By James M Boddenn III

We have certainly reached a profoundly precarious situation in our history. In no uncertain terms, our future and existence is being threatened. Our Islands have no natural resources to enforce and ‘back’ our economy. The only way we have been able to reach our levels of development is because of the two pillars of our economy, tourism and finance.

Whether we want to admit the truth, tourism is a finite resource; as we develop more, we lose more of our natural character and desirability as a vacation spot. Thus, combined with the increase in cost, the Cayman Islands cannot necessarily count solely on tourism to save us.

There is too much competition and burgeoning vacation spots for us to naively rely on our current tourism product. Finance has become the juggernaut of our economy, dwarfing tourism as a stabilizer and foundation element of our economy.

Essentially, finance is our life’s blood and it has to be protected. Especially, when considering that we are ‘under attack’ by our own “supposed” protector.

The FCO and even our own Governor, seemingly wish to destroy our financial industry with continually harping and regurgitating bias and inaccurate data regarding direct taxation. This treatment is tantamount to being treated as a child. It certainly seems that our future prosperity is being stolen from us by those who are supposedly our protectors.

Upon all of this, we are experiencing backlash from Operation Tempura, Operation CEALT and the inordinate cost and lack of results. Such occurrences are only making the Cayman Islands a bigger joke in international eyes. Yet, we seemingly have control over nothing as the country becomes more dangerous, people become poorer and the overall structure destabilizes.

To date, the best that both sides have been able to offer are the ‘same old’ antiquated ideas which have not healed our problems thus far and continue to serve as a ‘bandage on a bullet wound’.

With this attack on our way of life from all angles, the Caymanian people and our way of life is in danger of being erased all together. We continually hear about the 110 nationalities which reside within our borders yet our own people suffer from degrading health issues (without proper services), extensive substance abuse issues (without sufficient services and support) and increasing crime and poverty issues which continually go ignored. These problems have existed for sometime and continue to ravage the Cayman Islands.

Caymanians have fallen to the bottom ‘rung of our ladder’, yet our current Government wants to bring more expats into the country. Still, we are without a trade school, training institute and employment initiative. All of these could have been created as Authorities, using existing facilities and with very little cost. They could still be created; however, it appears that such social implementation is not of major concern.

This is the time for our elected representatives to put their ideological differences aside and work together to truly develop the Cayman Islands properly once and for all. With more educated and trained Caymanians, there will be more employed Caymanians, with more employed Caymanians; there will be more economic participation and strengthening. Now, we are having our economy pilfered as more and more expats send their money outside the Cayman Islands.

In the large majority of cases there is no participation within the economy, or as little as possible. This is the seeming status quo and has been proven to be slack in taking care of the Cayman Islands.

The Caymanian people must come first; they must be provided with the proper services. We cannot allow our people to be subjugated any further. The longer we are socio-economically subjugated, the weaker the socio-economic structure will become and we will lose everything.

We seemingly continue to believe that others will heal our problems, as we continue to ignore them. We have to heal ourselves before we can properly move forward. To accomplish this, our leaders have to work together and look to new ideas and ways of thought.

We have to do what is best for the country and its people in the long term, not just the immediate ‘quick fix’. We have to think for ourselves and on our ‘own two feet’. We must think of the type of country and future we really want.

Should Caymanians continue to ‘claw’ for survival while our country is commercialized out of existence or should we finally make the choices to guarantee a long and fruitful future?

We need foresight and forethought, both of which only come from a coalition mindset and methodology.

Our problems are greater than the differences of political parties. We do not have the time to remain indifferent and deadlocked. It is time for one government, one people and one united vision. Once we achieve this, we will finally have the tools to heal our problems.