Over 650 families going to bed hungry
(CNS): At least 652 households recorded people in their families going to bed hungry in Cayman because they could not afford to buy food in the month prior to them taking part in the 2021 census last October. Another 673 households said they didn’t know or did not answer the question, which means that well over 2.2% of families, the majority of them Caymanian, are food insecure, despite the country’s significant GDP.
“This is a serious area of concern for this government and one of the reasons why we pushed the school meal programme very early on,” Deputy Premier Chris Saunders said last week at the recent press briefing announcing the publication of the 2021 Census of Population and Housing Report. “There is still a lot of work to be done and we will be working with other private sector organisations to ensure that nobody that calls the Cayman Islands home should go to bed hungry.”
Saunders said that not everyone in the Cayman Islands can be rich. Equally, nobody in the Cayman Islands needs to be poor. “We have too much resources here for anyone to be going to bed hungry. This is one of the other things that is very dear to me and my colleagues,” he said.
The question about food insecurity was one of several new additions to the census, which was designed to collect more data about how people are living and where government needs to invest and redesign policies to support the community.
“Like you, all of us in the PACT Government believe that there is a disconnect between the quality of our economy and the quality of life for our people, and one of our goals since taking office was to improve our data collection that focuses on quality of life,” Saunders said, noting that the census revealed a worrying number of people that could be going hungry.
According to the census report, North Side and East End households had the highest levels of food insecurity at 4.5% each, while 2.7% of families in Bodden Town and 2.3% in the Sister Islands also reported people going to bed hungry. George Town had the lowest level of food concerns at 1.8%, followed by West Bay with 2.1%. Of the total households reporting food insecurity, over 65% were Caymanian.
Premier Wayne Panton said the census results would be used to improve social conditions and standards of living for these vulnerable members of the community.
“With the new census information we now have information on persons outside the labour force, older persons, persons with disabilities, veterans, persons in households with food security issues and those without health insurance,” he said. “Having this information is going to be very valuable in assisting our government in being able to work for you, but it will also help the many hard-working community-based groups – the NGOs – to better understand and serve the people they help as well,” he added.
The census revealed the average and mean earnings for workers in the Cayman Islands, which highlighted the gaps between the rich and the poor as well as the problem of the working poor.
While some 3,921 people said they earned in excess of $100,800 per annum, the vast majority of workers reported having to manage on less than $36,000 a year. But around 15,000 employees (more than one-third of the entire workforce) were earning less than CI$2,400 per month, posing a challenge for those families given the already high cost of living in Cayman, fuelled further in recent years by relentless inflation.
The overall median earnings for the country was $35,994, which means that 50% of the population earned below that amount. The median income for Caymanians was higher at $45,594, while non-Caymanians’ median earnings were $31,194. But that does not tell the real picture, given the significant numbers of people on much lower incomes.
The census revealed numerous other inequities in the workforce, such as women earning less than men in some cases for doing the same work and non-Caymanians earning less than Caymanians, another issue that Saunders raised at the recent press briefing.
“While I am aware that there may be positions with different levels of seniority, nonetheless we need to make sure that it is indeed based on seniority or type of role and not anything else,” he said. “While this government cannot guarantee an equal outcome, we will continue to push for equal opportunities.”
Saunders, who is the labour minister, urged employers and managers to ensure that people are treated fairly and paid equally when performing the same roles.
Although the census reported an unemployment rate at the time of the count of 5.7% across the workforce, Caymanian unemployment stood at 8.5%. Since then, the Labour Force Survey recorded a drop in overall unemployment to 3% at the end of June this year, with the rate of unemployment for Caymanians at 5.1%.
Watch the full press briefing on CIGTV below:
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Category: Local News, Politics
All while this totally inept set of clowns we have as a government get up on stage pretending to be “bad-man dj”. I am ashamed that these are persons we should be looking up to? Totally disgraceful. And Wayne Panton- you of all people must hang your head in shame for condoning and participating in such poor, unethical and isane behaviour.
