Power of the people
I have always marvelled at how disingenuous some people are – kissing up to the heavy, round derrières of those that wield the mighty sword of power, while simultaneously bad-mouthing the same in the comfort and quiet of their tight and trusted circles of friends, family and co-conspirators. Shameful to think that the power is with the people, yet they have long been afraid to use it.
Cayman has long been held captive by the power of one man … and his comrades. Yes, comrades – for they were willing participants. Don't think for one minute that they were dragged kicking and screaming. They had the numbers; they had the power; but they chose to go along.
Now that they have disbanded they expect us to embrace them and praise their noble stance. And some have. "Let's forgive and forget. Get on with the business of running our great country."
Yet, I am still bruised by the past. I am having a hard time letting go. It's too soon. I want to make them suffer for their past sins. I want to take them into the town square and make an example of them. I want to see them pay for their blind allegiance to a man that has been steering his runaway train with each of them happily seated therein, shouting, "Choo Choo!" They were accessories, cohorts, cronies, accomplices … what have you.
To expect us to forget and move on is callous, unfair and speaks to an air of entitlement that leaves a nasty taste in my mouth – yet again. Yes, they are a far cry better than what we had – but without THEM we may have been rid of that cancer much sooner.
But that is just a small part of my trauma. They alone could not facilitate the madness that has swallowed up this little set of islands. That effort was due in large part to the Cayman mafia – the 'illuminati' of sorts – those businessmen and women who smiled in the face of tyranny and played a heavy role in supporting the main man because it suited their purposes and needs. We all know that presidents and governments do not function under their own influence altogether. They are reliant on the 'help' of those of affluence and influence. Cayman is no different.
I found it intriguing that recent events seemed orchestrated by a few who are rarely seen or associated, but we all know they have been the driving forces behind the man that was. Funny how tables turn, isn't it, when those who think THEY are the real power suddenly end up on the wrong side of the tracks because their purpose has been served and they are no longer needed.
So, it would appear that our deposed premier was merely a puppet himself. One who got a little too big for his britches and who began to forget his place. See how easily he was destroyed? Does he really think his little group of West Bay faithful can resurrect his dying career as a politician? He is nothing without the Cayman mafia. He just doesn't know it yet.
Which takes us to the real eye-opener of the day: Who is in charge? To whom do we owe a debt of thanks for ridding us of the Wicked Witch of the West? (Whom they created, after all!) To whom should we bow in fear as they are clearly the masters of our destiny, the manipulators of the seemingly powerful and the controllers of our fate?
Those are the ones that we must serve, that coalition of businessmen and women who have the ability to make a call and get it done. (Yes we know all about that!)
Ever since news broke of the arrest and eventual dethroning, I have wrestled with a serious concern. Will they do it again? Will these godfathers attempt to put puppets back into power so that their empires will once again be beacons of prosperity and opulence?
What of their formula? Will they now adjust the measurements to ever after avoid the same result? Do they know how? I am fearful that they cannot do it. I am worried that they only know one recipe – that which ensures that their Frankenstein is obedient and loyal … until he isn’t. Then he wreaks havoc and terror on the township until the locals attack him to death with pitchforks and burning torches, forgetting that he had a creator – one who will someday want to build a new monster from the discarded, decaying parts of old premiers and parties.
So you see, while we are all picking at the entrails of Frankenstein. We have not bothered to look past the ends of our noses and examine how he got to be what he was.
We are at risk of repeated history if we, as voters, do not sharpen our senses and begin to support those who do not bring agendas, political posturing and a bag full of tricks. We can no longer vote on personality and popularity. We must examine the candidates, check their backgrounds and do our due diligence in order to ensure that we have people who seek to put our best interests at heart.
But even with that there are no guarantees. No one is impervious to the enticement of power and fame. No one can ever be totally resistant to the lure of wealth and financial independence. Every man has his price – and unfortunately, those who wish to maintain control are able to name the tune when the piper calls.
Category: Viewpoint
C 4 C The once and future puppet masters. Nuff said
Any article that uses the words Choo Choo gets my vote!
I find your country beautiful … I am working at becoming an expat and leaving the United States to come join you … I do however find this type of conduct in your government a concern … I must share that greed and corruption are not unique to the Caymans, but are always wrong wherever they exist …
Stop complaining, which yields nothing … decide to either fix it or except it, and then own it …
The Caymans are far more corrupt than you could ever think and they are about to go bust when the G20 closes down tax havens and the corruption and crime will get worse.
