Candidate blames foreigners
(CNS): The murder rate, rising unemployment and even traffic congestion are all down to too many foreigners in Cayman according to one independent candidate running in the district of Bodden Town. In the second Chamber Candidates Forum in the district, where audiences have still not matched those seen so far in East End and West Bay, four of the ten candidates running in General Election 2009 for Bodden Town discussed tourism, construction, national energy, financial services revenue raising measures and immigration.
PPM incumbent MLA Osbourne Bodden and UDP member Mark Scotland, on his second attempt at a seat in the LA, lined up next to two newcomers to the politics game, independent candidates Justin Woods and Vincent Frederick. During the evening’s debate the candidates answered the ten set Chamber questions which they had not seen, the chamber emphasised, as well as a random selection from the audience.
Of all the subjects debated during the evening, however, with a few notable exceptions such as the gully and flooding problems in the district, it was immigration that seemed to get the audience’s attention. The panel answered two questions on the topic, one relating to the rollover policy and another asking if Cayman’s social harmony was in jeopardy. All of the panellists seemed to agree that rollover was not working. However, none of them were prepared to say it need to be revoked. The fundamental problem was clearly articulated by Woods, who said that because Caymanians were not stepping into the posts at the seven year point as intended, the roles were simply being filled with a different work permit holder.
“The rollover policy has not worked as intended,” said Woods. “We have replaced a worker we have known for seven years for one we know nothing about and then a year later we end up with two as the first one comes back. The policy’s only accomplishment has been to change the mindset of our expatriate workers to spend as little as possible in our local economy. I’m not advocating its removal but the way it is being enforced and utilized needs to be look at.” He said, “…we have the expatriate worker coming in but we don’t have the trained Caymanian to replace him…”
Frederick said that employers were finding loopholes to keep them from employing Caymanians and were replacing foreigners with more foreigners and it had to stop. When it came to issues of social harmony among its 120 nationalities, where the other panellist felt social harmony was a very important element in Cayman’s success, Frederick was far less concerned and made it clear he didn’t care about the harmony of foreigners. He said it was the foreigners that were doing all the murders and undermining the harmony. “Foreigners enjoy everything but Caymanians don’t,” he said. “I am not here to protect the foreigners. We come first, they come second. If we can’t get jobs what are we living in this country for?” he asked.
Concerned greatly about the impact foreigners are having in Cayman in general, Frederick spent a good deal of time during the evening lamenting the problems associated with foreign workers, foreign companies and foreign contractors. As well as blaming them for all the murders, he also put traffic congestion clearly at their feet.
Answering a question about improving public transport he said, “There is too much traffic on our roads because there are too many foreigners,” adding that Caymanians were spending money on roads just to cater to the foreigners. Frederick said foreigners should be made to use public transport instead, and if elected he would introduce a law to prevent foreigners importing cars but if they want to own and use a vehicle he would make them pay more – at least double.
The other candidates took a rather more measured approach to reducing traffic congestion, with Scotland saying it was very difficult to get people out of their cars and there are not many ways to make it work, but he said it would be betterto decentralize. Had government built satellite offices in the outer districts instead of one new government administration building in town, he said, it would have eased the congestion. Bodden felt the existing transport system needed to be improved in terms of reliability but he also agreed decentralisation was a consideration for the future as Cayman could not keep building roads to address the congestion problem. Woods suggested a co-op for the bus transport system to encourage drivers to work in non-peak hours and still receive a fair share, and he felt utilising modern technology might help them run to a schedule.
When it came to revenue raising measures Frederick once again felt the foreigners were the best target and said he would introduce what he called an infrastructure fee (what would be more correctly described as income tax) but just on foreign workers. He also said he would tax commercial buildings by the square foot.
Scotland took a more conservative approach when he said that we needed to enhance current revenue sources in tourism and financial services rather than introducing new measures such as direct taxation, selling government assets or introducing a lottery or casinos. Bodden said while it took a lot of money to operate the Cayman Islands budget, revenue was not a serious issue yet and the focus should be on doing better on expenditure and making government more efficient. He did however suggest that in future a small fee could be introduced on overseas remittances but he didn’t think it was necessary yet.
Woods agreed with that idea and said because so much money left Cayman, the fee would not need to be very high to raise considerable revenue. However, he said diversifying Caymans economy was an important goal and suggested further developing our education sector. Building on the success of the medical/ vet school and the Cayman Islands Law School, he saw an opportunity to develop UCCI and to invite other international education establishments to come to Cayman.
Asked what would be their first private members motions if they were elected, Bodden said it would be for the development of a young offenders institute, which was desperately needed given that young offenders were learning at the hands of hardened criminals by being held in an adult prison. Woods said he would bring a motion to do something to tackle the flooding in Bodden Town, while Frederick said he wanted to address the penal code and make the sentences stiffer. Mark Scotland said it would relate to education in some way but he did not say specifically what it is he would want to change in the recently passed education law.
Category: Election 2009
Close it down Nicky, and MANY THANKS for the forum for this to be ventilated.
Thank you Caymanians. You are a very good people.
Agitators: God loves you – love each other in turn.
Unless anyone has anything new to say, I’m closing this thread.
He Googled it … in between playing with his Hitler doll and mouthing nuclear explosion noises with images of mushroom clouds dancing in his head…
Note that his top-line name is back to "Anonymous" from "One-Solution", so he’s been in other forums on pretending not to be his racist wannabe-mass-murderer genocidal self.
No, One-Solution, you are NEVER going to live this down – the Internet is FOREVER. Your children (God help them) will be reading about this…
One Solution,
If you are so intelligent and well read, how come you missed the very obvious " Joe the plumber" reference in the previous posters name? No idea what I’m talking about? Google it.
LIsten, Bodden the Plumber,
I don’t need to Google it. I am well aware of ‘JOE’ the Plumber being used in the US Economics media coverage to represent the low to average working American. They didn’t use a LAST NAME did they??
Is that your best shot? Try again!!!
Your One Solution
FYI – On the other hand…
I am also well aware of the education, labour, cultural, social, political and most other issues and complexities that we face in our country, ALL of which I am NOT proud of and FAR LESS pleased with, But as a People… as an already ailed Country, we DON"T NEED YOUR CONTRIBUTION to it’s ailments. And until the INHIBITIVE COMPLEXITIES such as the mostly un-united Caymanian People(mostly separated by development and money) and from a political view-point, the careless, selfish, greedy and CORRUPT Political Representatives we have always had, the small community that we have (fear of victimization, which makes correction to many isses difficult) and the foolish & corrupt people who elect or reelect them into Govt.)… until those are dealt with so that we can move forward to address these bleeding wounds, then YOU expats are responsible for NOT contributing to this Countries ULTIMATE DEMISE as a result.
"Not because there are 10,000 fools per se, means that those who have the ways and means, should TAKE ADVANTAGE of those fools". It’s not their fault they were left out in the Creator’s Blessings of good ‘Grey/Gray Matter’!! So have some CONSCIENCE, RESPECT and HUMILITY for people on their SOIL.
Your One Solution
"I strongly urge and welcome the continuation of this debate and comments that are used on these CNS pages, to be held in a face-to-face scenario…"
Why? Gonna nuke ’em brainiac?
"Why? Gonna nuke ’em brainiac?"
Of course not. I wouldn’t do something like that!!! You crazy?
That wasn’t my idea of a strong, intelligent and intellectual debate which would no doubt turn out bloody gratifying, however wouldn’t you assume that if I did something so crazy and horrible as nuking ’em, then that would mean that I would possibly have to nuke myself also at that forum? Something like that would be utterly senseless. I have far better sense than that.
Anyone for a gratifying debate?
Yours Truly,
Your One Solution
EBANKS THE PLUMBER WHY DONT YOU GO AND DO YOUR PLUMBMING JOB DONT YOU KNOW THIS ROOM IS CLEANSE??? By the way my TOLIET & SINK NEED PLUMBMING WORK!!! Sorry I only accept certified plumbers with a degree your not qualified! I have to make this short and sweet, due to a hangover, pls respect this room like I said it already had ethnic cleansing hehe.
Guess who’s hereeeeeeeeeeee????? That’s right! Your favorite news team as always TEAM CAYMAN! OMG! CNS! What have you done??? Dont you realize that TEAM CAYMAN is also a.k.a HOLY TEAM!!! Now we cannot report no further in this room, due to the fact that CNS has already had Ethnic-Cleansing!!!! LOL! With that being said and done, TEAM CAYMAN is working now on more serious cases. The swine flu is what our mean concern is all about! So I’m advicing everyone to come to the health room, so that we can bring to you all the latest swine flu news!! We have a very busy schedule, for we are working very hard for you all around the clock, so with that being said my friends have a nice day.
TEAM CAYMAN KEEPING YOU ALL INFORMED!!!
I suggest that all expats have a 2 week holiday all at the same time and see how well the country fairs over this period. Who’ll collect the trash, who’ll clean the streets, who’ll serve the tourists in the Caymanian owned bars and hotels, who’ll restock the shelves in the stores, who’ll fry the chicken at KFC, who’ll deliver pizza?
"I suggest that all expats have a 2 week holiday".
I think we are all aware of the number of expats here on work permit and why it makes us vulnerable.
Any chance of the first two weeks in september? I have family visiting!
One Solution – Thanks, but I think we’ve had enough Ethnic-Cleansing, Psychopathic responses now, however proverbial.
"At least Mr. Frederickis not going to take his horse and make HORSE STEW like you ASIANS do!!!! So Mr. Frederick! Please! Do make sure your horse is bolted down really good before those ASIANS take it when they leave and EAT it!!!!!!"
You’re not a racist you say? What an embarasement to Caymanians.
Team Cayman, as a Caymanian I have to say I think you are getting a little carried away. Tone it down, dude.
BREAKING NEWS! THIS IS NOW A WORLDWIDE EMERGENCY!!!! THE US HEALTH DEPT HAS NOW DECLARED THIS SWINE FLU AT A LEVEL 5!!!! EVERYONE PLS TUNE INTO CNN RIGHT NOW!!!! TEAM CAYMAN IS TUNNING OUT TO GET OUR STOCKS OF TAMIFLU! GOD HELP US ALL!!!!
TEAM CAYMAN KEEPING YOU ALL INFORMED!!!
We Love you TEAM CAYMAN, but sorry to say that isn’t Breaking News. We already have the SWINE Epidemic in Cayman. I have been Nauseated, Throwing up and and running a HIGH Temperature for the last 10-15 years. Gotta find a cure!!
See that’s why all of us Caymanians are dropping down like crazy.
Your One Solution
To the Asian boy who cried wolf when he said….I would say that Mr Fredericks is talking after the horse has bolted. Expats are going anyway and not being replaced. But thanks for letting us know the bigger picture anyway.
At least Mr. Frederick is not going to take his horse and make HORSE STEW like you ASIANS do!!!! So Mr. Frederick! Please! Do make sure your horse is bolted down really good before those ASIANS take it when they leave and EAT it!!!!!!
"That would be "Lord Nuke McDevastate". You know Ihave become more and more inspired by people like Adolph Hitler. I can only imagine the sheer power of 20 KiloTons of TNT being dropped on Grand Cayman. Good riddance to 150K of your type and these Gold Rocks called the Cayman Islands. How does that sound for One Solution?"
It sounds like you are an imbecile, that’s how it sounds.
Your family and countrymen are not doubt deeply ashamed of their affiliation with you.
Oh, and that "watch your back" BS – you are a spineless coward, and everyone knows it – including you.
Do the right thing – you know what I mean.
Not only do Asian children typically score higher in many areas over those in the UK, it is unlikely that statistics for the United Kingdom include Overseas Territories.
ATTN! ATTN! EVERYONE I WAS JUST GOING INTO THE OTHER ROOM TO MAKE A REPORT< UNTIL I GOT AN EMERGENCY CALL FROM MY CAYMANIAN PEOPLE THAT I WAS NEEDED HERE!!!! OK! Now I have been reading through the lines and day after day it’s just the same old story with you EXPATS!
Whomever said that, Asian children typically score higher in many areas over those in the U.K! Tell me you just did’nt say that? You are so lucky I have to make this short and sweet today,due to a very important news meeting with my staff. But here goes…..
Duh! Huh! What! Your worst than the little boy who cried wolf! As far as I know Asia is in the bottom three on the short list! Sorry, but Asia is nowhere on the list with the higher educated Countries. When I last check, as far as I know you all were on the illiteracy list in the polls. Go and check Asia world history and learn something! Trust me I was just as SHOCK as you too!
Let me say something here, that I know some of my Caymanian people will not like to here, I’m just speaking for myself. Jamaican people your mykind of people, I think you are wonderful people I have nothing against you all,the rest of the expats can go for all I care! Now if you all will excuse me I have news to report in the other rooms! Have a nice day!!!
Let’s bring this debate out of the gutter onto the level of reasonably well-read people like me.
I suspect what the writer meant was that children of Asian migrants to the UK (and indeed the USA) perform better than the locals. While this may be true for certain groups, it’s not true for all. Children of English-speaking migrants do tend to do better (with a few exceptions) than the local cohorts – due to parental pressure. It’s only when they become established (2nd, 3rd generations, etc) that their levels of academic attainment drops to that of the "locals". Probably the worst thing that could have happened here is to have given all those foreign kids status. Now they can adopt the "I’m Caymanian so I don’t need to study" attitude which my teacher friends tell me about.
You assert that Asia is nowhere on the list with higher educated countries (Team Cayman – Asia is a continent, not a country, but we’ll let that ride. Maybe you still have to take Geography 100.) Where do you think the USA recruits its brightest doctoral candidates from? Look at the names of the scientific researchers in Silicon Valley. A significant proportion of them are from countries like Singapore, Taiwan, China, India, Japan and South Korea. You see, the US may have a lousy school system, but it still has the economic clout to recruit the best graduate students and Ph.Ds, and its immigration laws allow them to stay, become citizens, and even run for political office after less than 25 years.
Let’s Bring this Debat out…
Ebanks the Plumber huh???
Are you really an Ebanks?… Are really a Caymanian? You sound like another one of those kind that will be innovative with their INSULTS to the Caymanians… Insults to the Ebanks… Insults to the Education and Intelligence levels of Caymanians. For instance, using the Ebanks last name with a career type that is on the lower end of the education scale.
Listen, I have personal knowledge of a case where about 4-5 years ago, a couple of Radio Hosts of Z99FM(a Caymanian-owned radio station), who had created an enfuriating ON-AIR program just to make a mockery of Caymanians with the Ebanks last name. Every day they would pick a few Caymanians with the last name, "Ebanks" from the telephone directory. Usually they would chose a person with a 1st name that could be identified as an older Caymanian(just older Caymanian names) and that they figured would be mostly uneducated assuming these were older Caymanians. They would invoke conversation with these Caymanians ON-AIR and just made a mockery of them by having these people answer questions and make statements that would be considered uneducated and the host would respond with hidden and just plain-out raw sarcasm.
They got away with this for about three weeks when they pick the name of one of those Ebanks who would be their match. That Caymanian responded with sarcasm initially and quickly got to the point of telling them that he was aware of what they were doing and their intensions behind the "Ebanks Mockery Project". He then proceeded to duly threaten the radio hosts. He then cursed them out very diplomatically and must have filed a report to the owners of the radio Station.
OK…. here’s the details on the hosts behind the "Project Mockery"… these were non other than WHITE CANADIANS… the nationality predominantly hired at Z99. And as for the Caymanian OWNER… he is a white Caymanian who I went to Triple "C" School with – who I understand comes from a family of more-so racist Caymanians. I’m sure he knew of that Project, but allowed it to continue. But MORE to THE POINT… this is just ONE PRIME EXAMPLE pf the UTTER DISRESPECT Caymanians get right on OUR OWN SOIL from a good majority of these CAUCASIAN EXPATS… the kind that i persistently talk about. These expats are the ones that CREATE the RESENTMENT and ANGER that Caymanians feel for these type. Don’t get me wrong – I dont hate Expats. I JUST DESPISE AND RESENT THE SARCASTIC, INSUTING AND DISRESPECTFUL TYPE.
While i am open and fair-minded about, and encourage intelligent and intellectual debate from both sides, I would suggest that if YOU (Ebanks the Plumber) are one of those very expats that i have been referring to all along… those that UTILIZE every means of being sarcastic and disrespectful to the Caymanian – then I strongly urge and welcome the continuation of this debate and comments that are used on these CNS pages, to be held in a face-to-face scenario of intelligent and intellectual Caymanians like myself and Expats of THAT nature. I’m sure it would be a stronger and more intellectual debate and it would have results where Caymanians would walk away having more of the respect they deserve.
Anyone for this proposal?
Your One Solution
To: Team Cayman a new sherriff is in town
Could you post your comment again without the caps lock on, please?
"First you should learn to read correctly. I wrote "copy and paste" not "cut and paste" (which is impossible to do from a website)."
That’s the best contribution you’ve got? Why waste the pixels on our screens?
I’m outta here too. Between you and One-Brain-Cell-No-Solution, this has run itself into the ground.
Oh, and One-Brain-Cell: get some thereapy for your rage, impotence and homicidal incinations. Or turn yourself into the police on the grounds that you are unfit to live amongst civilized people, and ask to be incarcerated. Trying to instil fear of violence as a means of argument demonstrates that you are stupid, weak and afraid, and that you have nothing to contribute to an intelligent discussion. Not that this would surprise anybody reading your babblings. I’ll say a prayer that you do not actually kill somebody as you threaten, as I hope that you have not done so already. Get some help.
I expect I’ll see some of you others in the next jurisdiction. Thanks for everything.
Back on track.
Mr Frederick’s post has certainly generated and stimulated a healthy debate for sure.
I am not in agreement in any way with the initial post as I believe that it has pure political agenda hastily thought up in the Gun square illiterati think tank. Despite the Racist overtones, the juvenile attempt to place blame at a dwindling population of ‘scapegoats’, Mr Frederick’s post should be applauded none the less. He is the only one who has smashed through the supposed glass ceiling and told us straight, what was possibly suspected by many.
I would be surprised if thanks are not forthcoming from the Overseas territories committee, FCO, UK for whipping up the frenzy needed for a ‘rash and heated referendum’ that I am sure the UK would love to see right now. It would be far cheaper than going down the TCI route and would also be a little bit more politically correct than the Dutch political response of ‘putting the Netherland Antilles on the internet and auctioning it to the highest bidder!’ Either way, you are on the road, the choice of vehicle has not yet been determined or when you leave.
He has wandered around the edge of a ‘independance’ precipice, like many others before and pondered on the amount of ‘gold/ respect/ titles’ to be had at the bottom. At least this guy has the will to jump in and shout that he is going to the bottom. Respect (whatever the working definitiion is) has to be given for this as I am sure many, many politicos have had the ‘Turks&Caicos/Bahamas/I can get me more pie’ train of thought yet dared not to bite the hand that feeds them.
Like President Obama who spoke of Protection of American economic interests when the whole financial world knew that protectionism was going to have to happen globally, but didnt want to be the first one to mention it. When it came out, a sigh of relief was heard as other countries put ‘all hands’ to the true and now apparent agenda of protecting their own interests, yet dismayed that they were not the first to mention it and carve something up for themselves.
Mr Frederick’s ‘rivers of blood’ speech was a spectacle of clarity, vision and predjudice as the facade can now be seen through clearly. What appeared to be a chic,unique, successful, international tourist / finance centre is now appearing to be almost like a job theme park where, behind the scenes, the magic dissappears and the visitor is dissappointed.
He has taken us behind the scenes, given us the guided tour, introduced us to the inexperienced and bitching crew in control who only stay around for the money but dont want to do the job. Like young children finding out that the life size, waving Disneyland character is actually a bitter, rude and ignorant person who hates tourists when theyreach the sanctuary of the tip counting room or when mixing with other life size cartoon characters.
Just for good measure, he has also well and truly concreted in the dividing fence that was previously portable and used infrequently for predjudice on a case by case basis. I guess it can still be climbed over by some, but to be honest, after four years of trying, it aint going to make a difference. As another post still offered the milk, well yes I will accept however, despite living in West Bay, I have no desire to interfere with your cattle.
The truth is, we will all have to take the jump sooner or later as the wish of Mr Frederick’s et al will be soon granted.
Expats are going whether Mr Frederick’s wants them to leave or not. This is for a variety of reasons.
Expats will be rolled over or develop a problem with a permit which may stem from ‘dissing’ someone’s cousin a year before, totally unbeknown to them. Either way, it will leave a small number of people chasing status, pr, residency, their job or even a parking spot. I do not criticise them, each person has their own reasons and ideals. On some occasions, that carrot that is dangled and being chased might possibly lead to a bigger carrot. I seriously doubt it.
Roll over may go away with the next generation of future Premiers although it would not that make much of a difference. I have not yet met anyone who has reached roll over and gone, as it seems that most expats are rolling themselves over when they want, not when they are told to.This is usually significantly before their time.
The ethos I get from most is to budget and spend only what is necessary, buy property wherever possible so that even if it is sold at cost when leaving, no money has been spent on rent. Save vigorously and take the money out. Any other disposable income is spent travelling to places such as Costa Rica, Peru, Cuba, etc.
The smart money is moving, quicker than you realise. Costa Rica is experiencing growth in land sales due to the ‘new money’ moving out of Hong Kong. Tourism still remains popular as it has always kept the prices to an acceptable and realistic level. Despite the recession, there is still a massive amount of money to be made in Litigation, Liquidation, short selling and commodities.
Panama is sat with open arms waiting for the next off shore center to politically de stabilize itself. The mirrored skyline resembling Manhattan climbs higher and higher each day across the bay from Panama city. The Trump resort opens later this year featuring a Marina amongst all the usual trappings that come with big investments. The open and transparency template is already being pursued in preparedness for the new financial world order. The canal is being widened, the infrastructure is being prepared. Foresight has been gained.
Cuba is going to be quick. Anyone from Europe can tell you from experience how rapidly a former communist country can turn itself around to full capitalism. We are definitely not talking years either. With this in mind, there is home grown Cayman new money lining up for a piece of the action when Cuba turns around. So not only will the Cayman dissappear with the expat, Cayman people will give it a hand to go too. With a lot of deep water ports for cruise ships to berth, a living history that has not been destroyed, a definitive culture and 90 per centof cruise shippers not being allowed to visit for 50 years, I just dont think that Stingray city or a trip to smith cove on the trolley roger is just going to cut it any more.
Add these to the list of off shore destinations kindly suppliedi in previous posts and all round, it aint looking too good from any angle. Throw in a little bit of protectionism in the pot, the upsurge in crime and the future layoffs of local established businesses here and it looks worse.
The point is though, we as expats are reminded constantly that it is our right to leave. That is true but we dont have the monopoly on leaving Cayman. It is open to Caymanians too, as the ever prevailing greed will continue to outprice even the locals.
I do remind everyone, Cayman and Expat alike that it is not compulsory to stay. It is a big world out there which seems to get smaller the more you get round it. This is not just open to expats, it is open to everyone. Caymanians have the right, at least now, to go and live and work in the UK. Which is giving you the key to the European Job market. There are a lot of nationalities who would love that, and use it for what it is worth. You never know, you may like it!
The very fact that there is a growing amount of cars for sale by the road side, the abundance of newly constructed property with nobody renting them, the rental properties in the news paper getting bigger and bigger each week, I would say that Mr Fredericks is talking after the horse has bolted. Expats are going anyway and not being replaced. But thanks for letting us know the bigger picture anyway.
I still love being here despite the gloss wearing a little thin compared with my first arrival.I do not intend to stay though. My values have changed as my initial desire to intergrate, assimilate and contribute has been worn away slowly by the roll over, personal experiences, ignorance and inefficiency that cannot be distinguished from obstruction. This cannot just be an personal occurrence as I have found this to be the same with expats from different continents, social up bringings, races and Professions.
The smart move is to not get comfortable and plan the move sooner than later. Island time is slow but things do have a habit of creeping up on you without warning around these parts.
Dear One-Brain-Cell-No-Solution:
You win. I’m out of here. Last post.
Anyone wanna go for a beer? All this chirpin’ is thirsty work!
