January 1, 2007
The furor in the Cayman Islands over the soon to be mandatory U.S. Citizenship Cards under the new Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), has come to a boil, as businesses and government alike sweat a decline in visitors from the U.S., when a projected deep backlog in processing applications takes place in the near future.
The threat, seeming very real, has resulted in some serious tension among those in the tourism industry. The debate has been heated with some voicing the opinion that the U.S. is doing this to punish off shore tourism destinations.
Some view the WHTI as "an arbitrary and capricious initiative designed by the United States to punish us. " Some have been quoted as saying "we’re “under siege” when referring to a perceived deliberate destruction of their tourism revenue by an "obsessive" U.S. government.
They view the U.S. Department Of Homeland Security policy as "silly security measures the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has implemented (like forcing travelers to put toiletries in sandwich bags."
Their hostility is long deserved as they point out, "Meanwhile, who amongst us has not complained about Americans being allowed to travel throughout Caribbean on a driver’s license but Caribbean natives being required to get passports and visas to travel to the United States?"
This double standard has been the staple of U.S.politics, long before September 11, 2001.
International lawyer Anthony Livingston Hall says, "I sympathize with the frustrations of those who feel that cruise liners are getting an unfair exemption. However, although I can appreciate why they suspect this is due to shrewd lobbying in Washington by cruise-line operators, I suspect it merely reflects the haphazard, irrational and ultimately feckless nature of American border security. For example, I have no doubt that if al-Qaeda had blown up 3,000 people who boarded cruise ships at US ports on 9/11, the obsessive security measures the US Department of Homeland Security now imposes upon airline passengers would instead be imposed upon cruise ship passengers…."
He sums up the way business leaders and politicians alike see American politics.
Feckless
Word Of The Day at Dictionary.com - Sunday March 18, 2001
feckless \FEK-lis\, adjective:
1. Ineffective; having no real worth or purpose.
2. Worthless; irresponsible; generally incompetent and ineffectual.
Cayman Islands Sweat U.S. "Obsession"
Labeling U.S.D.H.S Security Measures As "Silly"
As They Struggle To Deal With Potential Tourism Loss
