Rights and responsibilities – seeking a sustainable balance
Nick Joseph writes: “Miene damen und herren, segnore e signori, mes dames et messieurs, ladies and gentlemen.” Those are the words that greeted me to the finest dinner I ever ate. Later that evening, I was asked for confirmation of which sauterne I would like to pair with my foie gras. A prominent Russian sitting in proximity to me asked for clarification. Not a problem for the Portuguese waitress, who, in addition to conversing easily in German, Italian, French and English was able to assist in near fluent Russian.
I was in Switzerland, and it was 10 years ago.Â
“Would y’all like a Bud with your burger?” was not part of the repertoire.Â
Upscale. Sophisticated. Exclusive. Expensive. It was memorable and like most things of the highest quality, it was worth it.
The waitress was a professional. Her training had taken years. She was a migrant worker, and like her Swiss colleagues, well paid for her expertise. Gstaad is nice. Not her forever home though. One day she was to return to her native Portugal. The cost of living demanded it.
In any event, she could be more content with her sardines and occasional presunto iberico and port. Never a Bud and a burger.
But beneath the surface, all may not have been perfect. Had I asked for some scotch bonnet on the side, some stew conch, callaloo or a rundown, I am confident the waitress would have had no idea what I was talking about.
This is my company’s logo, developed to represent aspects of our home. Do you see the conch? The catboat? The stingray? Something else? It is all a question of culture and perspective. We each have a vantage point. A perception.
I am a Caymanian, but my origin, literally, is Jamaican. An analysis of the law surrounding my birth could also lead to the conclusion that I was also born Iranian. Not terribly helpful.
I have lived my life in Cayman but have seen much of the world. My background, education, training and experience give me a unique perspective — and so do each of yours. My age and position now give me the confidence and ability to say what I see, as I see it, whether that be convenient or popular. We are here to share vantage points, perhaps even to reassess our perspectives.
Cayman is my home. Whilst I acknowledge we are sometimes demonstrably “a work in progress”, we have the potential to be superb.
My bias for Cayman (and our people) is perhaps apparent, but large numbers of discerning businesspeople and families from around the world, including Gstaad, are coming here and staying here. The resulting investment and development are all around us, the potential benefits significant. Â
We feed our rapidly expanding economy with labour from all around the world. That labour, often highly skilled and of the most exemplary character, is invited on a journey. The initial stage is for nine years.
Those who wish to remain can qualify for permanent residency under a points system. Thereafter, most permanent residents (under our existing regime) will advance to become Caymanians. Our workforce and our ability to attract and welcome and retain the best is key to much of what we have achieved. Â Â Â
But we face a risk that, from my vantage, must be addressed. Our successes, as individuals, as businesses, and as a country, must be and remain relevant to the people of these Islands — if it is to be sustained.
Like all countries, we have an economy that requires balance. The government needs income to provide for the needs of the people. The needs, like the population, are growing.
Two of the most useless (and expensive) things on earth are a newborn human baby and a newly qualified lawyer. They are filled with immense potential, but first must be fed, medicated, educated, clothed and housed. Eventually, they are destined to become contributing members of society.
Even the lawyers.
We eventually create, earn, pay fees and duties (just don’t call them taxes), and contribute to government’s coffers. As we retire, we will hopefully have saved enough, but the trajectory is that many of us have not and will run out of funds, ending our time as most of us started, reliant on government for support.
For the system to be sustained, our collective cost to government cannot ultimately become more than our collective contribution. But Cayman has a secret weapon: expatriate labour.
We do not have to medicate, educate, or feed foreign workers in their formative years. That obligation falls to their homelands.
Expatriate labour usually arrives here fully prepared. It serves us and contributes to our coffers (including through the payment of work permit fees) and consumes nothing. Even its healthcare is paid for by private insurance. Its children are expected to be educated in private schools. Traditionally, it would leave these Islands and return “home” in retirement, never becoming a corresponding burden on this society while advancing in years.
We took that resulting dividend and invested it in many things, including our airline, our civil service, and our turtle centre. But we changed the rules of the game. Â
Today, we find ourselves spending on all the things we have traditionally spent on — and more. The realities of underfunded pensions and healthcare liabilities are dawning on us. They have been there for a while. We are only now fully taking notice. Â
We continue to attract investors and, indeed, must to maintain an appropriate balance.
However, we are not paying 35 Swiss francs an hour for most of our imported labour, no matter how skilled — a least not as a guaranteed base. We serve foie gras and sauterne at prices like those in Gstaad, but no one seems to be sent from here to hotel training school in Lausanne, and few benefit from multi-year apprenticeships.
While our burgers remain good and we are gaining excellence in patisseries, fewer and fewer of our newest chefs have mastered breadkind or even know what it is.
My reference to the culinary industry is convenient. The principles apply across all industries. We achieve world-class things at world-class standards, but is the pace of our advancement and sophistication pulling too far ahead of our own people’s ability to service it? Â
Our commercial aspirations and ambitions cannot become disconnected from our permanent population. Dreams of betterment, advancement, and opportunity cannot be allowed to become cast as unattainable illusions. Â
If the Caymanian people are left behind, our march forward risks trampling our future.
