Here’s a confession of ignorance. I never had any idea of the location of the
Cayman Islands until some 20 years ago when friends went to live there. I
consulted an atlas and discovered that these islands were not where I had
imagined them to be — somewhere in the Pacific — but were tucked away in the
Caribbean, just below Cuba and not all that far from Jamaica.
I suspect that my ignorance was shared by many. But, these days, the Cayman
Islands have become much better known. One of the reasons for this is last
September’s disaster, when Hurricane Ivan tore across the Caribbean and
flattened Grand Cayman. The images were seen all over the world.
But there have been other developments that have fixed the Cayman Islands in
our consciousness. The remarkable growth of the islands as an offshore
financial centre has certainly been widely noticed. Most people now know
that the islands are associated with international finance. Indeed, a free-
association test could prove interesting. If one said banks, I imagine that
quite a number of people would say Cayman Islands just as quickly as they
might say Switzerland.
So if you have a great deal of legitimately earned money and you were looking
for somewhere to put it, you might find yourself in George Town, Grand
Cayman, the island’s capital. And you would certainly have a good choice of
banks at your disposal. Grand Cayman, which is only about 20 miles long and
in some places less than a mile wide, has about 600 registered banks.
Given that the population of the islands is not much more than 40,000, that
makes one bank for every 67 people — a misleading statistic, of course, as
only a handful of these are high-street banks. And if you decided that you
would like to live where you put your money, then you might take up
residence in the islands and discover the advantages of not paying income
tax, while all the time living under the protection of the Union Jacks that
can be seen fluttering on the buildings of George Town.
For the Cayman Islands, after all, are a British colony, complete with a
British governor, who, on appropriate occasions, puts on the gubernatorial
outfit of helmet and feathers.
But the popular idea of the Cayman Islands being a remote and artificial tax
haven, the preserve of wealthy tax- dodgers (not a term one uses in Cayman
society if one wishes to be invited back) is a misconception. Certainly
there are very wealthy people living on Grand Cayman, and some of them have
a very strong aversion to paying tax, but there are many others. This is a
fairly complex society, which mirrors, in some respects, the cultural
complexion of the Caribbean.
There are the original Caymanians, the descendants of sailors, settlers and
fishermen; there are Jamaicans in large numbers, who contribute their
characteristic warmth and exuberance to the mix; there are Central Americans
who have fled the difficulties of their own countries; and there are all
sorts of American, British and European expatriates, some of them quite well
known. There is the author Dick Francis, for example, who has lived on Seven
Mile Beach for some years (Lord Lucan, however, has yet to be spotted). And
at any given time there will be several thousand visitors who flock to the
islands for the unparalleled diving, for the beaches and the
turquoise-coloured, perfectly warm sea.
ALL OF this makes for an interesting and rather awkward fact — the native
Caymanians are now close to being a minority in the islands. Caymanians are
understandably sensitive about this, but it’s the price of having agreed to
the transformation of their previously sleepy islands into a thriving
offshore centre.
You cannot run such a centre without having imported expertise — legions of
accountants, lawyers and bankers — and these people have to have somewhere
to live. Somebody has to build the houses and apartments, somebody has to
teach in the schools and staff the hospitals. And so the Caymanians
succumbed to a process which made them prosperous and, in many cases, rich,
but that could only be done by changing the nature of their society.
The story of a hard-working Jamaican couple, Jean and Wintroy Randal, is a
fairly typical one. Jean came to Grand Cayman from Jamaica to take a job
looking after children. She had been working in a belt factory in Kingston
and wanted to make more of herself: life in Jamaica can be hard and Grand
Cayman was just over the water. There she met her husband-to- be, Wintroy
Randal, a talented man who has always simply been known by his surname of
Randal. They met at their church — Grand Cayman is covered with churches,
most of which are worth visiting for the music and singing that go on for
hours every Sunday. Visitors are made to feel welcome and can join in as
much as they like. You might even stand up when sinners are invited to the
front of the church.
Randal had come to the island from Jamaica to work unloading cargo at the
George Town harbour. There was an opening for a government rat- catcher,
though, and he took the job, committing himself to the struggle against
vermin. Much of Grand Cayman was then mangrove swamp and mangrove swamps are
good offshore centres for rats. He worked hard and was, in due course,
promoted to a more senior position in the public-health department.
They married and had children, Wayneroy and Jessica. Randal built a house with
his own hands, being a man who can do anything. When Hurricane Ivan came
last year and destroyed so many houses, Jean and Randal were spared. Their
house suffered very minor roof damage, but was otherwise unharmed. Their
church, though, became a home for numerous people whose houses had been
invaded by the waves that swept across the island or simply blown away by
the winds. Some houses just disappeared in a flurry of flying tin sheets and
crumbling bricks.
