Archive for January 1st, 2013
Social justice
My pastor, Bishop Dolbert A. Clarke, in a sermon blessed by the Holy Spirit on December 23rd, 2012 said that 2013 would be a good year and a time of change for us all. I agree with my beloved pastor and I want my people to know that, although the publication of my letters in The Caymanian Compass have now been censored by the editor and the announcement of my candidacy for one of the 6 seats in George Town in 2013 censored as well, that I, like a tree standing by the water, refuses to be moved.
2013 is going to be a year filled with God’s blessings and I am asking my friends to assist me in communicating with those wanting and willing to see change which will create social justice and economic fairness for all. In 2013 our challenges will not become fewer just by changing government once again but our challenges will become fewer when we rediscover the tolerance, respect and collective social responsibility for each other we once had in these islands.
Love will not come simply by ridding ourselves of those with faults only to replace us with individuals whose sole intention it is to destroy the government assistance to the poor and needy that people like me struggled todeliver over the years, and to punish civil servants without care our attention to their needs as Caymanians, simply because they are afraid that the present financial demands by the poor and needy on government will lead to direct taxation and a lifting of the negative impact indirect taxation has had on us the working and middle classes.
In 2013 we have much more to do than to provide those who benefitted so much over the years from “Bush” rule with the golden opportunity to place our government solidly in the hands of a younger group of merchants and professionals whose values and desires were formed and moulded by our new and all powerful cooperate culture – a culture which intrudes and imposes its values and principles of self-first and self-last on all strata of society.
These young and restless individuals have now dreamt up other ways of disguising discrimination, intolerance and social injustice in our social and economic systems because it has never been their wish to educate our people politically and ethically since they see political enlightenment as too mammoth a task. Furthermore, education of the majority is not accomplishable within the timeframe they are accustomed to operating under while imparting professional advice at so high a price that none of us have affordedtheir services up until now.
These new political hopefuls are calling themselves Independents or persons putting country first, although they remained cooperation loyalists all these years while our country faulted. For all of these years they found it not to their or their country’s benefit to sacrifice earnings from their professions in order to fight to prevent our country from being mismanaged by those they now despise. These new hopefuls blame previous politicians for that which is wrong in Cayman, as if human greed is a curse only of the politicians who were in office before those finally cursing them decided to run for office.
It is truly sad that politics in Cayman remains an art of deception, therefore for real change to come, it must come from those of us who are outsiders for one reason of the other.
We hear political hopefuls saying that they will only take the risk of running for office if they are sure to be elected because the punishment that one who fails must endure in our nation is too horrific to one and one’s family to try and fail. This is so true and one reason why they should understand why my fight for change and social justice from 1980, when I first sought a seat in George Town, until this date has made me a controversial “character”, as Wendy Ledger from the Cayman News Service insists on labelling me.
Of course, I prefer to call myself an outsider, and as outsiders we must consistently and convincingly hold before the eyes of the entire society our vision of social justice and the change needed to achieve these human values. Therefore, our platform for May 2013 is to continue the fight for the social, economic, political and ethical security for the real people of this country. This will be achieved through the education of our people rather than concealing from them the real facts of their condition. I have always put their interest first and this will entail a restructuring and realignment of their socio-economic and cultural positions in relationship to the dominant foreign owners and managers of our economy and socio-cultural systems.
As a representative I will again place the restructuring of labour and rehabilitation at the top of my agenda by creating a Ministry of Human Resources and Rehabilitation. I will fight to have the prisons placed under that minister and become her or his advisor. I will use the labour law approved of in 2004 and then ignored as the basis for a new labour law. I will fight to make immigration reforms that would change the work permit system by making it possible to grant employment certificates for categories of employment or professions and allow them to beused by the holder, who would now pay for the certificate to be employed in their approved profession by any employer, thereby creating productive and fair competition between employers and more ethical treatment of employees, regardless of nationality.
My restructuring efforts will impact the cost of labour and treatment of workers in the workplace, thereby leading to the creation of a more level playing field for Caymanian workers, who are very aware that our negative work permit system is a form of indentured servitude that has for decades kept their wages low and their employment possibilities few. This will be implemented jointly with the restructuring of immigration to deal with border security issues only and moving their clerical support to the department of Human Resources and Rehabilitation, creating its departments into competent and genuine human resource management and development agencies. I will create different employment certificate costs for Caymanian small business, whether restaurants or small law and accounting firms.
I will assist with the fight against crime by amending the relevant laws to allow the court to sentence juveniles and some young adults to marine duty with the mandate of protecting our coastal waters and shores and re-employ former Caymanian uniform branches’members to head up these crime prevention and rehabilitation efforts.
This will be a one strike and you out programme that will utilize the neighbourhood and school gang leadership structure. They will be made to assist in manning part of our security apparatus and this will entail re-defining the values and objectives of the most deeply rooted forms of organizations existing in our grass root communities. If the sea is what made our forefathers then it will be the sea that will reform our youths.
The prison farm will be renamed The Fatherland Rehabilitation Farm and become a training and re-socialisation camp for our youths. And I will continued my struggle to have the political, cultural and economic contributions of all the diverse nationalities that now legitimately form our Fatherland given equal consideration in our community and make sure that the new members of our small nation can voice and live their values without fear of discrimination or exclusion.
These things I pray God will assist me in moving in the hearts and minds of other independent minded individuals so, if elected in May 2013, they will become achievable.