The warm welcome of the Caymanian people is ultimately the foundation on which our economy stands. There should be no hesitation in answering: “Who are we developing for?”  Â
We also risk pricing ourselves out of our own homes that many have toiled for generations to build.
I believe we collectively have a duty to protect our legacy. With our great privilege and opportunity comes responsibility. Access to labour from overseas carries a reciprocal obligation to not only employ where possible but also to train and mentor local people in meaningful ways. A culture of compliance is preferable. Enthusiastic participation optimal.
We must take steps to empower the Caymanian people. In our quest for exclusivity, Caymanians are the one demographic that cannot be excluded. Â
Handouts do not generate a return. My encouragement, instead, is for more of a hand-up. A hand-up can bring multi-generational returns.
It is my hope that every Caymanian will be equipped with the opportunity and, through their toil and with the support of many gathered in this room, be enabled to achieve their maximum potential and to participate more fully, deservedly, and sustainably in all that our economy and community can offer.
We ultimately need to ensure that we have a secure place, going around the dinner table, for our customers, our neighbours, and ourselves to be asked: “Y’all want a Caybrew with your burger, a sauterne with your foie gras, and… some swanky with your turkle?”  Â
We need to get this right. If we do not, in a generation or two, those who choose and have the wherewithal, born here or otherwise, may feel it necessary to retreat to a more affordable retirement in Portugal if that lovely country will have them. Â Â
I don’t really like sardines, and my Portuguese is lousy.
I am not planning on going anywhere.
The above is the text of a presentation given by Nick Joseph at the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce 2025 Economic Forum on 17 January 2025.
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Category: Viewpoint
All wonderful in make believe land. It is so easy for lawyers and politicians to make these amazing comments about hospitality without having a clue about hospitality and the Cayman people. Spend a day at hotel or restaurant and see the level of service or more correctly the lack of desire to give service by young Caymanians.
There are some who are superstars, but those are the ones with a passion for it- just like everywhere else in the world. It is a mere mathematical formula. The numbers of young Caymanians that wish to go into hospitality is so small we will never see it as a real career. This starts from the schools… they have no clue. The amount of failing high school students is embarrassing. Focus on that first. Next take a look at the amount of students that are clueless coming out of UCCI. Perhaps hire someone teachers that have worked in the industry. Being a server at a Jamaican all inclusive resort does not count.
Then work on equality. Maybe stop the decisive rhetoric and be the melting pot that Cayman is even if you don’t want to be. No one is from here. The nation was built on foreigners coming whether it was 500 years ago or last year. A potential government official was spouting that we have to stop allowing citizenship as nowhere allows this not even the USA! Have you heard of the American dream? If you are of value, you can become AMERICAN BY FOLLOWING PROCEDURES.
Time to change the narrative the right way.
Ummm….Nick Joseph used to work in hospitality. So did a great many Caymanians. Back when employers paid employees, rather than relying on customers to meet the payroll cost, and when overtime was available to supplement income.
Its’s deeply corrupt Caymanian MLAs who refuse to increase the minimum wage.
America (the US) is a country of immigrants. (just don’t
say that to a Navajo). There is no requirement for assimilation. There is no accepted prevailing culture.
Cayman is a territory that was settled, developed its own unique and distinct culture, and welcomes immigrants who assimilate into Cayman’s culture and traditions.
We Caymanians literally sold out and relinquished key areas of influence and responsibility over a period of many years.
Truth be told, the people with the greatest vested interest and the most to loose are no longer our multi-generational Caymanians, who are now only a minority of the population with a dwindling ownership stake.
Our political floundering is a reflection of our sad reality.
Nice narrative, but much of what you caution us on HAS ALREADY COME TO BE REALITY. So, these issues needed to be addressed years ago – to little, to late now.
There is plenty that can be done. But the actions now need to be much more dramatic than a simple adjustment of course.
The great equalizer is access to capital. CIG should scrap it’s capital expenditure and instead turn access to capital for locals as a priority.
and forget about CI real estate backed loans (last option foolish land bank), we need Government programs that back loans based on years in Cayman for business purposes especially including loans to invest outside Cayman.
That’s the flex, ownership not worker.
Why would government fund investment in businesses outside Cayman?
Why would government fund investment in businesses outside Cayman? The money goes overseas with no guarantee of a return, zero local employment or tax revenues. Bad enough we have profit extraction by overseas owned businesses operating locally, but theres at least a chance of local employment and there local CIG revenue on local expenditure, fees etc. Your idea is just a hand out to those wanting to get their money off island.
Children, here in the Cayman Islands and elsewhere, spend vastly more time with their parents than in school, underscoring the overwhelming role parents play in determining educational outcomes. Assuming children attend school for 6.5 hours a day, 180 days a year, that totals 1,170 hours annually in school. By contrast, there are 8,760 hours in a year, leaving 7,590 hours, or approximately 87% of their time, with parents, including sleeping. Even subtracting sleep, parents influence children for over 70% of their waking hours—far exceeding the time spent with teachers.
