Viewpoint
The corporate plantation
I have lived away from the Cayman Islands since mid-October 2013, but arriving home on 11 July 2014 produced mixed feelings in me. On one hand I was happy to be on the Caymanian soil I love but on the other hand I was afraid because I have not yet learnt to manage anger within me with regards our social, economic and political realities. It is clear to me that foreign capitalist and the Caymanian merchant class, especially the newer generation of professionals, are protecting what I will term a corporate plantation society.
The term corporate plantation society is being used to depict structured human relationships similar to those created during the period of chattel slavery in the Caribbean and the United States of America four hundred years ago.
The only difference in the two systems is that the first relied upon the production of agricultural products, mainly sugar and cotton, and the latter on the management of a financial system designed to rob the middle class and poor citizens of the metropolitan states of their collective resources, i.e. taxes and other benefits. This structured relationship, especially between former slave colonies and their former colonizers, has enriched members of our community who have found a knowledge and class base relationship with the old order.
What is disappointing to me is that our political as well as our social and economic and improvements for those less educated and racially and culturally different will now depend not on local politicians but on what happens in the struggles for improvement in the metropolitan countries that recognize the human distortions now caused by financial capitalism's destruction of the middle class and a return to the enslavement of persons of African descent within the penal systems of these countries and their former colonies.
The continuing enslavement of black and brown people in America and England, as well as their former and present colonies like the Cayman Islands, is obvious to those who have eyes to see. But for a vote of ignorance, our political leaders refuse to admit the magnitude of our challenges that have been brought about by the establishment of our country as a financial plantation.
The middle class, or at least those of us that may have become part of a middle class, are losing ground every day as we are replaced by foreign nationals from the metropolitan countries, many of whom were members of their own middle class but have been forced to escape to find prosperity among us. And of course they are being favored and promoted in Cayman and can afford to buy or will be given credit to buy the properties and business taken away by the banks from us by the financial administrators, all of whom are not Caymanians.
Roy Bodden's thesis, for which he should have long been rewarded with a PhD, told us what the end would be but he, like me and others, had to lay aside the truth in order to survive with a little dignity in our native islands. But the truth of Mr Bodden's thesis was that if our capitalist development was not managed well by national educated elite then it would enrichthe foreigner and impoverish locals.
The local managers of our economy had been our local merchant class, which saw the survival of its power and prestige asbeing connected to the class and colour social structuring of our society. Therefore they married foreigners when they could not find persons equal to them in the sense of being of the same class and colour. Black educated Caymanians like me married white or foreign spouses, thereby lending support to the myth of 'whiting' as a sign of the lack of racism in our society.
This particular method of eliminating the racial nature of colonial and post-colonial societies (see for example Brazil) has been encouraged and glorified in many new world societies but it does not eliminate the use of colour nor does it remove the use of race to define and oppress those not whitened or those without the prerequisite class characteristic like education.
Whitening began hundreds of years ago in Cayman and continues today, actively supported and maintained by educated non-white people in Cayman who publicly disapprove of any political mention of the negative role racial or colour considerations play in structuring our society.
But Cayman is not less colour conscious simply because we have more interracial marriages or dating. In fact, it is more prejudiced. One must only look at the last election results in the Cayman Islands (especially in the District of George Town) to understand our acceptance of class and color as characteristics for trustworthiness and respectability.
It is therefore difficult for me to remember a time when native George Towners would not have been upset if no visibly black working class person was elected to the Assembly in a general election. To understand what happened to the racial political consciousness of George Town voters in 2013, it is necessary to recognized how black persons who did not swear total allegiance to white corporate Cayman were mistrusted and marginalized. The white Masonic opposition school in the political theatre of Jamaica and England were very much responsible for the 2013 election strategy, which denied even Ms Lucille Seymour a seat and discouraged Dr the Honorable Lindford Pearson from trying to re-enter George Town politics.
Caymanians, and in particular the George Town people, many of whom are now dark skinned and of Jamaican decent, must now ask why Premier Alden McLaughlin's Masonic handlers do not want multi-constituencies. My guess is that black people vote in large numbers for persons not considered black but white people, especially expat whites, will not vote for blacks that are not truly brainwashed into supporting an upper class notion of respectability and transparency outside of the Masonic Temple.
