DIRE CONSEQUENCES OF OVER- DEVELOPMENT

I have been writing this letter for the last two years and as each day goes by, I get more and more distressed about what is happening in the Cayman Islands and particularly in Grand Cayman.

If I could define how I feel now about the condition of Grand Cayman, and as I see the designs on Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, it would be “bereft”. I am bereaved because we have lost something that can’t be regained EVER, and we lost it because our leaders had little insight and little foresight.  I am 80 years old — not too much time left to lament or enjoy, but there are generations following me who will suffer the consequences of our poor decisions.

Our political hopefuls are pointing to the consequences — traffic, housing, employment and work permits and how they hope to address these myriads of problems. Few are referring to the real problem which is uncontrolled overdevelopment.

Unbridled overdevelopment is destroying our island:

Traffic, parking, crime, civil unrest, housing, work permits, inadequate infrastructure, family collapse, education crises, population explosion, an engulfing landfill are all a result of planned overdevelopment. Yes, successive governments have planned for us to be overdeveloped, overpopulated, and overwhelmed.

We have three large hotels under construction right now. How many hundreds of people will be needed to staff the Hyatt behemoth, and the Watermark behemoth.  The ten storey, Lacovia, and now another 10 storey hotel has been approved for the former Treasure Island property and a huge hotel in Beach Bay. How many more work permits need to be issued for this!! Hundreds!!!! And call them work visas if you like. What difference does that make? It still brings hundreds of people into the island to satisfy the voracious appetite of foreign developers, facilitated by money hungry real estate companies, and approved by a blinded Government.

Instead of preserving the north end of the SMB for low-rise, family-oriented condos, Aqua Bay has been given permission to erect a 10 storey pencil building right in the middle of the low-rise area, totally destroying the ambience. Why? To make some people richer and make us environmentally poorer.

Now greed is pushing a 4 storey building in what is called “Heritage Square” in West Bay. It surely won’t reflect our heritage any more than the concrete edifice next door does. No! It will enrich a hungry developer who can’t be named!! Why couldn’t it be made a true Heritage Square as we recall that area to be the center and hub of activity and interaction many years ago and continues to be the site of the Heritage Kitchen and little museum. Can’t we save/protect anything?

And we’re doing this to provide a better life for Caymanians!!? Do we need 40,000 work permits and 140 nationalities to support a population of 40,000 Caymanians?  Are we indebted to both the first world and the third world? Our problem is not work for Caymanians; our problem is the dazzle of dollars that allows us to bring in more and more wealthy to get wealthier on the backs of Caymanians and third world people who have come here to eke out a living, live in deplorable conditions just to send a few dollars back home.

It is totally disgraceful and shameful for a country with the highest standard of living in the Caribbean to be having a discussion about the lack of jobs and homes for Caymanians.  We have caused far too many of our problems. We have sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind.

There are Government assets that are empty and deteriorating while we have homeless and others without adequate housing. And NAU is paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars to unscrupulous landlords just for the poor to have a roof over their heads. There is no value for money in this plan.

Our education systems are not up to par and with the resources we have, that should  never happen. And consider building a $50 million high school in Cayman Brac. Why?  As a monument! It will be a monument to excess and waste. Cayman Brac children, like every other Caymanian child, deserve the best we can give them, but do we build a six-bedroom home when there are 4 in the family. This project needs to be revisited and scaled down. We may lose a million in the process of making changes but gain ten million in the long run.

On another education matter, where is the multi-ministry approach to saving our families, and by extension our children and our future? Career exposure should start in Kindergarten or before and Life Skills, including Driver Education (not driving education which can be done by the driving schools) should be offered in every high school and required before a Learner’s Permit is issued.  What has gone wrong? Where is the insight?  Where is the foresight?

Our parliamentarians are earning far too much while our poor can’t even feed themselves adequately. I am still amazed that the Premier’s pay grade is above the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, our mother country. Those salaries should be what we can afford. Compare a disgraceful minimum wage of $6.00 an hour and the salaries paid to members of parliament. And what a slap in the face of the excellent team who spent so much time researching and discussing the many implications of a minimum wage, for their report to be rejected.

Overdevelopment is destroying our culture.

We are totally overwhelmed by 140 other nationalities living on the island and thousands of people who are called “Caymanian”, many of whom don’t have the foggiest idea, and in some cases, don’t care to know what  it is to be Caymanian. I hasten to add that many people who have become “Caymanian” have contributed far more than they have received. They have enriched our community in so many ways, and I welcome and embrace them.