This simple calculation reveals that parental influence eclipses that of teachers. Research consistently shows that socio-economic status, home environment, and parental engagement are the most significant predictors of educational outcomes. As comments under one 2022 Financial Times story noted, grades correlate strongly with postcodes, not teaching quality. While excellent teachers can make marginal differences, they cannot overcome the entrenched disadvantages created by poor socio-economic circumstances including disengaged parent (https://www.ft.com/content/7312f352-6c92-4615-9c4f-21935f3b8a87?commentID=14572e76-aee9-45e9-94f5-bd0cc9dd7203).
Further, when schools divert disproportionate resources to disruptive or disengaged students, the majority—those willing to learn—are held back. A system focused on raising everyone to a minimum level, rather than striving for excellence, wastes resources and dampens overall achievement. By contrast, countries like Singapore, Korea, and China, which reward good behaviour and excellence, consistently top global education rankings (https://www.ft.com/content/7312f352-6c92-4615-9c4f-21935f3b8a87?commentID=e1025112-15d4-4178-8ba9-8fb4ffb452c3 and https://www.ft.com/content/7312f352-6c92-4615-9c4f-21935f3b8a87?commentID=211fe574-b7f4-460e-84aa-06cb23308f73).
This misplaced focus is compounded by unhelpful ideologies. The “no child left behind” philosophy leads to a misallocation of teaching resources, prioritising those least likely to benefit. The result? Mediocrity across the board. Cayman must avoid this trap by fostering a culture of parental responsibility (including encouraging only those in stable marriages to actually have children) and focusing educational resources on children who are motivated to succeed.
Ultimately, teachers cannot replace engaged parenting. Policies to improve outcomes must start at home, empowering parents and incentivising excellence. The rest is noise.
“Engaged parenting” invokes the participation of mother and father.
So long as Caymanians tolerate and subscribe to the culture of absent father and uncaring single mother, feral undisciplined offspring will continue the cycle.
Let’s have a return to a sense of shame and parental duty.
What’s missing, both here and in the West, are:
1. Shame.
2. Morals.
3. Fathers (of the women who can’t keep their legs together).
4. Consequences (i.e. cease welfare/NAU/entitlements, and let the feral offspring starve, so the next generation will learn not to breed fecklessly).
I would ordinarily include Religion in the list above, however my sense is that Cayman doesn’t suffer from an absence of religion, so much as it appears to have lost its coercive power. (Said as a Richard Dawkins/Sam Harris advocate, who has sadly lost faith in humanity’s ability to self-police itself without believing in supernatural fairytales to impose self-control.)
You live in a fairy tale world if you believe the world evolved from nothingness into something by playing mental gymnastics you fool
Money is not the problem. We spend more per pupil than any other country in the world and yet education standards are abysmal and students leave school without the education, experience and attitude needed to cope in the real world.
Money should be spent on:
1. Discipline and excluding students who disrupt education and classes for those who actually do want to learn. Excluded children will be forced into homeschooling so parents will need to take responsibility, meet educational standards at home, or face penalties.
2. Sex education that discourages unwanted pregnancies, multiple pregnancies with different loser fathers, and promotes a strong family unit. And please, let’s leave religion out of it.
3. Compulsory parenting classes for those who fail their kids in prescribed ways, or where kids are failing at school
4. Better adult literacy so parents who themselves cannot spell and write properly are better equipped to help their children with homework
5. Making absent parents responsible financially for their children by collecting maintenance from wages at source.
6. Bribing young men and women who have extremely poor levels of educational achievement to get the snip: they’re vanishingly unlikely to have productive children, and so let’s pay them not to propagate multigenerational failure.
Spending more on fancy school buildings is not the answer – and additional taxes to destroy the financial services industry certainly isn’t
Its about time the people of Cayman questioned just how much is being spent on education per child and whether we are getting value for money. Spoiler, we are definitely not.
J. D. Vance, the new US Vice President, makes a similar point about parents/home being determinative, in his autobiography, Hillbilly Elegy:
“The most important lesson of my life is not that society failed to provide me with opportunities. My elementary and middle schools were entirely adequate, staffed with teachers who did everything they could to reach me. Our high school ranked near the bottom of Ohio’s schools, but that had little to do with the staff and much to do with the students. I had Pell Grants and government-subsidized low-interest student loans that made college affordable, and need-based scholarships for law school. I never went hungry, thanks at least in part to the old-age benefits that Mamaw generously shared with me. These programs are far from perfect, but to the degree that I nearly succumbed to my worst decisions (and I came quite close), the fault lies almost entirely with factors outside the government’s control.”
He also had sexual relations with his couch, but do go on.
Oh, bless your heart, you’ve clearly been spending too much time in the echo chambers of the left-wing internet where fiction is more appealing than fact. You’re referring to the hilariously debunked myth about J.D. Vance and his alleged couch escapades, which, let’s be clear, is about as true as your grasp on reality.
Let me break it down for you, because clearly, your brain is on a permanent vacation from the realm of facts:
• First off, that “couch story” was a baseless, made-up tale from some social media troll, not a chapter from “Hillbilly Elegy.” It was debunked faster than your ability to fact-check.
• If you think citing a debunked internet meme makes you sound clever, I’ve got news for you: it doesn’t. It just highlights your desperate attempt to cling to any negative narrative about conservatives, no matter how ludicrous or disproven it might be.