"I am not the person you were responding but I am not sure what you think the Wikipedia list proves, except that you know how to copy and paste. Were you suggesting that these places were all equally (or more) desirable to live as Cayman? If you were then you are either bluffing or in for a very rude awakening. How many have you visited?"
(a) Cut and paste? What the heck is that? I typed that out just like they taught me at school (undergrad, professional degree AND grad school – I ain’t no dummy). I thought you would have surmised that with the awesome power of your intellect (turnabout as to sarcasm is fair play).
(b) Equal or more desirable? Well since you asked: I’d take Aruba, maybe the Bahamas, Barbados for sure, BVI, the Channel Islands, Cyprus in a heartbeat, Hong Kong for the money, Liechtenstein or Luxembourg just because, Switzerland (no brainer) or the UAEs when they stabilize. There are others that would be worth a go for the footloose among us.
(c) I never bluff (it’s why I don’t play poker).
(d) Can you teach me that cut and paste thing please?
Oh, and I have visited more than a few, but certainly not all…
Soon to be Ex-Expat,
First you should learn to read correctly. I wrote "copy and paste" not "cut and paste" (which is impossible to do from a website).
If you think these countries don’t have their own issues, particularly in an economic downturn, you are in for a very rude awakening like I said. I don’t know who told you the Bahamas was very pro-expat, for example.
Surely we are not going to vote for Vincent just because he espouses hate? What else does he have?
In many of the option countries rightfully sited in the recent Wikepedia off shore listing, would be a place of danger to lime and life if natives were disrespected and denigrated as is happening here. The Uglies would be moving here frm there.
Guys stop getting those little thongs all twisted out a place….nobody is going to to special tax any body. It not going to happen. While (plenty) choice out de, Cayman has some distinct economic, geographical and cultural virtues.
Where we may have to watch is the future financial centre plans of Cuba. Yes Cuba. China did it Cuba is taking note.
The bottom line is that …bottom line for all concerned. Respect the people you have found when you come of the plane. They will in turn respect you…die for you too. It was a tradition for a very, good long time. Caymanians will testify to that indisputable.
Many who have come and lived here and are now part of us are as much insulted as true borns for an emerging nastiness cultivated by some who have brought it here.
So leave it at the door lets rewrite this book together. Or else it will not work for any of us.
Sorry One-Solution. I forgot Bahrain, Costa Rica, Djibouti, Dominica and Grenada.
There are others still, and we can always start an entirely new one, but you get the picture.
Dearest One-Solution:
"NOW, many of you expats keep using the scenario of expats leaving our country and “switching off the lights which would leave us in economic shambles. We know you use this as a scare tactic and will actually do it as you’ve done in other countries, but until this country changes its Tax-Free laws and the International Tax Haven is broken up, then with all the financial lucrativeness and physical investment that has been laid down in this country, I doubt the Foreign investor and his expat workers will be so hasty to just split and switch off the lights.. Where else would you run to that would be as lucrative and easy to pull off your atrocities??????"
Courtesy of Wikipedia:
GET THE PICTURE????
Soon to be Ex-Expat,
I am not the person you were responding but I am not sure what you think the Wikipedia list proves, except that you know how to copy and paste. Were you suggesting that these places were all equally (or more) desirable to live as Cayman? If you were then you are either bluffing or in for a very rude awakening. How many have you visited?
Dearest, Soon to be Ex-Expat,
So WHY are YOU HERE??? What Makes The Cayman Islands So SPECIAL out of ALL those PLEEPING choices? HUH?
Don’t Tell me it’s our ‘Friendly Native Caymanians’, Dont tell me it’s our beautiful beaches that CAN’T be found anywhere else in the world or our breath-taking geographical landscapes. Hurry!!! Muster up some reason that we don’t already KNOW.
Have you BACK-CHATTING Expats ever considered it would be alot easier to be nicer and have some respect for the Native Caymanians and be one of the "Loved Expats" rather than having to pull up your roots and disrupt such a beautiful life ALL too many of you have in these Islands?
We know that many of you have nothing when you come here and many go back home filthy rich or live the good life here. For example, as a business owner and employer I employed a female from India(where there is an abundance of software programmers) as a Web/Database Developer who had all the Certifications/Qualifications we were required, but she was unable to produce as we expected. Approxmately 1 year later, we had to terminate her employment unfortunately. I liked her personality. She was very humble and respectful, hence the reason I paid her 1 month severance salary. She remained on the island being support by her husband’s "low-wage salary" and 3 years later I had a chat with them in the Supermarket only to hear that they had gotten Permanent Residence when they had NO money and having absolutely NO XXXXX ties to this country otherwise except the likelyhood of some other expat from India possibly as a Status Caymanian in the ‘Elite Leagues’ who’s influence pushed through the PRs for them.
Like my fellow Native said, Our ancestors were living JUST FINE before the nasty-minded ones of you Expats came to these shores. Those that are still living to experiance the ‘IN-OUR-FACE ATROCITY’ we as Caymanians face TODAY, our elders tell us over and over that Their lives were hard, but that was only in a physical way. They did’nt have to deal with the issues in their days, what we have to deal with these days in so many aspects, specifically from the unbridled development and the nasty-minded Expat that comes with it. And I referenced the Amazonian Indians and other remote Tribes, they too existed for thousands of years before the white man came to their soil, and it wasn’t long afterwards that they became A BROKEN & LOST PEOPLE.
THE SIMPLE SOLUTION TO THE WRETCHED AND FIESTY EXPATS;- If you FEEL SO bloody HARD about BUCKLING DOWN your stinking attitudes in other People’s Countries to make things Easier for yourselves, then I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU GET OUT. If you don’t like this country, then go back to YOUR country. I wouldn’t suggest you go to any other country. You’d DO THE SAME!!
Then again, maybe these type should go to someother country where the ‘Friendy Natives’ will have you ‘Over for Dinner" except the Natives will be the only ones eating.
I am CONFIDENT that the more Intelligent, Mature and Respectful ones of our expat population will be able to put 1 and 1 together and come out the "Better Ones!!!
GET THE PICTURE??????
This time, it’s YOUR One Solution.
One-Brain-Cell-No-Solution:
I can’t hear you, can you shout a little louder.
We should all pull out and let Cayman see what a mess it would be without us – perhaps then we might get some appreication for the contribution we do make – but then it will be too late because (if the debate here is anything to go by) who will be interested in helping a set of bigotted bad-minded idiots who can’t see reason even when it slaps them squarely in the face?
You can’t help people who can’t help themselves.
Now I thought I told you all expats pre-school class was over, go home for all we care! Again do we have any gun to your head? How nice it is to see you finally show us your true colors! Our ancestors were doing fine without you all, so we can do fine without you too! Trust me we Caymanians know about survival! We got our Coconuts, Turtles, Seafood,Land Crabs, Cows, Goats, Chickens OMG and we even got DONKEYS!!! OMG (we dont eat our donkeys) I think we got caves too OMG BATS(we dont eat bats) Then we got our own Caymanian rum amd beers! To squash it all down! We must also remind you all that we grow our own crops! Now tell me what we really need you here for? You just brought it all on yourselves dont blame us! So dont hate the player hate the game!!!
Lastnight I tried to make ammends with you all but it seems like if though, you dont want PEACE! Let me tell you all something when a new Goverment takes over for this election you can bets believe they are going to be changes!!! Hold on to our jobs and do appreciate it while you still have little time!!!! May 20th soon be here…
– the point I was repeatedly trying to make is that generalisations such as this and Mr Fredericks scathing comments about ‘Foreigners’ hurt everyone and achieve nothing. If you have a particular grievance address it to somebody rather than fling it at everybody.
How dare you silence someone who has a voice! Pls dont blame this debat on Mr. Frederick, do you see him have any gun to our heads? I dont think so! We are grown consenting aldults that can make proper decisions for ourselves, for we as Caymanians has been wanting to express the way we feel about you expats for too long now! You know what CNS I give up! When we as Caymanians try to moveone step ahead with you expats, you all seems to do is take ten steps back! It’s like we keep on going around in circles, over and over again! This is getting us no where! So with that being said another TEAM CAYMAN you need to take over from here am through talking to pre-schoolers!
I, for instance, completed 11 years of university after graduating from high school. I came here with 7 years of experience in my field and worked for three different firms in two different major cities before even being considered for the job that I now hold here in Cayman. Perhaps that will give you a better idea of what we are referring to when we say most Caymanians, generally, do not have the requisite education or experience to take on the professional jobs that ex-pats fill. Hopefully, in 15 to 20 years, they will if higher education becomes a priority.
Do you want me to expose to you all my Caymanian people credentials? Dont you think we spent years in universities also, and also worked in major co-operations? Do you think we waste our-time and effort when we go to universities and colleges? Dont you think we pay attention? STOP! IT! Cayman has just about as one of the highest education and educators in the world thank you! Let me give you a brief history of what amreally talking about….statictics states that the british schools are number one through-out the whole world when it comes to education, the rest of the schools are failing, not forgetting we are british! So that shows you where Cayman stands when it comes to the educational system! So tell me now who has to wait 15 to 20 yrs for a higher education? Maybe it’s another country your assuming about! It’s surely not Cayman! Did you had your coffee yet?
Dont you think we spent years in universities also, and also worked in major co-operations? Do you think we waste our-time and effort when we go to universities and colleges? Dont you think we pay attention? STOP! IT! Cayman has just about as one of the highest education and educators in the world thank you! Let me give you a brief history of what am really talking about….statictics states that the british schools are number one through-out the whole world when it comes to education, the rest of the schools are failing, not forgetting we are british! So that shows you where Cayman stands when it comes to the educational system!
Tell me – what is a "major co-operation"? Sounds interesting! Certainly there are some Caymanians who have gone to onshore universities and done well. Many of them have stayed onshore – a few have come back. I work with some Caymanians at the company I work for. There are two people who do what I do that are senior to me. One has Caymanian status – the other is an ex-pat. No one else at the company, including those who are Caymanian who are junior to me, can do what I do –for now. I assist in training and education when I have the chance to work with them. My job –and the jobs of several like me –were advertised in Caymanian newspapers before I came here. No one applied. And statistically, if you put the native population of this Island against the same number of people in an age group from an onshore country, you would find that a higher percentage of them went on to some kind of higher education. Maybe you should have a coffee and get your head out of the sand! Denial is not going to help your issues here.
RE: "Do you want me to expose to you all my Caymanian people credentials? Dont you think we spent years in universities also, and also worked in major co-operations? Do you think we waste our-time and effort when we go to universities and colleges? Dont you think we pay attention? STOP! IT! Cayman has just about as one of the highest education and educators in the world thank you! Let me give you a brief history of what am really talking about….statictics states that the british schools are number one through-out the whole world when it comes to education, the rest of the schools are failing, not forgetting we are british! So that shows you where Cayman stands when it comes to the educational system! So tell me now who has to wait 15 to 20 yrs for a higher education? Maybe it’s another country your assuming about! It’s surely not Cayman! Did you had your coffee yet?"
First, you can’t even string two sentences together without making errors in basic grammar and spelling. I’d like to see you compile an Offering Memorandum overnight without mistakes.
Second, your analysis is faulty and based on incorrect statistical "data": Not only do Asian children typically score higher in many areas over those in the UK, it is unlikely that statistics for the United Kingdom include Overseas Territories.
Second, we are not talking about obtaining a liberal arts education alone or a graduate degree in archaeology. We are talking about obtaining the professional degree and professional qualifications, not to mention relevant work experience, necessary to engage in complex transactionsgoverned by on-shore laws and standards.
In practical terms, if an investment fund manager in New York says he wants an accountant with US qualifications and experience as an audit partner in investment funds to work on his file, no self respecting businessman (Caymanian or ex-pat) is going to refuse in order to assign a person with a degree in history from the University of South Florida and 1 year of experience as an accounting clerk instead. The New York client will get annoyed and will simply take the business elsewhere.
No one is saying the history grad doesn’t have the intelligence to do the job, but obviously they’ve got to put in a few years and obtain some more education. If that isn’t obvious to you, then your understanding of how the financial services industry works in Cayman and in the world is not sufficient for you to contradict those who do know. Similarly, I would not dream of contradicting those in the know in multitudes of fields where my knowledge is scant. As often said, those who see they know little are ahead of thosewho think they know all. But that is beside the point.
The "point" here is NOT that ‘Caymanians can’t do the job’. Of course, they can – if they have the qualifications. The point is that of those qualified to do financial services jobs, there aren’t enough to go round. It would be contrary to the best interests of your healthy profitable financial services industry to legislate the ex-pats off the island so that you could put a bunch of people (lots of highly intelligent ones included) with no experience or the incorrect qualifications in their places.
These are all generalizations of course – there is as high a percentage of highly intelligent, savvy Caymanians as there are of any other nationality. Education and competency varies among both groups as well. The reality is that ex pats are here, and if you get rid of us, you should have a replacement ready or your cash cow may just go away.
I have bashed my head against this argumentative stream enough. There are many thoughtful commentators on both sides of the issue, but unfortunately, there are also complete effing morons such as the oft-cited obviously small-minded "one solution" boy. CNS does not seem to realize that the ‘homicidal’ comments rob not only "onesolution" of credibility, but also do the same for CNS.
Caymanians, your right to vote is a privilege that I do not have here. Analyse what’s best for your country and stop letting cheaters rule it. Vote your conscience, and live with the consequences.
Respect has been a staple of life in Cayman for generations, Caymanians worked for many years to become one of the most respected countries in the world. Throughout our history we have been called a world leader because we set examples of true family values on many levels. Through hardwork and determination, our great country rose to the top, but in recent years hardwork and determination haven’t been clearly as prominent as they once were. Now,you expats has made us to feel as second class citizens in our own country, the reason for all of this is because………
Quite possibly, the most important factor in the respect of Caymanians has been that our great nation has held up their ethics and moral beliefs, even when other nations have not. In the past other countries have had high moral standards and not compromised those beliefs for anyone. Our founding fathers included their beliefs in the constitution, and their forefathers came to your countries because they wouldn’t compromise their beliefs for anyone. Now all nations has fallen so very far away from having good moral standards that all nations have simply lost all respect for each others countries. Something clearly needs to be done about this dilemma that we face, and being felt as a second class citizen in my own country, it seems some of you expats has finally lost the touch, in thinking you OWN CAYMAN! SORRY CAYMAN IS NOT FOR SALE! and dis-respect us in the work place and talk down to us anyhow you feel that you want to, also by bringing some of your PREJUDICE to us that we as respected Caymanians are not use to, pls keep it at your home and within your orgin. Once you work on you, then you can finally earn back some of the respect that we have lost. Earning back global respect is a concern that I’m sure many countries are worried about, and though it is obvious that this is a process that takes a great deal of time, and probably generations to fix, it is a problem that needs to be started to talk about now.
There are certainly other problems that need to be dealt with in order to earn respect, unlike our education system,drug problems, work ethics, immigration & police dept, yes I feel we need to crack down more on bringing inexpats to take over our good Caymanian jobs, when the job is not getting done! I dont see why our Goverment need to bring expats here to work Caymanian jobs when we are already college degree qualified, thank you very much, to do the job! Trust me am really not pointing my fingers at you so much expats, for our Goverment should be ashame the way we as Caymanians feel and are treated in our own country! But they dont care, for its all about polictics. NO! We are not saying we dont want you all here, not fogetting am married to an expat myself, what I’m really saying here its all about MORALS and the way you handle yourself in another mans country.
Reply to: I dont see why our Goverment need to bring expats here to work Caymanian jobs when we are already college degree qualified, thank you very much, to do the job!
As a few writers here have already pointed out, it is not just a matter of being "college degree qualified". A simple liberal arts college degree does not qualify you to be … just to use some examples… an investment banker, dealing with a diversified international portfolio of investments, an accountant specialising in tax planning for multijurisdictional corporations or high net worth individuals, a lawyer dealing in complex litigation involving multiple parties and jurisdictions or multi-stage mergers and acquisitions restructuring, or a surgeon. Most of the professionals who move here from other countries are highly specialised in their fields.
I, for instance, completed 11 years of university after graduating from high school. I came here with 7 years of experience in my field and worked for three different firms in two different major cities before even being considered for the job that I now hold here in Cayman. Perhaps that will give you a better idea of what we are referring to when we say most Caymanians, generally, do not have the requisite education or experience to take on the professional jobs that ex-pats fill. Hopefully, in 15 to 20 years, they will if higher education becomes a priority.
It would appear to me having read all of the posts that no expat on here has said anything disrespectful or racist or prejudiced towards the Caymanian people. However there is an awful lot of abuse directed towards "the expat" from the very same hypocritical bigots spouting the need for respect from some locals.
I hope that the views of the Caymanian people are not truly reflected by some of the posters on this site, many many Caymanians are genuinely fantastic people. However i would be concerned if i was a local that the views expressed on here if read by any non Caymanian would give the impression thatthese islands are bigotted, unfriendly and 30years behind the rest of the world in terms of race relations.
If you want fewer expats here then the solution is simple. Invest in education now in order to fill the higher end jobs currently filled by "foreigners." However this is only part of the solution – while you as locals are not prepared to work for minimum wage, odd and long hours and in certain business sectors then employers have no choice but to hire people from less priveledged parts of the world prepared to do so.
You cant complain about having Jamaican helpers / construction workers, Honduran Bartenders, Filipino security guards etc when your own people are simply not prepared to fill these posts. As has been said before – you cant have your cake and eat it. No amount of racist diatribe will change this.
"If you want fewer expats here then the solution is simple."
Don’t issue any work permits.
Also give the expat women and female tourists a break from the married, gigglo, engaged, baby father, whatever Cayman men, so innocent….
Back to the respect for the children and women….
"Also give the expat women and female tourists a break"
Sounds like someone is threatened by the libido of Caymanian.
Actually I think many of them come in search of this. They are not being abducted and raped.
Let’s all go stare at Vincent Frederick for a while.
The thing is though, I don’t know that we have differences to work out (you did say "all the expats") – and these other expats shooting off their mouths, well I don’t have much use for that sort of thing either. Don’t measure me by them. I know you wouldn’t want to be measured by your own country’s troublemakers. As always, ask me if I’m "getting through" and I’ll ask the same of you, and together we’ll figure out how to help each other out and get ahead.
Alright! Alright! I’m back now, my fault here…I should had define the definition of the sentence more clearly……number one let me start by saying to you,thank you for I see your willing to try to want to work things out with us Caymanians. Number two,you say you dont know that we have any differences to work out! Well here is the meaning of what I’m really saying….it all begins with RESPECT! If I go to any Country trust me I will RESPECT you and your peoples policies! We as Caymanians are not getting that from all of you expats! Now when I do QUOTE ALL EXPATS I just wanted to make sure I’m not leaving out any Country and make the others think we are taking sides! Now on the other hand, we also hear the expats saying, especially Jamaicans that we dont like them! Dont wrong me though, I do at times hear some of my own Caymanians talking down about Jamaicans in general,now i may not agree with some of the things my people they are saying but they do have their logical reasons for that, I assume! So thats really the point I’m trying to say to you all, if we could come together as one then we can come together as civilized people and try to work out a solution.
As I read through all of this i feel very sorry for everyone, whether expat or whether caymanian or whether jamaican or whether canadian. We all had a pretty good thing going here. You are all doing your part to wreck it for yourselves. It is such a shame.
To the civil Caymanian commentators:
I hear you: you want respect. The problem is that I don’t know exactly what that concept means to you in practical day-to-day application. When I hear this I thought ‘of course I respect you. I respect you as a fellow human being. As a fellow human being and member of the society in which I live I believe and respect the fact that your rights are equal to mine and that I should treat you how I would like to be treated by you.’ For the most part we are all pretty pleasant to each other. We greet each other, we smile at each other, we give each other way in traffic, etc etc. There may be a few who may be rude, but I suspect that such attitude has less to do with the nationality of the person they are rude to and more to do with their own customary behaviour.
It has occurred to me that those commentators here who talk about respecting the people of this country perhaps may mean something more than the customary respect that all human being should demonstrate to one another just because they are human beings. Perhaps there is a cultural connotation to this concept for the caymanian people?
I ask those commentators who have made these statements to put the abstract concept of respect into more tangible terms, perhaps provide specific examples. I ask only for responses that are written respectfully; this is not an invitation to hurl insults or accusations or make any racist remarks of any kind. There has unfortunately been too much of that going on here and civilized people should be able to exchange views without it.
Team Cayman:
"We as Caymanians are willing to take the first step as the better person to step up to the plate and try to reach out to all the expats, we are willing to talk to you, confide with you and try to work out our differences…"
This is the sort of sentiment that I would expect from the warm, friendly Caymanians that I have gotten to know, respect and call "friend" – and I do sincerely respect you.
The thing is though, I don’t know that we have differences to work out (you did say "all the expats") – and these other expats shooting off their mouths, well I don’t have much use for that sort of thing either. Don’t measure me by them. I know you wouldn’t want to be measured by your own country’s troublemakers. As always, ask me if I’m "getting through" and I’ll ask the same of you, and together we’ll figure out how to help each other out and get ahead.
I must say though that if you tax me off the Island, I’ll go. I can earn very close to the same money back in my homeland where the cost of living won’t burn the benefit of the no-tax savings, and I can probably earn more in other jurisdictions. I like it here, but I am a financial realist.
Twyla,
What happen to Justin? Thought you were supporting him?
FLIP FLOPPER!
FLIP FLOPPER YA BACKSIDE
Supporting and voting, last time I read in the dictionary was two separate words.
Take that.
We as Caymanians are willing to take the first step as the better person to step up to the plate and try to reach out to all the expats, we are willing to talk to you, confide with you and try to work out our differences….if you are willing to show us all respect in our own Country, then that respect will be giving back to you….it’s just that simple, thats all we ever ask of you, is that too much were asking for?…..so Jamaican people we love you…. Mexican people we love you…..American people we love you….Euorpean people we love you…..Filipino people we love you….Canadian people we love you……Honduranan people we love you all…..together we all are from the same God ….we all are one sister and one brother, together we can unite ……so lets leave you with a little something to think about with Mr. Marley tonight….
One love , One Heart
Let’s get together and feel all right
Hear the children crying (One Love)
Hear the children crying (One Heart)
Sayin’ give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right
Sayin’ let’s get together and feel all right
Let them all pass all their dirty remarks (One Love)
There is one question I’d really like to ask (One Heart)
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner
Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own?
Believe me
One Love, One Heart
Let’s get together and feel all right
As it was in the beginning (One Love)
So shall it be in the end (One Heart)
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right
One more thing
Let’s get together to fight this Holy Armageddon (One Love)
So when the Man comes there will be no no doom (One Song)
Have pity on those whose chances grove thinner
There ain’t no hiding place from the Father of Creation
Sayin’ One Love, One Heart
Let’s get together and feel all right
I’m pleading to mankind (One Love)
Oh Lord (One Heart)
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right
Let’s get together and feel all right
Response to: We as Caymanians are…
TEAM CAYMAN, I commend your good intentions and humility. That is very noble of you, however I’m sure I speak for 90% of the Native Caymanians in that we DO NOT subscribe to your proposal to be the 1st to step up to the plate in reaching out to the expat in an effort to make amends. While our hearts may tell us one thing, WE are not the ones in THEIR countries causing these undesirable effects. We are not the ones who started this mess. I say we are not the ones who have to make the apologies and to drop to our knees to these people causing them to feel even more that we are the inferior/subservient fools. I say this NOT in a bigoted way, but to let the bare facts fly. TEAM CAYMAN, you and everyone who doesn’t, should understand that Caymanians were the people who invited only SOME of these expats and welcomed many others. Many of whom took advantage of the naïve and trusting Caymanian. The vast majority, we didn’t welcome – they were brought here by businesses and many came here seeking the better life MOSTLY SINCE this country became the ‘GOLD-POT’ that it has become through development. The more investment we have, the more development we have, hence the more jobs available. WOW!! More jobs available!! That’s supposed to be a good thing right? NOPE… not necessarily. REMEMBER… There are only JUST over 20,000 Native Caymanians and obviously LESS in the work force considering the elders, children, disabled and those that find other means to survive. So therefore, ANY OTHER JOBS THAT ARE ADDED to the job market by way of FURTHER development) WILL CATER MOSTLY TO THE FOREIGN WORKER and VERY FEW for the Caymanian, as it is ALREADY EVIDENT that we are intentionally BEING PUSHED OUT OF THE LABOR FORCE and marginalized wherever possible. >>> Imagine this – There is OVER 27,000 WORK PERMITS PRESENTLY. That already exceeds the population of the NATIVE Caymanian population period. Think about this whole scenario for a few minutes and then get with the reality here!!!