I can’t beleive it took them a census to know about the wages and people living below the poverty line. Just take the minimum wage for instance. Can’t even buy a gallon of gas with that. No wonder there is extreme poverty. With all the high cost of housing, food and everything else and Government just letting everything go the way the businesses regulating it. Caymanian also are not paid more than the expats and sometimes they are treated much worse because they cannot afford to work for the six dollars an hour minimum wage. Which many of the expats will gladly come here to work for because it is better than where they come from. Government need to put a lot of controls in place now! They have the ways and means to do so and not just talk about it.Everything here is already too much of control and that is the main reason the people are suffering.
Make the Hotels and Restaurants pay the minimum wages of 6 $ p h plus tips.
TIPS comes from the customer’s NOT the employers.
“This is a serious area of concern for this government and one of the reasons why we pushed the school meal programme very early on,” Deputy Premier Chris Saunders said last week at the recent press briefing announcing the publication of the 2021 Census of Population and Housing Report. “There is still a lot of work to be done and we will be working with other private sector organizations to ensure that nobody that calls the Cayman Islands home should go to bed hungry.”…………This man is so fake and unconcerned about the locals that are suffering! I know for a fact that on numerous occasions Chris Saunders instructed WORC employees that handle work permits to APPROVE approximately 40 work permits per day each, that’s roughly 400 approved permits per day. This whole thing about WORC ‘assisting’ unemployed Caymanians from tourism sector is bull crap! It’s a show that they are putting on to say ‘they’ doing something. How many locals have successfully obtained employed with WORC’s assistance?? Not many! PACT like their predecessor are the cause and continuation of cheap labor in the Cayman Islands. Who in this country especially in times like these, can live on $6.00 an hour?? I understand that government needs or depends on revenue made from work permits, tourism, customs duties, etc but it’s to a point now that they are so money hungry. There needs to be a balance. They don’t seem to care how their poor decisions are the cause of many families / defenseless children going hungry day after day or without shelter because their parent(s) can’t find a job! Thanks Mr. Saunders, so far you’ve done such a wonderful job it’s embarrassing.
Now that we know who these families are, we can stop giving thousands to greedy boat owners and and fix this poverty problem.
Money is never the issue and is always available.
It is the political will that is lacking.
People need to live within their means. Stop buying 1,000 $ phones and practically living in bars and saloons. Stop buying all unnecessary things, only buy whats needed NOT what they want, then we be ok.
The problem we have about seniority is that Caymanaian are hired and then released or fired when they on cover the tactics to keep them down.
Introduce an income tax on higher incomes, and use that for a proper social security system.
Also dor people on work permits. They gave the same problems, just like caymanians.
There is already a tax on people on work permits. Its called work permit fees. Just one more reason that expats are paid less than caymanians for the same job – the employer has to pay for the expats work permit, so pays them less.
I didn’t realize all those expats living in Vista Del Mar and Yacht Club and Grand Harbour were being paid less than Caymanians, 10:54………
There is plenty leftover food from all restaurants and hotels. It can easily give it away to poor families for free! Even supermarket throw away good food date by which it is nothing wrong with food. How many tons of good food goes to trashmore a day?!
basic food commoditiies are so cheap they should almost be free….esp when u factor in wastage
food scraps and expired rotten food is your answer???
CayCon aka Cayman connection keeps bragging about all this money they keep asking sponsors to provide .why does the UK London office need all this money and how is it been spent to benefit Cayman and Caymanians overseas I hope it ain’t like InvestCayman who cannot tell us one thing they have done to help Cayman .Another pie in the Sky govt money pit create to prop up those who’s fabulous jet set international lifestyles is showcased on social media . CayCon and InvestCayman need to provide audited Financials Now to the AG office to see exactly how they are spending this money ? 650 families need this money NOW Cayman stop wasting money on Pure Foolishness overseas promoting colonial ideology to international audiences.
Why are rent so expensive one bedroom for 1500 two bedrooms 2000 on more how can people live like that if someone can pay so much for Rent, they can afford to pay for a house or Mortgage it’s time for the people to speak out? Soon there will be no more Caymanian right no more land for the kids and grandchildren it’s sad.
While I truly sympathize with your sentiments, it is obvious that the problem is largely the result of the failed education system.
That does not help, but it is mostly the result of a failed immigration system including the mass importation of poverty and allowing roles to be filled by foreigners at sub-subsistence levels.
Definitely has NOTHING to do with the Education system. Many degree holding Caymanians are still unemployed or have settled for careers below their pay grade. Clearly this is a non-caymanian mentality KMT.