• Your comment is the perfect example of why people are losing faith in political discourse; it’s not about the substance of what someone says or writes, but about how quickly one can spread or believe in idiotic, unverified rumours.
• Here we are, discussing a poignant point from Vance’s actual work about personal responsibility and the impact of family and environment on one’s life, and you derail it with a comment that would be too low-brow even for the most juvenile comedy skit.
• If you’re going to engage in a conversation, perhaps try reading the book or at least a summary of it rather than parroting a debunked internet meme that even the most clickbait-hungry news outlets wouldn’t touch without a disclaimer.
• Your attempt at humour or whatever that was supposed to be, only serves to underscore your lack of intelligence, your ignorance of current affairs, and your profound inability to contribute anything meaningful to a conversation.
So, please, do yourself and everyone else a favour: next time, try to form an opinion based on actual content rather than the digital equivalent of bathroom graffiti. And maybe, just maybe, learn to discern between reality and the fantasies you wish were true to validate your disdain. But do go on, entertain us with more of your profound ignorance. We’re all waiting with bated breath for your next pearl of wisdom.
As with everyone that has similar sentiment and want Caymanians to rise up and be successful, its all said from luxury homes, mega salaries, high net wealth positions. It sounds great, but the truth is that 90% of us (Caymanian or not) are going to live our lives in low-middle class society at best
Unless of course Nick and all the other wealthy professionals from the financial services wish to, i don’t know:
open up their neighborhoods to medium density; close the golf course and make it low-med density residential for Caymanians only; tax themselves X% to suppport local education; etc; etc
Of course they won’t, and frankly there is no obligation apart from a moral one to do so.
Life sucks. Its not just in Cayman where the top few % give all the jobs to their children and friends and all the business tips to their social circle before you and I have the chance.
Thats why we need weed legalized. It helps the 90% forget they’re being taken advantage of.
Happy new year
It’s not lack of tax that’s the reason for educational achievement being execrable. We know what needs to be said but no on has the cojones to say it.
Back when the public schools were taught by teachers from first world societies (UK, EU, US, Canada, etc.), Caymanian children came up better. Caymanian children were exposed to people who held themselves to a higher standard, therefore the resulting education was at a higher standard.
Then Roy Bodden had the bright idea to have Caymanian children taught by teachers “from the region”. You know, because we’re of similar cultures. Hogwash. What other Caribbean nation do you know that has seen prosperity similar to the Cayman Islands? Not a one. We’re not bringing up Caymanian children (at least not enough of them) with the mindset, mentality and skillset necessary to take advantage of that prosperity. Caymanians come out of the public school system unable to communicate to the level that is necessary to take part in that prosperity.
Trust me, I know what I’m taking about. I mentor school leavers from both private and public schools. The private school kids are ready for the next big step in life. The public school kids can barely communicate. They lack confidence to look you in the eye when they’re talking to you. They lack the grammar skills necessary to communicate intelligently. They lack the proper attitude, grooming and ambition. Cayman’s public school system used to produce doctors and lawyers and accountants. That all ended when we traded teachers from first world societies for teachers from the region. Love it or hate it. Its the TRUTH!
Thank you for sharing this. I have been thinking it for years. There is no reason why Cayman Government schools should not be able to attract excellent teachers to work in our schools. Now if only we could get the parents on board with the idea of taking responsibility for themselves and their role in upbringing their children.
You can’t get the best teachers if you insist they are qualified to teach CXC. Only UWI graduates are trained in that. UWI is not ranked in the top 500 universities on earth. We are destroying our own future. Get rid of CXC’s and Caymanians may be able to compete at international standards.
Well said 4.07.
If Cayman was a walled compound then Caribbeanisation wouldn’t matter.
Unfortunately our Govt school leavers have to compete in the workplace with first world educated graduates. The inadequate educational standards of (most) government school leavers means they don’t get the jobs.
We are no longer able to survive being “regional”.
@24/01/2025 at 4:07 pm Amen to this comment. I’ve been saying the same for years. Our own government screwed us by segregating public schools to Caymanians only and by no longer hiring teachers from first world societies. Now Caymanians who can afford to simply put their kids in private schools, which we shouldn’t have to do because our tax dollars are enough to afford a high-quality education for our children! Caymanians shouldn’t have to pay $30k a year per child to educate them from 1st grade to high school!
Excellent viewpoint. I keep stressing the need for those who really hold the power (the voters) to recognize that decisions must be made, by them, and relayed clearly and in no uncertain terms to any and all aspiring candidates. No one in the world can blame Cayman for taking a more stringent approach to immigration. We are simply too small; we need to prepare our people to sustain our islands, and our islands to sustain our people. We can welcome, and be kind and gracious, to all who decide to share a part of their life’s journey with us; but I think the time has come to make it clear that such a journey cannot end here. We have over 700 teenagers leaving high school annually. We encourage them to pursue tertiary education or vocational training, but we do not enforce Business Staffing plans so that they get the benefit. Those who love these Islands, and truly consider them home, need to form a think tank to find innovative, efficient ways to effect long-lasting change that will benefit all, without limiting Caymanians — and it is not for us, but for our children and young people.