Unfortunately there will not be equality in voting until we understand that not being black in complexion does not make us socially white. And politics in Cayman will not address the challenges those at the bottom of the educational, economic and colour spectrum face until colour and class is a consideration by the new black Caymanian and not just the Masonic Lodge.
The tale of a frustrated trailing spouse
When I arrived on island a few years ago for a teaching position with the government, I was told by HR finding a job for my husband would be easy, especially since he had sales, bar and banking experience. Three months after arriving he got his dream job in sales — work permit rejected. He then got a temporary job through a recruitment company which ended up in him being employed for over a year and managing a team of Caymanians. He was the only expat.
So imagine our horror to discover immigration won't even consider him for his role because of his status. The company have no choice but to try and find someone else. All the Caymanians were devastated to lose my husband and none of them wanted to step up to management, so the position remains unfilled.
Now, months down the line he is still searching for work. He gets offered positions then offers are retracted due to not being able to process permits. I understand fully that Caymanians should get priority if they have the experience but my husband is here, so he may as well be working too.
When he was employed, we ate out 2/3 times a week, happy hour most days and bought from local companies our new items, etc. Now, we stay in and barely survive — the bar staff have lost their tips, the waitresses have lost 15% on our meals and local companies no longer get our trade as we cannot afford to buy anything. Since my husband will be here regardless, surely there should be some allowance for trailing spouses of government employees/work permit holders!
I am a very well respected educator on this Island with excellent results. My proven success with difficult students was the main reason I was hired in the first place. When students ask about why my husband can't get a job, they struggle to understand it too. I am now seriously considering my future since our salary is too low to stay, especially with pay freezes and no increments, so every year the situation will get worse. I will one day leave, leaving innocent students without a very good teacher because her husband was suicidal at the thought of not being able to provide for his family.
Please, somebody look out for the trailing spouses. Our situation is not alone; I know of many people having the same issue and who will also leave. Yes, give Caymanians priority — but please give trailing spouses a chance afterwards.
Academies
The Coalition for Cayman is calling on the country to adopt the ARK System of education, much loved by the UK’s Conservative education minister, Michael Gove, along with other corporate owned “free” schools and academies. But Britain’s Association of Teachers and Lecturers says they are destroying the education system “through corporate greed”.
"Our schools and colleges are proving to be a lucrative host to those who seek to bleed them dry. The number of private companies queuing up to get in on the act has trebled since 2011. Time and time again we are met with yet another scandal: whether arising from blind dogma, profiteering or just plain corruption,” Mark Baker, a senior vice-president of ATL, said earlier this year.
Nor are they the panacea that the C4C pretends. According to figures from the UK’s Department for Education, 60% of students in non-academy schools attained five A* to C-grade GCSEs in 2011, compared tojust 47% in the 249 sponsored academies that existed at that time.
Commenting on this in The Guardian in January 2012, Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of Ofsted and former head teacher of the much-acclaimed Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, east London, conceded, "Last year alone 85 schools serving the most deprived communities in our society were judged to be providing outstanding education … let me be clear: the vast majority of these schools are not academies. They are simply schools with heads and staff focused on the right things, striving every day to provide the best possible education for their young people."
Some academies are doing well, others … not so much. Nevertheless, the C4C group paid for a 2-page ad in The Cayman Compass, the Coalition’s go-to media mouthpiece, to slam the current education system and to promotethe idea of academies, and in particular ARK, which coincidentally holds 40 to 60 percent of its funds in the Cayman Islands (managed by a Cayman Islands ARK company AMML).
Of particular note is the C4C’s claim that “not charging for Pubic School Education means little value is placed on it by parents in terms of ensuring attendance or requiring satisfactory results”. It seems clear where this is going.
Among its condemnation of the public school system is the move towards the widely respected IB/PYP system in the primary schools because it “eliminates text books and relies on the internet for the students to get their information. Possibly the worst decision made in the History of the Cayman Islands,” the C4C stated in a diatribe aimed at ministry and education department heads.
