Sunday, 14 September 2008
This is Bermuda
The normal response when one acts with incredulity at something beyond belief in this little country, such as $12 for a few carrots or someone not showing up at your house to do some work after you take a day off, or the post coming once a week or a 17% tip already included in your restaurant bill despite the service being shocking and, I could go on.
This is Bermuda is the stock answer to most gripes, both from locals and ex-pats but there is certainly enough benefits to living here. Its tax free for some and well, it's idyllic.
This is Bermuda where urgency is not a word close to many people's lips, the heat might be one reason of course, the humidity is pitiless, but then again it could be good old fashioned lazines. Lazy sometimes but friendly always, don't go forgetting your "hello, how are you's?," otherwise you won't get served.
This is Bermudian politics. Ooh, now there is a thing. Britain's oldest colony is ruled by an interesting character called Dr Ewart Brown, leader of the Progressive Labour Party (PLP). Brown is a strong advocate of an independent Bermuda (the last referendum on the subject was downed by 74% of the vote against independence) and he makes no secret of it. You would have thought that Brown, who has lived nearly all of his life since the age of eleven outside of Bermuda (he has US citizenship), would be in less of a position to judge on what the Bermuda people want, but he doesn't. Arrogance doesn't go down well in this little country, but Ewart Brown appears to make up for it.
The PLP often talk about 'black empowerment' doing nothing for the racial harmony of an island where 60% of the 65,000 population are black. Ex-pats often talk of racial tensions, although so far I haven't seen any. That maybe because I walk around with my eyes shut or more likely because I spent 28 years in Catford and not the home counties and I lived in Chicago and not Connecticut.
This is Bermuda and I'm lucky to be here. I look out of my front windows at the sail boats as they glide across gemstone waters, I walk up Queen Street on the way to work from the ferry stop and am greeted by almost everyone that passes by and then when you think this is a small place, I am fortuitous enough to be out on a catamaran (more than once) this last week and find a whole new appreciation of this unspoiled and beautiful isle from the ocean.
This is Bermuda is the stock answer to most gripes, both from locals and ex-pats but there is certainly enough benefits to living here. Its tax free for some and well, it's idyllic.
This is Bermuda where urgency is not a word close to many people's lips, the heat might be one reason of course, the humidity is pitiless, but then again it could be good old fashioned lazines. Lazy sometimes but friendly always, don't go forgetting your "hello, how are you's?," otherwise you won't get served.
This is Bermudian politics. Ooh, now there is a thing. Britain's oldest colony is ruled by an interesting character called Dr Ewart Brown, leader of the Progressive Labour Party (PLP). Brown is a strong advocate of an independent Bermuda (the last referendum on the subject was downed by 74% of the vote against independence) and he makes no secret of it. You would have thought that Brown, who has lived nearly all of his life since the age of eleven outside of Bermuda (he has US citizenship), would be in less of a position to judge on what the Bermuda people want, but he doesn't. Arrogance doesn't go down well in this little country, but Ewart Brown appears to make up for it.
The PLP often talk about 'black empowerment' doing nothing for the racial harmony of an island where 60% of the 65,000 population are black. Ex-pats often talk of racial tensions, although so far I haven't seen any. That maybe because I walk around with my eyes shut or more likely because I spent 28 years in Catford and not the home counties and I lived in Chicago and not Connecticut.
This is Bermuda and I'm lucky to be here. I look out of my front windows at the sail boats as they glide across gemstone waters, I walk up Queen Street on the way to work from the ferry stop and am greeted by almost everyone that passes by and then when you think this is a small place, I am fortuitous enough to be out on a catamaran (more than once) this last week and find a whole new appreciation of this unspoiled and beautiful isle from the ocean.
This is Bermuda.
¶ 17:08
