MLA calls for social report in face of poverty
Alva Suckoo in the Legislative Assembly
(CNS): The deputy opposition leader and member for Newlands, Alva Suckoo, is calling on government to assess the root causes of social problems in the Cayman Islands to reverse the trend of growing criminality, which he believes is fuelled by the lack of opportunities for local people to advance in society. Following revelations by Chief Justice Anthony Smellie at the 2019 opening of the Grand Court last Wednesday that Cayman needs at least three more courtrooms to accommodate the growing number of criminal cases, Suckoo called for a study on what is causing the barriers to social mobility.
In a public statement about the chief justice’s comments, Suckoo accused government of trivialising his private member’s motion on social mobility, which was debated in the Legislative Assembly last year, that failed to gain any support from the Government of National Unity.
But he said he hoped that they would listen to the chief justice. Suckoo said Smellie had issued “a stark warning to the country that criminality has grown beyond the capability of the courts to dispense justice in a timely way and signals the breakdown of law and order on a widening scale”.
Suckoo believes that a study on what is holding Caymanians back would ultimately lead “to the creation of policies and initiatives to address the myriad existing social problems that serve as obstacles to Caymanians leading productive and happy lives”.
Despite the many development projects in progress and the failed promise of so-called “trickle-down” benefits for everyone, Suckoo said progress for Caymanians continues to be impeded.
“Far too many people are not earning enough to sustain themselves and their families; many are not sufficiently educated and trained to be able to secure adequate wages, and far too many are turning to criminality,” he added.
Pressures are being felt, not only in the court system, but in the way we do business, in family life and in the school system, Suckoo said. “We see it every day. More and more people are showing up in the court system, serious crimes have become commonplace, cheap labour has become a requirement of doing business, and our children are leaving the school system unprepared to fend for themselves.”
Suckoo called for a “radical shift in thinking” and a move from the traditional reactive approach for more courtrooms or a bigger prison because that will not solve these problems.
“Until we change our thinking and our approach, our social conditions will continue to deteriorate,” Suckoo predicted. “We went from needing a new courthouse and securing a new building to needing three additional courtrooms not even a year into the new building’s acquisition. If that doesn’t concern the government, then they are living in denial,” he added.
Although there remains consistent anecdotal and empirical evidence that many people in Cayman are living on the edge, the official unemployment figure is down to 3.4%, with the rate among Caymanians alone down from being over 7% for several years to 5.3%.
But the numbers among young people are much higher running at around 15%. There are also growing concerns about low wages in the face of inflation running at around 5%. The problem of poverty among the elderly fuelled by health insurance costs and inflation is also a major problem in the current economy.
However, speaking in the Legislative Assembly in December, Premier Alden McLaughlin declared that Cayman no longer had an unemployment problem, as he suggested the rate was so low it was down to structural levels. Taking aim at his opposition critics, he described the claims they make about unemployment among Caymanians as “imaginary”.
“We are at a level now where the economists will refer to it as structural unemployment,” he said. Denying that there were thousands of jobless Caymanians, he said, “No matter what you do there will always be a certain percentage of the labour force that is unemployed.”
Category: Local News
as a native, i am questioning, why does central planning have to be controlled by the rich???? alva?
Alva, why does the POOR pay same amount if taxes as Rich? you know what i am talking about…and yes i am a native that is looking another country to retire…when it comes!!!??
Because it’s indirect taxation and not direct taxation. Seriously?
In today’s world, objective morality has been replaced by the Godless morality governed by the authority of politically correct and gender neutral leftists celebrities.
Don’t need another report.
Stop importing economic dependents from neighboring island.
Provide contraceptives for all school kids so the single parent revolving door will slowdown.
Take the unemployed unmarried 25 year olds with 5 kids on a lecture tour of the schools as a lesson in what happens to you in reality when you have kids you can’t afford.
And have them teach that these boys in high school they pregnant by will probably not be around and want nothing to do with you after you leave school.
That horse already left the barn. Perhaps Suckoo will have success, I sure hope he does get backing
More people/population = more problems in all categories.