Please don’t call it “the Caymans”. Can’t stand that!
It is “Cayman” or “the Cayman Islands”.
Thank you.
The Management
Some people don't know any better, others are plain ignorant – hence why many call it the Caymans. Lol re. the Management bit.
Actually as the poster, I know a tremendous amount, indeed I forced myself to read that entire, turgid Michael Craton book. But I still call it the Caymans. There is nothing incorrect about theterm when referring to the island group.
Nobody from here calls it that. Call it Cayman and get over it. You just make youse self look stoopid!
The Caymans is what we have called it, call it and will continue to call it. I have seen explanations on this site why it is a perfectly accurate term to use, albeit it one which seems to produce a disproportionately hysterical response from those who are averse to the term. Get over it.
Nah uh!
You get over it.
Signed,
The Cayman Islands a.k.a. Cayman
There is no such place as "The Caymans", just as there are no such places as "The Virgins" or "The Channels".
Expats have been fleeing Cayman by the plane load in the last few years. You should look into why.
There is not much sense in a US citizen moving to Cayman as an expat since they still have to pay Federal taxes and the expat wages in Cayman are based on zero taxes aimed at those who can move here and pay zero tax.
Expats fleeing Cayman by the plane load in the last few years???? gee I wish that was the case because we would not have so many unemployed natives. I will however, give you the benefit of the doubt but it seems as if the planes that they flee in bring in twice as many.
Expats have been leaving because there are fewer jobs in the recession, or they have been rolled over. No great mystery.
All you shameless anonymous posters that have integerity, honesty and practice high ethics and morals need to display this by using your names, being identified with RIGHT against WRONG. Get involved in the process, help make sure the right persons get elected and each of you contribute to GOOD GOVERNANCE both in Government and the private sector.
Collectively we can right this ship Cayman as pesident Gerald Forde siad when he took over from Nixon " The long national nightmare is over".
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing, there is no need for the force for good to be anonymous, in fact in my view good cannot be anoymous. Get involved, stand up and be counted, do not be guilty of sins of omission at least let them be sins of commission.
D. Ezzard Miller
It aint that easy Ezzard. As an expat without status or vote I care about these islands but the only thing I can realistically do is make anonymous posts, at least that way I take part a little in the debate! Even if I did lots of research and due diligence and tried to help worthy candidates behind the scenes, that could still come back to bite me in the ass one day. And don't tell me you haven't been of the view that ex-pats are ex-pendable. We all know how it works around here.
Anyways, at the end of the day,finding a worthy candidate is going to be tough if not impossible.
Yea, but look yah, udp was bad, but watch out for C(coalition) 4(for) C(cash)!
There is a hugh problem coming to Cayman search for closing tax loophole. This should be the greatest concern for all Caymanians because if our financial industry is destroyed what will happen to this country? Our tourism industry is slowly dying, stayover tourism is down while cruise ships are passing us by.
Today's quiz. Who said this
"Democracy cannot consist of elections that are nearly always fictitious and managed by rich landowners and professional politicians."
And so… explain fictitious? Who, Holmes, are the rich landowners besides Dart? Is there any merit to this statement?
I would say an election is fictitious David when the choices are always extremely limited. Ie. When the same suspects are running for office continously. Those are what we call professional politicians and the problem with that is the longer it continues the more favors are owed. Under the rich landowner classification nowadays you could also add land developers. Besides Dart, Michael Ryan is one. So was Stan Thomas. Although there are probably others with numbered companies. With just those three however you can see the undo influence they had on decision making. We, meaning anyone outside this circle of power need far greater participation in the process. In order for our democracy to work for us.
Then I have been saying this for years. Let us change or amend the Constitution so that people will be able to participate more in their democracy. Like give the people the power to recall or remove MLAS. What is so wrong in giving the people more power?????? It seems like none of the MLAS or old school politicians we have now have suggested it! Alden with his MBE is quiet too! If he gets back in, I hope he right away seek an Order in Council to amend the Constitution.
“Land” is the metaphor for wealth. Wealth in cayman is land, shareholdingd in the most important economic drivers and the big firms. Land is as good as equity in the big law firms, accounting firms, utilities, local banks and major commercial enterprises, supermarkets, duty free empires etc.
Uh, that would be the Che Guevara who looked good in photos but got himself shot in Bolivia.