Quite simply, The Cayman Islands is effectively catering to the rest of the world and will only be more so with time because the Native Caymanian population will never catch up to even match the foreign population on work permits ALONE. Our Country has become nothing more (or less) than a ‘Watering Hole’ and the source that supports thousands of families in over 120 different countries around the world.
You must know that the Caymanian people, were and still remains to be mostly PASSIVE and non-aggressive people. Those traits came from the days before real development when we didn’t have much cause to be aggressive. Those traits have allowed the foreign national to come to our islands and take advantage of us the way so many of them have done and is doing. That’s WHY and PRECISELY why we are at this stage today. NOW today many, not all expats of course have brought us to the anger we feel today as we endure the many incidences of discrimination and disrespect such as previously mentioned. AMAZINGLY as small as these Islands are we still have not heard ALL the legitimate complaints of clashes, mistreatment, DELIBERATE discrimination and oppression that the native Caymanian has been through starting way back even in the 1970’s (and yes imagine – those were the "Good Ole Days") Those were the days when development was really getting started. Those were the days when this paradoxical mess got started… this "Economic Blessing" as it is referred to by mostly the expat… this Blessing in Atrocity. COME ON People. We can’t possibly get away from the fact that development has served to make our lives EASIER by way of technology and other modern inventions such as A/C, refrigerators, stoves, laundry machines and automobiles by way of the economics that this development has produced. (Make sure you understood what you just read. Read it again if you have to). But there IS the other side of the coin here people. This very DISCRIMINATION, DISRESPECT, SUPPRESSION and OPPRESSION(among all the other damaging effects) is what COMES WITH that "Economic Blessing".
Let get it clear. According to history, this is what the foreigner, especially the entrepreneurial plunderers and conquistadors have done to many a country throughout the history of mankind where the people of those countries were passive and foolish enough to let you do it. Now those countries/peoples are left to die a slow death either because you depleted their resources or there had been a revolution denying you from having your way. You enforce embargos to break those countries down and so on. Shame on YOU and YOUR countries in those ATROCIOUS ACTS against humanity!
Let’s just use the use the indigenous Indians/tribes from the Amazon Rain Forest and other remote areas of the world. They lived the most rudimentary and hard lives in co-existence and in harmony with the planet Earth and WITHOUT any knowledge of CIVILIZATION (as we know it) UNTIL the white man came along and changed their way of life and lives forever. Alcohol and drugs were introduced as a part of “The Economic Blessing” that was forced upon these by the foreigner, primarily the white man. Many of those indigenous people were transformed into addicts and alcoholics. Again the American Indian was freeto roam and live in the vast open space of North America until the invaders came. After suffering much genocide, they have now been put to live on reservations of limited space and given some special benefits to “silence them”. Those that are in the “wonderful civilization” outside their reservations, are being pushed aside. Get my POINT here PEOPLE???
Like I said previously, I am a NO FRILLS kinda guy. And despite my coming across as GENERALIZING, I am FULLY aware that it is NOT ALL EXPATS that are this type I am so persistently talking about. There are many good ones. I personally know a fair number of those with GOOD and excellent qualities, HOWEVER I HAVE NO TOLERANCE for those that are of the nature I have been referring to all along. Matter of fact my tolerance is in the NEGATIVE for such. It makes me and MANY other Caymanians flaming angry and more so with those that will scheme against the Caymanian among themselves and be really FIESTY/CHEEKY and DISRESPECTFUL behind the anonymity of internet forums.
NOW, many of you expats keep using the scenario of expats leaving our country and “switching off the lights which would leave us in economic shambles. We know you use this as a scare tactic and will actually do it as you’ve done in other countries, but until this country changes its Tax-Free laws and the International Tax Haven is broken up, then with all the financial lucrativeness and physical investment that has been laid down in this country, I doubt the Foreign investor and his expat workers will be so hasty to just split and switch off the lights.. Where else would you run to that would be as lucrative and easy to pull off your atrocities?????? And imagine, you expats have the audacity to throw in our face that this Financial Center that exists, which was “created by the expat” as most of you claim, but paradoxically a major wrong-doing in itself, this FC was CREATED TO CIRCUMVENT THE TAX LAWS OF YOUR OWN COUNTRIES, which by the way, HAPPENS TO BE A CRIME in your countries. Shame on you then!!!
CAYMANIANS / EXPATS, THIS BEHAVIOUR HAS TO BE STOPPED, either voluntarily or involuntarily!!! When expats make that move first to make amends, then we as Caymanians would be willing reconcile with the expat, but taking in consideration time for healing of minds and hearts.
On behalf of my Native Caymanian People, See me as your Cyber Revolutionary Leader. I say, Instead of US making fools of ourselves and creating more of an inferior/ subservient culture of Caymanians, I would asked that while we EDUCATE and equip ourselves FOR SURVIVAL in this unstoppable ‘Rat-Race’ – I STRONGLY ADVOCATE AND ENCOURAGE A NEW BREED OF CAYMANIAN… The Caymanian WHO WILL STAND UP and DEFEND yourself and fellow Caymanians, not only on these internet forums and mediums where we are disrespect by the expat, but on the physical front s as well. People it is time we FULLY ENGAGE…. It’s time we UNITE.
Your One Solution Caymanian
I’ve engaged in this debate long enough. It’s going no where. Guys like "One Solution" are homicidal maniacs and not worth any of our time of day. I’m outta here. I encourage everyone else to turn off their computers and delete this web page.
I second that comment – we are wasting our time trying to be reasonable in the midst of all this foolishness.
We should all pull out and let Cayman see what a mess it would be without us – perhaps then we might get some appreication for the contribution we do make – but then it will be too late because (if the debate here is anything to go by) who will be interested in helping a set of bigotted bad-minded idiots who can’t see reason even when it slaps them squarely in the face?
You can’t help people who can’t help themselves.
Foreigner and Me,
Why don’t you wait around to see how well Mr. Frederick does at the polls. If he comes in single digits then you will know that he speaks for only a tiny segment of the population and is not representative of Caymanians. Believe it or not there are expats who say worse things about Caymanians. Most of use try not to use that to generalize. I hope you can see that if lump us all together you are no better than Mr. Frederick.
Well this election has certainly been an eye-opener for me – can’t wait not to renew my WP and go somewhere else where I will be appreciated.
Why do you have go somewhere else to be appreciated?
No matter where you go, you have to appreciate yourself?
I’ve engaged in this debate long enough. It’s going no where. Guys like "One Solution" are homicidal maniacs and not worth any of our time of day. I’m outta here. I encourage everyone else to turn off their computers and delete this web page.
Motion seconded. Lets leave One-Brain-Cell-No-Solution to stew in his own resentment. None of us are getting paid for lending him our time or help himgrow another brain cell.
UNA NEVA WANT TO LISTEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I tell una before, vote Theresa, Gilbert and Vincent.
now una see.
You know what your so right! All we as Caymanians all do is sit and talk about the expat and dont do anything about it! We need to go to the meetings and we need to get out there and rally if we find something is not right with our Goverment! It’s like I just said ,we all have a voice for free speech and one voice can really make a difference. We as Caymanians should be able to go to our Goverment and let them all know at times how we feel in our own Country. To tell you the truth I feel like a second class Citizen in my own Country! I feel like taking the flight or a one way ticket out of here, and never coming back. But I’m just talking, and I will keep on talking until we can finally come together as a people with one voice. We just cant talk the talk and dont walk the walk, we need to get up and stand up now for our rights.
I think a great solution for all of this would be if we could all try to work out our differences with the expat, lets listen to them, versa versa, and let them listen to how we feel. Mr. Frederick, we must thank him, for he has brought up a topic for us all to diverse our feelings and expressions. I say this is just a starting point, if we all together including the expat get together in a group meeting, maybe resolutions can be met, and we can work together as a team and unite. We all have to start from somewhere somehow.
I have been reading with great interest this lively debate and although I cringe at the bigotry on both sides I am balanced enough to see both sides of the arguments. I do agree with quite a few points mentioned in the “If you tax ex pats 20%” letter. The problem is there are hard ugly facts on both sides of the coin that are very difficult to swallow. As a Caymanian I have been through our school system from the primary level(all public schools) all the way to Sixth Form and I have been exposed to every kind of expatriate there is in the work force. I can honestly say there were quite a few expatriates who have helped shaped me into the successful person that I am today. They cared about my development and progress in school and work and trained and taught me well. However, I have seen the very ugly side as well- those deliberately keeping you down encouraging you to do non-sense like not attending University when the opportunity is there but supposedly “encouraging” you to work your way through the system to make the big bucks, sabotaging you behind your back, working amongst themselves after hours to train the unsuitable(normally bartenders) expatriate friend of theirs the ins and outs of the job whilst not showing you anything!!!! The untrue negative reports back to your boss unbeknownst to you and their favorite pitting us Caymanians against each other, but through it all I persevered because this is my country and no one is going to be taking food out of my mouth. I mean I have to be honest there were times when I was close to resorting to physical violence because I had enough but I had caring Caymanian bosses who pulled me aside and told me to bide my time as I was too talented to be tricked by their games. We as Caymanians understand that we are outnumbered in our country and whilst it is very frustrating in order to fix this we are going to have to make sacrifices!!!! It is just that simple 26,000 work permits contributes a very hefty fee to our government base to afford us the lifestyle that we are appreciating now. In order to reduce that number hence the amount contributed to government revenue where are we going to make up that shortfall??? Vincent can rage on as much as he wants but lets be realistic we have laws in place but we have such a delicate system that have taken YEARS to get to this process how the hell are we going to balance this? We start sending home everyone I guarantee our lifestyle will change. We have been blessed with some serious legal and accounting minds in this country hence the reason we enjoy such a high standard of living and are able to compete internationally on a global not just regional scale. If we get rid of all these people we NEED to understand our standard of living WILL change!!!! Listen to the solution Vincent had to tax the same expatriates we want to get rid of even further?? Which means we are relying on them even further to solve OUR problems whilst being disrespectful and kicking them to the curb. Sorry it does not work that way it is all about give and take. We were most successful when we worked together as a team for the betterment of this COUNTRY!!! This problem took years to manifest itself to this level today and it is going to take years to fix it. We need to
1)work on educating our children and changing their mindset we have to understand we have to COMPETE for the best jobs it is no longer I am Caymanian so I automatically have the best job that I am not qualified for. The mediocrity I see in the students graudating from high school irks me to no end. There is rarely that drive for excellence. On the flip side when they do return from University jobs should be available!! That’s a no brainer. We need to reach out to our youth as they are in trouble I go to the high school and help out with the various programs and I get SCARED at the RAGE I see.
2)We need to think globally not just limited toGun Square Island in a negative way. I don’t like it but that is for discussion in another forum.
3) We have to enforce the rules that are currently in place in Immigration to cut back on this non-sense. We have to be fair and instill FAIR rules. A majority of expatriates simply want to work save and live in harmony they don’t care about voting and the rest of it and they are not rich to be able to afford the exorbitant permanent residency fees either. On the other hand employers(several of them) that abuse the rules and overlook the Caymanian who is qualified needs to be punished and made an example of- lets take back control and send a message we know what you are doing and it will NOT be tolerated. Slap out a couple of public exorbitant fines that should send a message.
4)The rollover policy is not working and needs to be reviewed and reassessed to include a category for the people previously mentioned. Once people are secure, they will spend their money locally and help get the economy rolling again.
5) Caymanians need to be PROUD of each other and stop fighting each other down and when I say Caymanians I mean status holders as well and we need to be more inclusive as opposed to exclusive the very very few Caymanians that are not mixed at all with another nationality could not have brought this country to the standard of living that we are enjoying now- this is a fact accept it and move on and this does not mean that we are negating the contributions of the 5+ generation Caymanians either but simply accept it could not be done alone, the numbers are simply just not there. Once we all stand together and feel pride in our Caymanians instead of cowing down each other we will be shocked at how much can be accomplished-remember Ivan??
6) We need to be honest with ourselves and we have to be willing to contribute to the solution which means sacrifices will have to be made-plain and simple! We need to stop being so selfish and give back. I am tired of all these organizations being run by expatriates because Caymanians cannot seem to commit to anything or don’t care to donate their time to anything besides complaining how foreigners are taking over…When I go to the CISPA meetings I feel completely overwhelmed but when I ask my fellow Caymanian CPA’s why they didn’t show up for the meeting all I can hear is “oh too many expats!!” Come on guys lets do our part – lead by example.
I am up for the challenge are you??
Let’s all vote for "Balanced View" instead of Vincent Frederick.
oh wait, I can’t vote….
A great motto once said….if one voice could certainly be heard , one voice can really make a difference and help change the world….
This is a true sory about a young girl her name was Mia, she once quoted…..
I want my voice to be heard…. but it seems as though I’m mute.
My own Mother can’t seem to hear me. My Father definitely can’t hear me. My Sisters and Brothers wont listen…My Teachers they dont listen…. My friends, well they don’t seem to either. Now, I don’t even hear myself anymore. All I hear is some static… I try to speak, but the words, they just don’t come out….Pls tell me is there anybody out there who will listen to me? for I’m just seven years old.
The only how anyone ever listen to little Mia, was when she took her own life by commiting suvicide! Eventually when the whole world founded out in the media that is the only time they listen! Sadly to say it was already too late….
All little Mia wanted just to say….I’m being bully in school and they are calling me terrible names, could someone pls STOP it!?
Vincent Frederick you have a voice and we as Caymanians are listening….
Set aside political logic…defined voice on issues that should drive choice, back ground qualifiyers The votes Vincent is set to receive from the post exchange here will astond the non marketer.
The sheer attention to the words of the big guy from Gun Square has unintentionally invited Vincent to the main event.
This is a political marketers dream.
The horse from behind may trample a few lilies as he leaps forward.
Any body taking any bets? Huh Vincent your numba might jus play…
P.s. Any body…what is the dream book number for Cannons, Guns Square, and man with lion heart? Some body going make some money before the Lottery thing pass Gillie. (LOL)
Vincent thanks for an amazing intersection of political, hitorical and sociological provocation of thought. Many have been challenged to passionately express themselves, right and wrong.
We have been provided illumination on
I would like to voice my opinion to the SELL OUT Caymanian, who has compare us as Jamaicans, let me tell you something, I’m so tired of rolling the RED CARPET out for these expats who has to respect for us and wants to runour Country. Let me tell you something what Jamaicans do in their Country thats their business, and what we do in ours thats ours.
I have nothing against Jamaicans and Jamaican people for there are good and bad in each and everyone of us. Taking you back to a brief history on Cayman, as a Caymanian our ancestors hasfought through slavery to get us where we are today. At one point in time we were independent on Jamaica, but they felt that Jamaica was not doing enough to help our Country, thats reasons why we became independent to England. Before we became independent on Jamaica, Caymanians were doing fine without them, our ancestors work their own grounds, we live off of seafood, raising our own goats,cows etc. While the men work as seamen to support their women financially the women stayed at home and took care their children, while the men send paychecks to them.
Now getting to where we are today, we must thank England for England made us become more establish and one of the worlds richest Country in the world. But if our Goverment all these years had put the money in the right places and establish our own factories, we wont have to depend on England or any other Country anymore. Now if we go independent right now we would just be starting back over from square one. Our Goverment is to blame for not not putting our money where their mouth is. If we get a new Goverment in right now and they estabish our own factories here in Cayman, then yes! We can go independent again. Never say never for there is always a will and a way.
OMG! I cant believe these expat had the odasity to say we as Caymanians are not qualified or have no experiences. Let me tell y’all expats something, when you mess with one Caymanian you mess with all. We come in hurdles you hear me? We will go po po on y’all like Madea know what I mean? Trust me Caymanians they are many expats here that isnt all alike and yes thats so true Lawanda, the ones we are talking about is the ones who dis-respect us! So say it to the expats who respect us we are not talking about you ok! I just had to clarify that. They all come here they eat us all up and put on a pretend smile in our faces yet! They hate us and call us names. This is not the cayman I knew long ago. Immigration y’all need to get any piorities straighten up and check some of these expats you are letting into our country, fingerprint each of them, they can be mass criminals you never know. Our goverment is so weak and slack when it comes to these policies. These need to be inforced without hesitation look at America how they are protecting their interest. These English laws are still jim crow laws that needs to be abolish. Our Cayman is gone, crime rate is increasing more and more each day. Something needs to be done and the time is now. A new goverment must step in and be the right man for the job. To Mr. Frederick I must also say, your letter was very nice and we do appreciate you.
It’s "audacity"; not ‘odasity’.
CNS Light the fire, because this is just getting started lol, I believe this forum is going to be in roll over for a longtime. First I want to apologise to Mr. Frederick for making those awful comments about him the other day. I truly must say that I jump to the conclusion without thinking and over-reacted. Vincent, your letter explained it all and it was a nice letter we thank you for making us understand, as a respected Caymanian from West Bay, we feel that you are the only one that has brought to light something in us all that we felt we wanted to say for so long. Thanks for opening the eyes of many Caymanians, to us you are a true Caymanian that we are all proud of.
No other polictian has brought about what you are saying, even though it took me awhile for me to understand where you were really coming from, trust me I know now.
I like that letter you wrote Mr. Frederick, it was such a very well written letter and even though I cannot vote for you in Bodden Town and I wish I could, I have other West-bayers that feel the same way about you. Keep up the good work and I hope you do get elected. BT pls give him a chance and for chr**t sakes dont let PPM take over.
TO ALL YOU EXPATS WHO THINK YOUR GONNA COME HERE AND RUN OUR COUNTRY! THERE IS A FLIGHT OUT AT 10:00 PM TONIGHT, HURRY! HURRY THE PLANE IS LEAVING SOON, TWO MORE HOURS FOR CHECK IN!
CNS: Could you stop repeating this comment please. it’s only going to be posted once.
Re the comment about the plane journeys to take expats away.
Manley in Jamaica used a similar line in the 1970s when he was in his heyday. Something like "if you don’t like Jamaica and the vision we have for it there are 8 flights a day to Miami etc". Right. The problem was Jamaicans of the money generating middle class took his advice (his mother was English/father socialist of the old Harold Laski London School of Economics now totally discredited) and left JA in droves with their money, many of them are here of course. JA has been effed ever since. But the sort of ignorant poster evident in this blog will not understand this-so we will be in danger of going the same way as JA, thanks to total CAYMANIAN IDJUTS posting venomous ignorant vicious racist claptrap on this site.
It’s about time my Caymanian people wake up and see what the expat are trying to do…..now you all know what Mr. Frederick is talking about….It’s time to take back our Cayman and it’s about time you expat show us the respect we rightfully deserve in our own Country. If you dont like it here we are not stopping you from leaving. It should not cost you too much for a taxi and the airport is not too far away. Dont bring or throw your racial slurs to us anymore, now dont get me wrong am not talking about all expat, am talking about the ones with no morals and lacking respect.
Well this expat is on a plane as soon as i am able. Worked very hard here in what i hoped would be a fabulous enviroment for my family. I am fed up and tired of carrying the locals i work alongside and spending most of my professional life undoing the mistakes of others who simply are not equipped to work in the gov dept i work in.
There are some great people here, local and expat alike, but this is fast turning into a bigotted and extremely unfriendly place.
I hope you get what u wish for and all expats leave and you get independence…….would be anarchy within a few days 🙂
This is to the expat who says that we Caymanians lack intelligence, thats reasons why they have our jobs. How dare you try to educated us when we are already educated. Been there done that sorry.
Nowadays we are passing tough days… turbulent and challenging ones not
only for you, but also for every conscious and informed individual around the globe. We, as proud Caymanians would like to share some simple facts about the existing violence and conflicts with you expat. Please bear with us as we try to break down the current dilemmaof developing wars in the world. Also pls do bear with us to show you all expat how educated we are, listen and you may learn a thing or two from educated Caymanians. If you dont understand pls let us all know for there is a Caymanian dictionary next door for special people.
We wonder when human beings can ultimately get rid of the “war” as a way of resolving
conflicts and when we will have an opportunity to taste sustainable peace… Have you got
any idea as “when amity will surrounds us”? Although as the time goes by, we seems to
move ahead, and get more informed and become more civilized, yet it looks as if we have not
been progressed at all in dissolving the problem with each other. We impetuously continue to
quarrel, showing our paws and teeth to each other and invade other’s territories edgily. This
makes us to think whether we are really those educated, illuminated, and civilized human
beings that we claim to portray?
Let’s elaborate on the problem of conflict a little more. Fundamental differences and cardinal
contradictions always have been existed in human communities. The philosophy, action and
behavior of governments have been rarely synchronized with their people willing. If we
could survey individuals’ opinion about their leaders’ crimes and their wicked behavior,
certainly they would never endorse it. This inconsistency can be found in any society and
United States or any other Country is no exception. The crucial reason for this discrepancy is that the legitimacy of
power and authority involve some situations and conditions, which are different from those
of public.
Political leaders, even those who are elected by direct vote, sometimes have divergent
concerns in compare to their people’s… concerns such as economic growth, national
interests, the growth of military supremacy, governance survival, eradication of oppositions
and so on. Leaders and governors always believe in the notion of “Goals justify Tools”.
Therefore they presume they have rights to choose any good or bad alternative. War and
violence is one of the choices they opt to if a situation calls for. But is it a right one? Don’t
you think there are other substitutes for confliction? Certainly there is. We wonder why
despite all progress in our cognitive capabilities, the only alternative for resolution remains to
be the same familiar approach to war and violence. It seems we tend to choose the simplest
and maybe the most imprudent means anyway. But is a war the most available solution to go
for? Can’t we find a more innovative way? Certainly we can, both you and us. At that time
maybe the dilemma would be totally different.
Perhaps there are some desires over our simple attitude… Maybe benefits of the
multinational corporations, weaponry makers, stockholders and stockbrokers, oil cartels, the
Mafia (criminals, smugglers, thieves and some minority) and extravagant governors, who
have the real power for decision-making against our desires…
Having said that, we would like to ask you expat a number of questions sincerely and let us
think about them thoroughly:
1. If someone performs violence against you, do you think the response should
be violence too? If you as representatives of today’s educated and intellectual
people simply choose this approach then where is your ingenuity and novelty?
2. Who has assumed that your defined style of democracy is the best one? All of
us know that democracy is the simplest and the most available tool to
implement people’s wishes and achieve prosperity of human beings. Thus we
do not believe that you are allowed to prescribe yourway for others instead of
letting them consider for themselves.
3. Your government as well as other governments, always call for a couple of
threats for national security in order to achieve their goals… goals such as
guiding private sector that is solely pursuing its own interests in present open
market and which is not willing to take any risk for capital, revenue and
benefit. Don’t you think these activities have allowed governors to take any
adventurous action?
4. Should we pay for your defense industry’s bankruptcy? Should we accounted
responsible for your lost expenses and suffer the consequence of your actions?
5. Should we compensate weakness, insensibility, ignorance and frustration of
your young generation? Is it fair that we become tools for making them
mission-orientated? Do you want to use us up and leave us at a low ebb and
treat us as a lure?
6. Why do you not solve your contradictions first before dwelling on others’
affairs? Is it not true that you yourselves are the biggest producer of mass
destruction weapons? Is it not true that you are making the newest and the
most advanced nuclear, chemical and biological weapons ahead of others? Is
there any other country in the world that is more advancein producing,
purchasing, consuming and distributing fatal weapons except your country?
How do you explain the reason behind your insatiable appetite for research,
development and manufacturing these weapons? Is it for growth, progress,
peace and prosperity of humanity?! How come that you support openly and
evidently many coup d’état, dictators and royal states (even if you haven’t got
involved in it)?
7. Is it right to define your own “National” interests in the territory of “our”
country? Isn’t it true that the foundation of your civilization has been built
upon our natural resources, markets, knowledge and culture? Don’t you think
that this is enough?
8. Is it not true that jungle rules are gradually emerging and beginning to govern
everywhere, makes the world a “Global Village” and you the “Lion King”?
