Culture, eroded by expats or...?

Culture. Ok here are my thoughts...

It doesn't matter how many expats are here now or continue to come to Cayman, it can't take my culture away from me. I am married to a British Expat and I am making damn sure that my children will know about my past and this counties past. It is one way for me to not only pass on my family gene pool but also my country's roots. We, as the older generation must ensure that these things are passed down. The expats can not take that from you or I. If we are too busy to teach our kids then that is our fault as teachers, parents, and as a society. We as Caymanians must ensure that this stays true. Please indulge me once again.

I have matured in what I think is the most crucial transition this Island and the world has ever seen - the information and technology era and a massive development and financial boom. I strongly feel that the greatest cultural cancer of this and every society is television & technology.

Ask any young Caymanian under the age of 25 years, and I can tell you that most of them have never danced a quadrille, had a gig, hunted crabs, picked mangos, played in the fogger, picked welks, had to go to church or Sunday school, had to say "yes sir" or "yes mam" and never called an adult by their first name etc.

I just hit my 40th year young. An age where I feel is mature enough to understand how the world works but not too old to understand the younger generation and although disappointed, understand that most societies have lost their younger generations to VH1, BET, MTV, Jerry Springer and Days of our Lives to name a few. Next add into the mix, the Internet, blog sites, (which every kid knows how to use much better than most of you that are currently reading this message) and sites such as MYspace.com (popular blog site) which has lots of Caymanians signed up who have many online "virtual" friends around the world. Most kids and young adults have no idea what it feels like to post a handwritten letter and get a response 2 weeks later. Oh and lets not forget Nintendo, XBOX and PlayStation. Are you going to tell your kid to go outside and play gig, climb a tree or play marbles? If you can understand this and agree, then Caymanians, we have to ask ourselves, are the expats responsible for that? I personally feel that most expats change their behaviour once they are here for any length of time. No expat can bring their "Big City" behaviour or mentality and survive ridicule from others who are part of this society.

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on which side of the fence one sits, we live in an ever changing society and a even faster changing world. We can choose to accept the outside world or we can try and isolate ourselves from it. I personally think we have gone beyond trying to isolate ourselves. We should focus on adapting to the pace and try to curb our extreme population growth which has never been good for any country.

One major thing that I also know is a major part of our culture has been our compassion and fairness and we have never been accused of being racist or bigots. It disappoints me deeply that such words are now creeping into others vocabulary to describe our culture. We must take a closer look at ourselves Caymanians.

We would love to hear more about who we are, Caymanians as well as expats.