My little car did THAT?

j.w. platts
Cayman Brac, Cayman Islands
20120116

My Dream

Which of the three islands could ATTRACT FOREIGN INVESTMENT in hi-tech companies, and attract the demanding people who work for such companies, and their families? Little Cayman has too few people and should indeed be kept that way as an occasional, wild and rare place to visit, relatively untouched by large-scale development. Grand Cayman has lost much of its lovely wilderness except for wetlands and underwater attractions. It has a rough-and-ready city and has become just another Caribbean island with a worrying rate of burglary and violent crime. Divided highways have become speedways. There is too much drunkenness. But Grand Cayman boasts fairly good shopping, a few costly artificial attractions and its still-lovely diving beauty. Cayman Brac could be the only island WHERE MOST RESIDENTS COULD WALK OR RIDE A BIKE TO WORK IN PEACE, or to seashore, library, grocery, church, picnic site, pond or nature path. Each of these could be accessed without having to drive a car! If only we had a few dedicated paths for cycling and walking. (We don’t even have sidewalks.)

If the observations in the full report Land Acquisition for Environmental Protection were pursued; if the Brac got rid of some unsightly scenes; if its education system could be upgraded; if the island became better regulated and governed in many ways (handling of waste is only one) … then this could be the island of pleasant outdoor activities, fresh breezes and the beauty of nature … a safer place to raise children, un-gated yet safe communities, and the place where peaceful, studious, happy people would love to live and work.

Knowledge industry people can work from anywhere. Cayman Brac could become the location of choice. Thoughtful people, here and abroad, value the natural surroundings that our pioneers enjoyed, only a couple of generations ago.

This remains a dream, but it is possible. Do the people really want it?

jwp
20110406

My coral garden

In Montserrat, I once dove quite deep. The sand was black, the water clear and the small boat anchor lines were taut with high tide. So I’d be able to measure my depth along the rope when surfacing.
But it was nice down there. No buoyancy at all! I scarcely wanted to leave. I’m not at all suicidal but this was like the blue silence of the depths. I decided to return to the surface, and gave a lazy flip. But I was in no rush.

Fairy Hill, Jamaica
In dreams of times-that-have-been I see Two giant mantas soaring, winging Across my path I brake by hands And stare, and flip by practiced finning	Caribbean Reef Squid
And U-turn back still under to cross Again the under-lip of cave And rise and surface there and catch My breath, my sense and save
This mem-ory and ponder still “Development” at Fairy Hill Hotels on every strand and Cay Throughout the once- wild Caribbee

NB: In my memory’s eye these great fish were huge. Looking them up
today I find that one can weigh 3000 pounds. My sedan weights 2000.

In the Solomon Sea
Two decades later I’m informed Humpback Dolphin is the term For the pod I was adopted by If only briefly on the fly		Southern Stingray
One was a show-off, or why else Did Big Guy upend himself Vertically, bumping coral head With his own, or was he led to
Dislodge some creature As his menu feature?

Dispela taim long Islan’ Kiriwina, mi ibin hamamas moa. Olsem wanem mi yet, mi bihainem sampela tripela pis oli call ‘em Dolphin, long nambis ples long Trobrian’ Islan. Orait, na sem taim mitupela Etna i’save “snorkel long hia, na dispela sinting oli kamap, tasol Etna i’ lusim wara na ranaway liklik. Emi porait liklik but mi, nogat.

And this is the same place where, at low tide, two small children gathering sea lettuce shyly offered us a handful, a memory we will savor forever, like humpback dolphins joining me as I snorkeled in the Solomon Sea, Papua New Guinea.

Hmm … why are seashells a bit rare here?
We dredged out all the seashells And canalized for boats Depauperate of seashells now O’er empty sand we float
In other seas I searched for shells And found a great abundance Hundreds of species, thousands of shells In numbers like redundance	Hawksbill Turtle
My fins spun me ’round coral heads For tritons, zebras, augers Donax on the littoral Tulipa and vases
Milk conch, Rooster tail, Fighting, Prickly cockles too “Man-eating” in the Trobriands And boxes as for jewels
Tulips, helmets, turkey wings Cones, pretty purpuras Tellins, cones, purple shells Performance bravura!
At bottom, all a person has is his integrity And all a country has is its environment

It’s difficult to think of the greatest snorkeling experience here on Cayman Brac. From shore and from boats, in “X” Coral Gardens, a somewhat secret place, where we usually see schools of fish and when lucky see nurse and other sharks.
And other places on the Brac: a daytime view of a clinging crab called a king crab; a huge Permit, was he just overgrown or what; some looming tarpon; diving the wreck of the Prince Frederick, a 19th century wreck and legitimate part of our history — many happy experiences and perhaps the best lie in the future!