Love the black SUV’s on the government expense side. Is the one crossing the red line being driven by Hon. Minister Seymour?
Beautifully written Nick. I look forward to your next Viewpoint setting out how we can collectively achieve what you propose.
First step would be for Government to realize, then Admit that dumbing down , aka as “Caribbeanisation”, of our government schools curriculum, has been a failure.
Being a waiter/waitress is a professional occupation in Switzerland. Requires training, skill, and several types of strength. They are respected and well compensated. Not so in other parts of the world where it’s a side-gig while waiting for the “big break”
Maybe we too can make it a professional thing! Make our young people want to be in that field. Make the banks see that salaries and tips from those jobs can in fact be used to attain a mortgage.
This is where our issue is. Caymanians don’t flock to those industries because the financial institutions refuse to recognize their wages and hold them in the same regard as financial services.
Once again Mr. Joseph, thank you for a poignant matter-of-fact commentary. I’m one of many who would like to see you as a candidate in our General Elections but I can also understand why you would not want to be directly involved in our political swamp.
However, I encourage the more level-headed of our declared candidates to seek your advice and guidance.
If only Nick could run….but not allowed
Ask Nick if he thinks he should be able to run.
4.44pm Most of our politicians/ M.P’s want to run, but are physically unable to, owing to excessive intake of calories. Instead of padding their pockets along with their girth they need to put their country first.
“Nicolas’ Viewpoint: A Great View… But the Foundation is Crumbling”
Balancing rights and responsibilities is indeed vital for sustainability, but the conversation must also include some uncomfortable truths about the state of the island today.
Education, for instance, is far from what it needs to be to meet the sophisticated demands of a competitive global economy.
Without significant investment in education reform, the prosperity of the island is at serious risk.
There is also a dire need to separate completely church from state, practicing exorcisms of young people because of their questioning their sexual orientation is downright ridiculous and traumatic to them!
Maintaining the educator in question in function isn’t the hallmark of a functioning educational system, it’s a symptom of a situation that just shouldn’t exist in the 21st century!
Her reinstatement is something I leave the readers to ponder.
Sources :
https://caymannewsservice.com/2024/05/sen-teacher-cleared-in-primary-school-exorcism-case/
https://caymannewsservice.com/2021/05/exorcist-head-teacher-under-investigation/
A poorly equipped workforce cannot fulfill the high expectations of industries like finance, tourism, or even public service, leaving Cayman struggling to remain relevant in an increasingly competitive world.
The cost of living is another major factor. With purchasing power rapidly eroding, fewer expatriates—especially highly skilled, experienced, and dedicated professionals—find justification to stay.
They are understandably drawn to high-growth, high-productivity locales where their salaries stretch further and opportunities abound. As the cost of living skyrockets, Cayman is becoming less attractive, even for those who once viewed it as paradise.
Housing is also a glaring issue. While there is much talk about the lack of affordable housing, the truth is that much of the problem stems not from a lack of skilled labor or quality construction but from the overbearing red tape that pervades every corner of the system.
Whether it’s inefficient customs processes or island-wide bureaucracy, the delays and costs compound, driving up prices and leaving residents with fewer options.
Take solar panels as a prime example. A permit to install panels on your home shouldn’t take six months for approval, nor should you have to submit multiple permits if your installation combines the CORE program and self-consumption.
Why are such sustainable practices being bogged down in endless paperwork?
Similarly, something as simple as building an extension to your parking lot on your own property becomes an exercise in frustration, thanks to the incredible amounts of back and forth required for planning submissions.
To make matters worse, inspectors frequently contradict one another on the same regulatory framework. How can anyone expect to get something done in these circumstances?
The result is delays, additional costs, and a disincentive for anyone—local or expatriate—to invest in or improve their property.
Lastly, the government’s reliance on emergency credit lines to cover its running costs is a clear symptom of deeper issues.
Yes, overstaffing plays a role, but at its core, this is a reflection of an administrative system more focused on preserving privileges than providing equal access to its services. Instead of addressing inefficiencies, the system seems more inclined to protect its status quo—even as the cracks in the foundation grow wider.
If sustainability is truly the goal, then these issues—education, cost of living, housing, red tape, and government inefficiencies—cannot be ignored. Cayman must address these foundational problems before the â€great view’ becomes little more than a fading memory.
“With our great privilege and opportunity comes responsibility. Access to labour from overseas carries a reciprocal obligation to not only employ where possible but also to train and mentor local people in meaningful ways. A culture of compliance is preferable. Enthusiastic participation optimal.”
Professional services firms bend over backwards to train young Caymanians, but we can’t work miracles.
The population is very small, and the work is not just sometimes very demanding, but – let’s be blunt – often VERY BORING. Understandably, many young Caymanians rapidly decide that they have absolutely no interest. If I didn’t have a family to pay for, I would choose differently myself!
Most expats coming on to the island through WORC have at least 5-6 years’ experience. Not only does that mean that they have no illusions about how glamourous the industry isn’t, but more importantly many of their friends and colleagues who they began training with, years earlier, have fallen by the wayside.