Government has not, is not addressing the social ills that come with the influx of more people and yet they continue to want more, upwards of 80 to 100,000. On and island this size. !
Same thing with the roads, no matter how many new ones are built/redesigns, you’ll still have too many cars, as there’s no Proper public transportation to rely on. Proper being the keyword here.
What Suckoo has raised is a most interesting topic — how to break the cycle of child poverty and therefore tackle social mobility — criminality is an outcome of that cycle in some cases — but is just one aspect of the larger picture.
To understand this topic, I began to look around the Internet to better inform myself. Readers might wish to have a quick look at this website:
https://esrc.ukri.org/news-events-and-publications/evidence-briefings/child-poverty-casts-a-long-shadow-over-social-mobility/
It would be fantastic to have a unit of Government dedicated to gathering all the available global research on barriers to social mobility, examining the Cayman situation, and then coordinating among government departments on how to tackle and developing the type of policies and actions necessary. It would be quite an amazing undertaking if everyone was committed to turning the tide.
Unfortunately, government doesn’t have the vision — what they keep doing is putting studies on the shelves and thus failing to tackle problems—and not looking at some of the wider issues.
Criminality is somewhat narrowly focused, though important and certainly a huge concern, but what we need to be looking at is exactly what Suckoo identified — how to address social mobility.
Maybe one day, Suckoo….
Legalising abortion would be a sound long-term measure.
This comment in another media today is worth responding to:
“The government’s top priority must be to act where it is most effective: preserving the public safety by holding people accountable when they break the law. That means arresting, prosecuting and, upon conviction, removing criminals expeditiously from the general population.”
The truth is that incarceration is not the “most effective” response—the level of recidivism makes it the most ineffective response—producing hardened criminals.
The Court actually does have a number of programmes, such as the Drug Court and mediation, and possibly others, all designed to bypass incarceration wherever possible — at least to give people a chance to re-set their course.
I think where Mr. Suckoo was headed was a fresh review of criminality, and early identification and early interventions to re-direct people away from the pattern of “removing criminals expeditiously” from the general population.
It has been proven time and again that this strategy does not produce the desired results.
Take the US, for example, they aggressively pursue incarceration, and here is the result:
“In September 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population. While the United States represents about 4.4 percent of the world’s population, it houses around 22 percent of the world’s prisoners.” (Wikipedia)
Here is what Wikipedia reports on recidivism (repeated crime after incarceration and consequent return to jail):
“According to the National Institute of Justice, about 68 percent of 405,000 prisoners released in 30 states in 2005 were arrested for a new crime within three years of their release from prison, and 77 percent were arrested within five years. … Crime continues inside many prison walls.”
Phew – clearly we are just warehousing people for the most part to no real effect other than mostly supporting entrenched criminal behaviour.”
Whether or not Mr. Suckoo had stated it in his Motion, I don’t know, but I am sure that is where he was headed – programmes that would provide for early intervention and prevention.
Certainly, we are not doing enough – and we cannot throw up our hands and say government cannot reach into homes.
The Children and Family Services and the counselling programmes, in our small communities know which families are in trouble.
No one can tell me that with effective programmes we cannot save more of these young people from going down the road to entrenched criminality.
Actually 9:55 am, you make some good points, but both you and the editorial you are referencing are addressing a criminality study.
If your read the article again, it is actuality reporting on Suckoo’s motion on social mobility that was rejected. He did not ask for a study on crime—but rather on social mobility. They are related but they are not the same.
Could government not tell us to what use these studies have been put? Are these just more examples of wasted effort, time and money? There needs to be more accountability.
Citizens need to demand more from their government, rather than just complaining about inaction.
Mr. Suckoo’s Motion in the LA was really about social mobility. He had called for an investigation into the “root causes of the barriers to Caymanians moving from one socio-economic strata to the next.”
Further to that, quoting from the CNS report outlined here: ‘Suckoo believes that a study on what is holding Caymanians back would ultimately lead “to the creation of policies and initiatives to address the myriad existing social problems that serve as obstacles to Caymanians leading productive and happy lives.” ‘
So Suckoo is actually calling for an outcome targeting policies and initiatives to address social problems.
