Where a Border Wall is Really Needed

On Grand Cayman, owners of the popular dive operation Indigo Divers have an island-wide kerfuffle after they recently installed a locked gate on their private dock in West Bay and then said in an online post that it was designed to keep out the 'riff-raff' and fishermen. Their message seemed to highlight the growing divide and distrust between residents who are new (or 'paper') Caymanians or expats and the local people.

District MPs, potential election candidates, on-air talk show hosts, Instagram and Facebook posters, and even restaurants weighed in to name and shame the dive company and signal that the gate is one thing, but the insult is too much. T-shirts are already on sale as many Caymanians choose to embrace the "riff-raff" insult.

The insensitive remark has become illustrative of the feelings of local people and the worsening divide between them and expats. Generational Caymanians see the best of Cayman slipping away as the culture and heritage are lost because of overdevelopment and the population grows rapidly through immigration. Caymanians repeatedly see expats profiting from overdevelopment while they feel the loss of the once-tight community social cohesion not driven purely by profit margins.

Access to the shore and enjoying what the sea offers is tightly bound to local culture. However, over the last two decades, the pace and scale of development along the oceanfront have reduced beach access to such an extent that it is now a real challenge for locals to get onto and enjoy the beach and locations where they once fished or where kids played.

While the gate has been erected on private property, the insult that accompanied the post by the owners, Katie and Chris Alper (who seemed to be proud of their move to keep people they see as undesirable out), has cut deep in the community.

The anger has been further fueled by their doubling down on the insult. They are now including the term 'riff-raff' in their dive shop name and other social media profiles after pulling down their Facebook page and TripAdvisor account because of the barrage of angry comments. Pictures they previously posted on social media showing what appears to be Chris Alper in a tasteless blackface fancy dress costume added fuel to the fire.

The Alpers have claimed they did not mean to insult local people and erected the gate because of people littering, anti-social behavior, drunkenness, and fishermen gutting their catch on the dock and not cleaning up after themselves.

He told Radio Cayman News, "This is my front door," adding that he did not want people coming to dive and seeing leftover beer cans and fish guts all over the front of his business. He apologized to the community and insisted it was about people, regardless of who they were or where they were from, engaging in anti-social behavior. "I'm not insulting Cayman. I love Cayman," he told the radio station.

Andre Ebanks MP (WBS), in whose constituency the dive shop is located, said that the Alpers, as property owners, had a right to protect it. However, the MP noted the poor choice of words on the social media posts. He said he asked the owners to apologize for the generalizing and offensive language and to reconsider whether the fence was needed and could be removed. "It is not reflective of who we are as a community. First, please apologize," the MP posted.

From an article in Cayman Net News, January 22, 2025