A huge amount of ‘weeding out’ has taken place before people get on island: the people who, after 3-4 years in e.g. London didn’t like audit or accounting, did something else. By the time the self-selected survivors are left standing, and apply to WORC to work in Cayman, you therefore get a more mature cohort who are a lot more realistic than young 20-somethings.
TL;DR. We can only do so much. Most young people, in any country, aren’t suited to financial services, and therefore don’t go into it, or change their minds in their 20s. It’s unrealistic to expect otherwise in Cayman.
Cayman is a specialised economy where what you have described is what three generations in a row told their children to do. Please don’t pretend like Caymanians would not have taken the training and promotion their expat colleagues got from their countrymen. Please. The most coveted thing you can have in Cayman if you are of young working age right now, is a career your parents are proud of that pays for you to continue to exist alongside the expats. A career in financial services. We would all gladly have taken all the jobs and all the training, and you know what, the work is pretty simple if you’re smart, boring or not. In a massive country where you have endless alternatives to private practice the calculus is different. For Caymanians it is become a lawyer or accountant or forget about taking your kids to restaurants like your parents took you. You really don’t appreciate that there are limited opportunities here and only one fairly safe way to ensure yourself a high standard of living, and the ability to care for parents and children.
You misunderstand:
“Please don’t pretend like Caymanians would not have taken the training and promotion their expat colleagues got from their countrymen… We would all gladly have taken all the jobs and all the training…”
Training and jobs are not being handed out like trinkets at a craft fair; much less on the basis of Masons-style secret handshakes based on nationality.
The expats being recruited already have many years of experience in international markets. They have a massive advantage. There’s only so much that e.g. KPMG or Walkers can do to “train” Caymanians coming in from the bottom. We simply do not have the same breadth and depth of work as first world, onshore international offices do. We cannot service international clients without an experienced internationally-recruited workforce.
People who want to succeed need to start their careers in mainstream international locations, and only then after a few years move offshore to e.g. Cayman, BVI, the Bahamas etc.
5.20am I can understand that Caymanians prefer to work for the Financial sector. However, unlike the Civil service they will not get an annual COLA adjustment to their salary, or a Christmas bonus, or free medical treatment for life and a generous COLA adjusted pension. What you will get is an ethic of working hard for your salary.
Spot on. Can someone answer who are we developing for
Because we have no direct taxation, we’re developing to enhance the flow of cash to government’s coffers.
Government in turn dips into its coffers to pay for roads , schools, hospitals etc.
Ergo 12.08, we are developing for us…. because we have to.
Financial Services is the first 50% of Government coffers
3.47pm the facts are in Govt’s last financial year revenue was just over a billion dollars. As revealed by our ex Premier, Govt Govt spending on salaries and administration was only marginally less, hence her motion to seek to increase Govt’s borrowing by an additional several hundred million dollars.
Let me try: i believe we continue to develop because we have to! development/ growth generates revenues for the Government Coffers which, is gobbled up by our burgeoning Social services and other excesses faster than it can be generated. Perhaps we need to consider setting some of our sacred Cows free!
Please explain “setting sacred cows free”..Thanks.
End the NAU. Encourage ‘new Caymanians’ to move back to Jamaica.
In that case..
Set them free
Set them free
Lord God Almighty set them free..
Sadly, overwhelming numbers of non Caymanians and new “Caymanians”appear to be draining our treasury. Imported poverty and failed governance and education risk destroying us. This is unsustainable.
8.17pm All the money goes on the Civil Service and Govt administration. New Caymanians would not be allowed in to drain the Treasury!.
Government revenue.
[Summary. Financial services fund Cayman, including the amorphous CIG/World Class Civil Service/NAU blob. Therefore , the only people who matter are financial services firms’ CLIENTS. 60% of Caymanian kids leaving school are functionally illiterate and innumerate. Accounting firms, etc. simply cannot employ such people, and even when they do CLIENTS get to choose who they instruct.]
Good article. As Nick notes, expats in professional services firms fund Cayman, and pay for everything here. These are ferociously competitive industries, and clients have freedom of choice as to who they instruct. Mutatis mutandis as to in which jurisdiction those clients choose to invest. Therefore, in that free market, CLIENTS’ preferences are paramount:
(1) Caymanians are free to compete with non-Caymanians to sell their services, and clients have the freedom of choice as to who they instruct.
(2) Qualifications and overseas experience are however vital, both substantively and presentationally (e.g. such people are both objectively superior and look superior to clients), and this is why clients choose to instruct them.
(3) The reason Cayman is the most successful Caribbean territory is specifically because Cayman has commendably not indulged in xenophobic, self-sabotaging economically suicidal rhetoric and protectionism. The exception is at election time, e.g. in articles such as these.
Almost everything the author writes is high-emotion, low-intellect nonsense. For example, it is inconceivable that accounting firms would survive much less thrive if their employees (a) were forced to leave after several years; and (b) were not able to secure permanent residence (PR), and in due course status. Even Hong Kong, home of the evil CCP, grants PR after 7 years. That’s because they know that, if they don’t, people will work elsewhere, such as Singapore or Dubai. Cayman’s golden goose, financial services, is not guaranteed to keep the money flowing, if the islands decide to self-immolate in a frenzy of protectionism.
