Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Love Thy Neighbour
Anyway back in 1970's Bermuda, the Minister of Immigration has announced that guest workers (as us foreigners are so elegently called) that don't speak English will be deported. (more)
Colonel Burch said that this issue is a "vexing topic amongst locals," perhaps more so than the five people who have been shot in Bermuda this month! The guest workers who are being targeted are those that interact with the general public such as waiters, kitchen workers, cleaners, nannys and caregivers plus those in the health industry such as nurses. Who they think will do these jobs once the government kicks out the Latin Americans, Filipinos and Indians I don't know.
In fact our cleaners are Indian, speak hardly a word of English but are the nicest and most hard-working of people you could ever meet and they seem quite capable of using the bleach on the toilet and don't drink it because they can't read the label. Frankly if they expect me to trust one of the out of work Bermudians that walk around with a bottle of beer in a paper bag in my house with a feather duster they have another thing coming.
What Colonel Burch has also appeared to have forgetten is the amount of Portuguese decendents that live on the island, who add a huge spruce of colour and heritage to the make-up of the country. The Portuguese also tend to own most of the construction and gardening companies too and tend to stay rather cloistered within their own communities but try to find anyone over the age of 50 that can ask you in English if you want your lawn mowed!
Anyway at least the government are having less tourists to worry about. According to Business Week the air arrivals in 2009 decreased by 11 percent compared to the previous year. Arrivals have declined every quarter since the final three months of 2007 and on the basis that the government count every visitor including business travellers and visiting relatives and friends there were only 140,000 actual tourists that flew to Bermuda in 2009, the lowest for more than 40 years. ¶ 14:00
Colonel Burch said that this issue is a "vexing topic amongst locals," perhaps more so than the five people who have been shot in Bermuda this month! The guest workers who are being targeted are those that interact with the general public such as waiters, kitchen workers, cleaners, nannys and caregivers plus those in the health industry such as nurses. Who they think will do these jobs once the government kicks out the Latin Americans, Filipinos and Indians I don't know.
In fact our cleaners are Indian, speak hardly a word of English but are the nicest and most hard-working of people you could ever meet and they seem quite capable of using the bleach on the toilet and don't drink it because they can't read the label. Frankly if they expect me to trust one of the out of work Bermudians that walk around with a bottle of beer in a paper bag in my house with a feather duster they have another thing coming.
What Colonel Burch has also appeared to have forgetten is the amount of Portuguese decendents that live on the island, who add a huge spruce of colour and heritage to the make-up of the country. The Portuguese also tend to own most of the construction and gardening companies too and tend to stay rather cloistered within their own communities but try to find anyone over the age of 50 that can ask you in English if you want your lawn mowed!
Anyway at least the government are having less tourists to worry about. According to Business Week the air arrivals in 2009 decreased by 11 percent compared to the previous year. Arrivals have declined every quarter since the final three months of 2007 and on the basis that the government count every visitor including business travellers and visiting relatives and friends there were only 140,000 actual tourists that flew to Bermuda in 2009, the lowest for more than 40 years. ¶ 14:00
