By Gordon Barlow
The native Caymanian community still seems to be divided over the future lifestyle of these Islands. Should it try to recover the growth rate it has enjoyed during the past forty years, or should it give up on it and revert to the stagnation of the Good Old Days?
In the Good Old Days immigrants were few, and welcomed. They didn’t threaten the status quo. Growth has brought immigrants galore, whose presence has killed off the old lifestyle of the absentee fishermen and stay-at-home mothers.
Most native Caymanians have welcomed the change (air-conditioned offices, cars and homes are hard to resist, aren’t they?), while paying lip service to selected aspects of their heritage. They have welcomed foreign capital, but retained broad economic control by issuing licences for the employment of all immigrant labour.
Other Caymanians reckon that the change has not been worth the price. They resent the presence of so many foreigners, whether tax-haven professionals and their dependents, low-skilled migrants on the lookout for local spouses, assorted in-betweeners, and retirees either part-time or full-time residents.
Retirees are generally tolerated, despite grumbles that they don’t contribute enough to their new home. Of course they pay the same taxes as everybody else, but resentment of the rich’s riches is not confined to Cayman.
What is disappointing is the reluctance of the Caymanian politicians to “milk” our resident retirees for their talents. Our present government cashflow-shortage and budget-deficit surely warrants some attention being paid to this unutilised source.
Some of our retirees have been advisors to overseas governments large and small. Some have managed companies with annual cashflows greater than the Cayman Government’s and with payrolls larger than Cayman’s entire workforce. Why would we not want to seek advice from people like that?
That was a rhetorical question, by the way. We know why.
Hostile reception
Of course they might not all want to be appointed. Independent advice and comment on public issues from expats is unwelcome, however well intentioned. Most retirees could be persuaded to un-retire in a good cause, but they don’t want to be slapped in the face for doing so. Many of them are used to having their thoughts and efforts respected and taken seriously. They don’t suffer fools gladly.
They would not relish a hostile reception from the vociferous anti-immigrant extremists. Any expatriate – retired or working – who publicly questions the wisdom of any public policy is begging for trouble from the extremists, who will tell him to shut up and go back to whatever God-rotted overseas slum he came from. Cayman is the poorer for the silencing of non-Caymanians, but the anti-immigrants don’t care.
According to them, immigrants are not entitled to call these Islands “home” or to act as though it is their home. Only born Caymanians have the right to criticise. Everybody else is a guest here, and must know his place. What a pity that our local rulers don’t have the guts to defy the xenophobes.
Not only is Cayman missing out by silencing the retirees already living among us, there is no point in chasing after new ones if we intend to silence them too. Retirees living among us, including those with Status, can’t help but notice that no native Caymanian ever springs to their defence, whenever they are lambasted for not paying more in taxes.They are easy prey for the greedy.
An aspiring Fagin
Any retiree thinking about offering comment or advice in our present crises might want to stick a cautious toe in the water by first offering it (the comment) on the flourishing free-speech Cayman News Service website, where almost all the posters are anonymous.
Immigrants and transients on the one side and native Caymanians on the other hurl vile and libellous insults at each other, comfortable in the knowledge that their identities are undisclosed. Will this anonymity encourage retirees to participate in the debates? Maybe, maybe not.
There are two or three of us first-generation immigrants who can’t be bothered to hide behind aliases when criticising public policies. It is a risky thing to do, though; I always discourage others from doing it unless they are ready to suffer in the cause of free speech.
One of my CNS postings, on the topic of how the US recession might affect our local economy, attracted an orchestrated attack on my character. Those anonymous posters who dared – dared! – to defend me came in for similar treatment. All intending participants in the forums, be warned.
My posting is well worth checking out – not for the deathless prose of the essay, but for the nature of the comments below the essay. It was published in the Viewpoint section of the website on 20th July, under the title “The bubble has burst”.
The extremists’ comments are virulent crap, typical of the semi-literate bigots who comprise the ranks of immigrant-haters all over the world. However, three professional-sounding postings by an aspiring Fagin (the gang leader in “Oliver Twist”, if you remember) suggest the abuse was orchestrated.
(A clue for Sherlock Holmes: this anonymous Cayman Fagin – he may not be a native Caymanian, by the way – is sophisticated enough to spell “premise” as “premiss”, in a proper context. Very few people are pedantic enough to do that.)
Oh dear. Is this what Cayman has come to – carefully planned and orchestrated personal slander of immigrants who dare to care what happens to Cayman?
Are we doomed to live in a society where anonymity is a condition of residence?
Our local rulers need all the advice they can get, you would think. | 