Don’t see a thing wrong with that.
Whether we have had studies gathering dust on shelves or not — no one can argue that there is a crying need to examine how effective our programmes are in the face of declining social conditions, and to implement programmes to impact those conditions.
1:14 pm: that is correct. Mr Suckoo was asking for a study on barriers to social mobility. He linked the criminality he mentioned to that lack of social and economic mobility.
Then he connected that outcome of criminality to the ever expanding court facilities and need for increased prison accommodations.
He is in actuality saying that instead of constantly throwing money at facilities designed to punish offenders, the government puts some of that into proper policies and programmes designed to rescue some of our young people from a life of crime.
The atrocious education system and an unrealistic sense of entitlement are the two biggest problems.
Starting with your family and heirs
Stop handing the blame down to the unborn/future youths through their ‘parents’ about abortion…
Be responsible, as it starts with you too XXXX.
We are all in this…in this meaning Humans on a planet. Simple. We are all supposed to be on the same ‘team’, XXXX.
Poverty does not cause criminality. Immorality, greed, selfishness and laziness are the causes of criminality. People blaming poverty are apologists for criminals and insult each and every law abiding low earner.
Abortion will fix the problems that maintenance enforcement doesn’t.
Cayman’s level 1 high school diplomas are gifted out to US GPA-equiv of 2.3-1.0 in only 5/14 “subject passes” (*note* “passes” are calibrated to grades D-G, or IV-VI); with 90% attendance, and under 15 days total disciplinary suspension in grades 10-12. That’s a really low academic and citizenship standard. Still, somehow kids aren’t even meeting that minimum threshold, possibly because they began their poor life decision making long before graduation age. Whose fault is that, and who should pay for that social failure? What has been done to constrain our gangs and reduce the viability of inter-generational careers in crime and illicit transshipment?
It is very disturbing to see the very young school age boys and older, lives being destroyed by an individual, who is dealing drugs. What is being done in the community to stave off this type of in appropriate action? Are the parent dumb or blind to the fact that their children are going down the slipprey slope. Just tired of the way the protectors are dealing with this situation.
Alvin, it does not take a genius to link poor parenting o criminality. Maybe not 100 percent but certainly there is a causal relationship. Poverty does not cause criminality but major factors are social inequality, lack of opportunity, and a piss poor social welfare system.
Aldart and Mini Marco thought that work permit and permanent residency fees were all that mattered….the expat is now the entitled in Cayman.
Lets start with FREE CONDOMS. Help people to protect themselves from creating more mouths to feed & look after. Then they may have more time and energy to focus on improving themselves and their skills so they are better able to take care of themselves and have no excuse to look to crime.
If we do not make a start the problems will keep repeating.
Your religious zealoths have a lot to answer for
Just a thought , why do white people go to such extremes to get dark ? and why do black people do the same to get light colour ? although its understandable why black people do that . I do not get it why whitey man does it . The sun makes them all wrinkly at an early age . Black women and men look great for their age . And YES racism is here still Loud and Clear , but getting better as the decades move on .
You are a racist.
Afraid not , you have no idea what goes on in other peoples mind . Racist handle these days are thrown around so much that people are afraid to talk or give an opinion . You are an idiot no name 2:29
You don’t get it. Only a racists would say that. You are clearly a racists and you will die poor with no job. I hunt down racists like you at work and I have already gotten several people terminated. You cant hide anymore. I dare you to give your name. Its only a matter of time.
Wow, the people that were once considered bullied and victims of racism are really now the new bullies and racists.
Inversion much?
Enforcement of the maintenance law would fix the issue of children and the elderly in poverty. The government should force wages and property from people who refuse to make these payments and/or support those they are responsible.
In cases, where ppl try to circumvent ownership of property or money by transferring to other people put heavy penalties and add jail time. Too many people transfer ‘gifts’ and then claim they have no money to pay up.
Not if they are unemployable or unemployed.