9. Do you think, in our erudite and rational world, when a country encounters
problems and shortcomings, the only way is to eliminate it (and its
government) physically? Haven’t you heard that “every nation deserves its
government”? Well, right or wrong, we deserve this political system. Are you
really convinced that your prescribed solutions are proficient to lead us to a
sustainable status? Or is it not better to enhance our awareness and
consciousness instead so that we can solve our problem internally by a proper
method?
10. Is it not true that we have at least the least talk about government in the
region? Is the so-called human rights violation in our society being worse than
those in neighbor states, which you support them openly and
perceptibly?
11. What do you think the result of war with us will be? Can it result anything
else than total ruin and misery for both countries? Are you fully aware of
characteristics of Caymanians (and other nations) before stepping in and pointing
your weapons toward us? Are you really well-informed about our
disintegration and uncertainty in our country? Have you evaluated the
outcome of your decision fairly in advance?
You think, you have gained actual information about other nations (beyond
your Mega-Media)? You know everything really?
Let’s be honest. Let’s clarify our values and act upon them… Let’s concern the progress of
humanity and hope for brighter world. … Let’s build anew global civilization once again and
overlook any revenge… Let’s help each other and solve the problem through goodwill,
cooperation and brotherhood. Let’s believe that informing, teaching and learning is much
better than punishment and quarrel. We confess that there still exist some problems in our
society and government that we haven’t thought profoundly about the doable solution for.
Nevertheless, do you still think your government has chosen the best, the fairest and the
most creative solution to deal with the current dilemmas? Certainly not… You believe that in
your democracy the government is for people and at their service, so why not asking them to
find a new and more proper solution? Please put aside your bias and try to observe
yourselves as outsiders to get even a glimpse of the real situation we’re all facing… If not,
maybe the only way to see what is really going on in this isolated continent in the middle of
giant oceans is by looking upon earth from moon. Please take steps today so that tomorrow
when you look at your images in the mirror, you will find philanthropists and civilized
persons emerging from you expat. Let me finish by saying I have a Master and Bachelors degree in technology and science, now I’m majoring in Archaeology and I am a proud family member of the Fredericks from Cayman Island, so that shows you where Vincent Frederick stands as a Canidate. Thank you for listening.
This is in addition to the expat who said…………..The only reason I am here instead of a Caymanian is because there are few if any Caymanians qualified to do The only reason I am here instead of a Caymanian is because there are few if any Caymanians qualified to do my job – it is very specialized. Unfortunately, until Caymanians can show a decade of experience in a profession and a good onshore education, they will not be qualified to do my job. It is just that simple.my job – it is very specialized. Unfortunately, until Caymanians can show a decade of experience in a profession and a good onshore education, they will not be qualified to do my job. It is just that simple.
As a proud Caymanian dont get me started here now…but since you started the fire and open the can of worms here it comes……how DARE you come to our Country and try to DISRESPECT us. Unfortunately Mr. Frederick was right, this is the same kind of nonense he was talking about…..let me tell you something at least we as Caymanians dont have one racist bone in our body….at least we as caymanians dont rape and burn our own people….at least we as Caymanians dont wait 40 years to elect a President just because of the colour of his skin…at least we as Caymanians dont come to any of your Country and try to take it over…at least as Caymanians dont rape and lynch people just because of the color of their skin….at least we as Caymanians dont have serial killers who are demented. Last but not least at least we as Caymanians never put up any FOR SALES sign in our yards just because a Cacausian move in. We as Caymanians stand together as one unity for we may be arguing now on this forum with one another but after the end of the day we will come together laugh it over and just play some of our nice Caribbean music and dance. After all we are one family…
Now let me tell you something expat, we Caymanians are educated and qualified also certified college graduates….we have our degrees and experience in every field…we are not stupid,dumb or naive. No we may not be perfect, no one is perfect, for if anyone is perfect then something is wrong with that person…the only perfect one in this world is God…..so dont come here disrespecting us, for we dont go to your Country and try to disrespect you. We give you respect when you come here,but when you take that respect and stomp all over us it’s only so much we can take. Mr. Frederick want to put his own Caymanain people first and I dont blame him at all…reasons why? Is because it takes people like you that lack intelligence to bring on something like this. Mr. Frederick will get rid of the expat like you that put down our Caymanian people. You will not take the diginity we as Caymanians have away from us, we are proud of who we are for this land was giving to us but our ancestors and I be damn if you all think your going to come here and take it away from us. My Caymanian people I hope you feel where am coming from.
I never said anything about race or intelligence – I said everything about merit – the ability and education to do the work. There are obviously lots of Caymanians that if they got the right education and some real world experience, could do my job. But that takes 20 years of hard work and sacrifice, doesn’t it? I am sure that in 20 years the younger generation of Caymanians will have many representatives with the education and experience to do my work. But as of right now, my employer constantly has ads out and receives no replies from Caymanians with the necessary education and experience.
Oh, and can I just take all the stuffing out of your argument about race please? Did it not dawn on you that even though I’m from London, I might be a black man?
So forget about your racist tirades, and start focusing on why some (not all) of your countrymen do not have the points on their CVs that will get them in the door of a major accounting firm.
Why is it that every time an ex-pat in this commentary makes a reasoned point and puts a reasonable question back to the Caymanians, we never get any answers? Only tirades involving racist arguments and non-sensical political positions that have to do more with anger and vengeance than thinking through a solution.
Get over it people –and start helping yourselves towards a better future. The key is education –start making sure your kids stay in school, work hard while they are there, learn about the scholarship money that is available to them and insist that they take advantage of the very best of the opportunities that you can afford.
Set an example in your own life –stop spewing the hatred and start showing commitment to your kids future, to your families, your livelihood and your Island.
I personally will celebrate the day when I see a young, bright Caymanian come up with a plan to make shipping all recyclable materials off this Island a viable economic option so that we can reduce the shameful size of Mount Trashmore –or to help find the reasons behind the high rate of cancer that seems to occur here. These are the higher purposes that should be occupying your mind and energies. Caymanians can achieve great things if you would just start focusing all of this energy you put into your resentment on a more positive goals!
Why is it that every time an ex-pat in this commentary makes a reasoned point and puts a reasonable question back to the Caymanians, we never get any answers? Only tirades involving racist arguments and non-sensical political positions that have to do more with anger and vengeance than thinking through a solution.
I agree with this sentiment. Through almost every caymanian comment there is the word "respect". I shared my thought on what comprises respect and have asked what is meant by that for Caymanians many comments below and am still waiting for an answer. I specifically requested specific, concrete examples of the abstract term and without any insults, accusations or racist remarks. I guess my question and requested perimeters for response were simply too difficult…. or perhaps none of the commentators today who keep repeating the word are sincerely interested in reaching a better understanding but rather want to yell and vent their resentment and hatred.
Today’s summary:
Expat: ‘okay, I’m listening. Help me understand.’
Team Cayman (and the other guy who apparently has an entirely unrelated ax to grind relating to historical events concerning native North American aboriginal peoples – the ‘One-Brain-Cell-No-Solution’): ‘I am educated, I am good, there is nothing amiss with the education here, you expats disrespect us, the only thing that is broken here is that our government allows too many expats to come, leave if you dare.’
That was productive.
To those who hoped to participate and generate participation in resolving differences here: this page is not the place. This is the Team Cayman and One-Brain-Cell-No-Solution anger ventilation site.
Interested Expat….
The ZERO-Brain-Cell-NO-Lights on Upstairs-NO-Comprende-NO-Chance-NOT Welcomed Contemptuous Callus.
At least according to you I have ONE and that one is firing on all 100 Cylinders. You just can’t take the pressure that’s really why you and your boys needs to go have a drink. What Expats like you need is more Caymanians like ME to deal with. You have no idea how much more I can fire at you that would shut you up(if that was possible). So imagine if i had 2 brain cells what more I could do? But then again that other cell might be prune to enactment of homicidal tendencies.
FYI – Im not embarrassed by your Sarcasm. That’s just the Typical White Expat and by the way, can’t you tell I have that sarcastic white blood in me as well? Hey, I am over confident that I have a brain that serves me better than yours and ALL the other Foreign Goats of a Heard that’Ramble’ Together.
I repeatedly explained those types and cases of disrespect. I even used examples of the indigenous people as glaring examples of HOW you people ruin other countries, but clearly you couldn’t grasp that. That’s what happens when you have ZERO-Brain-Cells-NO-Lights on Upstairs-NO-Comprende-NO-Chance.
About Solutions… YOU, talk about having a sensible debate and wanting to seek solutions. Who do you think you’re talk to? Certainly NOT an Inferior, Uneducated Subservient Idiot. Did you really think we can have a real debate on CNS’ Pages. Do you really think we can solve these issues face to face or even at all? PLEASE….. I am sure that would NOT be so possible through basic debate and resolution in my life time. The simple fact is that YOUR TYPE would NOT GIVE IN very easily or NONE AT ALL. Your Type just wants to have their way in every country you emigrate to or work in. Am I not RIGHT? Of course I am!!! See when you grow one brain cell and become an adult, you will understand these things. Things like; don’t forget to watch your back when you run your sarcastic mouths in public!
My solutions?… Listen buddy, I gave you 2 solutions in my previous post. READ IT! Now what part of "it being easier to simply buckle-down and respect the Native Caymanian OR GET OUT of our Country" dont you understand? Oops I should have known why. That ALL goes with you being the ZERO-Brain-Cell-NO-Lights on Upstairs-NO-Comprende-NO-Chance that you are.
Thank you.
Your One-Solution Kinda Guy.
Reply to: At least according to you I have ONE and that one is firing on all 100 Cylinders. You just can’t take the pressure that’s really why you and your boys needs to go have a drink. What Expats like you need is more Caymanians like ME to deal with. You have no idea how much more I can fire at you that would shut you up(if that was possible). So imagine if i had 2 brain cells what more I could do? But then again that other cell might be prune to enactment of homicidal tendencies.
Hey you – Excuse for One Brain Cell! – You should never make assumptions about the gender you are dealing with. There have been women involved in this debate who think you are a ridiculous and probably impotent man –that’s the real reason you’re so angry right? I’ll tell ya what – why don’t YOU get off the Island and make it a safer and more pleasant place for all of us here. We’re all going to shut off now and let you have your little tantrum. What a big man you are!
And YOU.. Anonymous…. Another AnonyMOUSE,
We could hurl insults back and for ALL our lives and you vipors would like nothing better than to use that split-tongue as is your 1st nature, but lets keep it short and sweet. It sounds like you are one who would like to stay in this Gold-Pot and bask in that sweet life here. You made the right proposal when you suggest that I get off the Island. Matter of fact I’ll share that suggestion with my fellow Caymanian for all of us to leave this "Little Gem" for expats of your type. In the process we could sell Caymanian Status Grants on the Black Market. We would work diligently to populate these Islands to about 150,000 of your kind. In NO time, you guys would have a REAL RAT RACE created. Then we would send the Rat-Race Equalizer to your aide. That would be "Lord Nuke McDevastate". You know I have become more and more inspired by people like Adolph Hitler. I can only imagine the sheer power of 20 KiloTons of TNT being dropped on Grand Cayman. Good riddance to 150K of your type and these Gold Rocks called the Cayman Islands. How does that sound for One Solution? Of course that is just me blissfully day-dreaming again. Hehehehehe… Wait, I think I sprouted that 2nd brain cell !!! ZERO-Brain-Cell… dont forget to watch your back in public. Hehehehehehe
That’s the "One Solution" im talking about my "Friends"
Personally i feel that moderators should be screening this nutcases comments a bit more. I am all for freedom of speech but when an idiot like "one solution" starts daydreaming about ethnic cleansing and telling people to "watch their backs in public" it goes a bit too far.
Its a shame that one or two people (locals i’m afraid) have hijacked a stimulating debate and turned it into a forum to makes threats of violence and genocide.
"Why is it that every time an ex-pat in this commentary makes a reasoned point and puts a reasonable question back to the Caymanians, we never get any answers? Only tirades involving racist arguments and non-sensical political positions that have to do more with anger and vengeance than thinking through a solution".
Here we go. Caymanians are all idiots, bigots etc etc. There is plenty of intelligent commentary on here by Caymanians; you are just not listening.
Let me give an example of an incident and then maybe some people will understand how some Caymanians can feel they way they do about expats.
I am Caymanian married to an expat and imagine the shock, total shock for me being called an f—–ing Nigger by a strange expat in my own country, all because I said please get out of the road, you are blocking me.
Well my first response was to stone him but I just kindly returned the favour and said proud to be one white trash. The way in which you are treated, will let you retaliate in way you would not normally. So people please don’t pretend that all foreign nationals treat the locals with respect. More treat them with disdain than respect. I remember when everyone (locals & expats) were polite, and totally civil with each other, then the boom of the 80’s came and alot of people came with their predudices and it all went down hill from there. The locals with pale skin started to adopt the ,I am white and better than you attitude of those foreign national that they saw publicly displaying this without any repocussions. It kept getting worse and worse until this is where it has reached.
I heard a Caymanian lady on radio cayman one day upset, she went to a certain business place and parked to go inside, only to be shouted at by the security (a foreign national) you black Jamaican you can’t read, you can’t park there.
I have nothing against foreign nationals as the love of my life for over 20yrs is a foreign national, who is Caymanian by status, and have experienced the same racism that I have, in this country from other foreign nationals. So please don’t pretend it doesn’t exist. It does, whats happening now is people have had enough and are not afraid to hurt peoples feelings anymore, so they are speaking out, and the persons in this society with racist attitudes never thought the day would come when the sleepy people would wake up. Its sad because cayman is too small for this and there is no where to hide. All we can do is hope that in the long run good sense prevails.
CNS…I must commend your design of this medium. Well done ladies. It is the most interactive cross-cultural, inclusive, comms instrument we have so far. I respect the Compass…they take their time but dont play games. Radio Cayman’s News is reliable and a steady shoulder, Roosters Cross Talk is a good morning jolt of morning joe, but CNS…this is a keeper.
You will take a few "licks" …but nutthing you cannot manage. This is a great "Hyde Park".
Some a we Bodden Towners kind og get passionate…badup…you konw what a talking about. But we stll love you. You can come Gun Square any time.
Keep up the good work….
P.S. You guys sleep or wah? Or do you Out Source to India? LOL
XXXXX
Big up to alll dem massives seen! Mek mi tell yah all something man! Mi know Vincent and mi luv and respect him seen! I’m a jamaican born and bred and mi dont see anything wrong with him comments man! I know where him a comin from seen! Man want come in and try take over yah country just like Jamaica.
Mi nah mind nobody business seen! but since I know Vincent mi just want to say that blessed be with yah mi son for zion train a take over the world soon!
So to all mi massives go out and buy mi book its call Babyloyn4rastas.com Respect!
Lord them too tired to see mi face! But them cant take me outa the race! Vincent I say! Them too tired to see mi face but them cant take yah outta the race! iT’S NO USE! NO ONE CAN STOP YOU NOW!
One-Solution is so full of hatred that I feel sorry for him/her.
Despite that, I have another definition for our friend the "One-Solution" commentator:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=one-solution+commentator
Let me all tell you all something here, I am a Caymanian that have been living in America for about five years …..now look at this as a Caymanian, I have never known anything about prejudice until I came to reside in America….sadly to say but it’s true….I wanted to catch the Cayman express back home as soon as i landed. I always heard America was this and America was that…. live here and see what you will experience for yourself….my Caymanian people let me tell you all something my family who’s mostly mexican background we have no known racist bone in our body….growing up in Cayman i felt so proud to be living here….Now here in America when I went into an all white bar with a friend of mines….this happen on more than one occasion, they all just turned around and give us that look like what the F you all doing here? My friend felt it and I too so we just left…..our neighbours, now the majority of them is white and they dont even say hello or anything so this is what they are doing, you can feel the racist tension in the air! When a black person move in the neighbourhood they all put a sign for sale! It’s sad and it’s been going on for years…..You have the Black Americans now that is racist too they are no different from the white man. I miss home so much it hurts me so…I miss my Caymanian hospitality but above all I miss the smiles and the laughter within each one of us that we all have. It also hurts to see you all fighting this way with each other, for we are all sisters and brothers and family. My people know that politicts are dirty and it can turn you into a devil, be civil with one another and most of all have respect! Please I’m begging you all dont let me be scare to come back home too. I want to come back to that warm loving Caymanian ways.
About the Cow
"And as I said, I don’t want your damn cow – you can keep it – of course its yours. If you feel as a people that you need to kick out all the ex-pats that work here, you’d better be able to replace them with something equal or better, or you’re going to find out right away that your precious cow might just get sick and die."
If we’re all getting kicked off, let’s eat the cow before we go. Shame to see it shrivel up and die… May as well barbeque it, feast and have a few cold ones before the flight…
I am absolutely shocked and appalled at the ignorant generalisations made about ‘foreigners’.
I am fully supportive of a policy to give Caymanians precedence over any foreigner when it comes to work if they have the qualifications and skills to do the job. In fact, I lost my first job here for pointing out to my employers they were not utilising the skills they hired me (and obtained a work permit) for, as what I was doing would have been a perfect job for a school leaver to help them gain some valuable work experience. Three days later, my contract was prematurely terminated and I was left looking for work again.
My new employers implement a vigorous testing policy. When my work permit comes up for renewal my job is advertised and many Caymanians come for interviews and sit tests to establish whether they have the relevant skills, knowledge and qualifications for my job. If theyr’e successful, I am out of work again, but hey, if they can do what I do then good for them they deserve the job. I sit the same test. This is how my employers deal with the onus upon them to prove to Immigration that they are strictly adhering to the relevant laws. We have a healthy mix of Caymanians and ex pats here.
As a lowly ‘foreigner’, I am not a felon, not likely to commit any type of crime; I do not undermine the harmony of this country (even though I am not Caymanian I LOVE this country, its people and its culture more than my own). I am very happy here and feel among friends (most of my friends are Caymanians, not ex pats). I don’t enjoy anything more than the next man, and I can never make this place my home (even though I would dearly love to), even though any Caymanian can come to England and obtain British Citizenship, so yes, the one point where I agree with Mr Frederick is we certainly won’t be investing in property here when we can’t ever live in it without the upheaval of having to lose our jobs, move out of our homes, the country and rent our homes out every 7 years due to the roll-over policy.
In situations where the work permit policy is not abused, and workers are brought in for skilled roles that suitable Caymanians are not able to fill – if we were not brought in to fill those posts Cayman’s financial operations and the country’s economy would suffer greatly (how the heck do you think the Cayman dollar got to be stronger than the US dollar), but now you want to tax us for our help. We do not have it so good as he suggests. We have no career progression opportunities here as its so difficult to get promoted or change roles under the work permit regs. We make sacrifices and leave our families and friends to come and work here. We work exceptionally hard, and very long hours. Caymanians have the freedom to apply for any job; change roles and get promotions. It seems to me that people would rather cast aspersions on the workers, than the businesses who actively flout the work permit regulations – the businesses being guilty of the wrong here.
I honestly do not believe we are the sole cause of the traffic problems. Many Caymanian families have 2, 3 or even 4 cars in their yards and each family member sets out separately, often to get to the same location (Town) to work. Perhaps also if your road laws were changed to the English method in respect of highways with 2 or more lanes, things would improve some. In the UK, all traffic must pull into the inside lane to let faster traffic past. Almost daily I get stuck on Shamrock Rd behind several cars ambling along at only 20 mph blocking up both lanes while their drivers chat endlessly on their mobile phones, oblivious to the traffic congestion building up behind them. I should add that this ‘foreigner’ does not have a car and does use the public transport system, which I find to be exceptionally good (and indeed more frequent than the bus service in my home town in England). However, the buses don’t run beyond 8 pm and you are lucky if you can get a bus on a Sunday where I live. I do feel that the bus service needs extending to run late into the night and some sort of Sunday service addingso that folks can get out to social events, church, shopping, etc. by public transport rather than being left with no choice but to go by car. Not only would this create jobs, but it would probably alleviate the substantial number of drunkards driving the roads at night too. The public transport routes should also be extended and added to. North Sound Estates desperately need a bus route passing them, as do Northward and other outlying areas. I know a lady who has to walk 2 miles to catch the bus every day in order to go to work. As building developments continue to expand across the island, the public transport service should be altered or extended to accommodate them, otherwise cars become a necessity rather than a luxury.
I so love this country, its people and its culture, and its always such a shame to come across such negativity towards ‘foreigners’, particularly in this day and age. I would not usually comment or get involved but these comments are the height of ignorance and could have rar-reaching consequences – I’d hate to think what direction the country would take in the hands of such a negative and ignorant individual and with that said, I wish this particular independent candidate no luck at all for the forthcoming elections. He may not have intended his comments to hurt people such as me – but if he is to enter into the world of politics he needs to wake up and smell the coffee – learn to be DIPLOMATIC and not to generalise and make such a public display of his own ignorance.
English WP Holder,
Caymanians are equally shocked and appalled by some of the ignorant generalizations dished out by some expats about Caymanians. For example, often repeated statement that Caymanians are lazy. The suggestion that we are backward mentally. Let me put this way, if you have a guest in YOUR home and he behaves that way towards you there how would YOU feel and react? In all the circumstances, Caymanians, up until now, have been remarkably tolerant.
To the person who addressed me,
I am familiar withgeneralisations made about Caymanians, I have seen both ex-pats and Caymanians guilty of laziness at work – the point I was repeatedly trying to make is that generalisations such as this and Mr Fredericks scathing comments about ‘Foreigners’ hurt everyone and achieve nothing. If you have a particular grievance address it to somebody rather than fling it at everybody.
If you read my initial post again I think you will find that I lost my own job fighting for Caymanian’s rights. I may be in the minority, but I am not guilty of anything ex pats/foreigners are being accused of here, yet I am simply roped in with the rest in treated with equal hatred. The same can be said for the majority of Caymanian workers here on the island, who are both diligent and hard-working, it is not fair for ex pats to generalise and say everyone is lazy.
It is the few (on both sides) making it difficult for us all, and those who generalise and direct such comments at a whole ex-pat or Caymanian community are spoiling relations in my view, regardless of where they come from.
"When you read some of this garbage it is no wonder that Caymanians have become regarded as an unfriendly people."
Actually 99.99% Caymanians are completely wonderful people (I did a survey), who go well out of their way to help each other out. For example, consider their courtesy while driving in traffic that is so extreme that it almost causes more of a jam:*flash of headlights* ("Go ahead in front of me"), *flash-flash* ("No, you go ahead of me") *flash-flash+wave emphatically* ("No mon, you go ahead of me"), flash / wave / flash / wave / flash / wave… you get the picture.
When I first got here I tried to take a bus to work for a while (til I got a car), but the locals randomly stopped to offer a ride more often than I actually managed to get on the bus (I’m a middle-aged guy, not a young lady, in case anyone way thinking there was another motivation besides extreme courtesy).
My survey also indicated that there are only 7 actual people in the Cayman Islands who are a little crabby about certain things, and all of them are here on this blog doing overtime at posting crabbiness on this topic (and we know where to find you…).
I wouldn’t want the world to read any of this and think that Cayman wasn’t still a GREAT place to be.
It is clear that there are extremists in the expat community as well as the Caymanian community. Let’s stop for a moment to be grateful that we all share freedom of speech and a political environment where this can be debated openly.
Let’s also send a VERY SPECIAL THANKS to Nicky Watson for hosting this discussion. It’s very important that this can be ventilated in public so as to identify and discuss what might be "harmful" ideas, since providing a counter-point or alternative perspective is much much better that trying to suppress ideas, or failing to address them.
Having said all that, let’s also remember that we’re talking about our neighbours, our friends, the people we work with, hold the door open for at the store, and smile at on the sidewalk… it needs to be stated, I feel, that the vast majority of both groups would be shaking their heads at the extreme positions taken here. Let’s remember that we are all part of a community, even if for some of us it is only until our roll-over dates.
Love your neighbours, and let’s try to see if we can’t help those who need a hand lifting themselves up. If nothing else, we’re all hearing that this isn’t working for some people. One way or another, we’re a community – let’s fix that.
When you read some of this garbage it is no wonder that Caymanians have become regarded as an unfriendly people.
Paul Harris ??????????????????????????
