Archive for January, 2009

Constitutional discrimination

The recent news report on CNS revealing that a local attorney has filed a discrimination claim against her former employer raised a considerable amount of debate in the CNS comments forum.

This was not a great surprise as the issue of the Caymanian ‘glass ceiling’ has become something of a hot topic recently.

As unemployment continues to rise and the global credit crunch continues to squeeze, the issue of discrimination against Caymanians in favour of ex-pats is not going to go away. However, what is noteworthy is that this discrimination claim, if it is proven, may have as much to do with the claimant being a woman, or being black as it does her being a native Caymanian and could serve to illustrate a much wider discrimination issue than a possibly unfair employer.

Discrimination is common herein Cayman in many forms as it is throughout the Western world. Despite the fact that Hillary Clinton, a woman, and Barack Obama, a black man, dominated the presidential race in the United States this year, with the unprecedented result of Obama being sworn in as president of the world’s biggest economy, discrimination is still a strong feature of the world in which we live.

Wherever middle class, white men are in charge they tend, intentionally or not, to discriminate against women, gays, ethnic groups, black people and the disabled, among others.  For several millennia the white middle class man has dominated much of the world’s political landscape and the global economy.

 In many cases, this group doesn’t even realise that it discriminates, as the discrimination is institutionalised in the places in which it operates and is an ingrained part of its own collective psyche. The schools they attended, the communities they grew up in, the corporations and institutions in which they trained and learned their trade have all re-enforced the attitude that their group is inherently superior. Anyone else invited into their world is done so to pay lip-service to laws, to avoid potential litigation, or to pander to what they will call a politically correct climate if it appears expedient to do so.

This situation is common in the US, the UK, Australia, and Canada, most of Europe and most definitely places that remain colonised by the British. Furthermore, as it becomes more difficult to discriminate in the UK and the US, because of a greater attempt by successive governments and grass roots organisations to eliminate the institutionalised racism and discrimination that has been acknowledged to exist, those who still can’t accept they are equal have gravitated towards the colonies. Places such as Cayman where there are fewer rules and laws in place to stop them behaving as they always have done are increasingly appealing as the world in which the white middle class man once felt very secure becomes a little shakier.

It is, therefore, perfectly understandable why the Human Rights Committee was so appalled by the recent manoeuvring at the last round of constitutional talks. In the church’s desperate and irrational desire to reserve what they see as their theological right to discriminate against homosexuals the way has now been paved to consitutionalise discrimination of all kinds.

Here in Cayman, as in many other places, discrimination is already institutionalised in many ways, not just against Caymanians but against other groups – seeing the white middle class man do it for so long has clearly rubbed off on a whole host of groups. Whether it is Caymanians discriminating against Filipinos, Jamaicans discriminating against gays, the white expats against all blacks, Christians against other religions,  men against women, the able bodied against the disabled, adults against children,  discrimination is common and in many cases unchecked.

While the move driven by the PPM to apply the non-discrimination section of the bill of rights only within the context of the constitution was totally understandable given the circumstances, it will make it increasingly difficult for future generations to fight the myriad discriminatory practices common in our community.

The move may well be seen by some as admirable as it has created a way for Cayman to get a bill of rights and therefore a modern constitution. It has, after more than a decade of opposition from the church, seen the bill of rights accepted by that community and in such away that is also acceptable to the UK.

However, there is no doubt that in winning the battle of the bill rights the war on injustice has been lost. Cayman has been given carte blanche to continue to discriminate in the wider community. The only course of action remaining for anyone who feels discriminated against is the complex web of existing legislation requiring legal know-how, guts and determination, in order to navigate it successfully.

History has shown us that few have bee prepared to take that route. And as the proposals for the new constitution do little to encourage discriminated to raise their voices and be heard it looks like business as usual for the all those who think, for whatever reason, they are more equal than others.

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Crime

Having one’s home burgled is a surefire way to bring one’s attention back to the problem of crime.

(My wife’s laptop computer was the biggest loss for us last week. If any reader has just bought an almost-new HP Notebook from someone at a bargain price, we might want to buy it back from you.)

