Governor must ensure Caymanians employment & must intervene and stop the work permit abuse!

By Florence Goring-Nozza

A common argument now a days from Johnny’s come Here Lately is that our local educated citizens should be lined up to accept a blue collar job from their list they have made up for us to follow!

Conveniently, this maybe somewhat morally right to some but it  definitely falls into the slot of being politically incorrect.

The disenfranchise of Caymanians has not evolved from good governance and comprehensive fiscal short term nor long term planning. Instead this is a deliberate act of intent that has been planned by the powers that be over the past l0 years, where people working for a few pennies on the dollar are being exploited and Caymanians abandoned and abused to the core.

The government including the governor and our elected officials are to blame and has failed the people sorrowfully.  How can a governor seconded to this country listen to the complaints from our people on a daily basis, spend two or three years in our midst,  suddenly  “Extends his tenure”  and HAS NOT DONE ANYTHING WHATSOEVER TO ADDRESS OR SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN THIS COUNTRY?   What will we remember him for when he leaves?  I am still left to wonder?

At the same time work permit holders are sitting in jobs that Caymanians are duly qualified for, especially the entry level positions in a our financial industry of a fiscal setting such as bank tellers, office managers corporate executives, etc. Our young people have always filled the positions of bank tellers. This is news to all of us that we now have expats filling bank teller positions. Caymanians are born bankers. Those positions belong to our young people who want to train on the job as bankers in those entry level positions! It belongs to them.

Not only are our entry level young men and women being denied jobs they have always traditionally held but even our highly educated people are being denied managerial and corporate positions that traditionally has always been filled by Caymanians.

The government is to blame for not conducting proper and comprehensive fiscal planning for the short and long term. They have neglected this economic and social issue because selling work permits has made it quite easy for them to ignore the problem and they continue  to act immune and insensitive to the needs of our people who are devastated, embarrassed, poverty stricken and living in a hopeless situation.

The present system that “STINKS” is designed to make money off work permits and that is the beginning and the end of the sad story.

The current system is responsible for this crime being committed against humanity in our very midst and it should be addressed, called out, confronted, and eradicated from our midst. We have elected three lawyers, an Economist, and several businessmen and women to our legislature who have served 12 to 30 years almost

There is no earthly reason why these educated  minds cannot draft an economic plan that will address the employment situation in this country. They refuse to do so because the work permit sales is an easy source of revenue for government. It has cost the Caymanian people their jobs, job opportunity, dignity and integrity and consequently our lives, as we live in a very unsafe environment reaping high crime as a result of government negligence.

I recommend that expats and Caymanians come together to resolve their labor issues just like blacks and whites marched together in the l960’s with Dr. King to free blacks from racial oppression and segregation, some of them even lost their lives doing so. I do not believe we need to lose our lives, but we must come together to confront government on all issues on the right left and center.

We are now a socially and economically segregated country where Caymanians are being treated different from foreigners. Foreigners are granted job opportunity whereas Caymanians are denied. Foreigners are working under some very bad conditions that could be labeled as slave labor with very low pay wage  Why not come together fight this demon and compel government to make life easier for all of us.

Of course this would mean cutting back on the number of work permits we really do not need, and force  government to seek out more honest  revenue from the financial industry as they should. It is pure ignorance and lack of good conscience why they have not already done so. It is an open show of weakness and shame that our government boasting a global player in investment can not raise the revenues from the very industry that is making investors rich in our very midst.

Where are the brains we thought we elected. We should not have these kinds of problems. They should not exist. After all we are one of the leading financial centers of the world …right?