The Truth About Cayman - The Background

The background:

Everything in Cayman is centered on Caymanians and works against non-Caymanians. On the Seven Mile Beach, garbage fees are CI $200 (US $250) /year per household while elsewhere they are CI $100 (US $125).

Caymanians pay a 4% stamp duty on property transfers and are exempted on their first purchase. Non-Caymanians pay 6% and in the Seven Mile Beach area pay an even higher percentage. Since the law states that if you reside in Cayman for a given number of years you may become Caymanian, all non-Caymanians on work permit are "rolled over" (IE THROWN OUT) after 6 years (7 year rollover). If you terminate your employment here, you are given a short period to leave, typically on the order of 48 hours! If your employer does not release your work permit to allow for another, this is automatic.

Caymanians can apply for a "Green Card" and run a business or work for anyone they please in the US, Canada or the UK. Allegedly, more Caymanians reside in the US, Canada & UK than live in their "native land" in Cayman. They draw all benefits from these countries, including but not limited to:

Social Security
Welfare
Free College Tuition
Medicare, (etc ad nauseum)

I feel it is high time to level the playing field and apply THEIR LAWS to them in our countries! I am living proof that no Caymanian will ever be prosecuted for any offense committed against a foreign national. Last summer, I almost lost my life and the two miscreants are apparently going to be charged only with simple assault. The only witness was not even called into court in the case. What will happen to them is a $50 fine (which they will never pay) and their unconditional release. This will leave me vulnerable to further assaults. I fully expect this to happen as a result of this website anyway. Stay tuned!

I have acquired Caymanian Status recently after 15 years of effort and having been repeatedly turned down. I was naturalised as of April 23, 1993 which should have conferred status on me automatically! Other people acquired it who did not ever apply for it, or even while incarcerated in prison in 2003! Thank you again McKeeva Bush!! I presently have 10 acres of ocean-front land under sales contract and yet I have "people" building on my land and cannot stop it. I have "people" parking cars and erecting clotheslines illegally on my property and cannot stop it. This despite a 1997 Grand Court restraining order (with attached powers of arrest) which I cannot seem to have enforced.

NEW!! While attempting to document incursions on my property (in violation of the 1997 court order) I was assaulted and beaten in front of an eyewitness. The court case has now been completed, and the attackers were found NOT GUILTY, despite eyewitness testimony to the assault & actual police photos of the bodily harm/injuries inflicted upon me.

I was subsequently JAILED for over 42 hours in the putrid West Bay lockup AS THE VICTIM of this assault, yet never convicted of ANY CRIME!

If you wish to enter as tourist or investor into a country such as this, all I can do is offer my condolences. I hope you are treated better, but I doubt it! Some local statistics:

Our incidence of violent robbery, theft and murder is out of control. We've also had several armed bank robberies in recent times. I certainly hope that you are not in a local bank trying to exchange money (at a very unfavorable rate!) when this happens again.
Over 50% of all motor vehicle accidents here are single vehicle. I'll let you draw your own conclusions about that.
Quite a number of the local population have no fixed place of abode, (locally called "bush puppies") who seem to live in the wild. Within a stone's throw of my property there are 4 major drug dealers which the police can't seem to handle. I can only wonder where some of these profits are going?
Our prison population is double the design parameters, and at least one local resident committed an assault on a tourist solely to be incarcerated and receive free medical care.

The Caribbean contains many islands, our prices are outrageous. If you wish to spend one quarter as much money, go to Cozumel, Cancun or Jamaica. How do I know this? I just returned from Jamaica and received much friendlier service at a quarter the price of the same stay here in Cayman.

You do not need to wonder why I am leaving, even though I now have full Caymanian Status. It just isn't worth it to stay here and continue to be assaulted and abused. BTW, if you believe your money is safe here, there have been quite a number of bank & hedge fund failures in which the depositors received nothing or less than $0.18 on the dollar. During the First Cayman Bank failure, there was a strong local movement to reimburse only Caymanian depositors. You lose, they win!

There are 5 reasons that people go to a tropical island:

To see the beautiful mountains - Our tallest mountain is "Mount Trashmore" which is our trash dump that has been over capacity for at least a decade and continues to grow with no end in sight. The dump and the sewage plant are bypassing toxins and raw sewage into the North Sound.
To see fertile valleys - Whatever you eat here did not come from Cayman. Almost all food is imported, much of it from Honduras & Jamaica, the balance from the US.
Friendly people - Used to be true, which is why I came here - not true anymore. In fact two weeks ago, I came out of a local restaurant and was accosted by a Caymanian who said "Give me $5 or I will rob you and take your wallet!" I put the food down and offered him a very messy death. He proceeded to the other end of the shopping center where I saw a tourist opening his wallet to give him the $5.
Beautiful pristine waters - SCUBA diving, snorkeling and other watersports are a staple of the tourist trade. Our Turtle Farm or Boatswain's Beach is pouring millions of gallons of untreated turtle excrement and uneaten food directly offshore. This attracts sharks of alarming numbers and size. I used to have a boat moored off the Seven Mile Beach which I then moved to the Public Beach 1/2 mile north. Part of the problem is that you can walk towards the water and everything smells fine, but as you walk into the water the smell is slightly less appealing. The sewage lines leak raw sewage into the shoreline. If I left the boat in the water long enough, the hull would become encrusted in sewage slime (green Algae).
Financial Center - Even the Cayman Government now admits that they are #18 in financial centers, down from #5 only a few years ago. I don't believe this is true, and the ranking is much lower, due to shoddy service and shaky finances. If you have a bank account here, you face a monthly service charge, only after a vetting process that only a proctologist would enjoy. It is far easier to establish a bank account in many other island destinations. The TWO local commodities brokers charge a minimum fee of $100 or 1% of the total transaction for each trade! Most other brokers charge under $10 and offer the first 50 trades for free! Here was my local experience:

At the first firm I established an account with, the 'service' was less than 'accommodating.' When the commodities market was moving rapidly in gold, the woman handling my account was either in the bathroom or a meeting for FOUR STRAIGHT DAYS! She never returned my calls.

I then moved my account to the second (and only) other 'licensed' commodity broker in the Cayman Islands. I wished to buy oil options - basis spot $82.00. Again for all of FOUR DAYS I got an answering machine and was referred to another (un-authorized) broker whose voicemail referred me to a third broker who never returned a call. Meanwhile the market passed me by and as the levels increased, I lost a great deal of investment opportunity.

In summary, dealing with the investment or banking sector in Cayman is like dealing with someone who is brain dead or just doesn't give a damn! Pay the income tax in your country instead of paying the nincompoop taxes here!