MAYBE THE HYPE IS TRUE! PERHAPS CAYMAN BRAC IS REALLY THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD TO SNORKEL
(overall)

You don’t need to be Crocodile Dundee to snorkel here. You don’t need ten thousand bucks or 20 hours of flying. No need for an armed escort, nor an armed guard for your car parked on the road by the sea.
You’re not likely to be hit by a box jellyfish. Sea itch maybe (seasonally) and don’t step on a sea urchin. The food and water are safe and the accountant at your resort is honest.

Yellowtail Damselfish

Snorkelers

Example: A thatch hut near an idyllic beach; a small river empties into the sea there.
Example: A log cabin in the north woods, open in summer, snug and tight in winter.
Example: The wattle and daub traditional Caymanian home — local materials, set in a friendly, supportive community and surrounded by a garden. Perfection!

The sunrise

Small room in the cottage

It’s still possible! A perfect house in a perfect place. A few lucky people live this way right here on Cayman Brac, TODAY. Consider!

1. a strong house, a house for life, a house one can afford to build; proof against the storm;
2. no water bill (the rains provide);
3. no heating or cooling bills (catch the sea breeze in a perfect spot: 19N 79W);
4. cool from an umbrella roof, steel tie-downs all around, “coolest house on Cayman Brac”;
5. no taxes, no fees;
6. modest electricity costs (how much can a small ‘fridge use, anyway?);
7. no property tax or school tax;
8. no swimming pool — just walk to the sea;
9. hurricane-protected by the cliff (”bluff to sea” property);
10. a screen of trees on all four sides (privacy and protection in the event of hurricanes);
11. an open house –a natural house – jalousie window open 99 percent of the time;
12. a spacious house — who needs furniture? — with a deck all ’round, at treetops level;
13. peace and quiet
14. high-speed internet, access to streets and roads, all services such as hospital and shops;
15. set in a society that’s generally peaceful and respectful, especially of privacy.

BUT WHAT’S THE TREND LIINE?

The house and yard are as good as gold, but the community itself is somewhat in decline. Let’s try to measure that. In 2004 a questionnaire was circulated, to establish the state of the quality of natural life here — and people’s opinions about it.  Let’s use its headings and see where we’re trending. Oh, this is subjective in some areas, but one can try to be as objective as possible. If we’ve gone downhill it may indicate an unhelpful attitude among government that prevents us keeping a healthy, natural community, a thriving economy and a go-ahead mood of continuous improvement. But before we lay fault on government, let’s ask: Is it us?

Smoke from the burning dump

Looking North

Cayman Brac Environmental Questions

Here are the criteria used to measure a healthy community, in touch with its natural surroundings thus benefiting nature (trees and creatures prosper) and benefiting all of us (clean air and other advantages). You could apply these criteria to any place in the world you may live, wish to live, or even visit:

The dusty quarry from the roadside

The dump itself, from the roadside

Cayman Brac Environmental Report Card
With this list, you can ask “Where are we today?” or you can ask “Are we getting better or worse?” Let’s try the latter, for Cayman Brac in the Cayman Islands. What is the trend line?

There’s the report card. Easy to say “It’s happening everywhere” when the world is zooming towards nine billion people. But this is here and this is now.

The bluff face, from the deck

jwp
20110531

Nineteen degrees latitude places Cayman Brac in the sub-tropics, not the tropics, but this book has been very helpful in understanding the sub-tropical forest here on Cayman Brac. It is particularly useful for a person coming here from the temperate zone. It explains concepts foreign to one’s temperate zone experience, especially the concept of very high local diversity. There are no natural monocultures here! Instead of being in a grove of hemlock, you’re in a forest of trees of many different species. Most often the tree next to the one you’re studying will be a different species. Turning your body through a slow 360 degrees, you may count up to twenty species of trees, not to mention shrubs and other plants.

Rather than a rain forest, Cayman Brac has a DRY sub-tropical forest built on limestone. We have little rain (being in the rain shadow of the Sierra Maestra), few snakes, and the forest bottom is not totally dark. Aside from that, this book about the wet tropics applies quite well. Here are a few things you will discover if you read though each well-planned chapter.

