A Year To Be Thankful
Newspapers, like most people, organisations and institutions, often seize the opportunity of Christmas and the year-end to celebrate and take stock.
We at Cayman Net News are no different. As you read this issue, we are celebrating, with humility, the fact that the efforts of our small, dedicated staff are manifested in the form of a quality, world-class newspaper product that continues to proudly serve the Cayman Islands locally and around the globe.
We are celebrating the fact that in the space of three short years, Cayman Net News has become the Cayman Islands' news leader and newspaper of record.
Now at Issue No. 310, we celebrate the fact that we have created a new atmosphere and a forum for frank, free and fair expression of news and views.
To the chagrin of a few and the delight of many, we have broken the newspaper monopoly in the Cayman Islands, giving readers and advertisers a better all-round choice.
With us being the second daily newspaper, the Cayman Islands has become a full-fledged country. It has truly come of age.
As we celebrate Christmas 2002, we at Cayman Net News give thanks to Our Provider and our Christian family whose prayers have brought us this far. We ask His continued blessings as we continue to grow in our service to this blessed country.
A depth of gratitude is also extended to our printers in Miami, Ms. Barbara Clowdus, her sons Shane and Scott and their excellent staff.
We also give thanks to our readers and advertisers and we kindly request your continued support in the future.
As a newspaper, we are aware of the trust and confidence which you, our readers, have reposed in us and we are cognisant of the tremendous social responsibility which we shoulder as a leader of public opinion and a framer of social consciousness.
There have been times when we may have offended some persons by being the bearer of not so good news when it happens. It was not intentional. We bear no malice. We print the news as it happens when it happens.
Dissent and criticism are healthy and when accepted in the constructive context in which they are given, makes us stronger and better.
We will continue to support and defend all those things which are beneficial to this country's development and we will always denounce those practices, persons and polices which, in our view, are not in the best interest of the Cayman Islands.
It is for this reason and at this time that we rebuke those who have recently committed crimes we are unaccustomed to in the form of armed robberies. These actions amount to domestic terrorism and with the help of all residents of the Cayman Islands, the perpetrators must be identified and eliminated from this society.
Those renegades must not be allowed to spoil the conditions which have made the Cayman Islands one of the most tranquil, safe, comfortable and peaceful societies in the world in which to live.
The prophet Isaiah, when he foretold the coming of Christ, said: "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
And so, as we celebrate Christmas, give thanks and take stock, regardless of our station in life we should let peace be at the centre of our thoughts, words and actions.
As a responsible newspaper we will continue to play our part to ensure, promote and assist in maintaining peaceful relations in this country.
Attacks on peacefulness can destroy the very fabric of our society and erode the many gains which all who reside in this country have done so much to achieve.
As we look towards the future, we at Cayman Net News will continue to join with the stakeholders in the Cayman Islands by putting our shoulders to the wheel in the joint effort of the development of this country.
We wish you and yours all God's blessings over the Christmas season and continued peace and prosperity for 2003.