Ivan shattered lives and created immediate needs in a community that had
become used to a good measure of prosperity. But the islands are making a
remarkable recovery, no doubt helped by the Caribbean sunshine and the
cheerful good humour of this part of the world.
GRAND CAYMAN is a wonderful place to look at fish, but — as I found — it’s not
necessarily the best place in the Caribbean to catch them. Game fish have
large appetites and need to have at hand large stocks of fish lower down the
food chain. Shallow waters are therefore better, because there are more
nutrients, and the Cayman Islands do not have a great deal of these. There
is still some reasonable fishing, though, and on the day on which I went
out, we looked for wahoo, a fish that makes very fine eating. I chartered a
boat from one Captain Bodden.
He did not call himself captain, but I addressed him as such, on the basis of
the rule that in the Caribbean anybody who has a boat of more than 10ft can
have the courtesy title of captain. Captain Bodden, therefore, could be the
name of any number of people on Grand Cayman, as it is one of the old
Caymanian names and there are numerous Boddens.
Indeed, there is a place called Bodden Town on the south coast of the island,
where many Boddens live. And if you are not called Bodden, then you might
well be called Ebanks, which is an even more common name. All of these
people descend from early settlers and are often related to one another
several times over.
Captain Bodden negotiated his way through the channel which leads through the
reef that encircles much of Grand Cayman. Out there, near the reef, the
water is a very light blue-green colour, the sort of water into which one
yearns to dive. And you may do just that, if your particular Captain Bodden
allows you. We went past several pleasure craft anchored just inside the
reef, their occupants snorkelling in this seductive water, swimming with the
giant stingray colony that waits to receive its visitors.
It is one of the great Caymanian experiences to swim with these giant rays.
They glide below you, like stealth bombers, with their great black wings.
And then we were out in the open sea beyond the reef, above the diving wall
that goes down and down into the depths, and the lines were cast out.
Captain Bodden was relatively taciturn, but he knew how to find fish, which
we did. A large barracuda, with its sharp teeth, was landed but proved
inedible when put to the “ant test” on shore. Large fish can be toxic in
these waters, and the test that the locals use is to leave the fish out near
an ant colony. If the ants swarm all over it, it is safe.The ants studiously
avoided our barracuda.
A visit to George Town should take in Heroes’ Square, where the newly
proclaimed national heroes are honoured. The idea of having national heroes
is a recent one, but it has been enthusiastically received on the island. It
is not always easy to find national heroes in a very small community, but
two have now been identified and proclaimed. Unlike sainthood, which
requires one to die, you can be a National Hero in the Cayman Islands while
still alive. However, it is probably necessary to die before you merit a
statue, and there is only one statue in Heroes’ Square today. That is of the
late James Manoah Bodden, who was a politician and businessman and, by
general agreement, a heavily built man.
Why then is the statue so clearly of a thin man? The answer I was given by a
number of people is delicious. It was decided, they alleged, to purchase a
ready-made statue from a business in the United States which provides just
that. They have a supply of statues from which one may choose one that you
like — all that is then required is for a plaque to be attached, bearing the
name of the person honoured. So James Manoah Bodden’s statue does not look
anything like him. I was assured this story is true, but was unable to
confirm it. And I’m not sure if it matters a great deal. It is the thought
that counts behind a statue.
The statue of James Manoah Bodden survived the hurricane. Many buildings did
not, but now things are getting back to normal and visitors returning. This
means that it is probably a good time to visit, as the welcome is especially
warm. It is relatively easy to get there — little more than an hour from
Miami or Nassau — and it is possible, too, to make a brief side trip to
Cuba.
That is another story altogether. It is worth doing, as Havana is an intensely
beguiling city, but the privations of the place and the wearying
determination with which the Cubans seek to separate you from your money
will make you get back on the plane to the nearest British colony with some
relief. Cayman Airways will take you back.
Alexander McCall Smith’s new novel, 44 Scotland Street (Polygon £14.99),
will be published on March 1. The sixth book in the No 1 Ladies’ Detective
Agency series, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (Abacus), will be issued in
paperback at the same time
Tour operators
Harlequin (01708 850330, www.harlequinholidays.com) has seven nights on Grand
Cayman at the Hyatt Regency from £1,280pp, room-only, including direct
flights from Heathrow with British Airways. Regional add-ons from
Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh and others are from £66pp extra. Or try
Thomas Cook Signature (0870 443 4447, www.tcsignature.com), Hayes &
Jarvis (0870 898 9890, www.hayesandjarvis.co.uk), or Kuoni (01306 747002,
www.kuoni.co.uk).
