HRC urges people to embrace Cayman’s diversity

| 20/05/2016 | 75 Comments

Cayman News Service(CNS): The Human Rights Commission is calling on Cayman to embrace the cultural diversity here that stems from the multiple nationalities that make up the community. In a statement to mark the United Nations World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, the commission pointed out that enhancing cultural diversity is important to ensure human rights are applied equitably and fairly for all. The constitution provides everyone with the right to express their unique cultural circumstances, freedom of conscience and religion, freedom of expression and the right to non-discrimination.

In the HRC’s public message, the commissioners said the right to maintain personal cultural values is balanced with those of others in our society and should not impinge on any other individuals’ or groups’ enjoyment of their rights under the Constitution. They said that World Day for Cultural Diversity provides an opportunity for people to increase their understanding and acceptance of cultures other than our own.

The 2010 Census Report found that Cayman is home to people from 135 different countries.

“Welcoming people from other cultures to our shores is ingrained in our rich history. From our maritime heritage to tourism industries cultural integration is a foundation of our economy. The presence of so many residents from around the world allows us to embrace and learn from different and diverse cultures, improve our understanding of an increasingly globalised world and thereby enhance our own society,” the HRC stated.

“The Human Rights Commission encourages all sections of society in Cayman to take this important message to heart, from employers, schools and civic organisations to families and individuals,” the commission added.

In recognition of this year’s World Day for Cultural on Saturday, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) suggest people ‘Do One Thing for Diversity and Inclusion’ (see Facebook page) by taking concrete action to support cultural plurality.

The commission urged people in Cayman to celebrate the day this weekend by learning about another religion by reading a book or attending services, listen to a musical tradition from a different culture, invite a friend from a different culture over and cook your traditional food for them or learn another language – even if its just a few words.

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Comments (75)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    There is so much talk about Cayman Culture, but please tell me, can anyone actually identify what it is? Turtle Stew and Cat boats? Land Crab hunting? What is it? I struggle other than the above…

  2. Anonymous says:

    “When in Rome”, the mediocre rallying cry of the intolerant seeking to impose racism, sexism and bigotry with a good stew of endangered animals.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Dear Human Rights Commission (and many CNS posters),

    In an effort to assist you in this endeavour, I urge you to simply take a quick review of our “Miss Cayman Islands” winners over the past 25-30 years. (We can all agree that such a competition is essentially a national popularity contest.)

    Therein you will find Caymanians of every imaginable skin tone, eye colour, height, ancestral background, variance of surname origin, duplicity of mother / native tongues etc.
    In fact, when compared to most other larger countries, one would be hard-pressed to find a more diverse return of national representatives than the Cayman Islands.

    I trust the above will be of some help to you as you strive to maintain the cultural diversity and richness of the people of the Cayman Islands.

    Sincerely,

    Whodatis
    (Cayman-born child of a thoroughly integrated “expat”.)

    • Anonymous says:

      Oh dear, anyone who watches those competitions really should not be advising us on cultural diversity. World Peace, possibly, but cultural diversity definitely not.

      • Anonymous says:

        Similarly, anyone who totally misses the point of a comment really should not post a reply.

        – Who

  4. Anonymous says:

    Two Wongs don’t make a Wright.

  5. Anonymous says:

    H R have always been acknowledge here, but that do not give visitors the right to smother and change our culture. We welcome you, allow you to work and you repay us by constantly trying to push us into the corner.

    • Anonymous says:

      yes but at the same time what about those that come here and release books about cooking cayman way. then when we caymanians taste it we realize that it is not cayman style cooking.

  6. Anonymous says:

    One of the zanier suggestions from this confused group of tree-huggers. It smacks of “Barmy Britain” for sure, but did give me a good laugh. I did remind my Caymanian wife about her responsibilities this weekend, however, and she did say that she was taking the HRC’s suggestions very, very seriously.

  7. Anonymous says:

    After all, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. I embraced the culture from early on in an effort to assimilate into the community.

    From day one I stopped using indicators on my vehicle, developed mild confusion on approach to roundabouts whilst simultaneously increasing speed over time.

    I have now managed to extend my lunch hour to one hour fourty five minutes and can lose hours of work time by “checking on someone in one yard”

    Can I have my PR now please?

    • Anonymous says:

      Certainly tongue in cheek, but you are confused about the folks whose behaviour you are jokingly referencing. We have drivers from all over the world with awful driving habits (and I’m not just talking about the French and Italians) and it has got worse over the years. You are wrong to imagine that these people are predominantly Caymanian. They are not, and if you’d been observing traffic since the late seventies (when there wasn’t any traffic, basically, and our total population was about 16,000) you’d know better. Most drivers on our roads are predominantly non-Caymanian. Don’t know who you are referencing additionally (“Jamaica Time”?). While you are thoroughly ill-informed, God bless you for having a sense of humour, at least!