Clearly they are not aware that this is where the ARK System is heading. Ark Pioneer Academy, due to open in London from September 2016, will be an all-through school where students will spend a significant percentage of their school day being taught by computer software packages, which, it is said, may provide savings by cutting the number of teachers.
But the real inconvenient truth for the C4C is that the independent and empirical gauge of student achievement in the Cayman Islands – external exam results – is showing real signs of improvement. According to the National Data Report released earlier this year by the Ministry of Education, the percentage of students achieving 5 or more level 2 passes by the time they leave school increased by 159% between 2007 and 2013. In real numbers, 88 students left Year 12 with five or more Level 2 passes in 2007. In 2013 that number was 267.
Any academy in the UK that could boast of such success would be hailed in the media. However, the Coalition for Cayman, the group that financially backed the current education minister during the elections, makes no mention of these positive developments, merely labelling education “a disaster”.
It should also be noted that this remarkable improvement in external exam results happened during a period of economic downturn, rising crime and increasing social problems, all factors that you would expect to have a negative effect on education. However, the C4C have apparently decided to ignore all facts that get in the way of the group’s agenda.
In its 2-page ad, the ‘non-party’ advocacy group invites readers to compare the results of the public school system to the private school system, forgetting to mention that private schools are inherently selective: they do not accommodate special needs students who are included in the public school statistics and whose specialist teaching is included in the public school budget.
Private schools generally do not include children from socially dysfunctional families, children who live on chips and soda, children whose parents want to do what is right but must work several jobs to survive, or children who simply do not meet the academic criteria to enter in the first place. Again, all of these needs must be met by the public schools, resulting in additional costs and a lower average exam scores.
Comparing the systems is simply demonstrating how far removed the C4C is from reality – one of the reasons most of the candidates it backed lost in the elections.
Instead of a very costly “revolution” in our education system, which would inevitably require another slew of consultants and experts and would suck up the time and energy of our education staff from top to bottom, it surely makes sense to fill in the gaps and improve the revolution already in progress rather than upend a system that is showing real results.
Everyone knows that there are areas of the education system that need to be improved but investing into the social needs of the community (such as paying people a living wage, government hiring more social workers) might have a more dramatic effect on the education results than just blaming the schools.
One point the C4C is right about is the need to restore the inspections unit, but not as they envisage as another private sector committee (a bunch of well-meaning people who think they know what they’re doing) but as it was before, made up of educators drawn from the local system as well as those recruited internationally – and no affiliation or favours owed to any ‘advocacy group’.
Meanwhile, although the minister was quick to defend herself and correct what she claimed were inaccuracies in the CNS report, she has yet to defend her staff in the education ministry or department from the demoralizing dismissal of all their efforts and successes in the C4C’s grossly misleading advertorial.
Our communal shame
It is settled law that the Cayman Islandsis subject to the European Convention on Human Rights and in particular the protection of refugees. The ancient 1999 treaty between the Cayman Islands and Cuba clearly violates that treaty but Cayman Islands Government has been bound by Cuban rope in continuing to implement what is clearly an inhumane policy. Semantic debates on refugees and migrants should be ignored.
The repeated delays by the Cuban Government to meet and settle a new treaty is unconscionable at best and lethal at worst.
Talk like this in Cuba would rush me to a long term cell reservation at Kilo 7 in Camaguey but Cayman is no Cuba and these Islands have the strong beating heart of humane democracy.
The Cayman Islands is not a cold war satellite of Cuba and should not be a pawn in the implementation of their domestic policy.
History is replete with the conflict of officials ordered to effect immoral or illegal acts. During the holocaust the Nazis propped up their execution squads with a steady flow of alcohol. When the ghosts of Cubans casualties rise from their watery grave to torment those responsible, some will no doubt seek the solace of liquor.
Immigration officers slapping biscuits from the hands of refugees do not bode well for our Cayman Kind promotion.
Our competitor in tourism can sit back and laugh as we approach the brink of boycott by foreign entities who do not take kindly to human rights abuses.
The past treatment of the LGBT community saw much back paddling when there was a threat of international fallout.
