By Dr Victor Look Loy

It is not so bad after all; in the last 25 years we have managed to create many of the necessities of modern life. We have a health care system that one would not expect in a country this size. There are two hospitals, one doctor for every 700 people and many specialist services including modern equipment and a health insurance industry that is evolving. The legal system can support lawyers who actually get paid up to $750 per hour, in some cases even more, and a judiciary that, for the most part, dispenses justice in an acceptable manner, even though their resources are limited. Our education system is in a state of flux but eventually we will get it right.

Our police force is in need of modifying its priorities and repairing morale but no one is afraid of the police in Cayman. The population is more correctly afraid of the criminals. We have succeeded in providing piped water to all our residents and electricity, albeit expensively, and we also have at least three internet service providers that immediately come to mind. The Water Authority has stopped digging up Walkers Road in front of the Texaco gas station and Cable & Wireless has changed its name to a more appropriate acronym. Cell phones abound and there are few dropped calls, if any, since competition was introduced. We have magnificent roads, many of which compare to those in much larger countries. There is a 911 service that answers every time and an ambulance service manned by trained competent personnel. Our laboratory facilities are in most cases very reliable and we have more fax machines than anywhere in the world per capita to fax your reports to your doctor. We have digital X-rays, digital mammograms and digital ultrasound. Good thing, because we also have an obesity problem, dealing with which officially means that there is no hunger in Cayman. Electric cars are here, as are BlackBerrys and flat screens. Our buildings are the strongest in the Caribbean. We have a little less than ten radio stations, one for every taste and fancy. We have two daily newspapers and at least three online publications. The only shots fired between our two political parties are verbal in nature and we have one civil servant for every twenty-five people. We have fully recovered from total destruction in five years and still have over 100 nationalities living here. Restaurants abound and one can get Japanese food, Filipino food, Jamaican food, Thai food, Trini food,, American food, even Cayman food all on one road. The only food we can’t find is English food; I never could figure that out. We can call the talk show and say what a bad guy the Governor has been and we can even write it in the newspaper and we did it all without tax.

Tax Freedom Day is the first day of the year in which a nation as a whole has theoretically earned enough income to fund its annual tax burden. In Canada it is usually in late July; in the USA it usually falls in June. In Europe, some people are still trying to figure out if it is possible for it to fall in the following year. It means between January 1st and that day in June or July you work for the Government, the rest of the year you work for you. In Cayman, “tax freedom day” is 1 January. We just need to figure out how to take everybody on the Island along for the ride.