In the wake of recent violence I have heard many ask ‘is Cayman going mad?’
It’s as though they are shocked at the state our island has suddenly found itself in.
To most, this whole situation is a nightmare. The problem is that they treat it like one.
Cayman has only briefly awakened from a utopian dream and you know what history tells us we are most likely to do? Go back to sleep.
These are the facts. I welcome the idea of being proven wrong about this, but I doubt there is a soul in Cayman that can say otherwise. Whole generations of young people, men in particular, are being lost to the problem this industry of crime creates. These losses come in three main forms.
First, as we have seen very recently, there is the loss of small numbers of people killed by virtue, or vice, of their involvement. This is shocking, in your face and the talk of Cayman for a few weeks.
Second, there is the loss of the larger number of those who have nothing to look forward to but the view through the bars of HMS Northward. This is less sensational, more of a constant drone of a problem, and less talked about. These two losses are predictable by-products of this industry of filth.
The third, less obvious loss is more easily avoided by the average citizen, is ignored as much as possible and is probably the most dangerous type of loss suffered by our community.
This is the loss of generations of potential and progress.
There are hundreds of young men in Cayman to whom the use of illegal drugs is as much a part of their routine as brushing their teeth.
They are in every district, every neighbourhood, every socio-economic and ethnic group and, are I suggest, in almost every family. Many start as young as 13 when they don’t have the sense to know differently and are hooked so early that they never get to experience teenage and adult life without it.
These young men do not know the natural high of a job well done because they don’t have the ambition to get the job started in the first place.
They get a little kiss-mi-neck job that supports their habit; they go to work, they come home, they bun dey spliff and don’t even make the connection in their heads that the dudes at the top are killing people with the millions of dollars they collectively spend on their ‘lil trips.
One a more national scale, these men are unable to see the people sliding into Cayman, one of the richest countries in the world, and going home with money they could be earning if only they weren’t so doped up to see the opportunity under their noses. Then in moments of lucidity, they holler out ‘We’ve been robbed.’
Those who try to pull their lives back into control face the difficult task of removing the influence completely from their lives.
All their buddies are doing it, so how do they fight their urges when they are surrounded by temptation? Friends discourage, families ignore; it’s a lonely process.
Good to those who try. It is my sincerest hope that you all succeed and I have every confidence that you can; but so few try.
Nobody is robbing us but ourselves. What we must now decide is what to do about it.
Name withheld by request
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