Bernie Bush Independent candidate for West Bay

 

By Tad Stoner
tad@caymannetnews.com

Fearing widespread social unrest if problems of youth are not quickly addressed, independent candidate for West Bay, Bernie Bush, is worried about crime and ready to work with any political party on the issue.

Marking his third run for one of West Bay’s four seats, Mr Bush has cultivated contacts among district youth – and the social prognosis worries him.

“Do you know how many guns are out there on the streets?” he asks. “People are fed up. I have young people coming to me, saying they want me to represent them, and asking if I can help them find a job, and asking what they can do to further their own education.

“But no one is listening to them. All they hear is ‘my hands are tied’ or ‘I’m not in power, so can’t do anything.’ But I’m able to help them find jobs and get scholarships – and if I’m elected, I can do 10 times that.

“These are the people I’m running for,” Mr Bush says. “I see people trying to improve, but I hear them starting to say, ‘if I can’t get a piece of the pie, then no one’s going to get a piece of the pie’.”

He acknowledges the potential effects of that kind of groundswell, fearing for the near-term future in a 20 May election, widely said to be among Cayman’s most important.

“You get social unrest, and you can’t have that,” he said. “I can represent the frustrated and the disenfranchised. I’m not in the war of the PPM [the ruling People’s Progressive Movement] or the UDP [opposition United Democratic Party] and as long as they bring something to the floor of the House that is good for West Bay or good for the country, I’ll support it.

“In fact, I have had talks with [PPM Leader of Government Business, the Hon] Kurt Tibbetts and [Leader of the Opposition, the Hon] McKeeva Bush, and they have given their word that they’ll support me if I am helpful,” he said.

The economy, unemployment, education and immigration come together in a kind of knot that, he said, was likely to yield to an integrated solution.

“I’ve been asking for a vocational school since 1996, and it’s something we need right now and we need at the high-school level where we still have some control,” he said.

“We have to sell the dream. Not everyone is a lawyer or an accountant; there are other kinds of work: plumbers, electricians. The problems often start with the parents, but you have to help kids move in the right direction, but no one has done anything.

“But if they learn electricity or plumbing, then you can tell the Immigration Department that we don’t need any work permits for electricians or plumbers or air-conditioning because we have them, fully trained and ready.”

The key, he said, is respect. “You have to make youth feel wanted. You can’t treat them as though they have come to you and have to do whatever you tell them.

“If there are problems, you take them aside and discuss it quietly, but you can’t fire them or bawl them out in public. If you show a little respect it comes back to you. In the old days you automatically showed respect to the older generation, but today it works both ways. Youth are smart and respect is a two-way street. The powers that be don’t seem to realise that with the new generation,” the 46-year-old businessman said.

At the same time, he said, Caymanians had to start “accepting certain jobs” they may have shunned in the past.

“If a company wants a cashier, a Caymanian has got to take it and has got to do well, improving himself for the future. I’ve been looking for someone for my bakery, for example,” he said, “but no one wants to work from midnight to 6am. They have to want training and that’s why we have to sell the dream.”

He acknowledged that problems sometimes started in the home with a stigma against blue-collar jobs, “so we have got to educate the parents as well,” he said.

A lifetime resident of West Bay and a private businessman for two-and-a-half years, Mr Bush operates Cayman Bakery, and is intimately familiar with government, having spent seven years in the Civil Aviation Department and another 13 years in the Department of Sports and Youth. He was Treasurer for Cayman’s Olympic Committee and thinks Government could raise revenues through sport tourism – bringing professional teams to Cayman from Europe, North America and elsewhere for training programmes.

“We need more prudent spending. We are not getting the biggest bang we can for our buck,” he said. “I can run off 25 ideas, have been involved with the community for 30 years and I know it’s time that we stood up. I am the person to help,” he said.