Forewarned is forearmed.
Lost Public Confidence — the case of the ODPP
I imagine that a number of good workers can be found among the many that work at the Office of the Director of Prosecutions (ODPP) – this Viewpoint is not about them. If anything, I hope it articulates their feelings that they’re unable to personally express. This Viewpoint is about those who work at the ODPP who collect a good paycheque in return for poor work, and those who instead of furthering the cause of justice impede it due to their undeserving, giant egos.
My personal experience with the former Department of Legal Services, now the ODPP, is that they are woefully disorganized, reckless, wasteful, unfocused, far too often wrong, and in way over their heads. They are usually stubborn when it comes to cases where it makes no sense for them to be so willfully obstinate and laissez-faire about cases where prosecution ought to be vigorously pursued. Far too often, as in my case and numerous others, they persecute instead of prosecute. Where common sense dictates that a person is innocent, they purposefully ignore the obvious, or often fail to recognize it.
Voltaire’s famous quote “Common sense is not so Common” must be without a doubt the ODPP’s most oft used screen saver, followed closely by “Appearance must always trump Substance” – apparently, one of the greater deciding factors as to whether or not a case is pursued. The claim that each case is carefully scrutinized is laughable at best – it ought to read that the law is applied willy-nilly, depending on the day of the week, and in which direction the wind so happens to blow.
In my case (for those unfamiliar with it) the Legal Department, in one of their more brilliant moments, wasted 21 Summary Court sessions, 8 Grand Court Sessions and 4 Cayman Island Court of Appeal Sessions over a matter of 0.004 oz of ganja (including tobacco) that did not belong to me. This, despite that 99.9% of the evidence pointed to my innocence. As some of you may recall, the ganja spliff was half smoked – if it belonged to me, as they claimed, it would have shown up in my urine test, it would have contained my DNA, etc. My urine test did not contain drugs, I was not a contributor to the DNA found on the half-smoked spliff, there was no motive for me to carry a half-smoked spliff given that I was not a ganja smoker (I was not about to gain millions of dollars by trafficking 0.004 oz of ganja into the United States), my explanation remained the same from the beginning to the end, etc.
At the time, my case was being pursued at all cost while many other cases involving far more serious charges were being routinely lost and dismissed in the Cayman Islands Summary and Grand Court. For example, between 2005 and 2010, a total of 38 cases of possession of an unlicensed firearm were dismissed in the Cayman Islands Summary Court and Grand Court. In August 2010, the Cayman Island Court of Appeal castigated the crown for appearing unprepared in front of the court – the case involved a firearm. One can only wonder what may have happened if the crown had devoted more time to their more important cases.
There are some commentators who defended Director of Prosecutions Cheryll Richards’ and the ODPP’s appalling record by claiming that the RCIPS provide the ODPP with poor, sloppy, unworkable evidence. My suggestion is that they stop pursuing those cases where the evidence does not exist to convict, no matter how badly they’re itching to get their suspect. Innocent people, and there are a few among the many guilty, should not fall prey to the ODPP's convict-at-all-cost, even if there is not evidence, mentality. More importantly, I would suggest that Ms Richards use her position and influenceto demand and bring about better work by some of her staff and some of the police.
I could write a few more pages on this matter, but I don’t have thetime, or the interest. Besides, most readers understand the problem. The fact of the matter is that the ODPP suffers from any number of maladies as a result of a lack of leadership, a lack of focus, and poor choices that they continue to make, etc. Perhaps one commentator sums up the problem best:
“They too bust trying to get Sandra Catron…LOL”
This Viewpoint is in repsonse to an article on CNS: DPP not cops' rubber stamp
No job for smokers
The Heath Services Authority in Grand Cayman recently announced that it will no longer hire smokers. A job applicant must be tobacco-free for six months to qualify for a position here. This decision will surely provepopular. Defending the dirty habit of smoking is now left to fat cat lobbyists, highly paid lawyers with no conscience. I am not in those ranks. Full disclosure: I was a former employee of the university. But, keeping smokers out of the hospital work force unless it protects patients makes me very nervous. Ethically, it is hard to digest.