The cause, The rejection of God, faith and traditinal family values, substituted by Godless leftist as self appointed agents of morality.
The Cause. The reliance on God and your Mama to fix tings, rather than the resilience that Caymanians of not so long ago demonstrated to do things for themselves, and rely on faith and family only as a back up to their best efforts failing.
You cannot pray for your child to well educated and succeed while you let them play on your phone instead of reading a book and doing homework!
I reject your God, have committed no crime and do quite well financially.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No one is perfect,.
The cause:
Christians sitting on their asses praying and expecting bread to drop from the sky
While casting the blame onto every other possible minority they can think of and acting like they are the oppressed majority
How long till it goes from “godless leftists” to “heathens, apostates and religious enemies”
How long until you murderous scum start calling for renewed holy war and religious purity
Disgusting
Let’s not forget about the secular/godless leftists that killed if not 100’s of millions, Stalin, Hitler, et al… You know, your people…
Nationalism is a RIGHT wing problem you nutter.
Not necessarily shit for brains. Hitler was a national socialist.
Yes, extreme right wing.
Like Trump, he did have some good ideas though.
Here we go again. Brainwashed masses trying to convince us that Hitler was right leaning.
Hitler was not right. He was a totalitarian dictator, just like all left wing maniacs. You people will not stop until you have murdered all the true Christians who are the only people who have ever been right.
Did you not hear what Jesus said? He said my kingdom is not of this world. True children of God do not resist your evil. God will avenge us.
My word to atheists. What are you people going to say when Obama declares himself to be god? Will you suddenly stop being atheists and believe?
Are you also disgusted by the many many 10’s of millions killed by Godless secular leftists? Stalin, Hitler, Castro, et al?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_communist_regimes
But we have to come up with Plan B as forcing people to believe in an imaginary sky fairy is not going to happen.
All of the people I know in Cayman who live in extreme poverty are God fearing
bible bashing Christians, all are right wing and are self appointed agents of morality!
Probably an unpopular opinion for CNS readers. But there are numerous studies across the Western world which have been done on this problem. More courts, more prisons, etc.
Perhaps the first problem with Mr. Suckoo’s query is that he did not address it too clearly. The identifying trait of the vast majority of the criminal offenses are being carried out by men. More specifically, would be men of colour.
“the biggest failure and illusion of Western society was in the pursuit of feminism. The second we removed Mothers from the home, we became a failed state”.
Worth noting the above quote was not in relation to “All Women”, but rather to “Mothers”.
The removal of Mothers from the home, removes the nurturing element of family life.
Divorce rates sky rocketing further removes the Good Fathers from the home.
Further, during the same time frame, the pursuit of feminism “free sex” thinking, meant more women are likely to bed men of poor values (the bad boy), as opposed to smarter long term thinking of responsible men. This creates a double-whammy, as now there are fewer good Fathers shouldering the responsibility, and Mothers absent from their children’s lives for the bulk of their youth.
Now in turn, schools pick up the slack, and that’s a whole different problem because they are attempting to educate, nurture and invariable raise children where their parents are failing.
Nearly 1/2 of children are raised in single Mother homes. Nearly 80% of teachers are Women. Most of these boys are raised in the absence of masculinity. This creates a void which they seek to fill when the independence of teenage years kick in. And unless “saved” by a Good Man, they will usually fall into the hands of poor influences.
When all of these factors are then put into a capitalist competition driven system, it results in an inability to compete. Society and the market have little care for men. There are no programmes to assist men to learn how to compete.
Unfortunately the liberals would demean this comment as belittling to women, blaming men for being toxic. Hopefully they don’t and take a deep step back to recognize the spark that set this course on action.
If you want fix the problems. Start with fixing the myriad of social issues which stem from the removal of Mothers from the home. Address the inequality in teaching methods for boys and girls, which heavily favours girls. Start building strong men again.
