Commentary: Caribbean Children Death by Electricity – The Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands – My brother and I were once confined to bed after school for two months after some misbehaviour involving a firearm. That was as bad as it got, with an occasional spanking from a belt. We were not subject to other, more prevalent, modern child abuse, such as strangulation or suffocation.

That benchmark falls to the Cayman Islands which has now seen generational killing.

Recently, a grandfather and his seven year old granddaughter were killed by fumes from an electricity generator in the East End of Grand Cayman.

Death of a Child

There can be no worse disaster than the death of a child and her grandfather in such a needless manner. It was not a traffic accident, drowning or similar misadventure, a word frequently heard in the Coroner’s Court, used to cover a whole range of deaths in an abnormal manner.

It will resonate with similar families and concerned grandfathers throughout the entire Caribbean, many struggling with debt and high costs of just living.

There will be no sorrow in the business class seats of high flying politicians.

No court, police or prosecutor will be able to intervene in this horrible circumstance.

It was death by the almighty dollar. What will shareholders and executives think from upon high in their gated communities?

Faced with overdue, high, electricity bills, voters sometimes turn to a portable generator for electricity, right or wrong, cost effective or not, just simple necessity.

The unfortunate family are now faced with not one but two funerals. Their hearts and minds will not understand cost of fuel or the stock market in Toronto. That family is irretrievably broken and that pitiful, little girl has been deprived of a life.

There can be no understanding of late government assistance made available to the grieving family, a police investigation or sympathetic murmurs from the political elite.

Cost of Electricity

The cost of electricity in the Cayman Islands has now become the cost of dying in generational deaths by a local Caymanian family from the heartland of East End, far from the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Legislative building, the CUC offices, the police station, the DPP office, the courts and Governor’s office.

There will be no acceptance of liability, no open remorse for failed governance or disastrous policies.

The true answer lies in two coffins, one smaller than the other, being carried to a sandy cemetery, never to return.

Some people are about to become the most hated in those islands by the backbone of society.

They deserve it.

A mirror has been held up to the entire society. Some may close their eyes.

Perhaps some consolation can be found in the book of Matthew.

But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

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