We commit the crimes and the generations that follow us pay for them. A history lesson no one learns from. What one man fights for and preserves another two or three will destroy.

Such are two of our stories today.

The good story concerns the great work Fred Burton has been doing with the Cayman National Trust’s Blue Iguana Recovery Programme.

For many years the indigenous iguana was “critically endangered” and is now “endangered”.

Sadly, although the Cayman Blue Iguana (“blues”) is protected by law and reserves have been set aside for them to live and breed in the wild, there is no National Conservation Law (NCL) on Cayman’s statute books.

Neither will there be soon if the Minister for the Environment, Hon. Mark Scotland, keeps his job. In a recent press statement he announced that he would try and get the NCL debated when the Legislative Assembly next meets but it will be watered down.

The habitat that the blues need to survive outside of the reserves is therefore not going to be protected.  As a result blues are unlikely to ever going beyond “endangered.”

It was strange, therefore, to hear Mr. Scotland’s answers regarding the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) petition to “Stop Sea Turtle Farming” as “turtles for us is an iconic creature something the generations the industry was built on many, many years ago.” He said the WSPA doesn’t understand that.

What that had to do with the WSPA’s claims of sea turtles at the Cayman Islands Turtle Farm being crushed, stressed, diseased and living with open wounds in waste-filled waters, is totally beyond me. I was hoping he was going to announce the date of the Independent Audit of the Turtle Farm that is the only hope the Farm has of putting a stop to the growing world wide support to the WSPA’s petition.

Of course, that is only if the Independent Audit comes out on the side of the Turtle Farm.  If it doesn’t we probably won’t hear about it and that might be the reason the date of the Audit has not been announced.  Or worse, the Government actually accepts the damning accusations and don’t dare to have it executed, anyway.

It is a pity Scotland didn’t argue the generations of wild life that has lived in the Cayman Islands and being destroyed but that might be why he used his terminology of “built on”. Certainly the Cayman’s wild life is being destroyed by being “built on.”

And being “built on” is certainly happening to our mangroves. Our protection against hurricanes that are increasing with frequency and strength.

Fill and build on the mangroves and if they are protected our Planning Authority will say “yes” because they know the developer is a “good guy” and a legal but dubious argument against the scientific evidence and common sense will take precedence. If they are wrong it will be appealed and everyone will be happy.

The problem is that the wheels of justice can walk very slowly instead of moving round and round at speed and this is the case in our second story.

The Cayman Islands Attorney General has taken his time, and is still taking his time in the dispute between the Protect South Sound Committee who is supported by the Department of Environment and RC Estates.

Whilst he continues to do nothing the mangroves are being destroyed and if and when he makes a decision, it will not make one iota of difference– the mangroves, that we the people of the Cayman Islands paid for together with outside donations to be preserved and protected, will be no more. Disappeared under piles of fill.

The problem I have with this is that our natural protections that God made for us and are beautiful to behold are replaced by commercial interests. The greed verses sense and greed wins.

Of course the developer promises concrete walls that will protect us from storms but have proved don’t. They also are ugly and the tourists that come here to enjoy our scenic beauty can’t because there is a wall in the way. So they don’t come.

But it doesn’t matter. The developer has made his money and moved on. The people he has left behind pay for his crime.

And pay they will.