Competitor locations compete by employing both expats, and highly-skilled locals. Cayman is therefore utterly dependant on highly-qualified expats, unless Caymanians perform better. How’s that’s going, after Roy Bodden’s famous Caribbeanisation of the Cayman education system? ⬇️
“Premier Wayne Panton has said the civil service headcount cannot continue to grow… Panton said that the government must move away from “social hiring”” https://caymannewsservice.com/2023/09/premier-says-civil-service-must-stop-growing
“It’s the duty of communities all over the world to give their children an education to a standard that enables them to become full members of their home communities. It takes a village, as they say. By that measure, Cayman’s government has failed, and continues to fail. Some of our Islands’ children succeed, but most don’t…” https://www.caymancompass.com/2016/01/21/barlow-education-versus-protection/
“Cayman’s current representatives have their knickers in a twist, trying to resolve the consequences. An uncomfortable number of the tribe’s members are coming up short in the following respects:-
· Unschooled beyond a minimal level
· Unemployable because of an anti-work attitude
· Untrained and undisciplined in the management of their personal finances
· Intolerant towards foreign ethnic groups
Those deficiencies have steadily worsened in recent years; the drift to full dependency on government handouts has passed the point of no return. There is no apparent solution on the horizon. It looks as though, in time, our “native” citizenry will become overwhelmingly dependent on welfare.” https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2015/05/caymans-entitlement-culture.html
If Caymanians want better jobs, they must perform better. That starts early. See:
(1) 2021: “Almost 60% of Year 11 students miss 2021 exam targets …according to the Data Report for the Academic Year 2020-21, just 40.3% of Year 11 students achieved the national standard target of five or more Level 2 subjects including English and maths.” https://caymannewsservice.com/2022/04/almost-60-of-year-11-students-miss-2021-exam-targets.
(2) 2023: “A data report released by the education ministry reflects a decline in external exam results…with standards in mathematics dropping back to 2017 levels… despite the significant investment that has been made in public education… Only 27% of all students at Key Stage 2, when they leave primary school, had reached the expected standards in all three core subjects of reading, writing and maths.” https://caymannewsservice.com/2023/05/report-shows-school-leaver-results-drop-from-peak/
(3) 2024: “…only 26% of children leaving all government primary schools achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics, according to a data report published last month by the Department of Education Services and the Ministry of Education. This is 1% down from the [previous] academic year.” https://caymannewsservice.com/2024/04/education-data-report-reflects-poor-school-results/
Also:
https://caymannewsservice.com/2019/09/school-standards-gap/
https://caymannewsservice.com/2018/12/2018-year-11-exam-results/
https://caymannewsservice.com/2017/05/education-results-fall-in-2016-data-report/
Businesses are not welfare schemes for the unemployable (that’s the “World Class Civil Service™” AKA ‘Shadow NAU’). The equivalent of the obsessive navel-gaving about Caymanian affirmative action, and whinging about expats, is the Black Economic Empowerment legislation in South Africa. As with all attempts to impose racial preferences/unmeritocratic tribalism, it has been a failure: https://theconversation.com/only-south-africas-elite-benefits-from-black-economic-empowerment-and-covid-19-proved-it-189596.
If Cayman wants to regress to being a handful of fishing villages, then quasi-Jamaican politicians can have hissy fits about expats. If not, keep quiet, knuckle down, and focus on educating Caymanians kids so that in due course they can compete for clients to further develop Cayman. Compete on merit: not skin color. There will be limits to this, though. An island of only 30,000 so-called “multigenerational Caymanians”, with the record of educational achievement documented above, seems unlikely to be able to rapidly generate any more that a tiny % of competent, internationally competitive, white collar professionals necessary to fulfil the wide range of roles here – without which, the island collapses into bankruptcy.
Other islands have demonstrated what happens if you indulge in lobotomised protectionism, rather than improving educational standards. See:
https://cpsi.media/p/jamaica-is-not-doing-ok
https://cpsi.media/p/why-does-barbados-underperform
https://cpsi.media/p/colonialism-and-progress-fb9
Correct to this comment: the criticisms within it were a hangover from a previous article, and I coped and pasted it. It wasn’t meant to criticise Nick’s article (which is excellent). My bad – sorry!
Correct to this comment: the criticisms within it were a hangover from a previous article, and I coped and pasted it.
It wasn’t meant to criticise Nick’s article (which is excellent).
My bad – sorry!
You know, it used to be that no matter how much Cayman ‘needed’ someone, they had a humble attitude about being allowed to be here. When we gave status to the people who came here with no guarantee of it, and created a certain pathway for everyone else, we observed a shift in the quality of character of people coming and staying here. Full of arrogant self-importance about their supposed economic necessity, as if another of *their* own ilk couldn’t fill *their* shoes in an instant too. Cayman was better when there were no guarantees, and expats had better attitudes as a consequence. It was more cohesive, and everyone moved up together. You advocate the recognition of your kind as superior and the continued replacement of Caymanians with ‘new Caymanians’. Sadly your views are all too common amongst your crowd. I do hate to see them every time I must. I can tell you that I would gladly live in the Cayman I was born to, with everything it had and nothing more, if it meant I didn’t have to read stuff like this.
