Dear Sir,

Thanks for allowing me space in your paper to speak to the above issue.

Whilst there has been much heated debate, again, especially after the crowning of the new ‘Miss Cayman Islands’ contestant, I am hoping we as a nation of many different nationalities can get past this issue and put it to rest once and for all.

For the record here’s how to be Caymanian: A person can get Cayman status through birth to Caymanian parent/parents and through applying for the status grant.

I pray we can get to a place where we no longer read this vitriol and hatred being spewed by some people.

The law says, and that’s not me saying, that anyone who applies for and is granted Cayman Status is afforded all the rights as one born here to a Caymanian parent or through descent. End of story?

No, many others insist on stirring up hatred and fuelling divisiveness with letters which would be best suited and routed to the ‘garbage bin’. Yes, I agree that each of us has a right to speak our minds but I would hope that it also carries with it the right to be fair and not hateful.

Am I hoping for too much?

Maybe, but then again knowing my people, I guess I’m right that I’m hoping for too much. And, knowing my people, they love to complain behind closed doors but fail to speak their minds when they have the opportunity.

It is always a big uproar after the fact but nothing is done prior to, so that we don’t have these kinds of scenarios from repeating themselves.

If the Caymanian populace doesn’t want a queen with no Cayman heritage, then will those spewing this hatred please draft a petition saying that they wish to make an amendment, get signatures to it, go sit down with the Minister of Tourism and the Miss Cayman Committee, air their concerns, present the petition and get it changed!

I know we have had enough time to do so. When you consider that this angry debate started back in the 80s with the burning of a car, the top prize for a certain young lady who won the title and held no family relations here but has Cayman Status, I’m left to wonder where were the ‘Caymanians’ all this time?

I would think that 20 plus years would have been long enough to get it right.

I know that many are feeling, saying and believing that it shouldn’t be a status holder other than one with status through descent but the law allows ladies who only have Cayman Status and no other ties to enter the contest. That’s how it is!

A Caymanian is a person of parentage, descent and through grant.

It must be awful for Nicosia to have won the title on Saturday and then to hear as it was obvious that persons were waiting for the radio talk shows to start on the following Monday so they could spew their hatred.

I attended the contest and I felt that she won it fair and square under the rules as they are. It was how she answered her question as well as why she out-did the 1st runner-up. I felt had the 1st runner-up elaborated more on her question she would have won the title but the fact is she didn’t.

Yes, many feel that Caymanians are only those born of parentage and with Caymanian descent but the law says otherwise. So, with that being said, if Ms K Dee Smith wants to change it, then do as I outlined above and stop the vitriol and divisiveness.

Enough already!

And now can I ask please that you and all the others who are spewing this vitriol please work to getting it changed before the next Miss Cayman contest?

I hope so, as I really, really don’t want to hear any more hatred spewed if the next queen only has Cayman Status and no Cayman descent.

The funny thing was that all the contestants who entered this contest have ties to other countries. I hope K Dee Smith and the others would do a check, as it’s a fact that the majority of the contestants have Jamaican ties. That’s right, Ms Smith and the rest of Cayman, six out of seven have Jamaican ties.

So go get it changed if that’s not what you want. You have had long enough to do so… and you have another year before the next contest.

And, oh, by the way, I don’t want you to forget that I can go back five generations and trace my lineage and that my navel string is buried here. Just in case you were wondering if I’m Caymanian. Yes, my grand and great grandparents, who I knew, wore wompers and I didn’t know what electricity was until I was seven years old.

So, yes, I know plantain trash beds, plantain trash pillows, cornmeal porridge, bath pans, hot fever grass tea and johnnycakes, flip flops and flour sack dresses.

Does that tell you or make me Caymanian?

Blessings and peace.

Joy H. Ebanks
(Born yah to fifth generation Caymanians)