Excuse me, the first offshore was Ducet’s interbank, if I’m not mistaken. And if I’m not mistaken they were invited here to setup an offshore center by Jim Bodden, and Sir Vassel.
But Maybe I’m just another one of those dumb Caymanians who don’t know anything.
Paul Harris hahaahahahaahahahahaahahahhahahahahha this guy must be smoking pure high grade stuff let me give it to you the real deal mi BYe People like my dad and others before use to send their seaman monies through Jamaica for their familes and the first bank was set up here as a result of those same monies so our banking poineers were our seaman get ya facts straight old boy First bank if i recall was 1956 Barclays long before some of the expelled crooks from Bahamas arrive here Vincent is not the one with the problem you like others would like to rewrite our history to suit you all and marginalize us to wild natives you need to Go and sit down. You know what happens when you combine a donkey with a mule you get a Jack ass.
Dear Vincent R. Frederick Independent Bigot,
First, some historical context.
It was Paul Harris, a chartered accountant from the UK, and Bill Walker, an attorney from Guyana, who built this fountain that is today’s off-shore financial centre (Cayman). Both foreigners. They called their buddies in the UK and convinced them to bring their money here (from Bermuda or Jamaica). They, and other expats just like them, drafted the requisite legislation to make Cayman attractive for investment. The local government of the time had the good sense to follow their recommendations, sit back and let the foreigners make it happen. Refer to the most recent issue of the Cayman Financial Review and read the article there titled "The Cayman Islands: From Obscurity to Offshore Giant" for a history lesson in how it is that Cayman came to be what it is today (available at the Compass for free). The fishermen and basket-weavers native to Cayman had nothing to do with it. Those "locals" were looking for work in Cuba or Nicaragua because there was none to be had in Cayman. There is no natural spring, no mineral, no oil, no native plant, animal or natural resource of Cayman (the sand is nice, but so is the sand on any other island) to bring such highly qualified people to this island. It happened because of the contacts of those first foreigners and because of their expertise and all those foreigners who came since the 1970s who created the laws necessary to present the world with financial opportunity and who called their rich university buddies and convinced them to entrust their wealth to them here.
Natural Consequence to Bigotry
What the bigots (such as yourself) fail to grasp is that when you stir such bigotry, racism, hatred, dissent, division and foster and fuel a "Caymanian" vs. foreigner/expat mentality such as to spread your vicious bigotry, you will cause the expats to leave. When that happens the expats will take their contacts with them, their money with them, their expertise and know-how, and their contacts’ money with them. You will chase away the talent, skill and some very good, kind people who, whether attorneys, accountants, teachers, marketers, administrators or whatever could have continued to educate and transfer their skill and know-how to young Caymanians.
Further, when expats leave AND they take their clients, money, expertise and their clients’ money with them (and find another island to do it all over again) all the amenities that the bigots now enjoy will be gone also. After all, a population of only 10,000 does not need so many grocery stores, restaurants, cars, houses, variety of food, furniture, household goods, scheduled flights….. And without the imports from which to extract duty, without the business licenses to issue, without the work permit fees, without the incorporation of companies or trusts or hedge funds fees, your bigot government will not have any money. Nor would you need so many bigot civil servants on the payroll any way (it shouldn’t take more than 5 people to govern the handful left). All those things will shut down. Perhaps the cruise ships will continue to stop by (at least until Cuba takes that market away now that President Obama has decided to make amends) and the bigots can try to make their money selling tourists cheap trinkets rather than building schools – they will not be needed here. Perhaps the bigots might will set sail for work in Cuba again (and build for them schools and the like). That would be a poetic full circle; for Cayman to end up exactly as it started.
Your Motives
The really sad thing about all this is that if you truly had "your peoples" best interests at heart (I don’t know where you get that position) you would have recognized the need to give foreigners better motivation to stay and make Cayman their home so that they care about its future well-being to transfer their skills to the young Caymanians and work for the betterment of Cayman. You would work for an integrated peaceful society rather than causing and fueling rift. Unfortunately your sole motivation is to get elected (so you can ride a gravy train a little before your rift-making takes it off the rails) and you know that it is easier to incite ill feeling, us vs. them and spur the pack mentality so that those who are not educated and therefore are not high wage earners will actually be duped into believing that you care about them to vote for you.
Pathetic. What you are doing is pathetic and you are a pathetic human being for doing it.
To call you Hitler is a compliment that you do not deserve. At least Hitler’s motives were to make his people the most powerful leaders of the world. Yours is personal gain, at the cost of "your people". I think that you are more akin to the KKK. Except that unlike the KKK who picked on black people who were already disadvantaged just because they were black and thought themselves superior just because they are white, you in your utter ignorance and greed are picking on people who have done nothing but BETTER Cayman and whose absence will cause the failure of Cayman’s economy and future.
If there is traffic congestion, it is because the roads are inadequate to needs… duh!
Go get better educated about Cayman and what makes its economy before you can even lie credibly about wanting to serve Cayman.
"It was Paul Harris, a chartered accountant from the UK, and Bill Walker, an attorney from Guyana, who builtthis fountain that is today’s off-shore financial centre (Cayman). They, and other expats just like them, drafted the requisite legislation to make Cayman attractive for investment. The local government of the time had the good sense to follow their recommendations, sit back and let the foreigners make it happen."
Huh? That’s certainly a new version of events. Paul Harris? There were many others involved in building our financial industry including Caymanians like the late Sir Vassel Johnson and Mr. Arthur Hunter. When you re-write history to credit only expats with Cayman’s success that is precisely what angers not only Vincent but any knowledgeable Caymanian. He is no more a bigot than you are.
It was Paul Harris…
Dear Anonymous,
Thank you for telling that Noonie Mouse like it is. Short, Sweet and to the Point!!! Kudos!!!
I have another response coming for him and all the other Noonie Mice we have in our country.
See definition of Noonie Mouse here: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Noonie+Mouse
All the best.
Your One-Solution
Response to Huh?
You are absolutely right that Mr. Arthur Hunter helped build the financial industry, and there were other Caymanians as well working with foreigners. My point was that foreigners were key (in response and in contradiction to the view that foreigners are taking jobs away or taking anything at all away from Caymanians) to building today’s Cayman and creating opportunities. The larger point however is that I very much doubt that Mr. Hunter or any Caymanian made Mr. Harris or Mr. Walker and all those who came in the 70s on feel like they were foreigners temporarily visiting just because they were not born here. Had Harris or Walker felt that way they would not have made such effortsas they had (why would anyone work to better a place that is not home?) and today’s Cayman would not be. So why is there such a sentiment now, and can’t those people see how self-destructive such a sentiment is.
civil, you should have acknowledged that from the outset rather than posting a clearly inflammatory and incorrect statement.
"The larger point however is that I very much doubt that Mr. Hunter or any Caymanian made Mr. Harris or Mr. Walker and all those who came in the 70s on feel like they were foreigners temporarily visiting just because they were not born here".
You assume that the change in attitude started with Caymanians. There has to be a strong reason why a place whose tourism industry was originally built on the friendliness of its people is no longer seen that way by some. Caymanians have been badly burned by some of the poor attitudes of some expats and unfortunately start to generalize and become bitter. It is bad enough to be badly treated in someone else’s country but it is galling to be treated badly in your home country by someone from elsewhere.
The expats today are not the same as the expats of yesteryear. Hopefully I don’t embarrass him too much but if I had to hold up a model expat (whom I no longer consider an expat) it would be Mr. Charles Adams. He came, he settled and made it his home, he respected the people and was blessed with the grace of humility, he contributed freely of his time, skills and substance as a lawyer and simply as a member of the community, he made the place better than he found it. I bet my fellow Caymanians love thousands of such expats. God bless you Mr Adams and those like you.
Anonymous, you are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. Thank you. I could have said it in those words, but I just wanted for those type of expats to understand the real sentiment thoy have brought the Caymanian People to feel.
And YES, The expats today are not the same as the expats of yesteryear… and YES, fellow Caymanians love thousands of expats with respect and humility like Mr. Adams who was a close friend of my father. As a matter of fact, just this morning I had a caucasian expat who had never seen me in his life – give me a very pleasant greeting of "good morning" and with a genuine looking smile/face. I returned that greeting just the same. So just as Anonyous AND I have said previously, it’s not that Caymanians were/are aggressive and hateful people. YOU, Civil and ALL similar expats, you all need to get back to your proverbial ‘Drawing Boards’ and redesign your minds and intentions/ways or else you could run into a brick-wall someday either in this country or some other in your quest for supremacy.
Have a good day.
Your One-Solution Caymanian
WRITING ON THE WALL !!!
OOOPSS… Sorry. Let me correct that part i quoted about "Caymanians loving thousands of expats with respect and humility …" Those kind MAY only come in the hundreds and those that REALLY ARE GENUINE to the Caymanian and truly integrates may only come in the TENS,
Listen, I AM a NO-FRILLS kinda guy and Caymanian. I live in a world where REALITY is the existence. I happen to be one of those human beings/Caymanians that is VERY OBSERVANT and INTELLIGENT…. FAR away from being a fool. When I talk about serious issues, I talk REALITY and FACTS where applicable(despite my allowing myself to come accross in the context as generalising)
I don’t mean to keep this cyber war going here, but it needs to be CLEARLY UNDERSTOOD by ALL… ALL Caymanians and ALL expats(existing and FUTURE), primarily the Selfish, the Unconscienous Exploiters, the "Gold Miners", the modern-day Conquistadors and last, but certainly not least, the Racially and Socially Prejudice – That 1st and factually, the Cayman Islands is well populated with these type of expats. As every intelligent and educated(& uneducated) human being SHOULD know(and if you dont know) that in numerous countries where these types exists and where those type immigrate from other countries, there HAS BEEN and REMAINS to be SocioEconomic problems and EVEN WAR. It is a fact that people of most countries, many of which have different cultures AND personality traits(for instance people that come from aggressive and racially prejudice countries) mostly DO NOT GENUINELY get along with the native people who may have opposing personality traits in those countries they immigrate or live/work in. This is in fact TRUE with the Cayman Islands as well, whether you like it or not. This is human nature, but there is the other side to that. The other side is that it is UNACCEPTABLE. Meaning those traits are not ‘swallowed and digested’ easily. The type of Expats or people I mentioned above with the unacceptable personality traits produces a very damaging effect on the native people and good quality people in general(to broaden the spectrum). This DAMAGING EFFECT many times results in CIVIL UNREST and then to WAR. It is evident that we ALREADY have a verbal and cyber war going on here!!! You must UNDERSTAND that every human being have a TOLERANCE LEVEL(many long, some very short). Every country has a Tolerance Level in general. When that tolerance has been expended and has been depleted, you often get a very severe and expected response. NOW that Tolerance Level has been shortened on a personal level and more so as a ‘People’ of this Country.
Expats, you must also understand that in EVERY country there is a common immigration and natural classification of peoples. The classifications that are key(by nature) in many countries are called Natives and Foreigners. In MOST countries there is a very NATURAL response to feeling the way the Caymanians are being discriminated against/marginalized, exploited, oppressed, robbed, disrespected in our own land. That natural response of our people, is to DEFEND. And as if it isn’t ENOUGH, we are being shot down by the expat when we try to defend. Sensibly, immaturely or not, there are serious issues coming from the expat in our country and WE have the RIGHT TO DEFEND! This is OUR birth place… OUR ROCK. Thank you.
This can’t work much any longer Caymanians!!
FYI – the verbal warfare has heated up, but there are many Caymanians(criminal and intelligent), who are thinking radically and militantly. Remember, these thoughts usually and will materialize if situations gets to that stage. While the MultiGeneraltional Caymanian people my not be as united as we should be, there is one thing we have in common. The ONE thing that will eventually and really unite this people in some way will be if and when civil unrest erupts on these SMALL ROCKs called the Cayman Islands(Not much space to run) – the result of the common dispair and anger from being treated by the way we have been for most part by expats, will quickly bring the people together for that cause – Civil Unrest!!
Expats… People… just in case you haven’t been exposed to these scenarios in your respective countries or that you have been ignorant to the history and sociology of many countries who have been through these atrocities… just in case you are not observant or intelligent enough to see the ‘WRITING ON THE WALL’ – here, I am now writing it on this forum for you. UNDERSTAND!!!
Native Caymanians…. My people… WISE UP and STANDUP!!
FYI – If you haven’t read between the lines, I am doing two things when I write what i write. 1 – is to REMIND the expat of his wrong doings to my people in our country and at the same time further educating my fellow native Caymanian of these ATROCITIES and to advocate and encourage strong defense and correction. 2 – Is to warn of the impending CIVIL UNREST that WILL occur if matters is corrected in an attempt to save ourcountry from complete fall – That would also be benificial to the expat. MAKE SENSE???
Your One-Solution Caymanian
Sounds like missing those ex-pats that were here for ages that McKeeva and Kurt kicked out in favour of those who came afterwards.
Since I’ve read YOUR points of view for about 45 minutes now, please take 30 seconds to read mine. Since I came here, I have been told almost every day that: Ex-pats are stealing jobs from locals, we’re only allowed to stay here for 6 years, and we are not welcome in Gun Square.
It’s a problem for everybody -you see nothing but ex-pats coming and going – we see an ocean of Caymanian people (with exceptions) who don’t want to talk to us, think we’re untrustworthy and dishonest. There are of course, lots of welcoming lovely Caymanians, but like the lovely welcoming ex-pats, they’re hard to pick out right away. (Maybe we should all wear signs?)
Ex pats come and go for their own reasons: they get a better job back home, sick relatives, new baby, new boyfriend outside Cayman – its very self-centred to think that they all leave because they don’t like Caymanians or Cayman. In fact, just a guess, but I’d say that anyone who stays beyond a year probably likes the place.
But once we’re here, it takes a long time to break in to the community and sometimes it just doesn’t happen at all. We are all from different cultures and if we follow our passions and practices, it may not put us into a big mix of Caymanians. Given there’s no ‘welcome wagon’ program, you shouldn’t be surprised if the first connection ex-pats make is with people from their own country.
So, while all of us probably fell in love with the idea of having a cross-cultural experience and getting to know Caymanian people, a lot of times, that just doesn’t happen. And now that you’ve made it difficult for ex-pats to stay here beyond six years, why would you think that any ex-pat would want to buld a full life here, knowing they must disassemble it five years later?
So, we go about our lives, we work, we become friends with people from our own culture. Sometimes (often for some people) we interact with Caymanians if we share a common sport, religion or hobby. But almost always, as the days tick by and we have to make the big decisions in our lives: houses, school, jobs, futures, we are conscious of the elephant sized clock in the room constantly moving towards six years. And of course, we have to make our decisions based on that. No one in their right mind would think that any ex-pat is going to bulid a house, buy a car, invest in a business and devote hours to community volunteer work with the knowledge that they will be summarily kicked out after six years.
So, the next time you think we’re all against the people of Cayman, ask yourself if you have ever helped out a new arrival, or stood up to write a letter to the immigration board on behalf of a good ex-pat friend who’s getting kicked off the island. If you have, power to you – you are a better person for it, and I hope you were thanked.
If all you have to say is "get out of my country", then don’t wonder why so many ex-pats have no connection with the local community. And you know what? It’s your country: vote for the candidates who want to kick the ex-pats off the island and that probably will happen. But don’t be surprised if life around here changes if all the ex-pats leave.
"If all you have to say is "get out of my country", then don’t wonder why so many ex-pats have no connection with the local community."
The question is which came first.
Response To DearVincent Frederick…
SNAP!!! We meet again Civil,
Here you are spreading that incomplete "history" of the FInancial Industry of this Expat’s GOLD POT called the Cayman Islands.
Let’s get something clear here. It should be known that this issue of the Cayman Financial Review and the article you keep refering to was more likely written by the Caymanian Compass and in that case would have been written other expats with the same sentiment,mind-set and intentions that you have… that is to rewrite history to your liking and to misinform the rest of the expat population, those already here and those yet to come… to mis-educate the Caymanian. Those expats that wrote that misinformation was of course the White Expat and dont even try to say otherwise boy, I have well embeded experience with the White Man and the ATROCITIES he has brought to the World from the days of pioneering and CONQUISTADORS up until this PRESENT moment!!! The white man still continues that quest only in a different way… being governed by international and local laws of these respective countries to PLUNDER and RAPE!!!
THE ANGER YOU BRING TO THE MINDS AND HEARTS OF OUR ONCE PASSIVE PEOPLE, The Caymanian…. That’s the "homocidal with expats" i’m talking about
Your are nothing more than the PLAGUE called the ‘Noonie Mouse’ I defined at this web link with exception of a type-o or 2: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Noonie+Mouse
Shut your face before someone shuts it up for you Civil boy. Better yet, GO BACK home to your own "Region" and contribute to creating a Financial Industry(Rat-Race) there.
What expats like you need is to have the One Solution applied pronto.
Your One-Solution Caymanian
"I have well embeded experience with the White Man and the ATROCITIES he has brought to the World from the days of pioneering and CONQUISTADORS up until this PRESENT moment!!! The white man still continues that quest only in a different way… being governed by international and local laws of these respective countries to PLUNDER and RAPE!!!"
Wow, funny if i was to say the same about "black men" in my home (predominantly white) country i would be rightly branded a racist bigot and locked up for inciting racial hatred.
Lucky for you that Cayman is not quite so enlightened as the rest of the world when it comes to race relations. People of all races, creeds and colours (dont even get me started on religions) have committed atrocities through the ages.
You are a bigot and one of the main reasons YOUR country is on the verge of a meltdown. 🙂
Ah, the One-Solution Psychopath strikes again: hurling insults, making serious threats of violence, thumping your chest and spewing your anger, resentment and hatred. Please do yourself a favour and get help, before you talk yourself into actually acting on your psychopathic tendencies. Anyone who uses the phrase "homicidal with expats" was never a passive or peaceful person. Don’t lump other Caymanians’ hearts and minds with your own, you insult and do a tremendous dis-service to them. Had they really felt the way you do not a single expat would be here.
Civil or UnCivil….
Your are trying to EVADE the fact that a great majority of WHITE People has always been/are prejudice of colored people and will continue to be so, maybe not to same degree, but will continue.
You are trying to EVADE the FACTS of HISTORY of many countries where the white man has plundered and literally near WIPED out the existence of a number of NATIVE Peoples of those countries such as what the Spanish Conquistadors did in South and Central Americas. Such as the European Explorers in the USA which was inhabited by the Native american Indian and the Wild Buffalo. The uninvited Europens plundered and mercilessly killed scores of the Native Indian (which I am 3rd Generation mixed with 3 parts European white) and hunted the Buffalo/Bison the damn NEAR EXTINCTION all for the greed of their ALL-MIGHTY RITCHES. They brought diseases to wiped out another great number of the Natives. Now today they have "penned" up the Natives on Reserves with some more rights and benefits. The bottom line is that the "Way of Life"… The Natives have been ROBBED of their Culture and Heritage.
Another example is that of African Countries that were Plundered and the Natives anialated for the Diamond… They set the Natives against eachother ALL over the riches from that resource. The white man came and made matters worse for those sometimes warring Tribes.
The Native People of many of those countries the White Man has RAPED had fought the whites to prevent the invasion of their countries and most times were lost to "Bloody Massacres" of the Native People.
Do you expats, especially the Caucausians UNDERSTAND what I am saying here. The Expat has come to this country PRIMARIILY for its Resource, MONEY!!.. and trying to have their way and when the Native Caymanian MERELY speaks up in defense of his people/country, you expats are always there to SHOOT US DOWN!!!! This is precisely what i am talking about that makes the Caymanian so angry with you. It’s not that we were aggressive from the start. EXPATS LIKE YOU MAKE US THAT WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Retribution can be a terrible thing. Have some CONSCIENCE and RESPECT for PEOPLE in THEIR COUNTRIES. That way things don’t get bent out of shape boy.
Your One Solution Caymanian
Re: " That’s the "homocidal with expats" i’m talking about" by One-Solution Caymanian
Great idea – kill all the white ex-pats b/c they clog up traffic. Now think about this: insert the word, "jew" in place of "white ex-pat" and you are no better than a Nazi. Substitute "capitalist" for "ex-pat" and you are advocating the same solution that Pol Pot did.
Trade ‘ex-pat’ and ‘Caymanian’ for ‘Hutus and Tutsis’ and you have turned George Town into Rwanda.
How long is it before you turn on status Caymanians because they are not "genuine", or on white Caymanians because of their colour? Your comments are nothing but a sick tirade of racism, reminiscent of the most unintelligent backward regimes in the history of mankind.
Vincent Frederick can speak all he wants to and can say he thinks ex-pats should be taxed, or prevented from driving cars – those comments are just not very well thought out and unlikely to effect positive change.
YOU should be silenced, as the bigoted racist hatemonger you are. Your comments are what is known in the wider world as "hate literature", and your publication of them is called a "hate crime". In fact, it is probable that the Cayman News SErvice’s publication of them is also a hate crime, because they have assisted in the publication of comments dessigned to create, foster or exacerbate an attitude that violence or other illegal sanctions are permissible against an identifiable group.
Both you and Cayman News Service may want to hire a lawyer, because I suggest that all good Christian Caymanians out there should report you to the police.
CNS: Please read this
You no whats funny How a simply slogan of "Caymanian first" has alot of people underwear in a real twist.The point is now whether Vincent Frederick gets voted in or out or he is hated or dislike he has given young Caymanians the first step forward in a very hard struggle and task ahead something that other young educated Caymanians should sieze the initiative to be a part of Caymans future.
The road as we can see is wrought with many threats and dangers from the comments we have witnessed on this site. A solid word of advice all people who have come to these islands to contribute integrate and share or burdens should be treated equally and embraced just like a Caymanian for this is the way to a brighter future for Cayman.
For far too long some of our so called Caymanian hardliners have use this for their own political and financiial gain or benefit while telling us it is to protect us. Thats not sell out politics thats the way it is, Look around a some of these ex politicians need i say more. Vincent should be applauded for his effort not condemed just because some found his comments very offensive in nature.
If you are here for the right reasons and to make a living and work no human or Caymanian cannot or should ever find fault with that communication is the unifying force.
Watch out!!!
"The great thing about engaging in what we would normally call ‘debate’ with Caymanians is that they make your point for you over and over again. Unless the Cayman government addresses the problem of education, the Caymanian population will continue be dependent on ‘foreigners’ for their living."
Education is certainly a live point, and maybe all expats should volunteer to teach a course or two along the way as thanks for sharing the Islands, but you should beware of your generalizations. There are a LOT of very well educated Caymanians about, and if you ignore that, well, dog eat your supper then!
You’re right. This was a unjustified generalisation and I apologise. A question then – what is the view of a very well education Caymanian to these issues in your country. There is very obviously a lot of resent of ex-pats on this Island, a large segment of the Caymanian population that is poorly educated and untrained for basic jobs – let alone careers, and an immigration/work permit regime that does not seem to be meeting the protectionist goals of the government. How would you solve it?
Reply to: Go de Missa Vincent
"A nuh Canada dis. But plenty Canada people dey ya. Tell dem again. You come ya come fine it so…dont fass wid me. Drink de milk and but dont count cow!"
Oddly, I think I understand this. If I have it correct – thank you for the welcome message. I am pleased to be here, and I will leave the cow alone. Perhaps someday you might enjoy some Canadian milk. Freakin’ cold it is, but very good. Almost as good as Ram Goat Liver…
Pluto Shervington
Go de Missa Vincent.
No mek no body tek yu fe nuh idiot …tek wey yu right fe talk.
This is your land. If you caah mek noise ya …wey you mus do it….
Mek dem gu wey….
A fi yu country….You mus can eat ya. Sleep ya.
Tek care a u pickny dem. See you future and mek yu dream come true.
Right now you caaagh see yu way….man a eat you foood! And you mus shut yu mout and tek dat?
A wey dem a talk bout sah!!
Me know you. You mean all we good. Yu jus no waan no body stop you from prospa in a fe yu country.
A nuh Canada dis. But plenty Canada people dey ya. Tell dem again. You come ya come fine it so…dont fass wid me. Drink de milk and but dont count cow!
Vincent nu mek no body shut yu up me son. You hard workin. You have ambition. We support yu.
Boris proud a you me son. Keep you head high.