Degrees in what, from where.?
Having a’Masters’ from California coastal on line college isn’t worth the paper.
Bible studies degrees worthless for jobseekers too.
If a Caymanian is unemployed there’s always a damn good reason, and it’s not always the employer’s fault.
The charade has to end. I am one of the Caymanians with top level international degrees gained at competitive institutions, marginalized and shunned in my own country. The concept of the civil service applying and enforcing our laws without fear or favor is a scam. It is long past time for a reckoning.
Well you need to take a closer look at your other skills or lack-there-of. Being educated is not the ONLY factor when seeking employment.
I am also A Caymanian with numerous degrees and years of working experience who has had difficulty moving up in my field of study. While seeing others hired with hardly any qualifications and paid sufficiently more. Then being asked to train/mentor such people. I currently fully understand why many Caymanians leave and never look back.
Why do you have many degrees?
2000 a month in mortgage payments isn’t going to get you much of a house unless you have a lot of money to put down.
Let alone banking limits on how much they will advance in terms of multiples of your income. At a maximum ratio of say 5 x income- which is greater than you would be allowed in the UK by the banking regulator! – difficult to get enough of a mortgage to buy a house unless you already have savings.
8:45 am because the cost to buy land and build is do very high
Rent controls are the best solution, but the greedy landlords would riot.
Yes! So very sad!
Maybe our well-paid, well-fed esteemed Ministers could ‘adopt’ 10-15 families each that go to bed hungry. It is quite obvious that our Ministers do not lack for calories, so they can share the wealth; hey WE pay for their gluttony! Come on Ministers, have a cookout with those in your district whose children go to bed hungry! No? Nobody????
They arent due to hand out more cash until election time DUH
Just want to throw this in but there are incredibly wealthy generational Caymanian families that give absolutely nothing back.
That is true. More status grantees, who give nothing back, with incredible wealth. Don’t skew the predominant trend.
Name one wealthy generational Caymanian family that does not give back.
Do political donations count ?
It is time to look into these cartels and oligopolies and break them up.
Food stamps will be coming next if our government don’t take heed. No person, animal or thing should go hungry in the Cayman Islands. Come on Mr. Premier save your people, we have no where else to go.
The 35% non-Caymanian + some that should not have Status all have somewhere else to go to. Why are they here?
Because your civil service refuses to enforce your laws, and no one makes them.
May you could remind them they should be grateful that you saved them from themselves of the Covid by destroying the local economy , on top of that, saved them from asphyxiation with all your anti-energy climate change policies. So they should not complain.
Cayman connection needs to give all that money they collecting to charities to feed Caymanians!what is all this money been used for when we have 650 without food Come on Cayman we got to do better than this !
Charities and churches…
So we have 300 foreign families here struggling to eat? While I feel for them it looks very much like government is not only ignoring our immigration law. They are pissing on it.
Importing and maintaining extreme poverty is unsustainable.
Will someone make it stop! The failure to enforce or even follow our laws is sinking us all!
It is the rich Caymanians who are encouraging the importing of poverty so that they can have nannies, helpers, housekeepers and gardeners for pennies. Pay people a decent living wage and there would be no need for them to go hungry.
Almost there. Add the expats who do the exact same thing and you nailed it.
The expats even buy the nannies a car, adding to the traffic problem.
Only rich Caymanians have nannies and gardeners? Lol
Shame on you. You truly DON”T represent the kindness of Cayman.
Umm – he’s quoting Cayman immigration law. Are you saying our own laws aren’t representative of Cayman ? The ones passed by Cayman politicians elected by Caymanians?
They have a law here if you are on a work permit and you want to bring your child here to live with you, you must be making over 3000 dollars a month. If that is not your income, NO DEAL. The child will treated as a visitor on limited time, and will have to depart! That’s how it is.
Except it is not consistently enforced as emphasized by the fact that there are literally hundreds of hungry foreign nationals here.
This amount needs to change as there is NO WAY one can afford a dependant here with school fees and rent to be able to support themselves.
Doesn’t deal with coming here without dependents then having kids with a Caymanian tho, does it.
Ummm, those kids would be Caymanian kids. The core of the issue on this thread is the non Caymanian kids (and others) that are hungry.