Ernesto Che Guevara
the same person who said:
“In fact, if Christ himself stood in my way, I, like Nietzsche, would not hesitate to squish him like a worm.”
and
“To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary … These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution!”
I am with him on the first one.
Rebuilding Cayman……….
Vote for individuals that will serve the people and country not individuals that want to live like Donald Trump. Demand that the people you vote for are accountable and stay at home and manage the country. Rebuild stayover tourism. Have a legitimate tourism authority with private stakeholders at the helm run the department of tourism. Have a professional authority (banking, legal and accounting) with private stakeholders rebuild Cayman's reputation. Strengthen ties with the Dart group.
Most important do not vote for the individuals that managed our country into the shape it is in now.
Lachlan MacTavish
"Strengthen ties with the Dart Group"??!! How much more of our land shall we hand over to him on Mac's golden platter Lach?????
Pay attention!!!
You lost me at "strengthen ties with the Dart group'. We are already too tied up by him courtesy of Mac.
Love the story, love the plot. Well-written argument. But I disagree with one minor point – it wasn't the "Mafia" who pulled out the rug from under MacFatty – it was the Brits. If anything, this ought to teach you that you don't want to #%$* with the Brits. The Argentinians found that out in the 80s when they travelled thousands of miles to defend a piece of rock. Misick and MacBush found that out recently.
Mac f****** with just about everyone by the end. Perhaps that was the problem.
Maybe they didn't have their fingerprints on the rug (way too sophisticated to be that close to the deed) – but there are several things happening here. No one can take credit for Mac's downfall…but Mac. He has been skinning that cat pretty good all by himself. What we have here was inevitable. The Mafia clearly orchestrated the lock-step of the (formerly known as) UDP 5 in the last days. Doubtful that they had enough pull to bring in the Brits – but – they are influential enough to plant the seed which sprouted that little bloom of intelligence.
Let's not underestimate the power that clearly lies within these shores, Nah. For to do so will cause history to repeat itself, repeat itself.
Try hard as you will, the next elected officials predicted, will be from the same genepool of self-serving, self interest, power hungry individuals.
This is a very thought provoking article. Can anyone really put country first if they are a member of a secret society that instills a loyalty to fellow members above others? Will the members of the executive committee of the C4C in the interests of transparency and good governance disclose whether they are in fact members of a secret society whose members carry a disproportionate influence on every sector of Cayman society from the police to government and even the judicial system? One too many trips to the well with the Frankenstein visual though.
You voters better make damn sure that the people who you vote for have some solutions other than not being McKeeva. None of the other candidates have told how they will bring the country back and they must have their feet held to the fire to give solutions not just bashing McKeeva.
They won't have the luxury of throwing money at the country's problems.
Except Frank McField. Hey! You got to give em some credit. At least he spilt the beans what his agenda is 🙂
Brilliant!!!!!!!!!
This article was taken from my heart! The person has addressed exactly what is wrong with our political process. Trust me the "'illuminati' of sorts" and willingness of so many to go along with what wasn't right in exchange for power and financial security is at the root of this nightmare.
Cayman is too small to have 'brotherhoods', 'sisterhoods', anti-colonialists and special interest groups steering its future.
The future puppets are clearly cut from the same cloth when we look at the new candidates………all have been willing to think they can sit back and stand up for nothing all their lives, convince people that they have done what was 'respectfula and right' when they are nothing more than willing recruits willing to continue the path we're on.
Does the UDP 5 really expect to not give us an explanation for their complicity and support of McKeeva for 3.5 years??
Incredible arrogance!
Get rid of all of them!
They are STILL loyal to Mckeeva and UDP
Hey, don't kick them out yet – I've still got a driveway that wants paving and a frig that needs replacing!
For your information, you can't pin her down on the driveways, because if some truck poured a whole heap of asphalt in front your gate or drive way, you too would expect them to level-it-out to avoid having to drive over a bump or step to get on the main road, and that would most naturally, mean placing some asphalt paving on driveways to do so. So… critics may be able to pin Julie down on paving church yards; however, I see the situation clearly when it comes to people's driveways
Walton, you from the Brac nah true? Well me from grand and over here we have auditor general, and auditor says its foul. You should be paying back the people for having your drive way level off, you and Julie !!!
But walton shouldnt have to pay. If government policy negative effect people's lives like leave a slope or pot hole in front of my driveway, then the government should fix it, don't you agree?
Food for thought
Nothing will change and if you thinkMcKeeva wont be back, think again!