    • Anonymous says:

      They must be happy you left home. Toxic negativity it is.

    • Anonymous says:

      That was always your culture

  8. Anonymous says:

    Would be nice if all the consulates from around the world who are residing in cayman would show their appreciation of being here and organise with their citizens a similar festival we had years ago at the empty lot besides the wharf. Festival of the nations!

  9. Anon. says:

    Whenever Caymanians speak up to defend their beliefs, culture or custom, we are called ignorant, xenophobic, and we are accused of inciting hatred.
    I am human too, what about my rights?
    Foreigners come here and treat us with disdain and look down on us like we are just the ignorant natives but HRC wants me to embrace them. I have rights too.

    Barefoot man is a good example of someone who came here years ago, he respected the people and the culture, he immersed himself in our culture, that is why he is loved by many Caymanians. I feel proud to call him a Caymanian.

    You have others who just come to see what economic benefits they can rape from the country, they smile in our faces and call us stupid behind our backs. They only socialise with other foreigners because they have no interest in socialising with or getting to know us. They think our education system is inferior and that we are all stupid but they want to stay here.

    We will soon be like the Aborigines, we are too trusting.

    Until foreigners respect me, my culture, my rights, and have proven this by their actions I feel no obligation to embrace them, simply to tolerate them.

    • Anonymous says:

      Respect is earned, not deserved.

    • Anonymous says:

      Barefoot sings (and has sung for 40 years “for economic benefits”) slightly out of tune quasi calypso songs which have no relevance to whatever you call Caymanian culture. To be fair, some of his lyrics are quite clever and have a fairly witty local content, but his singing and musicianship are only adequate and appeal only to tourists desperate for the “big bamboo/ wink wink/ how naughty it is” type of West Indian music that they think represents “calypso” and is available all over the Caribbean and especially the Bahamas where George came from. If you really think he represents “immersing himself in our culture”, well, what can one say?

    • Anonymous says:

      Your education system is a shambles though to be fair improving. We would love to mix with locals but invitations are never returned. What do you suggest we do?

    • Anonymous says:

      Someone obviously missed Barefoot Man’s now infamous cartoon.

  10. Anonymous says:

    Do you mean Jamaicans will also embrace other cultures or is the HRC realy saying they must continue to dominate?

  11. Cayman Sucka Free says:

    How about those coming here for once appreciate and respect the host! We are World dreamers like to sell this multicultural utopia so they as a minority can hold the majority hostage to all their self righteous victimization propaganda long enough for them to become established. Then you will see just how tolerant of others they really are???? This HRC rubbish has cause more social & civil unrest ethnic problems than racial issues. Good intentions has paved the way hell. You dont love leave it.

  12. Anonymous says:

    When in Rome do as the flipping Romans do…… All who coming to our shores must adapt or at least respect our way of life.

    • Anonymous says:

      I totally agree, it should be a level playing field all over. Everyone should have access to preferential mortgage rates, stamp duty exemptions, unsecured loans, “development” loans and to access pensions to pay off mortgages.
      Glad we are on the same page.

    • Anonymous says:

      I would genuinely love to know what is your way of life. I am not a church goer so how do I get to know locals. My workplace has many and they are great colleagues but they have no interest in knowing me outside of work.

      • The Equalizer says:

        FYI – This has become the way of local Caymanians as a result as we have come to experience & understand the non-legit friendliness, disdain, disrespect, and the very same anti-social behavior from most foreigners to the local Caymanian, so therefore we feel that we are not welcomed into social circles with most foreigners/nationalities. Furthermore, if you did not already know, most nationalities tend to clan together with their own for most part. Yes there has been and remains to be SOME degree of mixing of cultures as a proven fact, but otherwise It the norm over the decades here in Cayman’s social realm.

  13. Anonymous says:

    No, but you are welcome to eat all the frog legs you wish to. Leave the turtle for the rest of us. Have fun while you are here on the rock anyway!!

  14. Donald Grump says:

    There are two things I cannot stand. Intolerance of other cultures. And foreigners.

    • Anonymous says:

      Whenever you are ready to support and feed these people with YOUR OWN MONEY, then you can talk! In the meantime NO, we should not bring in people we don’t know or who can’t afford to support themselves!

    • Anonymous says:

      And Jamaicans who have totally destroyed our way of life.

  15. Anonymous says:

    Satanic Confusion

  16. Anonymous says:

    As long as you accept my point of view as being superior to yours, we’ll all be fine.
    HRC bullying at it’s sneaky best.

  17. Anonymous says:

    All well and good but surely the onus is on cultures other than Caymanian to recognize and abide by our cultural values and traditions. If this is impossible, then clearly there is the need to live somewhere else. Cayman might have many peoples, with a dizzying array of cultural identities, but that does not mean we must embrace them all and lose our own in the process. That is pure madness.

    • Anonymous says:

      It is madness to invite 30000 foreigners to come to your island to keep everything running, and then expect them to have no opinions about your so called values and traditions.

