An eye for an eye

Like every place in the world, Cayman has its downsides too. Behind the white sand beaches and the soft warm breezes lies a far more sinister and violent side to Cayman. Since our arrival, the crime rate has grown (coincidence of course!!!). It is no longer safe to walk certain beaches at night, or even the daytime. It is not safe to wander through some neighbourhoods, and when walking to your car at night, it is best to have an escort. There is some sort of mentality that exists on island, that one should use violence and gangs to seek revenge for even the smallest offence. I see this mentality in my children every day at school. If one child's pencil is broken by another student, a third student feels the need to get involved and "lick" the perpetrator (lick as I have discovered after a fairly embarrassing incident, is another word for slap or hit). My students are constantly into each other's business. All I hear everyday is " but Ma'am, he be up in my biz-ness" and "He bein' a right foo Miss, I gonna lick 'im." No matter how many times we speak about kindness and two wrongs not making a right, my kid's still turn to violence. It is so disheartening. I can't say though, that I don't know where this comes from. Even my gentlest and brightest student has confided in me that her parents (both highly educated Caymanian doctors... yes, one of the few without parents in jail) advise her to hit back harder.

The real purpose of this blog is to relay a very disturbing event that has taken place, affecting one of our "own." Two months into our stay, Blake's cubicle partner Sumo, one of the South African guys that started with Blake, began dating a Caymanian girl. From the beginning she scared me. She just looked like a hard and rough party girl. The two of them got serious quickly, and in less than three months of dating, he had already moved in with her and with her insistence, starting caring for her son. He was responsible for many of the care-taking duties, and we all joked that he was as good as married. Not long after they had moved in, she wanted a dog. It was Sumo's job to take care of it, and even wipe the dog's bottom before he could come inside!!! More rounds of jokes were made at work. One night at a Lady Gaga themed party, his girlfriend even made the moves on another girl that works at KPMG. This girl basically took Sumo off the entire KPMG and Cayman scene. We rarely ever saw him. Towards the end of 2010 he decided that he wanted out of the relationship, but as he had already booked a trip home to Africa with her, he was bound to go. The trip was a disaster, as her son got sick in England on stop-over, and much money and time were spent re-routing flights. Upon his return, he told Blake that this was the end, he was finished with her. We all had a collective sigh of relief and waited for the break-up. This is when things took a turn for the worst. All of a sudden, her entire family and friends were at his throat. They sent him threats and wanted to beat him up (high school anyone)? Admittedly Sumo then made a stupid mistake and hooked up with her best friend. From that point on, Sumo was receiving death threats at work and ultimatums to get off island. Sumo himself said to some of our friends that he was just waiting to get beaten, and then the pressure would be gone. This in itself sounded absurd.
Monday morning at work, Blake found Sumo's desk empty. by mid morning it was going around that Sumo was in the hospital and had been from the night before. When the real stpry got out we learned that he had just gotten back from a boat trip on Sunday, and had been swarmed by his ex-girlfriend's friends and beaten badly. He had been hit so hard he fractured his cheek bone in three places and was a mess. They even went so far as to kick him while he was down.

The atrocity of this attack leaves us all feeling deeply disturbed and sick. I hear about these sort of things on a weekly basis from my kid's at school, and it is entirely possible that some of their parents or cousins were involved. It makes me frustrated and dejected to think that these youth are growing up thinking the only way to solve a dispute is by violence. That these beliefs are being confirmed by their parent's attitudes. I wonder how I can possibly make a difference in their lives and try to un-instill these beliefs, and most days I just go home deflated.

There have been a few times in the last few weeks when I have really felt that Cayman is 50 years behind the rest of the world, in attitudes, work ethic, global warming, pollution... the list goes on. However, despite the violence around us, I still feel safe and secure with our lives on island. I am thankful that I do not live in the culture that values an eye for an eye, but am glad to have viewed this side of Cayman, it may take away the Utopic quality, but it makes this shiny beautiful island realistic.