Revolution and the Cayman Wayof Thinking
by H. E. Ross
After last Tuesday's meeting of the CaymanIslands Seafarers' Association I was talking to one of the membersabout the start up of the Cayman Maritime Heritage Foundationand came away from the talk with the eternal puzzle of revolutionarymovement.
I hope this does not sound to aloof, but revolution is a wordthat seems to be heavy with innuendo yet it simply means change.The person that I was talking with was telling me why the introductionof the CMHF was a harmful concept, in that it would take awayfrom the building funding of the CISA.
We both agreed that if the CMHF was not needed that it would notendure. There is only a finite amount of energy that people cangive to all of these organisations that abound on Grand Cayman.
I attempted to explain what the Cayman Maritime was all about,but was cut off repeatedly with his explanation of what CaymanMaritime was all about, and they were two completely differentthings. He thought that CISA was there to do the things that CaymanMaritime was being formed for.
Finally, I got a bit impatient with his stuff and told him notto deal with information, just deal with rumour.
Or, the reasons for the concept of founding this type organisationare to create an entity here where all who are truly interestedin Cayman can meet and start at the start, it's history.
All of the sudden changes in culture here are resulting in a grandconfusion and to some degree a rejection of cultural nauticalinformation. The nautical past has been told to me to representpoverty. And poverty is wished to be obsolete. So, the real pastis being ignored as obsolete.
Then the question arises as to what is a Caymanian. The answerto the question of the origin of a culture has to be found inthe history of that culture. But the relevance to today's wantshas been the promoted concept that shorts out that quest for aquestion, let alone complete answer at the risk of loss of historyfor Cayman children.
And the revolution is in the awareness to ask the question ofwhat is a Caymanian. The person who I talked to actually saidthat the people who were founding Cayman Maritime might have beenborn here but did not have the Cayman way of thinking.
After interviewing so many Caymanians for the two books that Ihave researched I wonder what he is talking about. With Catboats,in West Bay, there are an infinite number of Catboat designs representingan infinite number of opinions about uses.
Here, a group of people who happen to be blood Caymanian, cometogether to form a strictly cultural awareness association topromote a foundation block to their culture that has been passedover, and this person says that they are not really Caymanian.They, somehow will mess up what is left of the culture left here.
First, the expats have brought all the ills, now it is the Caymanianwho has brought all the ills as well. The Caymanians that do notthink like this person and another who chimed in about the Caymanianway of thinking are not working in Cayman's behalf but are workingfor themselves and, in some way, will materially profit.
So, what is wrong with a Cayman Maritime Museum? What is wrongwith books about the maritime side of Cayman's history? What iswrong and un-Caymanian about a setting explicitly organised tobring together seafarers and nautical enthusiasts?
What is wrong with attempting to educate young Caymanians in areasof locally oriented marine sciences? What is wrong with CaymanCatboats and eventually Cayman Schooners sailing along the waterfront,crewed by Caymanians, who think it is worth the work of reconstructionand construction?
I guess in his opinion these are not people who have the Caymanianway of thinking. That they are not the followers of one way ofthought. I guess to him they are revolutionaries.