That’s a very emotive answer, which doesn’t address any of the points raised by the original commentor:
– Educational standard are abysmal.
– A large % of Caymanians are thus unemployable, except as office furniture to keep WORC happy.
We WANT to employ more Caymanians. That means we don’t need to pay work permit fees! We need your help, though:
1. Get educational standards up to First World levels.
2. Get Caymanian candidates the international experience that – in reality, and whether any of us like it or not – clients demand, so that they have the experience necessary to attract and service clients.
On island, we simply cannot (a) rectify educational deficiencies; or (b) develop or train people as if they were in e.g. Canada, Australia, the UK or the US. To succeed in internationally-focussed businesses, people need to get that experience. It’s simply not within our power.
Nonsense. When I did articles, there was no exchange programme with the Chancery Bar Association. No placement programme with the local judiciary. Secondments were almost unheard of. Now all of that is happening but you left a generation out of it. What we were raised to do is go overseas, get a degree, come back and we would be needed. That’s all we needed to understand as teenagers and we all did as we were told. Then we came back just a few years later and the jobs we went overseas for that ‘special seasoning’ you guys love, had all gone to people who never left. Local law school students who everyone thought should never see the inside of a law firm. All that political pressure to train worked, and it would have been better never to leave here. It is within your firms’ power to train as many people as you want and give them as many opportunities as you want. You just don’t do it. I was told by a senior associate during my training that I was not one of his countrymen, he came here to make money, and while he naturally benefitted from training in his country, Caymanians could not expect the same from expats; just naked self-interest you see, nothing personal. That’s what I was told by someone who was responsible for training me. So you tell me if you guys do all you can.
Thanks for your comment.
“I was told by a senior associate during my training that I was not one of his countrymen, he came here to make money, and while he naturally benefitted from training in his country, Caymanians could not expect the same from expats; just naked self-interest you see, nothing personal. That’s what I was told by someone who was responsible for training me. So you tell me if you guys do all you can.”
I think you misunderstand the point about training; alternatively, I was unclear, because I assumed a certain level of understanding. First World law firms rarely undertake formal training programmes, rather the nature of working in a major jurisdiction as opposed to a Caribbean backwater simply means that junior associates are exposed to far more work, of a far higher quality, and with greater variety. That makes them better lawyers. Clients understand that, and it’s clear in the quality of their work. An anecdote about someone who once offended you doesn’t really carry any evidential weight.
“there was no exchange programme with the Chancery Bar Association. No placement programme with the local judiciary. Secondments were almost unheard of. Now all of that is happening”
Success! You appear to be conceding that actually, an awful lot *is* indeed being done to get Caymanians up to First World standards?
“…but you left a generation out of it. What we were raised to do is go overseas, get a degree, come back and we would be needed. That’s all we needed to understand as teenagers and we all did as we were told. Then we came back just a few years later and the jobs we went overseas for that â€special seasoning’ you guys love, had all gone to people who never left. Local law school students who everyone thought should never see the inside of a law firm. All that political pressure to train worked, and it would have been better never to leave here.”
Now we get to the crux of it: you concede that many of your colleagues *did* get jobs, but you assert that they were worse than you, you are superior, and you ought to have been given those jobs. Am I following correctly?
Finally, you assert:
“It is within your firms’ power to train as many people as you want and give them as many opportunities as you want. You just don’t do it.”
No. We can’t employ people who aren’t up to the job. We would LOVE to not have to pay work permit fees – and to terminate the endless (ENDLESS, I tell you!) whinging that expats are the source of all evil, and we should be employing more Caymanians, but we simply don’t have the quality of applicants to make that possible. We only hire from overseas when the local market fails to perform. Newsflash! The local market almost always fails to perform. That’s not our fault: we can’t turn water into wine – that’s a fairytale.
If you’re so amazing, start your own law firm, attract clients, and beat the evil expats at [what you say is] their own game. You won’t, because you’re not.
@ Anonymous 23/01/2025 at 12:02 pm – I love every bit of your comment. Caymanians need to stop whining about expats, pull up our socks and prepare ourselves to compete with those expats. I constantly hear that something must be done about the cost of living, yet the same people complaining are driving a nice car and wearing nice clothing. What if the focus was on educating our children rather than material possessions? If the public schools can’t educate our kids to a world class standard, pull them out and refocus your budget to accommodate private education. Either that or demand better public schooling. Stop looking for handouts come election time and demand that those seeking office be held accountable for bettering our children’s educational opportunities.
Make public education include a mandatory focus on finance. It’s the industry that we have. Either prepare our children for jobs in finance or prepare for a welfare state. It’s the only way we’re going to survive people.
Since only a tiny fraction of school leavers will work in financial services there really isn’t any point in educating everyone in it. Only 2% of UK GRADUATES work in financial services. It’s not realistic for us to exceed that level, especially with public education that achieves nothing like the UK standard.
What percentages farm dairy cattle, mine coal, and operate tea rooms?
Your like for like comparison is irrelevant.