So true! Liberalism is a cancer. In some societies keeping people of colour in poverty is by design. In America that is what Planned Parenthood was set up for and continues to be supported by Democrats. A veiled way of aborting black babies in disguise of facilitating killing babies for all. Read about Margaret Sanger and her biases. Furthermore, now we have a California liberal heading our schools and influencing our children. The problems won’t end. They will only increase!
Its the Republicans that want to squeeze families and not Democrats. Republicans want to take away ALL social programs that help underprivileged families to survive. If you really believe Liberals and Democrats are evil you really have a backwards way of thought considering the devil himself is now in the White House.
Republicans? Democrats? WTF are you jabbering about? We don’t have democrat or republican crap here! All we have are some shady politicians.
Blaming liberalism in a country that has been staunchly conservative since it’s inception
I love the lies you people will come up with to justify the shitty situation your conservative politicians have thrusted upon us
Please lead me to the liberal cabal running Cayman into the ground
Where is your list of liberal policies destroying the island or the liberal politicians pushing these policies
So tired of the BS that you spout
Christians are always the victims
Our politicians are very liberal, especially with their policy of unbridalled immigration that foisted the likes of you upon us.
WIshful thinking in 2019. No one cares about each other anymore and everyone just wants short term fixes for sex, jobs and money. We live in a world where families and raising children take a back seat to the slavery of the current economy where enough is never enough. We need 2 bread winners per family just to keep a roof over the head, electricity and food in the belly.
The system is inherently broken and only rewards business owners and not the workers. Workers are expected now to raise families, work 45+ hours per week, accept fewer health and social benefits, accept rising costs with stagnating wages that would have barely been enough even in 2005.
The world is screwed, dying and there is little to no point in raising a family anymore. The owners of the world want people like you and me to suffer every single day while they yuck it up on their yachts and private planes. The system is rigged to favor people who were born into wealth and not the ones who work hard. Once you learn this truth you can sit back and chill and enjoy your meager wage because you weren’t born to Bill Gates.
1000% accurate. Welcome to the age of leftism, the fatherless culture and the destruction of the family unit. Expect many thumbs down from the leftist cult. But that should be a confirmation that you are spot on.
9:15 am, you wise some good points, but I submit a few responses for consideration:
First, your comment: “The identifying trait of the vast majority of the criminal offenses are being carried out by men.” — that would be true for Cayman. “More specifically, would be men of colour.” Again, since most indigenous persons are persons “of colour” as you put it, then it would follow that most of our prison population would fit into that ethnicity.
Similarly, please note below statistics for the UK:
England and Wales crime statistics
White Black
Population aged 10 and over (2009) 88.6% 2.7%
Stops and searches under Police and Criminal Evidence Act
67.2% 14.6%
Arrests 2009/10 79.6% 8.0%
Prison population (including foreign nationals)
72.0% 13.7%
Overwhelmingly white — for the same reason I suppose that our prison population would be overwhelmingly non-white.
The US is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish – very complicated. Nuff said on the issue of ethnicity and relationship to crime.
On the matter of the studies:
The most recent study was in 2006 – could be useful, but is already nearly 13 years old. The other one is in 2001 – older still. They would be useful, but conditions are rapidly changing in our environment.
The IPAC (Institute of Public Administration of Canada) Report, was published in 2012, six years ago but from what I could gather that was about recommending a particular intervention called “SNAP”—not a study on causes.
One the matter of Mr. Suckoo addressing causes, as in your comment “Perhaps the first problem with Mr. Suckoo’s query is that he did not address it too clearly,” note that Mr. Suckoo was not attempting to address causes – he was asking for a study to determine causes.
On the matter of your comment “The second we removed Mothers from the home, we became a failed state” – I agree that this has had an impact, but don’t forget that there is no reason that men cannot assume the responsibility for child care – why not? It should at least be a shared responsibility, right?
My view is that the real cause is materialism – the worship of things and acquisition of property and more money. I believe that it is possible for families to do quite well with both parents working, but both parents need to put the family first. This will mean that careers may have to take second place when raising young children—that is, no late working hours and coming home so exhausted that children suffer. Neglect of children is not relegated to single parents – some single parents manage better than two-parent families where both parents are focused on careers and making more and more money.
