Editorial
EU And UK Misguided
As if their support for the Attorney General following the embarrassing collapse of the Euro Bank trail was not enough, the United Kingdom (UK) is now supporting the European Union (EU) in imposing the Directive on the Taxation of Savings Income on the Cayman Islands.
Given the UK's behaviour and attitude towards this country in recent times, the Mother Country's most recent action will hardly come as a surprise to many observers.
However, to the extent that the implementation of this ruling will impact on Cayman's financial services industry and subsequently lead to some social dislocation, it presents yet another opportunity for this country to review its relationship with the UK.
That both the UK and the EU would have proceeded with this ruling without consultation and at a time when the Caribbean Overseas Territories (COT) have not reviewed an economic impact study regarding this directive, shows callous disrespect and blatant contempt for these islands.
This calculated institutional insensitivity to the plight of small developing countries and such incapacity by the UK and the EU to show care for the welfare of our people, must be forcibly resisted and condemned by countries like the Cayman Islands.
The UK and EU must be told in unequivocal terms that to deny Cayman the right to full participation and open dialogue in this matter is a most galling injustice which must be put right without further delay.
For when taken and viewed in conjunction with initiatives including the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ruling, there can be little doubt that the UK is eroding and betraying the trust which so many developing states, and certainly its dependants, have placed in it as a country that is prepared to operate on the basis of integrity and principle and which places great emphasis on creating a level playing field and the need for sustainable development in small countries.
More and more as part of golbalisation and this new world order, there is a disturbing trend of powerful countries and institutions parading and abusing their might without regard, exercising their influence without any compassion, and seeking to accumulate their wealth without any social conscience.
But when economic decisions such as this EU ruling are devoid of social considerations they become no more than unprincipled expediency.
These are but some of the perspectives which Cayman's leader, movers and shapers must be welding into the consciousness of the people in this country, so they can be in a better position to understand the true nature of how they are viewed by the UK.
Still, the Government must be commended for standing up to the UK and the EU and daring to proceed with legal action to resolve this issue.
Yet there is much more to be done.
In Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare wrote: "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat and we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures."
Given the turbulent waves that have been generated by the UK, the EU and others in recent times, the Cayman Islands must take this current as it serves.
There can be no doubt that this confluence of forces and factors is beckoning this country to at least start putting the wheels in motion towards the process of self-determination.