The majority of our police, teachers, lawyers, accountants as well as the opposite end of the spectrum: domestic workers, tradesmen, and laborers are non-Caymanian. We need them all to support the runaway development foisted on us by our leaders and the wealthy developers.

We have visitors who learn very little of who we are and often do not meet ONE Caymanian during their visit.

Overdevelopment is destroying our way of life, our peace, and eroding our values.

The family structure is in crisis. Use of drugs and alcohol is increasing. We have seen what the introduction of drugs has caused in our country and the horror stories of other countries, and we have the nerve to suggest that we should make marijuana more accessible and more tolerated. Absolutely not!!

Gambling has never raised the social, personal, and spiritual life of any community. In fact, studies show that the opposite happens, yet we have the nerve to consider introducing gambling because “people are buying numbers anyway”.

We celebrate Piracy. Pirates were thugs, thieves, murderers and rapists. We should be ashamed of that sordid part of our history, but we celebrate it! Would we celebrate slavery — another sordid part of our history?

We promote nudity, drunkenness and lewdness in the Batabano and Caymas parades and we drag children into it early so that they can take on that value system as they become adults.

Abortion, the destruction of human life, is also now being discussed and recommendations are coming from a legal entity. The destruction of human life is not a legal matter; it is a moral matter.

We have now introduced Pride parades — not a part of our beliefs, heritage, history or culture. Just this year the country of Hungary banned Pride parades to respect their culture and “to protect the children”. They may not be a conservative nation, but at least they draw some lines!! We would rather cater to the few than consider the many.

Our Christian heritage is forgotten, ignored, and violated. Our churches, which minister to the mental, spiritual, and even physical health of our community, are being maligned; Scripture is being scrapped. Our God, and both the present and the future life that He offers, is being despised.

Overdevelopment is destroying our environment.

Beach erosion, loss of habitat, a stressed public beach and Stingray City — all the result of unbridled development. Now Duck Pond and Barkers are up for grabs. What for? For development, of course. Our 76 square miles are being overrun; in fact, it is getting smaller with erosion that should be able to repair itself as it has done for eons of time, if it weren’t for our interference with nature. We can’t build a multi-level island and even though we may stack people up in high rise apartments, it will make life on the ground indescribably difficult.

How can we be thinking about a dock to further destroy our environment? We don’t want it; we don’t need it. George Town is already a nightmare with small ships in port, what will it be like if mega ships are allowed — docked or anchored. We don’t need them. Even with three regular ships the town is overrun on those days with tourists, taxis and tour operators.  All of our tourist sites are under stress.  All cruise destinations experience a down time. My best cruise was to Alaska — a favorite of many — but the place shuts down from September to March. Big ships and docked ships will only congest George Town further and provide more jobs for non-Caymanians. The tour companies may be locally owned, but their employees are, for the most part not Caymanian. No cruise company is going to take Grand Cayman off their itinerary. Why can’t we be a boutique destination? We are a highly desired destination, but we can overload and that is where we are heading. Furthermore, it will be an environmental disaster. There are so many reasons to vote no on this question.

We have a Planning Board that rarely says no to the big developers—no doubt strapped by inadequate policies and direction from their leaders.

Can’t we protect anything!!

Everything I have said is true, and I am not a lone voice; I speak for many. Isn’t this enough for me to be bereft and to lose hope?

A GLIMMER OF HOPE

But there is a little glimmer of hope because although much has been lost, ALL is not lost.

We can protect and preserve what is left of our people, our culture, our environment, our way of life, our peace of mind, our islands, with a new Government with insight and foresight. So even as I lament and mourn, I hope and pray that the next four years will produce the change we so need and that our new Government, among other initiatives, will

• STOP ALL LARGE-SCALE FOREIGN DE VELOPMENT APPROVALS IMMEDIATELY.

• PLACE A LENGTHY MORATORIUM ON FUTURE FOREIGN DEVELOPMENT OF ANY KIND, EXCEPT AS WILL DIRECTLY BENEFIT THE CAYMANIAN PEOPLE, AND NOT A HOST OF OTHERS.

• PROVIDE BETTER POLICIES FOR THE PLANNING BOARD TO MAKE BETTER DECISIONS FOR LOCAL DEVELOPMENT.

• PROHIBIT THE SALE OF LAND TO NON-CAYMANIANS.

• SET POLICIES THAT PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT, OUR PEOPLE, AND OUR WAY OF LIFE.

• PROTECT AND PRESERVE DUCK POND AND BARKERS

Marjorie Ebanks

Disclaimer:

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints  expressed in this article are those of the  author’s and do not necessarily reflect the  official policy or position of the Editor and  Staff of Caymanian Times.