Memba Bob…yeah Bob Marley from Hope Road, Trench Town, St. Ann …said one. Hi sing dis song jus fe de man.
"Dem a go tyayad fe se me face…. caaagh get me outa da race…."
A you dat Vincent…
The great thing about engaging in what we would normally call ‘debate’ with Caymanians is that they make your point for you over and over again. Unless the Cayman government addresses the problem of education, the Caymanian population will continue be dependent on ‘foreigners’ for their living.
I know you think this is some kind of special code that only you understand. Good, keep expressing your real feelings in your pidgin English – all the better to see through the smiling facade to your real attitudes
Btw, the milk I’ve worked hard for is lovely. I hope you like the fact that you earned more off it than me.
And I don’t want your damn cow anyway.
For the guy who has hangups about the "code" . Every Caribbean person knows that (Missa Vincent) what was expressed is not pidgin english but a distinct patois understood in all it’s hilarity and nuances by Caymanians and Caribbean peoples. The rest of the world ( those who are willing to learn…and there are many) come to appreciate the profound clarity of conveyances in that vehicle of communication. There is a greater reward for those who take the time to savour, apply, muster a smidgin of respect for the depth of this version of talk. Dont miss the opportunity…you so miss out on a whole world as sophisticated as your own.
The core message I learned from Missa Vincent
Dont’s p….on the place or people you are privaleged to make your money. They will p….right back at you in good measure. These people have valid grips about a system which is not working for them, while it appears it works magically for others.
You have come to live among a mosttolerant, a most loving, a most generous, a most respect full, a most self less( to the point of idocy at times), in the world. There comes a time when there are no more cheeks to turn and get slapped up…so the the capacity to forgive diminishes…and some body a…is going to pay. that happens in every country without fail. P….on the natives, disrespect them and you get what you deserve.
When these most accommodating people are made made to feel stupid, helpless without recource, marginalised without true voice, sold out by some of their own who have lost the ethos of our marine heritage that placed us a top of the world,
This environment grew into a money farm beacuse Caymanians had a vision, set the tone, created the prospects for many from out side with the know how to effect the template of our present prosperity. Deny that as you try to your own peril. The deliberate and caluclated attempt to rewrite history will not wash away what is Caymanite true. Cayman was ushered into prosperity partly because of a few good and wise from overseas working with the good and wise hwo happen to by here and native. Dilute that reality in the face of those who gave blood, sweat and tears to this endeavour.
The culture of oral traditions will sanitize the germs of calculated misniformation.
Go Dey Missay Vincent.
Ex-pats know about patois. I’m afraid there’s not much respect for it though because it sounds like someone just speaking and writing English very badly –and though I understand that its part of Cayman heritage, it doesn’t go very far in presenting your people as modern, progressive and educated when it’s used in discussion with others. And whether any of us like it or not, part of growing up and being successful at something in life, is learning how to speak and write properly and present one’s self to others in a way that might make a favourable impression.
No one wants to take away or deny Cayman history and heritage. Go ahead and celebrate your culture all you want! It’s great to do so. But the past is gone man –you’ve got an Island full of young people who can text their friends on their fancy cell phones faster than they can read or write, and who are growing up thinking they are somehow owed a job and a living along with a couple of hot cars. A lot of what I see is that they don’t want to work hard for what they feel they are entitled to, and more importantly, they don’t want to learn the skills to do it themselves even though they are given plenty of opportunity to do so. Every employer on this Island is required to hire and train and provide educatonal opportunities to large numbers of Caymanians. Given that, there should be more success stories. We should be hearing daily about a Caymanian who graduated from university top of their class, or who has come back to the Island to build buildings, and roads, and parks for children, start hospitals and clinics … but we don’t. Why not? Why is it that if this kind of thing is being done at all, it’s mostly being done by people from other places? And I am honestly asking you this question – why do you think that’s the case?
IN Reply:
Every Caribbean person knows that (Missa Vincent) what was expressed is not pidgin english but a distinct patois
You’re absolutely right – it is its own dialect and good on you. My apologies – the language I used was demeaning and incorrect. It does not change the fact that this debate is in English and clearly the writer of the earlier posting can speak English. By using a ‘code’, she is merely trying to silence those who she thinks do not understand it (and there will be some who don’t). This is a tactic as bad as taking the vote away from someone.
Dont’s p….on the place or people you are privaleged to make your money
I’m not p))sing on anyone or anything. I love living here and I like the money I earn. Don’t ever think you gave it to me though. I have worked my a)) off to become qualified to work in my career, to make me attractive to an offshore employer and to do my job well. The only reason I am here instead of a Caymanian is because there are few if any Caymanians qualified to do my job – it is very specialized. Unfortunately, until Caymanians can show a decade of experience in a profession and a good onshore education, they will not be qualified to do my job. It is just that simple.
most tolerant, a most loving, a most generous,
YUP sure is. Sometimes. and sometimes not. And if you think it’s all roses and joy you should change your name to PollyAnna. Clearly, this forum shows there are lots of people that hate ex-pats, so don’t go thinking that we walk around oblivious to that, and that everyone who hates ex-pats doesn’t act that way as well.
sold out by some of their own
This says it all. I think your politicians are useless too. But I dont’ have the right to vote, and I didn’t elect them. So that appears to have been a problem created by Caymanians, not ex-pats. Put your own politicians in your pipe and smoke it.
environment grew into a money farm beacuse Caymanians had a vision
You seem to misunderstand me. I have said nothing about where the financial system/tourist cash cows came from, and I don’t care WHO created the system. It is here, and I intend to profit by it. I hope you profit by it too for the mere reason that I dont’ want to live like people in Libya and Saudi Arabia – behind bars in designated patrolled enclaves. LIke a lot of ex-pats, I happen to LIKE living here, and I came here intending to be part of the community, not marginalized by the locals on a daily basis.
And as I said, I don’t want your damn cow – you can keep it – of course its yours. If you feel as a people that you need to kick out all the ex-pats that work here, you’d better be able to replace them with something equal or better, or you’re going to find out right away that your precious cow might just get sick and die.
WOW! OUR BROTHER IS REALLY FAMOUS! LETS ROLL THE RED CARPET OUT FOR VINCENT! SORRY NO AUTOGRAPHS PLEASE!!! VINCENT HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!!!!
Twyla Mae, we the Fredrick thank you for your support also to our family the Berrys! Together we will stand in unity for it shows you how strong our bloodline really flows!
SO VINCENT MY BROTHER LIKE BOB MARLEY SAID DONT WORRY ABOUT A THING CAUSE EVERY LITTLE THING IS GONNA BE ALRIGHT! WE LOVE YOU AND WE WILL STAND BY YOU 100%
I REPEAT ONCE MORE NO AUTOGRAPHS TODAY! VINCENT HAS LEFT THE BUILDING! SEE YOU ALL ON MAY 20TH!
The level of ignorance is overwhelming. Okay let’s try to put this in very simple, easy to understand terms as that seems to be what is required: at least 90% of the "foreigners" are here living in Cayman –not because they want to live on an Island or live by the sea or because it is such a pretty place (let’s be honest here –it’s a sand and swamp-covered, mosquito-infested flat piece of rock) but because it’s a tax free jurisdiction with a large financial industry. We are here, in other words, to make money. And if that benefit –the making money part –is taken away –if, for instance, a tax regime is imposed on "foreigners" –we will simply all pack up and leave. And what that means is that there won’t be any jobs left for Caymanians either because no one will want to have banks or law firms or trust companies here or build houses or start businesses here. So this Island will be back to being a sand and swamp-covered, mosquito-infested flat piece of rock with an airport and a few occasional tourists (although Cuba is going to be next destination for most). I guess you can always tell the young people that they can build themselves a cat boat and fish …bright future that that is.
For those Banana republic fans I have 5 acres of prime down commercial property in Grozy Chechnya where your rights will be respected. Your only problem is probably getting online. Some folks are so quick in condeming this place the minute they do not hear that words they like to hear or questions about matters that concern Caymanians are raised and discussed.They then proceed to say or threatened to deprive Cayman of things that they enjoy or are benefiting from on this island. How childish can you get and if that is the view or intentions or reasoning they are adopting, well they should not be here in the first place, like i said Chechnya is wide open and needs serious investment head on over. Its your right to ask questions and give your opinions Vincent let no one take that away from you. Bob Marley says Could you be loved.
Reply to: if we were still a bananna republic
"…too much education retards and impedes people anyway because when you have it you are expected to abide by the society’s norms and unspoken rules….."
How does one engage that viewpoint in debate? It’s like Friedrich Nietzsche meets Niccolò Machiavelli meets Dr. Seuss …
Wow Mr. Frederick, in contrary to your response, seems like you have more enemies than friends. Furthermore, all your friends are actually family.
I do understand that you are only trying to protect your people, however, as you can see from a politcal stand point, your method may have gotten the best of you. Your mistakes only show what not to do to gain votes and by your hands, the country may fall into the wrong hands.
Keep fighting sir, you can do so much when not elected.
PS It is not the expats who keep you out of office.
Thanks Nicky Watson. It is WONDERFUL to have a forum where everyone can ventilate their views openly and have them debated. This debate has been particularly lively, to put it mildly. Thank you very much.
PS – What say we focus some of this passion into resolving the underlying problems? Want my expat job? I’ll volunteer to teach a night class on how it’s done if you’ll volunteer to show up and stay with it to the end.
HEY!!!! THATS VINCENT PARTY and HE CRY IF HE WANT TO.
There are many who may disagree and those who agree, with what Vincent had to say, however; a famous tune comes to my mind, that is. ITS MY PARTY and I CRY IF I WANT TO. This is a very long comment, and I do not want you to miss one line. Take your time and read.
If Vincent felt the urge to make a comment as such , maybe it was an isolated situation, where he might have had a reason. I do not know, however I am happy that the Berry family stick to his side. Still I want to say, be careful you are all being set up to make certain comments. Just about three weeks ago myself and Theresa and Vincent was together having a good productive conversation in Bodden Town. Theresa even commented afterward and said "Vincent is really a nice honest and innocent person" I thank everyone who have came to vincent support and It disgust me to read some of the hate comments. To the Berry and Frederick family I want to tell you, that you are being set up by some anonymous persons. Dont let them do it.
Thats why I can write and sign my name. I do my home work before I start writing, so I can back up anything I say. What ever anyone may think about Vincent Frederick, I can safely say he is a fine man, Vincent does not have a hateful bone in his body. I have worked with him on many activities in the district of Bodden Town, and has always found him to be very helpful and honest. I know many persons have been effected by what he said.
Although I was not present at the meeting, I do believe a MOUNTAIN was created from a MOLE HILL, however in my final comments I want to respond to a few comments made. Dirty Campaign, you will not get that from Theresa,s committee. and dont for one moment think that Theresa or her team members had any bad comments about Vincent. Oh No my friends!!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE BEING SET UP RIGHT HERE IN THIS TOWN by POLITRICKS!!!!!!!!!!, believe me when I say that. I can afford to make my comments and sign my name, because what ever anyone have to say bad about Vincent Frederick, I know for a fact that Vincent is a very honest and good man, and I sincerely do not believe that Vincent has any hate for expatriates. WHAT IS HAPPEING, IS THAT, CERTAIN PERSONS WANT TO ROB YOUR CONCENTRATION FROM THE ISSUES AT HAND. Dont let your mind stray from the issues at hand.
Has anyone though that this might have been an isolated situation with Vincent, and we know how that go. One foreigner makes us mad, and we do not say John Brown did this, or that , we say "Them old foreigners" .Both Vincent Frederick and Theresa Lewis has Gun Square blood/family, and I know you all are smart people, so do not let POLITRICKING’ rev you up. That is their intention believe me. They want you to take the mind off the issues because they are far behind in the race. Stay calm, focus, and do what you do best Berry,s, stick together and support your own Theresa and Vincent. Certain people are happy they started this, now they are sitting back with hands folded and watching the POLITRAP they have set for you to fall in. think about it.
I’m an ex-pat living here in Cayman and I’ve been quite entertained this morning reading through the many comments on this website –including Mr. Frederick’s (how anyone can make a statement that "foreigners" are to blame for everything from murder to traffic problems on the Island and then claim they are not a bigot is, indeed, extremely amusing) (Mr. Frederick – for your benefit – BIGOT: one intolerantly devoted to his own church, party or opinion; synonyms: fanatic or zealot). One thing is very clear: there is a severe issue on this Island with lack of quality education and training for the Caymanian population. It is not only evident in the day-to-day speech and writing skills, as overwhelmingly demonstrated in the comments here, but in the ability to analyse and think through issues in any sophisticated way. And at the end of the day, this is why ex-pats are hired to come over here and be bankers and accountants and lawyers and engineers and teachers in the schools and colleges. The single most important thing the Cayman government could do is pour more money into education and training for Caymanians, even if that means having to provide a lot of scholarship money to send the talented ones to overseas schools where they can learn what they need to know to be successful wherever they are.
That is exactly right if we were still a bananna republic you all would not be here trying take over, trambling on us and then telling us to sit down and shut up! We have been marginalized in our own country and we must not protest???……. yes the foreigners and some of our own who are reaping the spoils……are telling us we must stop complaining because their being here is so good for us….so accept it without complaining …..If it was so good for us why then would we being complaining????…..Then we would really be what you all call us stupid and lazy……. Well tell you all what…….dont do us anymore favours………you dont like it here……..because we are treating you all so badly then we would suggest you high tail it outa yah and let us see what it feels like to miss you all!!!!!!!! We can live with that!!!!!! Serves us right for objecting to the foreign elements in our country outnumbering us and making us a minority…….. Yes bad governance, poooooor policy makers with no foresight, no strategic planning and not a care for anything else but the almighty dollar and yes no preservation of culture. These are all the crimes of our policy makers before and it can be summed up in one word GREED……so how do we fix it? Yes we have too many foreigners in our country and when they get here they dont want to….. or intend to …..leave and they fight us ever inch of the way to stay, yet we are such a terrible people why do they want to stay amoungst us then???????Like I said you dont like it here there are flights leaving daily feel free to leave and set up shop and get busy plundering and pilidging elsewhere! Stop comparing us to countries like Canada, UK, and USA……..they are superpowers they have the infrastructure to assume other peoples problems and accept boat loads of foreigners!!!! WE CANT! Yes we dont have a proper immigration policy and what it currently attempts to do is but a band-aid on an open and festering wound. What I say about Vincent is he is grass roots and very refreshing……he has promise and like all of the rest that had to start someplace…….he will learn…. that is one job that no experience is required remember!! He will learn……So if the people of BT want to back him we will….. and no foreigners can castigate and crucify him for his opinion…many of us feel the same way….and thank god he has the brawn to speak his mind!……. too much education retards and impedes people anyway because when you have it you are expected to abide by the society’s norms and unspoken rules…..and if you dont do so you are regarded as a deviant!!!!! Way to go Vincent! Way to go! Like your style! Got our vote!
If Vincent and many fellow Caymanians felt
Then Vincent and fellow Caymanians would be not be stopping to shout from Gun Square, they would be busy in the throes of prosperity.
They speak what they feel. Because there is some thing for them to speak about. They speak it as it hurts. Beacause pain needs remedy. They want to do some thing about it. Because nobody else is.
It is so dumb to ignore, revile the disenfranchised. There is a penalty to pay. Are we prepared for the consequence of such inequity in such a small place?
What Vincent is saying now is not how he felt 15 years ago. He feels how he feels now for legitimate reasons.
You daresilence him!
Well here you have it again another berry family pledging their support for our cousin Vincent Frederick, remember blood is thicker than water, as a family we stand and support Vincent, John John and Mark you have our vote too thats for sure. UDP all the way! So stop hatin on Vincent and fine something important to do with your time. All you Caymanians that is hatin on your own Caymanian is a crying shame! On the marl road you hear them talking about what they all going to do for our country yet they give all our jobs to expat! Let me tell you all something even if we have to go back to our old caymanian way of living am in! These expatriates dont care about us so why should we care about them? Vincent dont let none of their negitivity affect your ways of expressing yourself, you are putting your own caymanians first and thats a big plus! UDP and VINCENT ALL THE WAY!
Go to Canada
"If anybody other than Caymanians on this web-page can let me know if I can come to your country and get the same job in the same profession, please let me know! It seems we are always facing somebody from another country telling us what to do! "
Depends on who you are and what you do. If you are not a criminal and have something useful to occupy yourself with, Canada would likely welcome you (we’re a welcoming sort). Once they do, a great part is that they won’t tell you to get out of the country after you’ve built a life there.
It’s a big world, and there are lots of options.
Is it just me or is there an obvious divide between those that support Vincent and those who do not.
Having read all the posts it would seem that people who can actually string a proper sentence together seem to be anti, while those who, should i say, are more educationally challenged support him?
Interesting…….
Reply to: Whomever you are calling
"Whomever you are calling yourself a Caymanian you are a liar. A true Caymanian would give there support to Vincent Frederick so whomever you are stop using the name Caymanian because you are simply not one of us."
I am amazed to see people presume that their fellow Caymanians are so simple-minded that they need not be consulted as to their views before it is proclaimed by the writer that "WE THE CAYMANIAN PEOPLE hereby declare that so-and-so is true/righteous/proper, or the final view on any topic". It is arrogant in the extreme on the part of the writer, and no reasonable person could believe anything they say when it is wrapped up in the foolish claim that they purport to speak for an entire people, when so obviously they do not (and could not).
As anyone would expect to be the case, Caymanians are diverse in attributes and perspectives, in vast degrees, from the (wonderful) grandmotherly little old ladies to the butt-kicking attorneys of the new generation. Don’t tell me that any Caymanian (or non-) can presume to speak for every other Caymanian – it insults the intelligence of the people and insults Caymanians generally for the presumption.
As a courtesy, I take offence on their behalf until they chime in to take offence themselves.
WE ARE THE BERRY FAMILY FROM BODDEN TOWN AND VINCENT IS OUR COUSIN! Anyone got a problem with that come see us! Vincent you may not have all our berry family votes but in this family you have five here! ALL THESE CULPRITS XXXXXXX NEED TO KNOW THAT THERESA IS NEVER EVER GETTING IN THATS FOR SURE! Vincent do what you do best and dont worry about these jerks! WECAYMANIANS ARE GOING TO TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY BY DEMAND! IF YOU ALL LISTEN CAREFULLY FOR WHAT VINCENT IS SAYING IT MAKES SENSE!
CNS: Please read this for why the name was deleted.
You have our support Vincent those who want to leave as they claim they no where the ports and Airport are hit the road jokers. It is sure funny when a Caymanian gets up and says Caymanians first as they would surely do in their own countries. He is all of a sudden a idiot or a Bigot. If Some caymanians don’t stand up for their own people who will. Bodden Town do not waste your vote on the 20th of May on do nothing" nice" politicians vote for politicians who put Cayman and it people first
If anybody other than Caymanians on this web-page can let me know if I can come to your country and get the same job in the same profession, please let me know! It seems we are always facing somebody from another country telling us what to do!
You certainly have the RIGHT to go to any European Country and apply, not to have to be out of the Country before application, but go there, reside and apply. You will receive equal favour when pitted against local applicants and if you are qualified, gain employment. That is what the British Passport will do for you. You are a British Overseas citizen and therefore receive all of the benefits. You do not have to pay for work permits, or be taxed because you come from abroad, but only because you are a resident and are therefore taxed the same as other citizens. The same cannot be said for UK citizens coming to Cayman, with regard the right to work, or reside and if Mr Frederick gets in then the tax issue will apply too.
"You certainly have the RIGHT to go to any European Country and apply, not to have to be out of the Country before application, but go there, reside and apply".
If life is so great there, why do the Brits especially want to come here? That’s the theory. As someone who has lived there the reality is very different.
REPLY TO:
If anybody other than Caymanians on this web-page can let me know if I can come to your country and get the same job in the same profession, please let me know! It seems we are always facing somebody from another country telling us what to do!
If you found a job in Canada, it is fairly simple to emigrate. After about three years, you can apply to be (and likely be accepted as) a Landed Immigrant – same as a Canadian Citizen except you can’t vote or run for office. You can be deported if you’re a criminal and a Landed Immigrant. After a total of seven years, you can become a citizen if you pass a simple test that shows you know something about your new country, and can show you have maintained a real connection with Canada (say by having a job, or running a business, living there, having kids there etc).
AFter that, you ARE a Canadian citizen, and not only does the law and government treat you the same as a 10th generation Canadian, OTHER PEOPLE treat you like you are no different from them, generally speaking. Of course, there are exceptions, but then there’s lots of exceptions here too.
Whether you can get a job or not depends on a lot of things, but most of all on whether you are qualified, educated and experienced. Regardless of whether you’re a born citizen, naturaltized or an immigrant, you will not be kept on at most jobs if you don’t do know what you’re doing or if you are a lazy sod.
Oh, and by the way, YES, as a Landed Immigrant, you even qualify for government benefits such as unemployment insurance,welfare, student loans etc. WHY??? because these are things given under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This is a code which sets out and enshrines HUMAN rights; Not CANADIAN rights, but HUMAN rights – applicable to ALL people regardless of where they come from.
You might consider having something like that down here – you know a charter of rights that is applicable to people because they are people, not because they were born here to at least one person who can show a substantial connection with the islands, etc etc.
No apologies necessary vincent my family voting BT last I count u got 7votes right there! If I could give you my 3you would certain get them all. Yep you are only voicing what the caymanians are feeling! We sick and tired of being sick and tired and begging for scraps! Yes we will admit we backed the wrong horses in the past but we hope to change that! The prosperity don’t mean naught to us cause only a minority sharing in that anyway. What I can say to all those who protestest too much! Thou protestest too much and if you don’t like it here u can always leave! Matter of fact I like chavez! At least he has his priorities straight! You come here you expect to live here you live by our rules don’t come here and bring your ideals and moral standards to effect on us! We not apologizing for being us! U can leave and take all your prosperity with you we would be happy to go back to the bannana repuplic days! Been there done that and have the t-shirt! No problem! We want our country back!
As a proud Caymanian, you are so darn right we are sick of being sick and tired of not getting no respect from these foreigners in our own darn country! It’s a crying shame that some of the Caymanians are on their sides I say they are what we call sell out Caymanians! You all want to hear the good news? To the sell out Caymanians please we dont want to hear your crys and outburst when these expats take over our whole country! Just be prepare for the worst! Hard times are coming and all they are going to leave us with is the sea! If we dont stand together as a unity and team we might as well be singing the song " I never knew you would leave me in the cold" Listen to some of their comments they are saying Caymanians they are against us! Its not Vincent thats speaking hate its them!
If you tax ex pats 20% of their income AND it’s already 25% more expensive to live here (as we all know), that by itself will make it financially unviable for the ex pats to be here. Easy solution to the ex pat problem – Vincent is right in this sense. If you want the ex pats to leave, simple government policies will make this a reality.
That in turn means you don’t have anyone to pour drinks for tourists or take them diving for $900/month, so that opens up a lot of low end service jobs for Caymanians. Clearly, this is not the way of the future, and Caymanians know this, because there are almost no Caymanians in low end service jobs.
And of course, with no expats, there will also be lots of vacancies for all the Caymanians with onshore accounting accreditations and the education to run and sell a hedge fund to investment bankers in London and Tokyo. Not to mention all the Caymanians who have 20 years experience as a banker, or the experience and education to advise New York Lawyers on multi-billion dollar mergers.
Of course Caymanians CAN do these things, and lots of them do, but the number who can is not large enough to make Cayman a real player in the finance industry. That’s why ex-pats are still here – someone has to fill the gap.
If Cayman wants to stay important in global finance as opposed to being a footnote, it will keep its best people here over the long term, but only after they have taken a sabbatical off-island to become educated and experienced in what the onshore world provides. All the old Caymanian ‘national heroes’ were educated onshore, and the best of the current generation either have education or experience in other places. For example, attending UCCI to learn accounting and working at an entry level position here is not going to set a Caymanian apart from any other Caymanian, and someone like that looks like the ugly sister when compared to a candidate with an onshore MBA and 10 years of slaving away at a big 5 audit firm.
