Missing and abducted dogs in Cayman

It is a wide held belief that some Filipinos in Cayman eat the wild chickens and dogs in Cayman. There are eye witness accounts of up to 15 Filipino's living in a one bedroom dwelling. That in itself should tell the story of economic hardship for some of these people while living and working in Grand Cayman. Although, 1CI dollar is worth 50 Filipino pesos, the cost of living in Cayman is very expensive if you only earn $3.00CI an hour (there is no minimum wage) and have to pay $800CI plus utilities for a 1bdrm shack of an apartment. Granted these types of jobs are menial, and do not require back breaking labor.

However, now family pets are going missing. Case in point, a friend's dog recently went missing (he had a collar on and ID) and was found chained up and looking ragged in a cage in the back yard with slices of flesh cut out from different parts of his body. The home was occupied by up to fifteen Filipino people! The police were called and the event recorded after he liberated his frightened pet, but no charges were laid, because of lack of proof that the thieves stole the dog and were slowly eating it.

This brings into question if some Filipino's even eat dogs. Well the answer is yes, and the information is here and here.
Some Filipino's bring this habit to Cayman and continue with it surreptitiously. This is quite perturbing. Makes you wonder if this restaurant is serving dog or some other illicit meat.

People lock up your pets if you care about them! If dogs can eaten, so can the wild iguanas, cats, and other critters running around the island.

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Update: Notice that I said some Filipino's. Not all Filipino's eat dogs, nor are they all uneducated, immoral, and sneaky. So save the comments stating that am I a racist, and examine your own views on other races. Now go lock up your dogs and other pets people of Cayman!

The Cultures that live in Cayman

THE GOOD LIFE

The Good Life is a column written for the Caymanian Compass by Dave Martins and appears on Fridays.

Living in Cayman with this wide range of nationalities (100–plus) in such a small landscape, you gain fascinating insights into cultures that you would not ordinarily get unless you did a boatload of travelling.

You will find out, for example, that the Jamaican cuisine has a marked disposition for Lima beans. Nowhere else in the Caribbean would you find, as I did in the Foster’s morning buffet recently, a dish with cod fish and copious Lima beans.

I don’t think I ever saw a Lima bean before I left Guyana at age 21 for Canada; nor ackee, for that matter. Why is it that this tree – so easy to grow, so abundant a producer, with ackee so easy to prepare – is almost unknown in the rest of the Caribbean? Puzzling cultural forces operating there.

Living in Cayman you will also learn that the traditional Caribbean view of the Englishman as a reserved, conservative guy, given to the most meticulous manners, is largely a myth.

The English, in fact, are the most unconventional people in the world, happily displaying the most outrageous behaviour, and often breaking barriers of what’s proper and what’s not in public.

Let me throw some names at you: Boy George; The Profumo Scandal; Hugh Grant; Elton John – you don’t get more outlandish than that. And while we’re on the subject, the notion that the Scottish are the cheapest people on earth is another myth – it’s actually the English, as the folks at Sunset House can tell you.

In Grand Cayman, as opposed to Bridgetown or Kingston, you can walk into a restaurant and find yourself transported to a foreign country – Italy, China, India, etc – complete with the nationals of those places and some inside information.

You can learn, for example, in a Chinese restaurant that the love–making potion West Indian men use is actually a toothache anaesthetic in China. Try not to confuse the two uses.

If you’re an American or European living here, by rubbing shoulders with Trinidadians, you will come to know that carnival for those people is far more than a time of year – it is virtually a way of life that is with them all year round.

Trinis are the only people I know who, invited to your house, will actually come in the doorway chipping to some personal beat although no music is playing. They are also the only people I know who will make a joke – a picong they call it – about any and everything including, for example, the fact that you just mashed up your new car and broke your leg in the process. Don’t throw your crutches at them; it’s a cultural thing.

Mind you, it’s not all contradictions.

You will come to see, for example, that the stereotype of the all–knowing, smug American often holds true. Americans do believe that they’ve got the answer for everything “back in the States”, even though they’ve got 2 million people in jail, 40 million with no health insurance, and a hole in Iraq you could drive a country through.

To give them their due, however, the Americans will laugh at themselves when you challenge them; the Jamaican will tell you about your family.

And the other thing about Cayman is that the culture thing is an ongoing process. With the advent of Filipinos in recent years, for instance, we now know how they are about chickens, although, for the Italian waiters in the restaurants, we’re still trying to figure out what they do besides shouting “Hey paisan” and singing “Happy Birthday” with tambourines.

It’s a learning curve, and you’re getting the bad with the questionable – all part of the good life.--http://www.caycompass.com/cgi-bin/CFPnews.cgi?ID=1022587