They’re not Caymanian kids just because they’re born here. Anchor babies should be sent back with their foreign parent.
Una na see nuttin yet…keep allowing the billionaires to buy the country….how about limiting the percentage caymanians can own….whew! What a legacy we leaving for grandkids…who are not going be able buy land much less a house here…so sad…self destructing…
This guy gets it.
What needs to happen is a focus on CAYMANIANS and not every single person on island. Improve the quality of life for Caymanians, lower the cost of living for Caymanians and tax the expats that are clearly here to collect their pay cheque and spend it in another economy. Then we will see how many expats really want to move here. Maybe that will assist improving the Caymanians life. Imagine an expat living on island for four months only JUST met their first Caymanian… I am embarassed and was speechless. I know this is a long stretch but CIG please focus on your people and not your pockets.
Why lower the cost of living for Caymanians when prices are going up GLOBALLY? Does Cayman have some type of special rate that nobody else has? Reducing costs for cayman or Caymanians is not a thing, get it out of your head! Having consumer protection is one of the instruments needed to protect against unnecessary price hikes in the country. DArt has some say in all supermarkets and food importation.. deal with that fumble that the government allowed.
The second thing is to pay everyone in the country, especially Caymanians at the market rate. Expats do not relocate to this country for just the sun, they locate because it benefits them financially and legally. Caymanians are paid well below the market rate because of quality of education, lack of financial planning, not being part of the “boys” club, and because they are discriminated against. Locals need to be paid a salary that allows them to live without having to choose between utilities and eating, and not reduce the cost of living with fairy dust.
Yes Cayman has special rates and margins, engineered for years to artificially benefit the Caymanian owners of local banks.
Ah yes the pantomime villain Dart is responsible for supermarket food prices. Not the multi generational merchant families that own the big stores, oh no. Here a a clue – look at the name above the supermarket entrance!
Caymanians are paid well below the market rate…..except Chris Saunders says the census shows that Caymanians are paid more than expats doing the same job. But don’t let facts get in the way of your assumptions.
Racist much? Why aren’t you able to understand that being born in a certain country or a certain color doesn’t make you any more or less special than everyone else.
You deny that citizens of a country are entitled to preferential treatment when compared to non citizens?
The people suffer poor service as a matter of routine and all we hear is how the rotten expatriates are taking Caymanian jobs. In the civil service, Caymanians and a certain sector of the expatriate community get better pay and conditions for the same jobs when compared to a certain other group. Most of the Caymanians work hard and earn their pay, but too many come to work and do very little, expecting someone else who is getting less pay to do their work. These entitled Caymanians demand benefits and pay that they do not earn. This is wrong and ultimately unsustainable. Then there is a very special category of expatriates who get the highest pay, even if they are not fully qualified or do not earn the salary. The vast majority of expatriate workers in government have to work well above the required rate just to keep their work contracts, and usually in an atmosphere of abuse. The entire thing is a great game of pretense, while the entitled feed at the trough as if there is no tomorrow. And this is not even addressing the worst thing about the civil service, which is promotions and good-paying jobs. Caymanians who are qualified are discovering how the process of promotion is being used against them so that the in-crowd can get all the great jobs, while they continue to slave away for peanuts. Well, get used to it. This is routine.
Unfortunately if they focus on all Caymanians at present then more Jamaicans will benefit. What is needed is for a legal defrentiation between a native Caymanian and Status holder to be made with Status Holders not able to take advantage of all benefits.
Your solution is flawed. Any caymanians are not qualified to replace the expat workforce, especially in financial services, that generate the government income you plan to use to subsidize caymanians. The solution is education right from early school age.
You are an idiot.
There are many expats here who love the people of Cayman.
Did the census record how many live above their means? Driving big fancy cars, sporting the latest telephones and tv’s all on borrowed money!
And to make the payments they skip some meals.
The accuracy of this data needs to be verified before blabbing off about another Government vote buying handout!
This is a key point. Its easy here to point fingers of blame…but for some families they want cable tv, a nice car and buy restaurant food several times a week and then cry poverty and blame everyone. There are issues with foreign real estate agents, and foreign artisans taking key jobs here. But there is also an issue that the attitude of entitlement versus earning your way blurs self perception. Access to capital to start a business is lacking, and the cayman onwership rule is abused by many. Just turn on the radio and who do you hear on the two main stations, Americans, canadians and a UK national, go for a brunch not one local in site to serve a meal…. Why not – solve that we start to find soultions.