Caymanians should stand up for themselves by insisting the government devote more money to educating them for the high paying white collar jobs they want. This means higher standards at schools, more money for the best teachers that money can buy from anywhere in the world, scholarships, travel programs at schools, infrastructure for remote access education, student loans, government internships, exchanges with other governments etc. The smart Caymanians have gotten all this from the law firms, banks and accounting firms before they take off and work onshore for a few years. The rest of Cayman should stop deluding itself by thinking that anyone will respect a prospective employee with a provincial education, a clockwatching work ethic who doesn’t actually know the job.
The best way to take back the country while preserving the financial system is to get an education, compete for the jobs honestly, and to create a situation where there are so many Caymanians qualified for the jobs that no one will need to hire an expat. Passing a law saying that Caymanians are just as qualified to do the job as anyone so they should get the job is not going to make anyone qualified, nor is it going to get the job done.
Nice try Vincent, but you have already caused severe damage to your own reputation and that of average Caymanians.
What you have just wrote to CNS, had you stated that at the forum using diplomacy and tact, you would have likely gained considerable support from the Bodden Town electorate.
Ever heard the saying, "You will never get a second chance to make a first impression" or "It’s not what you say but how you say it" ??????
Vincent, you blew a great opportunity at the BT forum, which I believe will haunt you at this election as well as 2013, should you decide to be a candidate then.
My advice is, to avoid this coing back to haunt you or to significantly minimize the damage caused, I strongly consider you take a course of study in Sociology that is, the study of the Development, Organization, Functioning and Classification of Human Societies.
If you should do this and be sucessul at it, and report back to the people of Bodden Town on or before Election 2013, I honestly believe the Bodden Town residents and expats alike, will forgive you and consider giving you another chance at being their representative.
I personally know many people who will be voting based on what candidates say at the forums as opposed to their political rallies/meetings where they beat their gums, spew and throw mud at everyone in opposition.
To; Caymanian to the bone.
Nice try and a load of hogwash. Stop saying you are a Caymanian to the bone, because all the Caymanians I know to the bone would stand up and recognize that they don’t have anything left but their bones.
Foreigners have always played deceitful roles inthis society and those Caymanians to the bone such as yourself has helped them along the way. But like many who ousted their own in support of foreigners well many are no better of today than they were the day they went against their own.
If you are Caymanian to thebone, then you would know that we don’t tolerate this segregation we are experiencing in this country today. So I can only say that you are one of those sell out Caymanians who hates his own and rolls o ut the red carpet for everyone else.
Try and wake up and smell the conch stew and stop pretending that you are a Caymanian only when it suits you.
Vincent Frederick I wish I could vote for you, you make sense, because you have opened the pandora box so many have kept hidden or avoided unlatching for so many years. The time is now and we are speaking up, yes the real and true ‘Caymanians to the bone’ not the ones who want to be only for convenience sake. YOu either stand on this side of the fence and go to battle with us or you give up that passport and get out of here.
It just gets better and better. Bigotry rules. And we worry about gays etc. They don’t stand a chance with this lot of "furriner"- and -everyone -different -from- them -haters. Poor old Cayman. Yes we need to go back to smoke pots and no ‘furriners’ so we can rediscover the joys of washing our clothes without machines, no TVs, no a/c, no fancy cars paid for by the banks not the owners, no supermarket choice (who the hell needs more than salt beef and rice), no jobs worth adamn (well that wouldn’t bother some of these posters because they are obviously lazy non performers) and oh-dear Jesus, no drugs to soak the mind of these stupid unproductive Caymanians who like to go on about the jobs "furriners’ are taking from them.
What a Joke!! This has become a really pathetic society. Vincent Frederick’s bloody stupidness should have provoked a few comments pro and con and be forgotten because he is a useless no-hoper. Instead, he generates a humungous response agreeing with him.
What Prime Minister Gordon Brown doesn’t do to us, we will do to ourselves.
Are Mr. Fredricks comments/anger misdirected?
How come he does not direct his comments towards the actual people in power who made all this possible- the enablers- Government leaders of the past 25 years.
Why use the foreigners as a scapegoat?
If he injected as much anger towards the people in power, he would likely gain more support from Caymanians. It is the system that is broken, not the foreigners.
The excessive expat population is the result of broken Government systems.
25 years of rapid growth and (greed) is bound to disenfranchise any nation the size of the Cayman Islands.
Oh dear! This whole news article has generated an amazing response, especially since it involves a candidate who will probably lose his deposit. His views are ridiculous and it’s sad his family member castigates CNS in capital letters for reporting what he said and other’s responses to it. The only positive thing to say about Vincent’s views is that he was honest enough to say them. He got a little support from the usual anti-expat lot-probably those CAYMANIAN (YES!) young men who sit at the Coe Wood beach day in day out (well no, it couldn’t be them, they don’t have the ambition or the skills) bitching about foreigners taking their "jobs" (none of them has done a day’s work since leaving/being kicked out of school).
The encouraging thing is-and let’s hear it for Caymanians with brains-there are a lot of posts here from Caymanians who are usually all too silent but have responded to Mr Frederick’s odd views.
Good bye Mr Frederick.
I guess alot of Caymanians still have their hands tie and obiligated to other people, other than Caymanians. I congratulate Mr. Fredrick, tell it like it is so the songs says.
This is precisely the problem in our country, so many people come here to til us what to do, when are people going to realize this island is an island with Caymanians 5,6,7 generations still having values pass onto them from their forefathers!
Go to America and tell George Bush if Obama can come and truly have coffee,tea on his ranch, and really see what will be said. People posting messages on this site should remember how the black movement got started in the states in the 60’s.
If anybody other than Caymanians on this web-page can let me know if I can come to your country and get the same job in the same profession, please let me know! It seems we are always facing somebody from another country telling us what to do!
To Caymanians who still live HIGH, off the FAT, the FAT is almost done! Eventually, Caymanians will be all equal! Remember IVAN by mother nature! Well IVAN can be man made too! If you catch what I am saying peeps! Trust me!
Thank you all for the comments posted.
I would like to first ease the mind of those whom have placed me in the likes of Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler was an extreme racial and mass murderer. It took the entire world to bring down his regime and stop the mass killing of the Jewish people. I certainly would like to set the record straight that I am NOT anti-foreigner and I do not hate foreigners living in the Cayman Islands. I’m simply voicing, advocating and finally speaking in defense of my Caymanian people. Many readers of this forum know the local people are becoming very frustrated with the entire situation. Day to day we hear and listen about Caymanians losing jobs, educated Caymanians being told that they are over-qualified, our youth lost and wondering when society is going to start catering for them, and no representation or action from politicians in the house for Caymanian rights. Now that a voice is coming out for Caymanian rights…. "I’m Hitler!" I am a Caymanian who cares about Caymanians…what is wrong with caring about my own people. People are getting the concept that I intend to impose fees on every foreigner living here. That is not true. My propose fees would only apply to foreign workers on work permits. No Permanent residents, Cayman status holders (whom are Caymanians) or persons married to Caymanians would have to pay and would be exempt from such fees. There is also talk that Caymanians with Cayman status are thinking that I’m referring to them. Again that is not so…Any person with Caymanian status is CAYMANIAN. I speak for all persons whom are considered to be Caymanians. Whether you were born here or you have earned your right to be a Caymanian. You are Caymanian. Someone had to start somewhere and I have stirred up a hornet nest, a can of worms that nobody, not even our own politician were willing to touch. Running for office is not an easy task. You must expect to gain enemies and of course, gain friends. While all of the talk is going back and forth, Caymanians are suffering because of the injustice we receive in our own country. Of course there are people that is not going to like what I have to say and would simply try their best to tear away at anyone that is willing to stand up for Caymanians. We have our own problems to deal with…. our youths are in prison, we have unprofessionalism with our own Caymanian people, greed, crime is on the raise and the world is down on us wanting to eliminate us from out of the financial industry…..Where is it written in any media that a Caymanian has called Prime Minister Brown and President Obama "Hitler" Standup I must and standup I will. Caymanians you now have a voice that is willing to protect your lives, your country, your rights, your heritage. I cannot please all and certainly offend a few, but a choice is now here…a voice that is saying what should have been echoed decades ago. You now have something instead of nothing. Addressing the foreigners who may be have concerns, especially those working and living here. It is my intention to see a better life for my people. You are, and will always be welcome here to live amongst us in peace and harmony. This is a wonderful and successful country and it could not have happen without your involvement and contributions. Most of my friends are foreigners and I can reassure you that I am not anti-foreign. I have no intentions on fighting over this issue and as a humble person, invite anyone who has concerns to get in touch with me to discuss any viewpoints on any issue facing this country. Opportunities and a voice is what I seek for my people in this general election and if that is going to offend anyone then I offer my sincerely appolgy. All I’m asking of you is to pay a simple fee.
Vincent R. Frederick Independent Candidate Bodden Town
IM OUTRAGED BY SOME OF THESE COMMENTS ABOUT MY BROTHER! CAYMAN NEWS SERVICE YOU WIL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR DISGRACING MY FAMILY NAME! YOU AS A MODERATOR SHOULD NOT ALLOWED CERTAIN RACIST COMMENTS TO BE POSTED! I FIND CERTAIN COMMENTS ON HERE TO BE RACIST! NAME CALLINGS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED! MY BROTHER IS NOT A RACIST AND MY MOTHER NEVER RAISED US TO BE ANY FOOLS!!! IF IT MAY BE KNOWN TO YOU ALL i AM A PRO WRESTLER WHO WILL SOON BE IN THE WWE OR TNA! i AM ALSO AN AUTHOR OF A BOOK WHICH WILL SOON BE RELEASE! YOU OWE THE FREDERICK FAMILY AN APOLOGY! NOTE THAT IS MY REAL NAME AND ITS NOT ANONYMOUS! YOU ALL HAVE VICIOUSLY DEPRIVED MY BROTHERS GOOD NAME AND IM VERY ASHAMED TO BE CALL A CAYMANIAN! CAYMAN NEWS SERVICE LET IT BE KNOWN ACTIONS WILL BE TAKEN AGAINST YOU IF NOT BY MY FAMILY BY ME! I’M A CAYMANIAN CITIZEN WHO HAVE LEGAL RIGHTS AS STATED IN THE CONSTITUTION! MAKE A NOTE OF IT I DONT BLAME THE PEOPLE I HOLD YOU ALL RESPONSIBLE! SO POST THIS IF YOU LIKE FOR I DONT CARE LIKE YOU DONT CARE ABOUT MY FAMILY DIGINITY!!!
I hope your book has a good editor.
In fact he should get his facts right – ask the police and they will tell him ALL but the murder of E Scott Roberts were committed by Caymanians or cayman status holders!
"In fact he should get his facts right – ask the police and they will tell him ALL but the murder of E Scott Roberts were committed by Caymanians or cayman status holders!"
Wrong. First, there are a number of unsolved murders so this statement cannot be truthfully made. If it was indeed made by the police that reflects their bias against Caymanians. Second, I can off the top of my head immediately think of two cases where the person charged for murder were foreign nationals (1) a Honduran by the name of Josue Perez–Carrillo for Martin Gareau and (2) a Jamaican by the name of Paul Ricardo Gordon for Jazzy B. There are others that I do immediately recall.
You should get your facts straight and stop spreading anti-Caymanian hatred.
He is a racist and ignorant bigot and so are those who support him.
Am I really reading this right?! Tell me this is a joke article! Vincent Frederick sounds like a complete Looney!!
So if we elect him to office and he has to travel overseas to meet FOREIGN adviors/policitial leaders….shoudn’t we be worried! This man might go wacko on them!
Please can someone return Vincent Frederick and Frank McField back to the mental facility.
While I find his comments to be bigoted and ridiculous he may not be as foolish as it seems. He is appealing to the lowest common denominator, the gallery, the ignorant low end of the politcal spectrum which flourishes on blaming their ills on others. In times of economic and social hardship it is so easy to find a scapegoat or to create one for ones own political benfit. He is a loathsome creature for his opinions but history is full of such people. Hopefully not in Cayman though!
So I take it y’all as Caymanians we choose to be second best then! Do you ever listen to yourselves talking? So what you all are really trying to say here is that your all agreeing with the foreginers to take away all our good land and committ crime! GO AHEAD FOREIGNERS ITS OK WITH US CAYMANIANS! TAKE AWAY EVERYTHING WE GOT! iT’S ON THE HOUSE! i’m on Vincent side here sorry but the truth should be told! Another thing Vincent is a well respected Caymanian whos family to some of you or even so call friends to some of you on here making these viciourious comments about him! You should all be ashamed of yourselves and look in your own back yard first before you call anyone stupid or ignorant or racist! Yet! Y’all have to hide behind your computers also to the editors of Cayman news service let me say something here to you all! Your policy should only allowed peoples comments to go through that does not say anything about hate! or anything racist or obstain towards anyone,peoples feelings can be hurt and the outcome may not be so great! Some of these comments are ridiculous! I’m not telling you all how to do your job am just stating my opinion!
The rollover policy is not working as it was intended and I am sure most people agree. What I can not believe is that expats are still blamed for everything that goes wrong. Are the statuses, permanent residencies, and work permits not handed out by boards that consist of Caymanians? Wasn’t it your own Government that has given away contracts to foreigners and have these government officials not been put in place by Caymanians? Perhaps they don’t do what they are supposed to be doing! How many of your country men that are in high powered positions (partners in law firms, accounting companies etc.) ensure that Caymanians are hired over expats? Based on my experience, it is Caymanians who let down their own people and stab them in the back, however, this truth is always brushed under the carpet. Stop playing the victim and shame publicly your own people who are working agains the country just to earn a couple $$$ more. I have an idea, why don’t we get rid of all the teachers, nurses, majorities of doctors, domestic helpers, daycare workers, gardeners, waitresses and waiters, bartenders etc.and see how many Caymanians will flock to fill these positions. What keeps a Caymanian from working in the hospitality industry to gain experience and eventually set up their own bar or restaurants like so many foreigners who came here did???? What stops you from going to medical school, become a doctor and open your own praxis?.
To the person who laments that the beach property is owned by foreigners I would like to ask if it wasn’t Caymanians who sold this land to foreigners to begin with? Perhaps it was sold because of ignorance, not seeing the potential or just plain greed?
Oh come on… the beach property was tricked out of the hands of the majority of Caymanians by the foreigners when they came here many moons ago. The told the locals it was worthless and useless and yet they turned around and over priced it and sold it off to more foreigners while the Caymanian who was tricked out of selling it to them only got a basket of fruits in exchange for the beach land. Why? because some were just not smart enough and too nice to realize that the foreigner was lying to them all along and pretending to be a friend when in fact they were nothing more than a wolf in white linen. So give me a break about we sold off our land, we were tricked into selling it for nothing when in fact it was worth something. If I was running for office and got in stamp duty for non caymanians purchasing seven mile or any of our beach land would be nothing less than 40%.
NEWS FLASH: the expats working on this island now are not the ones you say cheated Caymanians out of their precious beach property in the 70s.
If that actually happened, the people that did that are either: a) long dead and buried; or b) ‘Status"Caymanians who automatically acquired the right to be Caymanian courtesy of your friend and superhero, McKeeva Bush.
Time to look in the mirror.
The Campaign to de elect Vincent H frederick seem to have alot of signatures and post I say give him your sympathy vote on may 20th he needs it badly he may be alot of things but he ain’t CORRUPT!
I was actually reading this article and tried to make sense of it all by what Mr. Frederick was truly trying to say here! Caymanians for once please stop the hating & name bashing your own Caymanians! If you do listen to what he had to say it really makes sense!!! While you are all there putting down Mr. Fredericks rights of free speech! What I think he meant to say here is that if you take a good look my Caymanian people…Who owns all the beach land? Yes! you got that right Foreigners! Who owns all the businesses in Cayman? Again you got that right foreigners! Who makes up the most crime rate here? Again foreigners! Do you as a Caymanian check your background history? If you did again you would know that statistics states that they are more foreigners in this Island staying here than Caymanians! Yes! it’s true we know tourism makes up our Country! But that’s not what Mr. Frederick was trying to say here!! He was trying to say its the foreigners that stays here! Caymanians I know you all have common sense to know Mr. Frederick is saying to us all!!! If we dont act now we all are going to be run out of our own Country! Cant you all see the goverment is trying to run us out! All the Caymanians are leaving to England or the U.S.A because we cant afford to even buy a candy in our own Country anymore!!! Sooner or later if we all dont wake up now! We all are going to have to become independent like Jamaica!!! Yes I agree with you all I dont like some of the comments Mr. Frederick said but hes right!!!! THE TRUTH HURTS! What he was really trying to say here to you all is to put our own Caymanian people first!!! We want back our Country the way it was! We want back our beach land so children childrens can have something to hold on to when we are all gone! WE HAVE NOTHING CAYMANIANS! For crying out loud if we dont come together as a people right now and wake up! We all might as well say goodbye my little Cayman Isle one who has forgotten us! I’m pledging my vote for Mr. Frederick! He’s the only one that makes sense!
He has my vote!!!
I agree most of the foreigners may own the beach land – but who sold it to them in the first place. We caymanians cannot complain about selling our birthright. Nobody forced us to sell – nobody twisted our arms – we just wanted the $$$$$ Just think if people who sold had held on to their land how much they could sell it for now ….
I say vote Frederick in and see what happens.
Get rid of the expats (or at least make it unbearable to live here they leave) this will be great for the Caymanian’s as they will have any job to choose from. Cool hey.
Now lets think about this realistically Mr. Frederick.
– There will be a smaller number of qualified and experienced workers to fill all the jobs in the Financial & Tourism Industries.
-Company’s will pull out their funds, leading to less govt income from registeration fees etc, and the closure of financial firms
– Expat owners in local businesses will pull out Tus leading to the Caymanian partner having to buy out the expat of the company close.
– Less expats on island working, more accommodation with no one to live in them (most 2.5 bedroom appartments are woned by Caymanians).
– less expats on island, more derilict cars sitting by the side of the road waiting to be sold
This is just a cople of things to get you to see the crumbling effect the exclusion of expats will have on the island.
So like I said before, lets vote Mr Frederick in, that way we can have even more un-employed Caymanians, derelict houses and cars lying aroung and no money coming in to government to help support the local people. He can then rest assured that the prison will be filled with only Caymanians and no foreigners.
Northward prision has less than 20% foreigners and over 80% Caymanian and that doesn’t even include the % that do not get charged in court. A Caymanian is more likely to get off a burglery charge or something similar because as a Caymanian they will not be able to get another job if they have a record. If an expat has committed the same offence, they will either get a fine, have their work permit removed and be kicked off the island, or they will be given a prison sentence, have their work permit removed and get kicked off the island.
Could go on and on, but will stop now
Born Caymanian,
In one way it is good that this candidate is running and making his views know. It is generally known that these views exist in the country and unfortunately only fellow Caymanians can clarify the situation to this man.
Caymanians running the radio talk shows and in general have palcated this anti expat view and some politicians have enflamed the voting public to garner votes.
This is a small island, too small for this hatred.
Vincent for Chief immigration officer can you imagine What a blissful place this would be Not a soul in town aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah whata dream some of you need to listen to yourselves behaving like this is such a surprise or travesty these people are what make life’s tapestry so rich he is merely stating his opinion in a public forum for people to hear. It is far better than the closet racist and hidden hypocritics that carry out their racist agenda in great secret in this place. at least we know who Vincent Frederick is and what he stands for. Like one poster stated aleast he is saying or doing some thing to try and get elected. Unlike some who do absolutely nothing and expect to get voted in because their NICE Men
Vincent is right and he is wrong He is a protest candidate articulating a boiling pot of frustration experienced by too many Caymanians who work hard and cannot see ahead in their own country of plenty. His generalisations are hurtful, bordering prejudice but glaring true in many ways as to the negative effect of spiraling growth over 25 years where nobodys from every where get a push to success while his fellowmen have to walk around the recents and rich mad on Cayman soil. He is passionate in expressing a papable frustration felt by many Caymanians who are disenfranchised, not seeing a future in a land that is theirs. He sees many who come with nothing …not even education and good speach,who in no time secure better chances at setting up business, getting a better deal at the bank than he will ever, achieve social elevation that would not occur in their land of origin …because of net working and common heritage with their friends in places of trust.
He, a native, feels the betrayal of promises made by his own, that hard work and ambition with a national framework of assiatance to grow his Cayman family into prosperity meet frusrtartion after frustration after frustration.
Vincent is neither dumb, stupid or ignorant. He wants a chance that he and his will have as theirs and their own seem to be getting, many times at hi sexpence.
So Vincent will run but may not win. But he is a warning that this small group of people in these small islands must have a chance at better in the land they have know for generations and generations. He will run as a messsage the incumbents thay have wasted his time, his money, and that their time is up. He will run them out even as others may win the seats…he will still win.
Whoever this is? I just wanted to say that I agree with you, our Caymanians need to wake up and smell the coffee! They are running us out our own country and they dont see that! I appauld you for you are very outspoken and intelligent, maybe you should run for office in 2013.
Bravo to Vincent Frederick for speaking his mind. It’s nice that we live in a culture where a privileged minority is permitted to express even the most troubling and uninventive miasma of asinine cliches in a public debate. AND bravo to Cayman News Service for publishing the wide variety of comments from sources of all kinds here.
Now if we can only get the papers to actually report NEWS, and stop kissing the respective behinds of the government and the official opposition, and to stop promoting an agenda of their own by disguising as benign reporting, Cayman would be getting somewhere.
Vincent is clearly an idiot. Caymanians will show this when they vote for someone else and he fades into obscurity. These statements would clearly end his time as a politician in any sane country. If he is elected, I’d start investing in taxicabs and moving companies to serve the short term flood of people leaving the island. Oh, but wait…. if that happened, I’d leave…
Woods is partially right – the rollover gives 50% of the population no desire to spend money, buy houses or retain services. Me too. I came here thinking I would stay for at least ten years, buy a house, a nice car and spend lots of money HERE leading a good life.
My hope was to stay here forever, become part of the community and enjoy seeing my four children grow from infancy to adulthood with all the rights of a citizen. The blatantly prejudicial treatment of ex-pats as some kind of malicious shifty underclass by the government shows instead that Caymanians regard ex-pats as disposable, and without rights.
Why would I stay with the constant threat of being kicked off the island? Why would I let my children grow up in a place where they will always be regarded as a dirty intrusion in the only place they have ever called home? 19th century Immigrants went to Canada and the USA and lived in deplorable situations, facing death and disease constantly. Why? Because they knew they were FREE and had RIGHTS, and could become CITIZENS.
The attitudes of the the Caymanian people as expressed by their government forces me to shove my money into safe investments elsewhere, and to spend as little money as possible while I am here. This way, my poor decision to relocate to what I thought was a tolerant democratic paradise will not have been a waste of time. I am sure that the person who replaces me will be another ex-pat hedging her bets.
Cost of persuading 32,000 ex-pats to leave a population of 65,000 due to decreased quality of life and hatemongering? 50% reduction in funds spent on duty, cars, rent, food, gas, investments, household goods, construction supplies, industrial equipment etc etc etc.
Cost of losing the entire productive workforce of the tourist and financial services industry: 75% of the gross domestic product.
Seeing the face of Vincent Frederick as he realizes he has turned Cayman back into a fishing village with an airport: priceless.
Ok I am going to play devils advocate now and I know if this gets published i will take a bashing. Actually, I don’t really care whether I get bashed or not.
I agree with some of the comments, there are some good and bad in all who live and work here whether on a work permit or have obtained caymanian status through the ‘giveaway UDP sweepstakes’ or legitimately earned it over the years, and finally our own natives.