HSA is not the first health care institution to go tobacco-free in hiring. The Chrissie Tomlinson did so back in 2007. The HSA board has had such a policy complete with required nicotine testing for more than a year. Hospitals and health systems have all stopped hiring smokers. Lots of companies outside health care are not hiring smokers either, but the big push is in hospitals and health systems. So what is wrong with not hiring those who engage in (or have engaged in) a gross, sickening, bad habit?
In justifying its decision, HSA says smoking and secondhand smoke contribute to 30 premature deaths a year and cost CI $2 million in health care and lost productivity. So, clearly they want to try and make a dent in that bill by barring tobacco users. Employees who smoke cost, on average, CI $3,391 more a year for health care. In addition, smoke breaks during work may be disruptive and subject patients/colleagues to the unpleasant smell of smoke on employees' scrubs and clothing.
So the two big reasons are making a dent in a costly bad lifestyle choice and saving money for the health care system by hiring tobacco-free employees. I am not sure if I buy the smoke break disruption or the smelly clothes arguments. If they are problems, then send the smokers outside to a spot far away from where the patients come in and out, or have them wash their hands and faces, which everyone ought be doing anyway, and only give them the same breaks from work that everyone else gets.
It comes down to a matter of fairness. Why can't the hospital work with people who may want to change their behavior but are having a hard time doing so? There's a little hypocrisy when as a place where you bring people back from sickness to health, your policy seems to reflect little concern for getting health care workers to become healthier. I don't doubt smokers cost us all a lot of money. It is also cheaper not to have to hire them and give them insurance or see them miss work. But the obese, the gamblers, rugby players, skiers, the sedentary, the promiscuous who don't practice safe sex, those who won't wear helmets on motorcycles and bikes,horseback riders, pool owners, all-terrain-vehicle operators, small-plane pilots, sunbathers, scuba divers, and surfers — all of whom cost us money and incur higher than average health care costs — are still on the job.
Picking on the smokers alone is simply not fair. And what message does a no-smokers-are-welcome policy send? We don't want you in our health care system?
Shouldn't doctors and nurses learn to work with those who sin and stray from the dictates of good health? As long as those who have bad habits are not compromising the quality of health care being provided on hospital ground, then let's not exclude smoking nurses, fat physical therapists, and scuba diving pharmacists from work.
What is the best way to get a doctor or nurse who smokes to stop? Make sure they cannot get a job? Oh yeah — that will surely make them kick the habit! Why not hire them, tell them they have to get into anti-smoking programs and pay them a bonus when they stay smoke-free?
Not hiring smokers at hospitals does send a message — but it isn't one that hospitals and health systems ought to be sending.
Let’s support our local criminals
This seems to be the agenda of our CI government officials and the HM Prison Budget. I highly doubt I am the only one appalled by the fact that an inmate who would typically live on less that CI$20,000 per year is commanding in excess of CI$60,000 per year from the public piggy bank. Let’s compare this figure to the annual salaries of a few important government posts: teachers typically make under CI$38,000 per year, whilst police and customs officers get about the same.
Why is it that our government feels that after they lock up a criminal they are to provide them with all the necessary amenities to keep them happy and comfortable? Most countries find many ways of making a fantastic income from prison labor.
Why are we HIRING people to repair, maintain and rebuild dilapidated prison buildings when we have 100+ capable male hands rolling spliffs and playing dominos until lights-out each evening!? These same men could be put to work and taught to do things like service government vehicles (under supervision obviously). Or better yet, put a block factory at Northward. Since everyone is chewing at Flowers recently, why not have prisoners build the blocks? That would seriously lower the cost of living for the free and give the incarcerated something constructive (literally!) to do on a daily basis and they could work-off this immense expense.
This is crazy! And so many are locked-up for stealing less than CI$1,000 worth of cash or valuables; now they are able to “legally rob” the tax-payers pockets of over CI$60,000 a year because of a backwards government system.