Make the Hotels and Restaurants pay the minimum wages of 6 $ p h plus tips.
TIPS comes from the customer’s NOT the employers.
Oh my goodness, really it took a census to find this out. I waited and waited an not one census worker came to my apartment. So you have to add 1 more Caymanian to your list. I am sick and tired of people being elected, promising to do for their Caymanians. Mr Premier, Mr. Panton,the Governor Mr. Martin Roper am still awaiting a response to my email, I sent months ago to you both. It seems no one in this PACT government really cares about its people. Yet everyday I read headlines of how much surplus money this country has. It would help if those elected by us the people, start to do for its people instead of grabbing every photo opportunity. Mr. Premier you can go 2 years now and walk in the gay parade, you too Mr. Governor and many more. Your only concern it seems is as I said grab every photo opportunity to make headlines. Why don’t you start by replying to my email and the many urgent concerns and needs its contained. A feed up, frustrated gay Caymanian who seems to be not worthy of a response. Sad when those elected to serve its people, really don’t give a crap about the less fortunate and vulnerable in Cayman. Start by answering my email. That would at least seem to show you care about me and my people.
Rather than orchestrating more handouts, PACT could use their legislative powers to significantly reduce cost of living by deregulating the 100% foreign owned and controlled class A banking industry. Peg KYD to USD and eliminate all forex spreads. Eliminate US-Cayman Prime rate spread, and allow regulated FDIC USA lenders access to Cayman loan market with expedited class A licenses and products. Supervise and regulate fees. Lower the household drag from home and credit card interest. Big spreads used to serve Caymanian-owned and controlled banks, and they don’t exist anymore. Instead they are being gifted away to exploitive foreign-owned banks, taxing residents every which way, because they can.
The last thing we need is more American or Canadian influences.
Next thing we will be bankrupting our people over medical debts…. oh wait. Next thing we will have a ridiculous tipping culture that props up an absurd minimum wage…. oh wait.
The best thing tis Island could do is use the taxes we do pay, and trust me, we do pay them, to provide socialised healthcare for a start, as well as free education for all children. Then we should open up our electoral pool to status holders etc.
There is NO and I mean NO reason this Island can not be a genuine utopia amongst the Western world with the funds we have and the size of our island. We should be leading the way in allowing tech companies to have their staff here, any other remote able company.
Too many Canadians, South Africans and Americans won’t allow that to happen though. They want to pull the ladder up behind them after they have graduated from lowly bar staff to whatever middle class job they end up with through their connections.
You lost me at open up our electoral pool to status grantees. If status grantees grandchildren, who remain here and put down roots, want to run for public office, that’s not an issue. If, however, you are a status grantee and want to run for office, then take a hike.
Because that would be so much worse than the current crop of obese and incompetent politicos. W
Socialised healthcare and free education sounds pretty Canadian to me eh.
so does 50% tax rate
Isn’t education already free for Caymanians?
Yes. And the children of hundreds of expatriate civil servants who do not earn enough to even qualify to have dependents if they worked in the private sector. Caymanians, Dog n’yam unna cheese.
Fancy words lured likes; but little economic logic. Go back to school.
Yet the UK Office Cayman Connections collecting Ten of thousands of dollars in sponsorship and we have families going hungry Cayman WTF ! Sounds like Cayman biggest CON ! Why is this money not being used to spend on our and students and athletes who need this money badly
Well our MLA’s look as though they could share with the hungry.
Significant GDP *AND* most churches per capita of any island in the Caribbean. Do they serve any community purpose other than railing against committed same sex relationships? Do they even know?
Churches are not your problem.
Correct, they are everybody’s problem.
Keeping people dumb and quiet is the only goal of churches and public schools .
half right. you guess which half
Its not just churches railing against same sex relationships and enforcement of their false “rights.” Why don’t you target your pistol somewhere else!
Time slipping by….time to campaign?