The truth is there are just to many of one nationality in this country and we all know who they are. These individuals are opportunist and are jamming up the system. They work outside the boundaries of their work permits while the Immigration Dept. turns a blind eye because they don’t have the resources to fix the problem or are simply put too complacent to stand up and demand the higher ups to give them the support needed to do something about it. In the past year I have had friends with businesess whose work permit employees are caught working additional hours outside of them for other foreigners and some Caymanians. Yes, it happens. These individuals are not doing the system any justice because their employer is bearing the brunt of their monthly costs such as: salaries, pension, medical etc. For a moment just stop and think about how many others are doing the same. These individuals are enfringing on other jobs that Caymanians who are currently employed could be doing. Not all Caymanians who are unemployed are unemployable, they have been forced out of their jobs by the foreigners who are employed to hire and fire them. I see this happening daily and I have been doing my own private investigations. I have interviewed over 300+ unemployed Caymanians over the past year and of these individuals 79% of the stories are the same. "The foreigner who hired them find every possible way to push them out of the job, then a few weeks later they were replaced by a work permit holder in some instances just happens to be a friend or a family remember and that was the ulitimate goal from the beginning. What was even more shocking in my research was that I found that some of the Govt. depts and Authorities were practicing these also. The areas I found terminated employees were: The HSA, NRA, The Water Authority, Statistics Dept., and all the Ministries; what a shame that our own Govt. are permitting persons in authority from foreign countries to put their own people out on the streets. Hard working and dedicated people. I weeded out the unemployables from my research for those who may have doubts.
Therefore, after the Caymanian is ousted a work permit application states they hired a Caymanian but it didn’t work out so they have to apply for a work permit. With the Govt. depts no work permits are required so these go unnoticed and accounted for.
The question is why haven’t they attempted to hire a second Caymanian? I know that when a work permit holder doesn’t work out they hire another work permit holder. What Immigration needs to look at is how many attempts were made to find a Caymanian. Don’t tell me all Caymanians are unemployable and not willing to work. The Immigration Dept. should follow through with more investigations when a Caymanian is being replaced by a work permit and that is to interview the terminated Caymanian to get the other side of the story and make a decision based on this. IF Immigration is still not satisfied then request that the business find a replacement Caymanian through the Dept. of Employee Relations etc. More effort MUST be made and Immigration needs to enforce this.
I agree we do not need to apologize to any foreigner in this country, but every foreigner needs to respect this country and the people. I am personally tired of hearing that foreigners built this country. Caymanians did a whole lot more building than any other nationality can say they have. I am not foreigner bashing, never have, I am tired of foreigners treating us as if we are 4th class citizens when they don’t even have a higher ranking in their own mother countries. Caymanians are the most passive race in the world and only now in recent years that we have raised our voices we are being told that we should not say this or that. Why not? Everyone else in this country says what they want to say to us and because our forefathers swallowed it and let it pass, we the new generations don’t have to follow suit. We have our own independant voices and we can say what we want this is our country, we can’t be rolled over so to al the foreigners who don’t want to hear what we have to say simply ‘don’t listen’.
I support all things Caymanian and like the country singer once said in a song "when you are running down my country man you are walking on the fighting side of me’.
Ruth Scott
Ruth you could’nt had said it no better, I’m with you on this one….I also agree with Vincent on certain things….the foreigners are all laughing at us while our own Caymanians are putting us all down……they all are putting down a politician whos standing by them to put Caymanians first can you believe that!?
Mr Frederick – let us now also forget that ALL OF OUR TOURIST VISITORS ARE FOREIGNERS and they take up a lot of room on the roads too – and rent cars from locally owed agencies, buy goods in the locally owned shops etc etc etc…… need I go on ?
Solid as a rock they cant stop us now! regla sizzla we gind thru Vincent for LOGB
How can Cayman have so many would-be politicians who spout opinions and policies that are so far right-wing that they would be considered Nazis in any other Western country?
I am scared for the Cayman Islands if anyone would truly consider this nut for office. As a visiting foreigner here, I wonder where Grand Cayman would be without "foreigners". Who helped build this island back after Ivan, who brings revenue to this island, who are actually helping to make Cayman what it is today. I’m not implying that the Caymanian people are not important, but somewhere they have taken for granted the abilities that God has given them, and are content restingon their "laurels". As I read the papers, I am surprised at the opportunities given to the Caymanian people – and they have to beg young people to better themselves. Yet very few people are willing to make something of themselves.
If is was not for "foreigners" you wouldn’t have quality healthcare. Yes, I have been following these stupid polls about confidence in the HSA. Where else in the world can you find so many quality Doctors and Nurses, from so many countries, working to give you quality health care. They don’t have to be here, they could work anywhere in the world – and you want to tax them for giving you quality health care. How many of your police force, security officers, are "foreigners’? They don’t have to be here either, but they are providing you a safer environment. What about your teachers? I feel like I am beating a dead horse – but my point has been made. Let me throw a different twist to this also – if itwasn’t for "Foreign" goods, you wouldn’t be eating as well as you do. Your islands produce very little, and not even close to what would be needed to sustain the Caymanian population. If you are going to do away with "foreigners" – be big enough to do away with all the "foods and other items" that you have grown so accustomed to also.
You want the "foreigners" money – and off shore investments, but yet you are not willing to deal with the people. If your history is being lost, look to your younger generation. Could it be that they are more interested in MTV and Hi5, or TV? They are the face of Cayman, and I’m scared when I look into that face. Many of you, were so excited when "savior Obama" was elected into office. Now that "savior" is going to open up Cuba and shut down your offshore banks. Where is that going to leave the beautiful Islands? Even more dependent on "foriegners" to bring revenue in.
Many countries have had to figure out a way to work with the many nationalities that come to their borders, and it would be best that Cayman does this also. Your islands would be nothing more, that three spots in a grand body of water, if not for "foreigners". You need to listen to rational voices during this election time, not radical ones. God bless the Cayman islands in the same amount that they are willing to seek His face.
Reply to: I am a Caymanian
"I agree about the rollover not working. We are getting rid of trusted employees who we have got to know over the years. We are forced to employ someone new and we have no idea if he/she is going to fit in/do the job/be trustworthy. … These people dont necessarily want status or the right to vote, just to be able to stay in Cayman and earn an honest living."
That would be me, looking to a future forced departure despite my contributions to Cayman. The risk that it might happen despite the "key employee" provisions makes me need to arrange for it, so I have lived here preparing at all times to leave.
For my part, I agree wholeheartedly that an important part in anyone’s life is certainty to "just to be able to stay in Cayman and earn an honest living." I have no desire to tell Caymanians how to run their country or to vote in your elections. I might have something useful to say from time to time that I can contribute, but I am not here to take over, interfere, or take anything away from Caymanians. I just came to live, share, contribute, and raise a good family with good values. So far I have done nothing but that.
So who will you get to replace me? Better? Maybe worse… Maybe a lot worse. Certainly the Cayman-specific skills I have developed over the years will leave with me.
what an idiot! People like Vincent make me ashamed to be a CAYMANIAN at times because am sure some of the expats will believe that most CAYMANIANS may feel this wayand we do not.
Vincent, get an education.
OMG Somebody get a net!!!!
Applause!!!!!!!! FINALLY EXPATS SPEAK OUT FOR THEMSELVES….Go guys, this is getting too much putting blameson us. On my opinion, the least common denominator in all of this is not the problem of who are those people who invaded their country, IT IS THE LOCALS ITSELF. it is what their country NEEDS they lack that their own people cannot give, it is some of those Caymanian’s behavior of being selfish, being arrogant, being lazy, being so dependent of what their parents have, it is the attitude that some of them have, it is how they are so intimidated by foreigners who really work hard just to prove that their capable on the job that their employer have given to them. I look up those caymanians who were able and previleged to study abroad because they were able to get out of the system or culture that their society vested in them. LOCALS, YOU NEED A REALITY CHECK.!!!!!!!!!
Vincent Frederick is an absolute idiot. Tell me Twyla, where in the hell was this "nut case" raised in Bodden Town ?????
I’m guessing, all alone in Spencer Bodden Caves.
He should be struck off the candidates ballot and exported to Venezuela to join Hugo Chavez whom would welcome him there. I would be glad to purchase his one way ticket for him.
Expats, please ignore this fool for he knows not what he says or does.
Thanks.
Well boy i know one thing Vincent Frederick wouldn’t ever be called a Nice man He is and action man from the sounds of it. This is nothing new as some of the posters would like us to believe we have these persons in every country in the world Extreme rightwing parties or persons example Austria France the BNP in the UK have the same views so please spare us the online drama. The challenge is to engage and educate the Vincents of this world instead of behaving like it does not exist in the minds of many many people on this little island. Yes we have quite a few Foreign nationals who think like Vincent and rear their heads now and then too.
Yeah, and uh, good luck with those tourists, eh!
– Jedi Dread –
P.S. Doesn’t Dr. Frank look like Al Green in his Ad Banners at the top of this page? 😉
OMG, I simply cannot believe that this guy is running for elected office. What world does he live in? The hate and bigotry as so 18th century – please stop it. We do not need that level of division here on our small island.
As a fellow Bodden Towner, married to an expat I say that Vincent is too narrow minded. The truth is he can’t talk and knows nothing about any of the other issues so he resorts to hatemongering as a tactic to get people riled up.
This rhetoric is not enough. It may have worked last time for the PPM after the status grants but NOT this time around.
My sensible choices for BT will be the digified debaters – Sandra Catron and Anthony Eden.
"This rhetoric is not enough. It may have worked last time for the PPM after the status grants but NOT this time around".
The status grants issue is entirely a different matter. It was and is a legitimate issue based on issues of sound governance such as the complete lack of transparency of the process, the lack of any justifiable criteria being applied, the lack of a level playing field so that many long term residents did not receive but some persons who were not resident in the Islands did receive, the total lack of vetting of recipients and the implications of the sheer number to our resources and required infracture.
Please do not confuse the two issues. I do not know Vincent but he does appear to be a xenophobic and not representative of most Caymanians. He will not get my vote.
Wow. This Frederick dude is something else.
Dear Mr. Frederick,
Last time I checked Caymanians were landholders and have chosen to sell land to foreigners for personal gain. This was done willingly.
Then I reviewed the companies law, and it still reads Caymanians must hold 60% of the shares. With 60% of shares, that would give Caymanians controlling interest.
Next I reviewed the various Immigration Boards and Committees- low and behold, all Caymanians.
The Work permit applications are checked and scrutinized by Caymanians.
Foreigners apply for jobs to companies that are majority controlled by Caymans.
Foreigners fill positions that there are not Caymanians to fill or they are unwilling to take.
Unverified, but anecdotal accounts indicate there are more Caymanians than foreigners in good ol’ Northward.
Thankfully, I believe that only a small minority of Caymanians actually agree with you Mr. Frederick. I expect that will be reflected in the polls.
I look forward to your rebuttals to my comments above and to clarify any misunderstandings I may have with how your country operates.
Yours sincerely,
a concerned expat
Frederick’s comments are typical of the way that ignorant people tend to generalise in ways that are harmful to others – in Frederick’s case he has likely lost the vote of all level-headed, intelligent Caymanian persons, because if someone with those views got into power we would have heightened social unrest in Cayman. Living amongst 120+ nationalities on a three tiny islands is spicy enough at times, but I am proud that the majority of us coexist, inter-marry etc. together (expats and locals).
In my opinion people who post or speak blanket (especially harmful) statements about specific groups of people – be it Caymanians against expats, expats against Caymanians, or straight people against gay, etc. may just possibly, are sadly ignorant.
How many Caymanians do you know, Mr. Frederick, who are not married to a foreigner, or who do not have at least one son, daughter or cousin married to a foreigner? How many Caymanian students have you known who have studied in a foreign land?
These islands are intertwined with "foreign-ness" from our sea-faring days. Let’s stop the generalising on both sides because you know what? Most of us, yes most of us, are nowadays Caymanian with a little bit of something else from this or the past generation.
Whole sports teams and cultural groups representing Cayman these days are Caymanian but the majority seem to have at least one parent, often two parents, who came here from "somewhere else".
That is OK!!!- that is what makes us who we are as a Caymanian people!!! Mixed, global, aware!
The old seafarers would have been insulted by your opinion of foreigners, Mr. Frederick, for it was foreigners abroad in those days, and foreigners here in these days, that have worked side by side our hard working Caymanians, to build Cayman so well.
This one time, in 1988, I rode my bicycle at night without a light or a licence, all the way from West End to the Bight, please don’t kick me out Mr. Frederick, I am truly sorry for my actions.
PPM Dream Team
Education Minister-Alden Mclaughlin
Roads Minister-Arden Mclean
Health Minister-Vincent Frederick
Tourism Minister-Charles Clifford
Leader of government business-Lana Mae Smith
Oh Please…If Mr. Frederick becomes the Health Minister, He would proceed to get rid of all the expats, and then would eventually have to close down the health care facilities as there wouldnt be enough Caymanians to run them. The country would be in shambles, dont you think? Definitely not a good idea, unless you are able to go overseas for all your medical problems.
According to the survey done by a local newspaper the people of Cayman have little or no confidence in the medical facilities on the islands. Maybe if we had more Caymanians in the heallth field there would be less fatalities concerning our people. I would rather be sent off for quality care rather than at the mercy of some of these butchers that we have to subject ourselves to.
Expat444 sums up my experience here. I am tired of battling petty bigotry on a daily basis. I am just saving my dollars and looking for the best route home.
It takes an IDIOT like Vincent Fredrick to make us appreciate ‘decent’ people.
Make no mistake about this Vincent, the prosperity you enjoy now has been built on the blood, sweat and toil of mainly Foreign (not Caymanian) labour.
If even HALF of the Expats on this island stayed away from work (lets not call it a "General Strike") for just one day, it would send your BIGOT ass back to the Dark Ages, for this country COULD & WOULD NEVER recover from this one simple act.
Unfortunately, the majority of us ‘Decent Caymanians’ would be made to share in your fate which is probably why it hasn’t happened as yet, and thus why you have been spared ….. thank GOD that the majority of people in this world still have a concience.
That should make you realize ‘WHO has WHO by the scrotum’?
As you (obviously) are no businessman, here is a Lesson from ‘Business 101’. The quickest way for a business to fail, is to employ people who are either un-qualified or incapable of performing in the capacity requiered. This is the delema that ‘Employers face hiring Caymanian Labor.
YOU fit both of these catagories …"Incapable & Un-qulified"… for someone seeking Political Office.
If we ‘Caymanians’ really want to take greater advantage of the booming economic prosperity in our islands, then as a people, we must rise off of our lazy butts and WORK for it.
We have the most generous educational system, and great opportunities, but we lack the discipline needed to take advantage of what we are blessed with.
And I though "Dr. Frank "(is he even really Qualified?) was an idiot, ladies and gentlemen, we have a NEW champion !!
I am a Caymanian, and this man Frederick is an idiot if ever I heard one! God help us if he even gets one vote! Vincent ‘Hitler’ Frederick What a bigot you are! I cannot believe that I am reading such hatemongering. The Human Rights legislation is written which bigots like this in mind. what are his views on disabled/gays etc ?
I agree about the rollover not working. We are getting rid of trusted employees who we have got to know over the years. We are forced to employ someone new and we have no idea if he/she is going to fit in/do the job/be trustworthy. It is especially sad where families have helpers for years, taking care of children and old people and they lose that trusted and caring employee. These people dont necessarily want status or the right to vote, just to be able to stay in Cayman and earn an honest living. Caymanians dont want to do menial jobs.
Whomever you are calling yourself a Caymanian you are a liar. A true Caymanian would give there support to Vincent Frederick so whomever you are stop using the name Caymanian because you are simply not one of us.
Richard is it a fair statement to make that Caymanian employees is the reason why businesses fail. I personally employed several foreign workers over the years and Caymanians and I can assure you that the foreign workers were by far the worse employees I had ever hired. I am displeased by this comment because only one of the Caymanian workers I employed ever gave me issues. So your statement is prejudical and racist to say the least. Do not generalise all Caymanians, because not everyone warrants being painted with the same brush. Be fair not biase. I do agree we have our pockets of lazy people and this is amoung all nationalities in this country. Just the other day a friend of mine found her driver (on a work permit) spent 3 hours everyday drinking at a bar downtown and of these three hours one was his lunch hour. This work permit employee has forced her to put GPS tracking systems on all her company vehicles, and expense she didn’t budget for and in an attempt to prevent these types of acts from occurring again she had to do so. Was this employee a Caymanian? No, he was from another island. She has sinced terminted this employee who has taken his case to the Dept. of Employee Relations. And in all her 34 years of business never has her name been taken to the DER by any of her Caymanian employees. So your statements are clearly biased and prejudicial against Caymanians.
Mr Frederick – you need to discuss your statement with Lyndon Martin who said "eye-opener was the 15 days he spent in Northward Prison. “That’s where Caymanians are in the majority"
Frederick…. you must be family to Hitler. I considered voting for you as one of my independents in Bodden Town but after this? NEVERMIND….. Might as well put Tony Eden back in.
A passionate debate, to be certain.
As an expatriate, I’d like to thank the Caymanians who stand up to be heard on the other side of the argument – the side that thinks that we, Caymanians and the expatriates who have come to share a small bit of your lovely lands, do quite well together. It’s not perfect, but no human effort ever is. Still, it works.
It has to be Caymanians taking the other side, because if expats line up to sing the praises of our teamwork, we might appear to be looking out for ourselves. On the other hand, I look at my Caymanian neighbours and count my blessings to live with such people as these. There you have it.
Since tourism is a big econimic generator for Cayman and no caymanian wants to wait tables or work in a dive shop….what would happen to your tourism Cayman if all the foreigners left?
You should be looking at your education system before blaming the expats. If you knew how to educate your people you would not have this problem! face it…Cayman needs expats to stay afloat! get your head out of the sand silly boy!!
Nothing like a bitter narrow minded bigot to get the election going.
I am Caymanian & believe me we don’t all feel this way – Mr Frederick is hatemongering and stirring up the fears and insecurities of people who are particularly vulnerable in this current economic climate.
Please remember many countries went this route – the Bahamas, Jamaica, S Africa, Zimbabwe, Germany.
He is perpetuating the belief that Caymanians are ignorant, narrow minded, zenophobic and uneducated!
God forbid this man gains entry into the LA.
I am Caymanian & believe me, we do not all feel the way Mr Frederick obviously does – racist, bigoted, ignorant, zenaphobic – I could go on but you get the idea. Just remember the Bahamas, Jamaica, Germany, S Africa, Zimbabwe and all the many other countries who suffered through leadership of this very same calibre!
He hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of getting anywhere with this nonsense so let us write him off and move on. His stupidity is an embarassment to us sensible Caymanians.
Mr. Vincent,
Double the import duty on cars for foreigners? Next thing you will want to double their stamp duty on land, and double the price of all goods that they purchase. Why don’t you just ban foreigners from coming here completely!!!!
Mr. Vincent you will be very happy that these foreigners will soon start leaving and stop visiting (you heard it from me first – when President Obama lifts the restrictions for US citizens to visit Cuba the Cayman Islands economy will take a nosedive back into the 1950’s). It is something that I certainly don’t wish for, but if gentleman like yourself end up in control of these islands may God have mercy on all of us foreigners who remain here.
Signed,
A foreigner who married a Caymanian, bought land from a Caymanian, has been hired by Caymanians, bought vehicles from Caymanians, works with Caymanians, shops at stores owned by Caymanians, pays my light bill/water bill to Caymanian clerks who work for Caymanian bosses, insure my vehicle with a Caymanian company, volunteers time to organisations run by Caymanians, and attends church where the preacher is Caymanian,
Wow i for one am glad i’m getting out of here soon.
I am an expatriate police officer and have been here for a number of years. I have never lost a case at court, been commended by judges and the Commisioner for exemplary work and have consistantly carried a far higher workload than my local colleagues.
I have been repeatedly been racially abused by some locals and befriended many others, but the over riding impression has been of resentment to anyone not born Caymanian.
When i arrived here i intended to make these beautiful islands my permanent home, i wanted to buy land and build a house – using no doubt Caymanian builders and injecting cash into the local economy. However with recent events and the rollover looming over civil servants i have sold my land and sent my savings back to my native country.
The small vindictive side of my nature hopes that people like Fredrick rise to power, kick out all foreigners, leave virtually no doctors, nurses, dentists, dive operators,lawyers , (no loss :-)) teachers, cleaners, helpers, security guards the list goes on. Cayman then should go independant to round things off. What an idyllic set of islands this would be then????
As it was mentioned, the vast majority of criminals i have dealt with, and especially violent ones, have been locals, Northward contains far more locals than foreigners.
It is truly amazing how narrow minded and inaccurate a person can be in this day and age. To make these kinds of blatantly inappropriate statements at a time when Cayman is in the economic crisis it is, is ridiculous. Where does this candidate think most of the money to run this country comes from? Foreign Investment? Tourism? Work Permits? Then he goes onto state Foreigners that live here do not pay there fare share. Last time I checked, they pay the same duty on all the goods they purchase, the same bank fees, and more in the case of home ownership. It does not seem very smart to bite the hand that feeds you. When will everyone realize Cayman is a consumption based economy and that without the Foreigners, costs will go up and availability will go down.
I trust Mr Frederick will allow us Foreigners on the Brac and Little Cayman the right to hitch a ride with a Caymanian motorist to get to our jobs whilst he deals with setting up a viable public transport system on the two islands.
"The policy’s only accomplishment has been to change the mind set of our expatriate workers to spend as little as possible in our local economy."
As an expat professional, I regrettably agree.
I commit no crimes. I live quietly and attract business to the Islands. We generally spend the revenues I create from my practice here. I have taken no job away from anyone since any Caymanians who can do my job would be hired immediately to work alongside me, but there just aren’t any available. The fact that I am here generating business also means that I am personally responsible for the creation of jobs that support my work. I also put in significant effort so that the Caymanians that I work with can learn to do my job in due course, or at least improve their skill-sets generally.
In short, I add to the overall wealth and prosperity of the Islands and I bother no one.
Unfortunately, I know Caymanians generally don’t want me here, typically because they think I am either taking something away from them (like what? my practice?), and now I appear to inconvenience people simply by driving to work in the morning. I moved here just before the roll-over took effect. I wasn’t aware in coming here that I would be intruding upon the peace and harmony of Caymanians.
I will respect the stated views and leave as soon as I am able. In the interim, as indicated, I will save as much money as I can and buy as little as I can in order to avoid shipping goods off-island.
With luck I canfind a jurisdiction where I can make a contribution, where it is actually welcome.
vincent frederick you are so wrong with all your statements you have know idea how the foreigners are been threated on these islands!!!! further more i would like for you to tell me how many caymanian you can get to go clean toilets!!!!!!!!! or take care old people or clean some house!!!! please tell me i would love to see the NUMBERS!!!!!!!!!!!!. Also tell me if this country can run with just caymanian?????????? Also i would like to mention the caymanian that get a job in a low paying employment will leave withing a wekk or two just because they CAN. But you have the nerve to blame everything on foreigners came on listen to YOURSELF.
If every FOREIGNERS was to pick up and leave this country heven dose with status i would give this place a month and every caymanian will be leaving also. and if therir is anyone who can prove it different please SHARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they stupidity from some caymanian is so ALARMING and yet the blame everything on FOREIGNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I read that article in complete disbelief. Is this what we have come to?
One thing is for sure Vincent has the finger pointing down pat.
I really don’t think he is with PPM nor UDP! He just not ready!
Frederick is just not ready! Justin needs a little more development. Of the four Osbourne did best and then Mark followed.
Vincent, Vincent – how easy it is to blame everything on the foreigners! I wonder who was it who gave away Statuses? Oh yeah – that was done by Caymanians themselves, elected and appointed by other Caymanians. How many of the wealthy Caymanians that own businesses or are partners in law firms, or accounting firms or having other high ranked positions doing to ensure that they are hiring Caymanians over expats? Who sits on the business staffing plan board, work permit board and permanent residency board? Aren’t all of those Caymanians? Why are they not looking out then for the best interest of their own people? Perhaps you should start cleaning up there first, but right now it seems that it is your own people who are selling you out so stop blaming the foreigners for everything. Oh – perhaps it is also worth to conducta poll to see how many of the people in Northward are actually foreigners and how many of them are locals. Do you have the statistics? If not, you shouldn’t be mentioning things you haven’t done your research on. My, my………..
I found my candidatein BT!!!!! The only one making any sense!! Stop apologizing to foreigners they are here enjoying the benifits and if I had to choose between the prosperity and my country remaining for Caymanians, I would choose the latter. Caymanians have sold their heritage long ago. Good effort Vincent unfortunately I think we are much too late! We have been sold long ago and the spoils have all been divided!
good luck with your vote – when all expats are gone you will become what you always wanted to be – a banana republic!
Vincent Frederick!
This guy is definately running as a PPM surrogate – PPM is always stirring up hate towards foreigners.