Dear Sir,

Thank God for your valuable paper where we can air opinions and problems. Long live Cayman Net News.

There is so much today on my mind but cannot write it all as time doesn’t permit. When one has to work so hard nowadays to make a few dollars. But let me say it is a crying shame that from a meager salary of $3,200 that 2% has to be taken from it.

Would you all like to hear my monthly expenses before the reduction comes from my salary?

Okay, add it all up. $1,200 mortgage for our home; baby sitter when I am at work, $500; house and life insurance that thank God I am allowed to make monthly payments on, $400; utilities (water and electrical) approx $400; car gas, $80 per month; car loan, $500.

In order for me to buy a little food I have to rent a room in my house and I have a few grow boxes in my yard and some banana and plantain trees. Know where I shop?

Thank God for the Thrift Shop.

What I cannot understand is why politicians and my government need so much to live from, but we must make do with our little mite.

Perhaps if their salaries for 4 - 5 meetings per year were cut to half they would still double our $3,000 salary. What advantage! I do believe that this will only encourage more crime. When there is not enough income there will be some, I am sure, to push drugs, steal, prostitution, etc, etc. A hungry man is an angry man.

Why do the poor Caymanians have to pay for all the roads that had to be made because of an influx of new Caymanians, more schools, more children, more hospital staff, etc? We do not need toll roads to hold up traffic and to encourage more jobs, but the awareness should be on each and everyone enjoying the benefit of these islands to pay an increase of at least $25 per annum on renewal of car licence fee.

Does anyone realise how many cars there are in Cayman? Every yard has up to four cars. Folks are coming here with a driver’s licence I’m sure that was brought from their countries, as we now have some of the worst drivers. For example, if you are from the Philippines you can turn in your driver’s licence, even though you can’t drive. This is because of the Geneva Convention Treaty. I spoke to quite a few Jamaican common labour workers who told me that they do not mind an increase in paying for their cars to be licensed, as that is their means of transport to make a living.

I do hope that my suggestion will be taken seriously as I do believe that we will now have over 50,000 cars. It’s easy, if our population is over 50,000 then the cars are over that, as every yard has a few cars. But first let the politicians set an example by having their salaries decreased by half. Years ago our famous, Mr Jim Bodden, Charles Kirkconnell, etc, did not collect a pay cheque; instead it went to charity. What an example! Gone are those days.

K. Stewart