By James M Bodden III

To form and base a government on the high revenue of private business can only work if the country has a base of industry. Whether it is minute or not, the country has to have some base of industry to balance and stabilise the economy.

If this is not achieved, the country will have no other choice but to essentially sell what is available to ensure that capital is always flowing inward. In time, if this is continued, the country will lose everything, as development and over-capitalisation by private companies devours every natural part of the country and weakens the economy with inflation and loss of purchasing power.

With the loss of purchasing power and increase of inflation, the overall value of the economy, development and property will decrease. With decreased value, the economy will weaken and destabilise and private investment will leave. This is how our economy has developed and this is what will happen to our country and its economy if our ideology and mode of management does not change.

In recent years, our country has lacked a cultivation ideology towards our social and capital infrastructure. We have preferred to allow private companies and their methods to control key areas of our socio-economic structure. Being that we were pinned into a corner by a lack of natural resources, we did not have much of a choice; we had to grow as a country.

We needed to modernise and we modernised. However, if we continue to sell off our country, we will be left with nothing to cultivate our country and our people; we will not have a future for our children. We should not forget that private business is in business to make money, which is their main goal. They are not in business to take care of the people of a country. They provide goods, services, invest and inject capital to make a profit.

We did not have the luxury to do without the massive influx of private co-operation and participation but we should be aware of the possible connotations, repercussions and overall cost for this “great charity” of investment. Even with this private investment, it does not change our need to restructure our system and management style.

The further we base our system on the whims of private oligarchies, big money developers and corporate entities, the quicker we will lose our overall substance, structure and survivability. It is true that the Cayman Islands will always have to walk hand-in-hand with Big Finance and foreign money. However, it does not mean that we have to be, or should be, the ones being led. Our partnership should be one on an even keel. The country and its people have to benefit just as much as private business.

There seems to be a boiling point issue sparking out of our socio-economic plight. That is the question of who deserves the Cayman Islands the most: the ex-pats or the Caymanians. This should not be a boiling point issue in any way. It is only because Cayman is a small island nation, which is viewed to be without merit, that this situation has arisen.

For a country to work and function properly there has to be an understanding; there has to be an overall vision of a greater community. For that communal emotion and bond to be born and survive there has to be assimilation. Many may feel that assimilation is a dirty word, but in truth it is part of any society. New York City, London, Miami and Paris are all examples of what assimilation and communal unity can bring forth.

We cannot turn back the hands of time but we can look ahead and decide what type of future we really want. Do we want to have warring factions tearing the Islands to pieces or do we want one united nation with shared, acknowledged and respected differences?

First, for this to exist, there must be respect.

On both sides of the equation there has been a great loss of respect; loss of respect for ourselves, for others and for life in general. If we do not want more from ourselves, we cannot expect more from others. To make a country is not easy but to sustain a country is even harder.

The Cayman Islands has not won the battle, the war has just begun. Not a war for supremacy but a war for self and nation. With the onset of globalisation and common markets we are being pushed into the shadows as a relic of the past and forgotten financial world.

By filling everything with concrete and importing labour without educating or promoting them on how to be a part of the Cayman Islands, we are sowing the seeds of our own destruction. If what we have now is not right or does not work, we must educate ourselves as a whole to ensure that the mistakes that have been made will never be made again.

To make a strong nation, we must become strong people. To become strong people we must have strong convictions. Strong convictions can only be found with great respect; for oneself, for others but, most of all, respect must be had for the future. Once we drop the pettiness and alienation that we have imposed and allowed to be imposed on our society, the quicker we can build the utopia that we so often claimed to be.

Let us set our eyes and hearts towards the future and not on the pocket books and appearances of others. A vision can only be found when all eyes are open and all hearts are willing.