      • Anonymous says:

        No one invited them. They came looking a better life. Which, in my view is nothing wrong with doing. But just stating the fact.

      • Anonymous says:

        My dear, confused soul, you obviously have no knowledge or understanding of the Caymanian people. The reason Cayman “works” with so many foreigners living here is because Caymanians are a mostly self-contained lot and happy for others to be who they are. They have a wonderful indifference, almost, towards those of other cultures. I know because I’ve been married to one for almost forty years!

    • Anonymous says:

      This is a British Island, the British culture will prevail and you will enjoy it.

    • Anonymous says:

      Can one abide by something that does not exist?

    • Anonymous says:

      Not really. What are you hanging on to so tightly. Your culture….. Or money.

  18. Anonymous says:

    Diversity is well embraced in Cayman. There is us and there is furreners. Furreners include people who technically are us but not generational us. Us thinks we have a spectacular culture to defend, but if we thought about deeply we would realise it aint that spectacular, unless xenophobic anti gay, Church beholding (unless its not Sunday in which case we can do what we want) badly treating our own as well as furreners is cultural? So there, seems perfectly well embraced in Cayman, nothing to see, move along please…

  19. Just saying says:

    It is not for Caymanians to do the embracing, it is for the foreigners who come to their shores to embrace Cayman, its people and its culture. As a foreigner living in Cayman am appalled at the obvious hatred, disrespect and total disdain for this beautiful small island and its people.

    • Anonymous says:

      Disrespect must be earned..

    • Anonymous says:

      As another driftwood that loves this place and it’s unique people, I fully agree with you. The uber-arrogance of our superior guests is shocking. You may come from a castle, but in the wigwam, the Indian is king.

    • Anonymous says:

      Yes, how does your head in the sand policy work for your employment chances of promotion? And I don’t want to embrace a culture of corruption and nepotism, non law abidance, brotherhood and turtle slaughterers. You just have no idea what is coming down the pike, have you?

      • Anonymous says:

        Your culture is coming down the pike. Ouch! It’s here. What a disaster for this place that will soon be like all the cultures you left behind – 140+ on 7×20 & smaller islands?

        • Anonymous says:

          At least it is a culture, not a misguided 10th century bigoted, hypocritical bumbling through life

      • Anon. says:

        You don’t have to embrace our culture, Feel free to leave.
        If you feel there is “nepotism, non law abidance, brotherhood and turtle slaughterers” then I think you should get out now while you can.

        People always feel that they can go to other people’s country and dictate how they should live. I love beef but I wouldn’t dream of going to India and telling them they are crazy or stupid for considering cow’s sacred.

        I wouldn’t go to other countries, who have practiced their custom for years and try to change it. Either I accept it and stay or leave. Who died and made you king/queen?

        • Anonymous says:

          Damn, forgot to write “xenophobic” in my earlier comment. Have you ever analysed whether what you do in Cayman and what you defend actually makes any real sense or is it “defend for defendings sake”? Because no matter how many times the “you can leave” argument comes up, it still makes no sense. And comparing it to Indian cows is comparing apples and, well, cows. If there was anything sacred here, I would respect it…but isn’t that the issue-youth no longer wants those old fashioned ideas and Church rammed down their throats…and the “traditionalists” feel threatened, not by us, but by their own…but its easier to blame us.

    • Anonymous says:

      I’m glad someone finally said it!

    • Anonymous says:

      I agree. I’m not a Caymanian but my wife is, and I find it nothing short of outrageous that anyone should lecture the Caymanian people on their need to “embrace” the culture of others. Are these “imagineers” nuts or just having a laugh?! I’d suggest CNS create a joke section where crackpot “ideas” like this can be contained. Meanwhile, here’s a “fill in the blanks” sentence for the HRC to brainstorm : “When in …….. do as the ……….” (Wonder if any of them will solve it?)

    • Anonymous says:

      I don’t know who you are, but as a Caymanian, I would like to shake your hand and welcome you to the Cayman Islands

      • Anonymous says:

        Thanks, actually I got the welcome almost forty years ago, so as you can imagine I know Cayman and its people very well. My mother-in-law told me all about the Goldfield and my father-in-laws years at sea.

    • Anonymous says:

      I doubt the authenticity, motive and origin of this comment.

      • Anonymous says:

        Really? On what basis do you do that? Tell you what, ask me some questions about life in Cayman during the seventies, or Caymanian seafarers, or the drive in movie theatre (or Berkley Bush’s “Island Cinema” on the waterfront) or Mr.Arthur’s printing shop (Economy Printers) opposite Seven Eleven, or Jim and Hague etc etc. then we can establish “authenticity, my dear confused friend.

        • Anonymous says:

          Yep you have been a Caymanian too long if you think answering a series of questions is what makes you local.

  20. Anonymous says:

    I don’t have to embrace turtle munching do I?

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