Just adding to the discussion.
C’mon locals, we need first world results using 3rd world labor! Don’t you know these big multinational billionaire owned companies can’t afford to pay more than $7.00 an hour? How else do you expect the CEO to afford their 4th yacht? Caymanians should suck it up and live 5 to a two bedroom apartment like the Filipinos do. I’ve never met happier people either, if they can be happy sleeping in bunkbeds you can too!
First he is going to need to build a new shelf.
As Michael Myles has pointed out, there have already been 3 reviews and expert reports on this area, “Inquiry into the Causes of Social Breakdown and Violence Among Youth in the Cayman Islands (2001),” “Pre-disposing Factors of Criminality in the Cayman Islands (2006)” and the “IPAC Report: Review of the Assessment and Treatment of Criminal Offenders in the Cayman Islands”, and a briefing memo for the National Security Council on their findings.
What is needed is not yet another report, its action. As opposition Mr Suckoo might find it a lot easier to ask why government hasnt done anything rather than give them an opportunity to kick the can down the road – again – by commissioning yet another report.
I want to know where these reports go. I’ve put together a few myself and that was it. Never seen or heard of again. I suggest taking the out dusting off the cobwrbe and use them.
I agree that studies are done and get shelved with no follow up — but it is also true that the studies referenced are dated and the situation may need a fresh look. One thing for sure, there is an urgent need for proper intervention or we will reap dire consequences.
Our leaders can’t read.
If the last study was done in 2006 I see no reason why another should not be done. We cannot fix 2019 problems with 2006 research. This time it should be implemented. Funds should be taken our of the cruise pier budget to pay for it. After all if the research benefits the communities then it will benefit the added visters that the new piers will bring, the Chief Justice is lamenting that we need more court rooms even before the building bought last year has be refitted! The prison is overflowing, crime is increasing etc. etc. the Compass mentioned that much Optimism came out of the Chief Justice’s address but I have to really ask, “Optism for whom”?
He cry is to hire more of his own and try fuel cases. Keep them employed like the HSA. Hope Harris will investigate why their are 99o/o of one nationality working there. Stop sidelining the indigenous people, give them jobs in their country.
Reports are like laws. Commission a report, pay the price, receive it, shelve it. Make laws, amend them, so they are not affective.
The parents must be made responsible for their children. Too many are having children and are not capable to nraise them and are being encouraged to have more with the assistance of NAU.
That’s how the politicians want them. Uneducated and broke so they can give them money and then they will vote for them.
Al – not hard to understand the answers.
1. The government education system is inferior
2 Even were it not, classrooms are overcrowded and contain too many different ability levels.
3 We keep importing poverty, which it turn strains services desperately needed for local people.
4. The ease of permits depresses wages
5 Minimum wage should be limited to the least skilled/unskilled roles. It is not, and therefore there is no benefit to promotion if every job at every level pays $6.00.
5. The training obliged by the immigration law (absolutely critical in the absence of numerous vocational schools) is not enforced.
6. The foreign control of many businesses (unlawful given 60:40 expectations) decreases opportunity for local advancement, both in employment (birds of a feather) and ownership.
7. Many local people have lost hope, and no one is willing to give a straight answer to the question: Who are we developing for and why?
The education system is racists, we need more people of our own. Why are we hiring people who have no reason to be here in the Caribbean who don’t know the culture so they are grading too hard. They can visit, but should not stay.
You do realize that when the UN sent an anti colonial delegation here to encourage Cayman to unshackle itself from the bonds of colonialism, we sang God Save the Queen and chased them off. Those were the same “Caribbean People” you think we should have more of in our education system and you seem to think are more like us?
In the world of telecommunications and air transport London is now closer to us than Trinidad. Ask what is better for the future of Cayman, and your own grandchildren.
Amen! I have been saying this for years!
Grading too hard? Really, I think that our children should be held to a higher standard not just “good enough” as a product of our public education system I’m dismayed and saddened by its current state.
I am sorry, but your contract will not be renewed.
