Robert Hamaty, president of Tortuga Rum Co. and honorary Jamaican consul to the Cayman Islands. - CONTRIBUTED
JAMAICA'S HONORARY Consul for Cayman, Robert Hamaty, is no stranger to piloting - whether it is the aircraft he flew for so many years of his life, or managing a large multi-territorial enterprise such as Tortuga Rum Company.
However, his duties as Jamaica's honorary consul in Cayman demand much more than particular skills and business acumen; they require selfless service and a genuine concern for people.
It is a little-known fact that his post of honorary consul is not a salaried position. The post does not attract diplomatic privileges and he does not carry a diplomatic passport. Even more importantly, the Jamaican Consulate in Cayman is funded purely through support from the financial community in that country.
STILL ENTHUSIASTIC
The office, run by two consular officers, handles a wide range of matters, including trade issues between the two countries, immigration and human rights issues, interviews for visas and other travel documents, and more.
Even with the great workload, which has increased at a significant rate over the past five years, Mr. Hamaty speaks enthusiastically and tirelessly about the work involved in ensuring the rights of Jamaican citizens, in accordance with the law.
After 13 years, the same reasons that motivated him to accept the post of honorary consul drive him daily.
"I wanted to do it because I felt Jamaican people needed representation," Mr. Hamaty said.
He explained: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs approached me when it began to see the need to have someone here handling the needs of the growing numbers of Jamaicans in Cayman. I suppose I was considered because my father was the Custos of Westmoreland in Jamaica, where I was born, and other members of my family had experience in the area of public representation.
"By the time I was appointed to the post in 1992, I had been living in Cayman since 1978 when I became a pilot with Cayman Airways. Up to that time, my passion was flying and it was that way from a very young age when I started flying school and was commissioned as a pilot from age 17. I flew for nine years with Air Jamaica and was the youngest pilot promoted to captain at 24 years old.
FOCUS ON THE COMPANY
"For health reasons, I could no longer fly after 1991 but by that time I had already started Tortuga Rum Company and so I put focus on building the company. Today, the company has 120 employees. We have franchises in Jamaica, Barbados and the Bahamas. Our Miami, Florida, office is our complete distribution warehouse and we have a retail outlet in Key West, Florida.
"There are so many other components to the company today but the fact is that I took on the challenges of running the Consulate as well, around the same time I began full-time involvement in the company."
Elaine Harris, Jamaican consular officer since 1994, has lived in Cayman for more than 20 years. She also has a background in the airline industry, where she worked for seven years as a flight attendant with Cayman Airways.
Mr. Hamaty said the negative publicity in relation to Jamaicans is unfortunate as so much of the Jamaica-Cayman relationship is a healthy, vibrant and fruitful one.