Why are rent so expensive one bedroom for 1500 two bedrooms 2000 on more how can people live like that if someone can pay so much for Rent, they can afford to pay for a house or Mortgage it’s time for the people to speak out? Soon there will be no more Caymanian right no more land for the kids and grandchildren it’s sad.
This is NOT only a Cayman problem. MANY cities across the world have high rents.
Do a survey of all Jamaicans and Filipinos on work permits and ask how many are extorted to pay their own work permit fees and in some cases consultants employed by their employers to fill out WORC applications and post the jobs on the WORC website. They cannot themselves complain or else they will lose their crappy job (which yes, are better than where they come from) and will have to leave.
Some employers do not pay sick leave, the minimum Basic Wage, or overtime pay rates at time and a half, and double time for public holidays, as set out in the Cayman Islands Labour Act.
Why you have to do that? If they want to work then take what I pay you or hit the bricks!!!
And our law enforcement, immigration and labor authorities do NOTHING.
We are corrupt.
And the Governor grins. And the Commissioner says the crime situation is stable.
Fillipino nannies
And they are so sweet and kind!
I see the government is still talking what is talking going to do for the people ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS let people see that you will do something to help them, going to bed hungry is a bad thing for any one, it’s a money things, by the time people pay their bills theirs not enough left for food I say to the government help your people Financially even if it’s for a little while let the people see that you care 👍🙏
Don’t you know that’s how they get re-elected. Lip service !
This shows how the rich are squeezing the rest of us out. PPM allowed all the high dollar investors to come in and build up all their high dollar properties and then had to allow high dollar people to come in to buy the overpriced properties. Of course to service all the rich folks you need cheap foreign labor so in that comes.Now we have housing the regular person can not afford and all that goes along with it. Throw in run away inflation and then pure greed and look at the big mess we now have. Will never change because money has bought the place out and now there is no going back. Thank you
Hey cry babies if you do not like it then leave. It is going pretty good for me and my friends and we do not have to pay any taxes. I want PPM back in because they really know how to run a country. Survival of the fittest chum, that’s my motto in a nutshell. You drama queens always make it out worse than it really is. What did Marie Antoinette say years ago – let them eat cake, well we got lots of breadfruits around!
Obvious troll. Grow up.
shut up with your troll business, we came here to make money and by golly we are going to do it. Let the chips fall where they may!
imagine.. telling someone this… in their own country..
The place is hot like a concrete jungle. It doesn’t feel like paradise here. Jamaica at least got more trees and beach access !!!
Jamaica is gross
We can see all the MLAs don’t go hungry
650 families going to bed hungry and a failing education system but Kenneth’s new Caymanian restaurant and Colin’s new Cardinal Avenue/GT renovations are far more important?
Hmmmm … I betta run too with a big smile on my face for a 12,000 dollar salary each month, plus perks, and business opportunities!
remeber when they said the census was needed to to drop covid mandates….?….never believe these incompetent clowns.
So what about raising the minimun wages too long just talk no action.
Oh man. Caymanians going to be in a pickle now they can’t complain about earning less than non Caymanians all the time.
Who have funk it, half the economy is predicated on importing poverty, paying them peanuts and charging tourists and the better off people on these Islands an absolute arm and leg for the service.
I’d love to see what the profit margins are like at a lot of the businesses here.
Looks like an education issue more than anything. You need to have skills to get paid for them in this country (or anywhere for that matter). If you have nothing to offer the work place, what do we do with you? I see people of all nationalities working in medial jobs doing simple tasks. Taking orders at take out, sweeping floors, etc. If your too proud to work, you will never get anywhere. If you wont educate yourself, you will never get ahead. Start small, work up and get the problem sorted. Please help Cayman Panton. We need it.
Yet native Caymanian kids being denied scholarships based on SAT scores which the colleges don’t require. Also means testing has been thrown out so kids with rich foreign born parents now share in the limited funds.
Wait a sec.. So I need an education and that will solve my problems. But … before I can get an education, I need money; before I can get money, I need a job. But a job won’t hire me because I am not educated. They say I experience… then before you know, they hire their own from overseas! GIVE ME BREAK!
Before you can get an education you need a job? Despite free public schooling and government scholarships? Right.