Yes because learning about wattle and daub house building will prepare our kids for a future in the 21st century.
F’n Muppet
I’m not against learning about our culture but to say because the foreign teachers are purposely grading our kids too hard? Maybe parents should take an active roll in encouraging our students to participate in school and our politicians to support the education system properly. Math, science, economics, English really has nothing next to squat to do with our culture.
I agree with most of what you’ve said, however in my personal lowest of lows, I have never stooped to criminal activity. Ever. I also won’t ever excuse those who do stoop to criminal activity. Being Caymanian, I would take ANY job away from low-paid work permit holders, whatever it took to feed my family. Stealing or robbing my own (or anyone else) is never justified.
These native crooks are lowlifes and should be in jail if they don’t have the sand to work hard for themselves. If I can claw my way out of my own self-made hole to where I am self-sufficient and not a drain on the country’s resources, then I believe almost any able-bodied person can do the same.
Stop blaming others and making excuses for those who take the easy way out and resort to criminal activity.
Blame the system not the “others”.
Seems your good ol’ boy or gal…where has that really got you?
XXXX So…your no different criminal or not we are all in a broken rotten system!
You expect change when the Minister most responsible for how screwed up our education system is is also the Minister most responsible for how screwed up our immigration system is and is also the Premier? Fix education and immigration, and we will be most of the way to a solution.
Alva millions have been spent on reports please use your position for solutions not more reports like Tara
Just what we need, another report.
Hes trying to stay employeed – dont blame him! But they wont fix it, unless its a global initiative honestly and why? Well is cayman independent?? Not even any global coubtry can say they 100% at this time either. Everyone of benefiting from palm greasing and under table deals its all over news/tv…and you all want to stop the small time criminals first??
Anything that distracts the uneducated and stupid from eating the rich.
Premier Alden McLaughlin seems to be out of touch with reality as we have serious problems with education, employment and access to affordable healthcare in the Cayman Islands. Many of these problems are of our own making and are the result of poor planning and decision making by government and by many of us as individuals.
We have allowed the business lobby groups in this country to convince the government to make decisions that are not in the interests of the country as a whole. We have failed to take responsibility for the education of our children, so many are unprepared to take on the jobs of the future. We have failed to put in place adequate safeguards to prevent discrimination in the workplace. We have failed to establish socially acceptable immigration policies and controls.
It is time that we open our eye and accept the reality of what is happening and take the steps necessary to correct the situation before it is too late.
It’s already too late. The inmates are running the asylum.
seems like the Premier is happy for the trend to continue and will just build more prisons – time for a radical shift in leadership I think, time for these younger more educated leaders to lead. Suckoo and Saunders seem to have a better reading of what is going on here than the rubber stamp committee that I see on the Government side of the house. They seem to think a few chickens at Christmas and some bush cleaning temp jobs are all our people deserve.
It’s not an unemployment problem, it’s an unemployable problem. Education needs to be much more rigorous. You definitely need a trade school (including tourist trades not just construction) and a decent UCCI business program. In the meantime you also need a bigger jail and more courtrooms. This is obvious. The passenger fees you are about to spend on the dock should instead be spent on these things. But your leaders are not really serious about the crime and the unemployables that are going to eat you up.
Trade schools are too expensive and unnecessary given our population size. Better would be the immigration mandated training and apprenticeship schemes required of businesses with work permits – and totally ignored.
9:10 But a full university is OK for a population our size? A full university is far more expensive and unnecessary than a trade school, especially when those Caymanians who are bright enough to go to university in the UK have all their fees picked up by the CIG.
We do not have a full university here. We have a medical school and a law school, and both are pretty good. The others are at best the equivalent of community colleges.
It would attract foreign students who want to live on the beach and study instead of freeze and study.
Universities usually stimulate failing economies.
Racism is the reason for it all. Reparations time is coming.
What a foolish comment. Let me ask you this: If the colour of a person’s skin is responsible for their shortcomings, is it also responsible for their accomplishments? No, and hell no! Adults take responsibility for themselves.
Oh…kkk then!?