Opposition leader outlines aim for Cayman plan
Opposition Leader Ezzard Miller
(CNS): In the face of successive government’s continued failure to address the lack of a coordinated and agreed direction for Cayman’s future, the opposition leader said his team would be drawing up a national social and economic plan this year. Miller said that under pressure, government has committed to beginning a national development plan but the long-term failure of leaders to address this issue has left a gap and the opposition will propose their own plan, which will examine the population, how Caymanians want the economy to grow, and shape a new vision for the future of the country.
The last time government tried to tackle this issue was in the late 1990’s with Vision 2008, but the projections and plans in that report were largely ignored and a decade has passed since its projection date. Miller said he wants to undertake a wider socio-economic review of development that looks more closely at the local community needs and not just about creating opportunities for investors.
“The vision should be driven by the people and not just individual developers who see a chance,” the opposition leader said.
Miller told CNS that he believes and fully understands that the Cayman Islands needs foreign investment and workers from overseas to support the economy but said this must be to the benefit, not the detriment, of local people. “We must address the issue that many Caymanians are not getting a fair chance at participating in the economic growth,” he added.
The plan, Miller explained, is to begin public research at the beginning of next month. He said the opposition will be going into the community to talk with people, learn about the specific challenges and the potential solutions and to see what people think about the opposition proposing their own national socio-economic vision.
Miller said that over the next twelve months he will also be pressing government to address what he believes are major priority issue that are negatively impacting the wider society, including reforming health insurance and pensions.
“We need to form strong policy to address these problems through public participation,” he said. Miller said he believes it is very important that discussions are held openly, not behind closed doors, about what we want for the elderly members of our aging population and how we fund and deliver what they need.
The opposition leader said that important policy, such as the vision for the future, how we will manage an aging population and allow the elderly to live with dignity, and the provision of healthcare, should not be developed behind closed doors.
“These things can’t be done by just a few select people,” he said. “Policy development needs to be much more inclusive. If we decide, for example, that we want a specific basic income for older people and a certain level of health cover, then the discussion about how we fund and deliver that should also be in the open.”
Miller said that there are solutions to our socio-economic challenges but the discussion about the people’s future should be held with the people.
Category: Politics
rollie pollie sitting on the wall…..come on ya all…sing!?
Can’t wait to see the plan. Soon come.
Have any of our representatives read the Giglioli Report, the Wickstead Report or Vision 2008? They contain gems, and took thousands of man-hours to complete, yet they were abandoned as being inconvenient. Their only purpose was to justify the installation of Government shelving, it seems, and the purchase of a National Feather Duster, that dates from the 1970’s.
The 1997 National Development Plan was required by law to be reviewed every five years, yet here we are, 20 years later, with no review. Would any sane person run their operation with a 20-year-old business plan? If the NDP really is being reviewed, then the CPA should be reorganized at the same time, so it can respond to the needs of all sectors of the community, not just developers and investors. We all have to live long-term with their bad decisions, after all, and the conflicts of interest in the CPA are so glaring, I recently had buy a pair of extra-dark glasses and some anti-nausea pills.
Well done. Thank you Mr Miller.
Im an American . Im in a position to recruit and hire citizens and foreign nationals alike. There are simply not enough educated and technically skilled Cayman citizens to fill many of the niche jobs.
But, when the government is getting $5-20k per year for a work permit, are they really going to invest that in educational opportunities to train people from the CI to take those jobs?
I doubt it.
Recently posted an ad specifically for Cayman residents or Right To Work status holders and out of perhaps 50 applicants, only 3 or 4 had any valuable skills.
Its not fair, i have met a few hundred people with great attitudes and the right personality for a few jobs I’ve filled this year, but none have the education or work experience gained FROM the education to warrant hiring them.
The bias of cultural capital is perhaps what you may be trying to explain, as an American you judge suitability for a job based on your own inherent bias on what it is you consider is a socially and culturally acceptable level of skill. All too often minorities are told this, firstly they don’t have the qualifications so off they go and earn them. Next, is you don’t have the right kind of experience BOOM here is were the penny drops. I am certain as an American and I assume one educated there, if a Caymanian presents themselves with Cayman/UK or European qualification you will continue to use your cultural capital comfort zone as a basis for judgement and selection. Countless HRM research projects have proven that the majority of employers hire people they are culturally and socially comfortable with and in most instances and will only look outside those comfort zones due to legal or cost considerations. What I gather from the Leader of Opposition statements is that we must first seek to build an economy that creates the jobs our own population first desire and can get a start in and not follow the ‘green jobs’ ideology of Obama when creating jobs only for an elite sector of the US economy
Try this experiment, have three Caymanian workers employed in an office an one American. You will find the American try to adopt to the Caymanian perspective social and cultural comfort zone ( unless you already judge those to be inferior to yours). Now put one Caymanian worker in with three American workers and watch the Caymanian adopt and ‘get it’ in record time as the interactions unfold. Even though in both illustrations the offices are location in Cayman the reason the Caymanian is able to adopt in record speed is that most if not all Caymanians have an inherit multicultural background and cultural capital mix. Most have travelled outside their culture comfort zone and have a global point of view, if you choose to communicate on a level playing field with them. Such exposure cultivates very few social prejudices something is not as easy to say about your average American worker.
In order for Caymanians to get back into the ‘top job economy’ they have to be supported by a system and policy which ensures the bias of foreign cultural capital is not allowed to overshawed the Caymanians ability to do the job. That is what I was able to deduce from the Leader of the Oppositions proposal.