PLANT DIVERSITY
“… the tangle of diversity that characterizes life in the humid tropics can perplex and confuse on first exposure. It can be extremely difficult to identify some of the most conspicuous organisms in a tropical rain forest. Ecuador, a county no larger than the state of Colorado, has over 1300 species of birds, almost twice as many as in all of Canada and the United States. … A naturalist in New England can easily learn all the species of native trees in the region in a single summer, but there are few people who, even after a lifetime of study can confidently identify most of the trees in a patch of tropical American rain forest. p. 2

“… there is no terrestrial habitat on earth that compares with lowland tropical rain forest in its richness of life. Most temperate zone habitats have certain species of plants and animals that are common and distinctive and that give each habitat a recognizable integrity. Such is not the case in the lowland tropical rain forest. Virtually every tree you walk by will be different — they may look alike near the ground, but they are distinct species… you will soon realize that almost everything you see is different. This, more than any iconic indicator species, characterizes the tropical train forest environment.” p. 197

THE PARADOXICAL WEAKNESS OF THE SOIL
“But when these forests were cut and the slash burned off, a few crop plantings showed the soil weak and easily exhausted. Where there once flourished massive trees and a wonderland of lianas and vines, fields of manioc and maize gave only mediocre and ever-decreasing yields. Viewed against the lush backdrop of primeval forest, the crops were thin and pitiful.” p. 18

SPECIATION
“When divergent populations reach the point where they can no longer interbreed, they are considered to be distinct species… There is no single moment when you can say isolated populations have become new species. Speciation is a process that can be studied at any point, and often it will not be possible to determine which populations are distinct species and which are not, particularly if they remain isolated from one another. There is no way you can make rigid definitions along a continuum… With exceedingly rare exceptions, they breed only among themselves, and they are discrete natural units in any sense you care to examine them.” p. 200

ORIGIN OF SPECIES
“The contradiction between the idea of ancient, unchanging tropical rain forests and the basic tenet of geographical speciation, isolation, should be apparent. If the tropical rain forest is so stable, how did all of its species originate?………The hard evidence for climatic shifts in the tropics has come from pollen samples.
………Core samples taken from lakes in different regions of tropical America have demonstrated regular cycles of climatic change even deep within the tropics, cycles that seem to correlate with Pleistocene glacial cycles in the temperate zones. During the periods when the glaciers advanced across North America, the tropics became cooler and drier … When the northern glaciers retreated, it was warmer and wetter in the tropics. …These alternating cycles of cool, dry climates and warm, wet climates occurred several times during the
Pleistocene….” pp 200 – 202

LOSS OF THE WILD
It’s sad that conservationists have made so little headway. The authors quote Alfred Russel Wallace from 1911, “It is really deplorable that in so many of our tropical dependencies no attempt has been made to preserve for posterity any adequate portions of the native vegetation, especially of the virgin forests”. P. 207. Here we are in 2011, in the Cayman Islands which is an overseas dependency of the United Kingdom (one of “our tropical dependencies”) and my island of Cayman Brac is being burned steadily and remorselessly, acre by acre. In some countries the trade-off is oil and gas versus forest preservation — people may choose oil and gas. But more sadly, people also choose a seeded grass lawn versus native vegetation! But then, they also choose their cat, when it’s tabby cat versus wild iguana. They choose to import sunflower seeds for unnecessary bird feeders, versus leaving somebody’s forest untouched for birds!

“The symbol of modern deforestation is the road.” p. 209. This is as true here on Cayman Brac as it is in the Amazon. “The rate at which tropical rain forest is disappearing is hard to comprehend …” p. 210 (The same is true of our sub-tropical dry, limestone deciduous forest.) “Economic growth and exploitation still take precedence over environmental concerns.” p. 211. Locally, our government is still stalling on the environmental law we’ve never had, as of this writing (May 2011).

“There is still time to slow down, perhaps even to stop the present trend of tropical deforestation.” p. 216. (I wish I could share this optimism.) “The land set aside for parks in Costa Rica was chosen to be representative of the diverse habitats in this tropical country.” p. 217. And finally:
“We must resist the coming of the dark age of biological simplicity that rain forest destruction will bring.”

This reviewer adds: This applies to Sub-tropical dry forest destruction too! We are denuding our land. We are depriving ourselves and our children of the peace and wonder of the woods. We are wrecking the aboriginal order.

Some believe in Mother Nature, that she will correct everything. It’s true that NATURE WILL CONTINUE. There will be birds – but which birds? Chickens? Unless we are careful we won’t have Vitelline Warblers and our beautiful parrots. Instead, the birds will be European pigeons in the park, eating popcorn and despoiling statues; European starlings flocking and discoloring populated areas; chickens and roosters grubbing on the ground, getting killed on the roads, and pecking at your feet in open-air restaurants. The latter is the case already, here in these Cayman Islands, as in many warm countries where domestic fowl being mashed on roads is not considered a problem requiring a solution.

We could have done better. Perhaps we could still do better. But the changes required, mostly cultural, are immense. And the process has yet to begin.

jwp
20110527

PS A note about the photos. NOT Cayman Brac! These are the real tropics, taken by the author during a two-year work assignment in Papua New Guinea.