had first dibs on the Cayman Islands. 

Face facts, we can’t do everything for ourselves and many Caymanians (not all), got a leg-up in business because of an outsider, or at least his money.

I suppose the correct term is Capitalism and, thank goodness, up until now, it has been alive and well in these islands. 

Fortune, fame and power, however you define capitalism, are for those lucky enough, single-minded enough, and hard working enough to go out and get it. What’s wrong with that? Nothing if you ask me, but if this train of thought continues among our working class (yes, I said it, there is a definite pecking order in every free society), then I think capitalists, investors, risk-takers and rich people ought to get their head’s examined.

If they had any sense they would stop working themselves into an early grave in order to pay huge sums in salaries and duties that keep a country like ours going.

Saying we have grown to a point of know-it-all and can go it alone is a really stupid assumption. It’s like saying a vet who is a familiar with the innards of a cow could become a butcher. 

There are many out there who are envious that their fellow Caymanians have done so well. They may be of the opinion that they should keep just enough for their own modest needs and gladly give all the rest to the poor, lazy, irresponsible, drug dependant, lay-abouts that we have listed under the guise of unemployed. The handful of locals who would rather not work, need to be told in no uncertain terms that the sufferers are indeed the hardworking people who are compelled to carry them. Now before anyone feels the inherent need to ‘put me in my Caymanian status holder place’, let me make it abundantly clear that I believe there are people out there that have gotten the brown end of the stick.

But, if they were to do some real soul searching and divert as much energy as they do about moaning, and place that drive into something else, chances are they would make a huge success of things. Additionally, I could rattle off dozens of names of people who have been down and out on their luck and picked themselves up only to find their niche.

Initial failure could be something as simple as lousy timing. But, if you are narrow-minded and stay in a hidey-hole, chances are you will become bitter and jealous of others.

Cayman is still a land of immense opportunity, not just for outsiders but for Caymanians. 

History has shown that anyone who wants to score points with the underdogs, (politicians are especially known the world over for this), will promise all sorts of protections and unattainable equal divides. Those living in La La land will always swallow this line but with all due respect, it’s all a bunch of nice sounding nonsense and should never be taken seriously by anyone, rich or poor. 

To paraphrase Jamaican columnist Morris Cargill, who said some 50 odd years ago, “We must mix ourselves up more in Jamaica. We must find interest in common and then get to know one another upon common ground.

“The emphasis in our time must be upon all those factors which make for unity. We must develop institutions which act as melting pots for the different races, colours and cultures which are the raw material of our new nation. We shall never be a nation until we totally forget ourselves as Europeans, Indians, Negroes or Chinese, and learn to quarrel happily as Jamaicans.”

I rest my case.

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