Sometimes things seem to happen in pairs. Right now, for instance, we are going through a tempestuous time in Guyana with a range of voices and concerns connected with the country’s looming development as a producer of oil, with the back and forth an almost daily experience. Coincidentally, at the very same time, in the Cayman Islands, where I lived for 25 years in my previous marriage, the farthest point in the Caribbean from Guyana, there is a similarly tempestuous situation as that country is struggling with issues pertaining to proposed looming changes in its already successful tourism industry. The Cayman story is interesting because, unlike Guyana, it is happening in a place one-hour by air from Miami, and already generally deemed to have one of the highest standards of living in the Caribbean stemming from the highly successful tourism industry started in the 1960s.
The similarity, though, is that both countries are on the cusp of seemingly significant economic booms, with the one in Guyana being connected with oil discoveries offshore. The turmoil in Cayman is connected with essentially a further stage in their tourism development, which has to do with the arrival of the mega ships in Caribbean tourism and which, given its proximity to Miami, and Cayman’s pristine beaches, is creating the furore now raging there.