I’m appalled; this is horrible! Every year there is a scream in the air about the education budget and here we are with prisoners living off more than the free. How in the name of the world can one criminal cost more than a middle-class family? There are families living on CI$36,000 per year with two children, mortgages, bills, vehicles to maintain, groceries to buy, school lunches to pay for … and the list keeps growing, I’m just appalled.
Lewd acts in public
I have noted that the response by the general public seem to range from outrage to nonchalance with regards to the lewd acts performed by two of our young people in a nightclub. Neither responses are helpful in charting the course going forward. It is important to bring some analysis to the situation; firstly these two young ladies ought to accept the responsibility for their erroneous actions.
Erroneous only because they have taken an act (sexual act) that is usually reserved for privacy into the public sphere. However, they are not the only persons guilty, as not only did others watched satisfying their voyeuristic curiousity, it also appeared that no efforts were made to disrupt these ladies. Guilty also, are those who chose to publish the pictures bringing them into the public domain. My only contention can only be that this was meant to be malicious or a continued lack of judgment on all those who were involved.
As a person who has worked with youth for several years I have noticed a number of social disabilities trending among some of our youth;
- An inability to distinguish appropriate from inappropriate behaviours
- Disengagement from consequences of behaviour
- Unwillingness to take personal responsibility for their actions
- Lack of empathy
- Inability to problem solve
These are traits that I have noticed not only in those that we often describe as “at risk”, but also sometimes among those we believe are “well adjusted”. In my mind these are critical behaviours that needs continuous attention and support so that our youth can make better decisions. A quick content analysis of some of the responses on CNS also reveals that some sections of the adult population as well seem to be devoid of emotions and compassion, hence some of their callous responses.
So where do we go from here? Firstly, I hope that these young ladies and their family access therapeutic support and are able to get through this incredibly tough time. It is also my wish that young people and their leaders start to engage each other in healthy discussions about decision making especially about what is acceptable versus what is not.
Additionally, there is no denying that policies can be examined to facilitate the protection of youth when they fail to protect themselves. A hand off approach will get us nowhere, I encourage the community to gather not in outrage or a blame game, but to honestly garner support from each other and devise powerfully strategies that could reduce some of these “social disabilities” among our youth discussed above.
Who is running this show?
Every morning as I drive into town (usually on the Newlands Bypass and along South Sound), my mood instantly flips from “ok” to “not so ok” once I make the turn onto the bypass. The last couple of days I have actually grown almost irate when I see the ineptness, lack of motivation and pride that are so publicly on display by some of our government departments. In this case, I am speaking about the Department of Environmental Health (DEH) and National Roads Authority (NRA).
Let me explain. Anyone who drives on the Newlands Bypass on a regular basis can observe the ever increasing amount of litter that is tossed along the way — this is where my mood usually flips from “ok” to “not so ok”. We all (well, at least many of us) acknowledge that littering shouldn’t happen in the first instance; however, this is not the topic of my viewpoint.
Last week the NRA began to cut the bush and grass along the Newland Bypass. The result is that whilst the bypass looked bad before (given all the litter tossed around), it looked now like a garbage truck had driven down the road with the back wide open, having lost half of its load on the way to town. Why? Because any garbage and/or litter along the road has now been shredded into a million pieces.
The annoying part is that this is something that could be so very easily avoided — coordinate with DEH; have DEH either walk the road right before the bush/grass gets cut to pick up all garbage or immediately after the cut. Simple! Instead, once the NRA has done their bit, they wash their hands off any responsibility, and for the DEH, the hope seems to be that any breeze may blow the litter somewhere else and so in time there will be less to pick up.
Another issue is the lack of enforcement by the NRA of proper maintenance of the roundabouts which are sponsored and landscaped by various companies. Just look at the state of the roundabout at Grand Harbor and the islets (or whatever they are called) next to the roundabout, which are constantly completely overgrown by bush and at some stage even have three feet tall wild tamarind trees growing in them.
Then there is the issue with the DEH-placed garbage bins. Why is it that at every turn there is an overflowing DEH garbage bin? Whether it is in town after several cruise ships have been in port, the parking lot across from Dairy Queen, the bin at the South Sound Boat Ramp, and the list goes on and on. Surely by now the DEH must know which areas are more frequented and therefore require more regular emptying of the bins. I dare not raise the question why there are no recycling bins placed around town, all public buildings, hotels, vacation rental properties etc.