Actually, as a manager and hiring authority, and somebody who works on behalf of my employer, i would absolutely love to fill all of our 18 positions with Caymanians. How many Chiropractors has the Caymanian educational system produced? How many physiotherapists? Hiring 3 people who are Caymanians would save about $20,0000 annually in work permit fees. Do you think if you could save your boss $20k he or she would be happy to have it, or would he/she turn it down?
We currently employ 3 Caymanians. None of which are in degreed or certified fields that are REQUIRED in my industry. And sorting through 50 plus resumes to find more than a handful with rudimentary clerical skills that are standard for even high school graduates in the US, combined with front facing customer service skills is a lot harder than it would appear.
It has nothing to do with multiculturalism. The younger Caymanians i work with all relayed the same thing to me about their education, and that is, it lacks any practical use and limits their chances to success without going out of country for college or technical school. My children attend private school and im actually pleased with the teachers and faculty and quality of education they are receiving. But it shouldn’t cost a family $2-5 thousand a month to have their children become functional in society.
As a businessman, and as a manager, its actually in my best interest to have the higher qualified and degree holders I employ be from the CI. It saves on fees, admin costs, recruitment, and retention. But until the local government can solve its education issues, amd graduate people prepared to actually enter a work force, thats not going to happen.
rt SOMETHING IN YOUR DIATRIBE DOES NOT JIVE. If you and your company are so pro-fess-ional why didn’t you scope the job market before launching the business? You can BS some pf the people some time but ya cant BS all a de people.
We are financially solvent and have been since day one.
Perhaps you are missing my point, or i am not clear in its presentation.
None of my remarks are to be detrimental to Caymanians. I am expressing sadness for the kids who have to go to school here, with no real job prospects to strive for with simply a high school education that, according to the ones i have talked with, is useless.
Very few educational opportunities beyond high school exist.
As an employer, try recruiting somebody with the desired experience and education or certifications needed to be a values member of a team.
Then you spend man hours interviewing people ill prepared to work. Then you have to recruit foreign nationals, walk them through work permits , immigration, pay their fees and 6 or 8 months later, they walk out the door because although theyre making great money, the cost of living is higher than they like.
Its a never ending cycle.
A better educated and better trained and more prepared high school graduate could make a great living, but they simple are not being prepared to contribute to the economy.
The reason is blindingly obvious but with an education budget of over 20k per child the solution less so.
https://www.caymancompass.com/2017/05/15/school-exam-results-stagnant/
Down vote all you like, shooting the messenger won’t fix it.
I like Cayman but Caymanians can be very weird, especially in business. Making the simple be complicated or difficult is a widespread trait.
knock knock….we are here to collect CAESARS taxes!!! on rome’s orders?
It does not really matter whet pan the opposition or the current Government comes up with. It will be subject to the approval of Lord Dart. He is now calling the shots and the politicians are just acting like they have control to keep their jobs.
more waffle and hot air…..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Enacting the very rudimentary code of conduct in the “Standards in Public Life Law (2014)” would be a simple gesture to demonstrate willingness to tackle the double dealing and feather-nesting conflicts that permeate the CIG. Why can’t we start with that? Why must these conflicts continue unabated in 2018?!? When it comes down to public trust and financial prudence, is there anything more necessary?
A Politician will never make a Planner and a Planner will never make a Politician. Two professions that no living human being in the history of the world has ever managed to merge under one cap. Try mixing water and oil, that’s probably easier.
Maybe they are taking applications for a Planner, you want to hand yours in? Sooooo jealous.
They do have a vision it’s called the PPM manifesto, it is what they are pushing through with the assent of His Royal Majesty Prince Mckeeva of WB and the silence of Jon Jon and assent of Austin
Like it or not this is a PPM Government.. again,
Even though they didn’t get a majority,
they still ended up in charge,
Gotta love it
Also while I appreciate the effort by the Opposition does anyone really want:
Ezzard MIller
Anthony Eden
Arden Mclean
The Old Guard (emphasis on Old)
and Alva Suckoo and Chris Saunders ( Alva wouldn’t be so bad if he could find his way out of Mr Eden’s armpit, and I don’t have any issues with Chris)
5 men, laying out a long term plan for the Cayman Islands, No representation for women, the young, the non religious etc etc
This is going to be great
Great if you’re one of the 201 people who voted for him. Not so great if you’re one of the other 60,000
There are only 34,000 Caymanians and out of that number somewhere under 77.3 percent of them are eligible to vote ( counting for the percent of caymanians under 18 which is somewhere between 22-28%)
Not to mention that not everyone who can vote is registered to vote ( the official register is 21,211 registered voters)
And out of the registered voters not even all of them end up voting ( I think in the 2017 election it was somewhere around 15,000
Sorry I love statistics
As do I but his policies affect all 60,000, the disenfranchised 26,000 arguably more so…
Boo hoo
Expats who know how the system worked when they signed up are sad cause they can’t perform a hostile takeover
Blizzarely paranoid comment. Disenfranchised simply refers to those who aren’t allowed to vote, it doesn’t imply any thoughts on whether they should be able to or not. Stick to numbers.
According to this the only politician you seem happy with at the moment is Chris! What has he done exactly ? Besides make a lot of sound bites
I support his policies, proposals, PMMs and the job he has done so far of asking the questions that people want answers to on the floor of the LA and in Finance committee (and the PAC)
Is that enough for you or are you going to pretend that he hasn’t been doing a pretty good job for a first time MLA?
Yawn!
Keep up the good works Mr. Miller