How else would you expect someone to pay for their schooling if they were illegible for a scholarship? Not all of us have mommy and daddy handouts either. Your comment is ignorant. To be illegible for a scholarship, there is many loopholes which I do not believe YOU would know! Has OUR educational system failed YOU anon?? shut up on issues you have no idea about!
Oh those terrible “loopholes” – like maintaining a GPA that you would need to graduate, and without which it’s rather pointless going to college or university.
You are ignorant. Where did I say GPA? You’re pulling at, what? Your own experiences or your guesses? Stop commenting on things you do not know anything about. So absurd to form an opinion on a topic you literally have no vested interest in it seems.
As a fifteen year old, I really do wonder what the future of the place I’ve known to call my home, will look like..
A dumpster fire kid!
Concrete. Lots of concrete. Tall concrete.
Expats living in tall concrete. Lots of expats with lots of non-Caymanian servants.
Serfdom. Lots of serfdom for lots of expats living in lots of tall concrete buildings.
Majority of them are able bodied and do not want to go to work.
Thank you. Many of those going hungry — at least in my district — are making bad choices; they have NAU assistance, but some use their food credit to ‘buy’ expensive cuts of meat which they then sell to fund their habits.
It’s a hell of a thing, and it breaks my heart. I don’t know what to do about it, so I feed people when they ask, but I won’t give them money, because I can see what they do with it. Some of these folk are my kin, and some of them have been through rehab a couple of times. A person has to want to change, I guess.
In the meantime, I’m sure they will be overjoyed with whatever Premier Panton comes up with to assuage their situation. I guess I sound hard-hearted. I have no more money to waste on people who use it to buy crack and coke. Some of these people have genuine talents which are sadly going to waste.
I don’t know it, but if my district is any indication, it seems likely to me that most of those who go to bed hungry are Caymanian and culpable in their poor situation.
I would love to see accountability with monies spent on NAU recipients. I would love to see a program which caused the able-bodied to work for their dues. The poor aren’t the enemy, however they aren’t allowed to just give up either.
Us worker bees, the middle class, we’re not allowed to just give up. Nope. We are encouraged to keep pushing, to keep producing, to keep generating income for the CIG. Nobody that is able-bodied should be allowed to give up.
Those who genuinely cannot provide for themselves, or those who cannot feed their families should, of course, ALWAYS be helped in every way possible. It is a disgrace the tiny stipend that our Seamen are paid for their years of service.
Agreed, but how many of those seamen are still alive? Honestly?
Their surviving spouses benefit too.
It should only be their surviving spouse benefits if they were married when he was at sea. The problem we’re now faced with is all the second younger wives and their basket load of kids are benefitting and costing our Govt.
The tradition big Cayman men going to sea to feed their families ended when? The 60s? The 70s. Yet we still have all these seamen needing assistance? There must be a handful still alive who actually served.
Daniel K Ludwig’s widow gave the govt hundreds of millions of dollars in the 80s to assist with the Caymanian seaman. Govt took that money and put into their own coffers and used it which is why the govt is still obligated to assist all Cayman seamen. If you would like to educate yourself on this matter, you can read “The Southwell Years” book compiled by Consuelo Ebanks. (Btw The standard of a good citizen is one that take of the elderly, the poor, children, and unable.)
Majority of Americans are able bodied and do not want to go to work. / Majority of Uk citizens are able bodied and do not want to go to work. / Majority of Jamaicans are able bodied and do not want to go to work. … YOU SOUND REDICULOUS !
I am the original poster and you sound like you like to
Make excuses and a lot of Whataboutism. People need to take responsibility.
Is this the PACT government who just took a pay rise
And locked the country down for a year more than we should have been. Destroying our tourism product. They need to look in the mirror they are partly to blame in this situation
Are you daft? The PACT Government did no lockdown at all!
the census is a bunch of garbage….people either did not know what they were being asked or the people taking the information did not know how to record it.
They ask too many questions. Like if I have TV! WHAT THE HELL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MY TV SET ???!!!
They didn’t ask about your tv, like what size it was. They just asked if MF you had one. Because a) it is a traditional indicator used in cenus- although rather out of date now – of household wealth and b) it gives an idea of how much coverage they can get in broadcasting public service messages. Same reason they ask if you have a radio.
More like if you don’t like the what the answers are simply deny the accuracy of the process. Lot easier than confronting uncomfortable truths.