If someone has the crazy idea to blame the lack of enforcement and coordination on staffing or budget issues, I suggest the NRA and DEH seriously consider utilizing some of those people who have been ordered to do hours and hours of community service, as it would require very little supervision to have someone walk along the roads and beaches to pick up garbage or to empty the garbage bins. If they haven’t been cleaned, no credit is given towards the community service – simple!
I know the issues I have set out above are for many insignificant in comparison to other recent headlines, especially considering that the dump issue and creation of a recycling centre has yet to be resolved; however, nothing screams more “third world country” than overflowing garbage bins and litter lined roads and beaches.
The only conclusion I can come to is that complacency must be one hell of a thing because I know that if I would so openlydemonstrate such a lack of teamwork, lack of motivation at my job and the unwillingness to think outside the box, my boss would have made it very clear to me by now that my performance is less than impressive, and I would have felt the consequences for my inactions a long time ago.
Is it really so hard to try and think of the bigger picture and have some pride in what you are doing? People working at those departments and the people charged with running those departments must be driving on the same roads I do and therefore should be observing the same issues I (and many others) see.
I guess it is just easier not to bother.
New Customs Tariff Law (2012)
Even in the best of times, clearing merchandise through the Cayman Islands Customs was like a bad dream. The newly introduced Customs Tariff Law 2012 has turned that bad dream into a major real-life nightmare. The new tariff codes require 8-digit codes with various import duty rates to be input into Customs entry forms. There are 5,000 different item codes which are contained in a 230 page PDF document.
This means that a small business importer bringing, say, 150 different small items for resale must first find the correct code and import duty rate for each of these items from the list of 5,000 possible codes. This task takes a day or more to categorize the items, then for each item the specific freight on that item must be calculated so as to include the amount of duties to be paid on both the cost of the merchandise and the freight.
Even before full implementation people clearing Customs are now finding out that it takes 4-7 hours waiting in line at Customs to pay import duties that are at best exorbitant. Then hours more are needed for Customs to check that the codes, duty rates, freight on each item and import duty calculations are correct.
The implications of this will be felt by every man, woman and child in the Cayman Islands in more ways than one. While it is true that the average person does not ever have to go to Customs or directly pay import duties, everyone who buys products locally that are imported is paying the total costs that importers pay, plus the profit added by those importers. We can all therefore expect a substantial price increase that will result from the increased labour costs by merchants which this new and improved law will bring.
The present number of employees of the Customs is insufficient to meet the new demands of implementing this law. Unless of course the government expects that the public will be satisfied to wait in line for a few days each time they need to pay customs duties. This means increased labor expenses for Customs and a bigger chunk out of the net amount collected by Customs in order to pay for additional labor expenses.
We all know that government gets substantial funds from collecting import duties for everything consumed by every man woman and child in the Cayman Islands. So, in addition to increased prices locally, the public can also expect that this will be financed by increased taxes (or fees or import duties, since we don’t like the word ‘tax’ and claim to be a tax-free country).
For some small local businesses this Customs Tariff Law 2012 will be the final nail in the coffin. For the general public we have higher prices to pay, since both large businesses and small businesses will need to spend more for the total costs of importing, and therefore pass the higher prices and their profit on to the public.
I don’t recall any politician having this law on their manifesto in any election, so who imposed this law on the people of the Cayman Islands? What are the benefits to the people of the Cayman Islands, or to anyone in the world for that matter? And why do we have to pay the price?
Who in the world will benefit by knowing, for example, how many light bulbs we import and whether they are sealed beam lamp units, whether they are halogen, or exceed 200 watts, whether they are fluorescent, or mercury, whether they are ultraviolet, or other, or even parts for a light bulb? Yes, these 8 examples each have their own 8 digit code and are required to be listed separately on our customs entry forms.
So. Who do we blame for this abomination? The previous government for imposing the law of course, but even more so we must to lay final blame where it belongs: at the foot of the PPM government, for implementing it!