Cayman doesn’t seem to have an overall strategy for dealing with crime, does it? The police have their priorities, the FCO has its, the MLAs have theirs. The Financial Secretary, the Attorney-General and the Immigration Department all have separate agendas. There’s no coordination. It’s a mish-mash.

We the general public have our own priorities and agendas too. We pick and choose, don’t we? Often, it depends on who we are. Everyone dislikes crimes of violence. Burglaries are bad only if the victim is someone we know, otherwise we shrug them off. White-collar crime is naughty, but most of us don’t take it personally even though we know we’ll pay for it in higher prices.

Fundamentalist Christians save their anger for homosexuals, whom they would like to see rot in Northward in this life, and in the bottomless pit of Hell in the next.

Many native Caymanians believe the worst criminals are those who flout the Immigration Law. Illegal immigrants should be shot out of hand; employers who favour expats over Caymanians should be shot after a fair trial. All the expat communities have zero respect for the Immigration Law, and obey it only reluctantly.

Some of our politicians hate marriages of convenience and same-sex marriages, while tolerating far more corruption than is good for Cayman. The whole crony-system is based on corruption, and it has never been more popular than it is now.

What about money-laundering? How many offshore practitioners and regulators disapprove of it, really? Many Cayman Islands firms have made fortunes by condoning dodgy practices. The off-balance-sheet subsidiaries of US and European publicly quoted companies keep our tax-haven reputation in the toilet.

For low-paid migrant workers, the most despicable criminals are those who exploit them. Domestic servants are the main victims of bosses who steal their workers’ pensions-contributions and legitimate overtime money. Yet the migrants’ problems are blatantly ignored by our law-enforcement agencies. The protection of the law is not for the likes of them. Our justice is for the rich.

And for everybody who despises some type of crime and its criminals, there is somebody who doesn’t care. Usually, there is another somebody who actually defends both the crime and the criminals. Probably half of all my writings address crimes of exploitation either directly or indirectly. And it’s always surprising to me how many critics believe those crimes to be legally and morally acceptable.

The critics imply that low-paid Jamaicans, Latinos, Filipinos and Indians are all fair game – sub-humans, essentially, who deserve no civil or human rights. If they don’t like being exploited here, let them go somewhere else to live. It’s what oppressors tell the Palestinians today, and told the Jews of earlier days. Anybody who speaks up for our poorly paid immigrants is anti-Caymanian, and they can go home too.

No wonder our islands’ crime is getting out of hand, when public criticism of law-breakers is frowned upon. Why should it be off-limits? Why should public policy allow certain laws not to be enforced when the victims are poor migrant workers? That’s not how The Rule of Law is supposed to work.

Here is a core question. How can we hope to succeed in combating crime, when the written laws of our land are not all enforced? It can’t be done. Our core question is a rhetorical question.

A core requirement is to change the situation on the ground, so that our written laws coincide exactly with the enforced Laws. We have to get rid of all provisions in our written laws that aren’t enforced, and stop enforcing rules that aren’t contained in the written laws. That would require drastically reducing the discretionary application of our laws so that no criminal is protected from them. Put time limits on prosecutions for criminal offences. This is a tiny territory: either the evidence is available or it’s not. Don’t pretend it can’t be found.

The more delay there is in bringing someone to trial, the more opportunity for evidence to go missing and for witnesses to be deported. Those things are what have largely destroyed our trust in the law.

It is widely believed that family influence can sway our Prosecution Service towards a lesser charge (or the wrong charge altogether), or a dismissal for supposed lack of evidence. This has been the case for as long as I’ve lived here and no doubt for many years before that. What does it do for the reputations of the police, the Attorney-General’s Office, the Immigration Department and the rest of them?

It’s high time our rulers – in London as well as in Cayman – took action to change the way we deal with crime. Leave Mr Bridger’s team to do its thing; it has little to do with everyday crimes and criminals. The action I have in mind borrows heavily from the Vision-2008 exercise and its sixteen topical “strategies”.

Details next week.
 

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