Vexed Bermoothes

Patrick Manning, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, has set 2011 as the target for economic integration in his proposed Caribbean federation. Why would he chose a date a mere three years from now, which seems ridiculous if not irresponsible?
The answer is, because he thinks like an ambitious politician.
As pointed out, none of the signatories to […]

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The PLP’s marketing of independence avoids the plain facts that minuscule countries have a hard time going it alone.  Local enthusiasts wishfully say that Caricom solidarity or some new island federation might overcome that size disadvantage.
The local media has not covered the radical moves that some island states in the Caribbean are currently proposing to […]

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Some encouraging news today.  A cross-party parliamentary committee reviewing how educational reform is being implemented in the wake of the Hopkins Report wants to hold its meetings in public, according to its chairman, PLP MP Neletha Butterfield. She said that its members were determined to be “accountable and transparent”.
In June the British House of […]

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As part of the Club Med demolition, over the next two months more than 28,000 tonnes of construction debris will be trucked away and dumped in Castle Harbour at the Airport.  That is approximately 3-4000 loads of the big 6 yard trucks going into the inland water.  No environmental review or long term plan.

Even […]

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Sayeth the Veseyman:
Bermuda in general, and its politics in particular, are already overloaded with suspicion. A long history of power and prejudice based on race, on class and on nationality - not to mention a long tradition of secrecy - made this inevitable.
It has left our current generation of leaders with the difficult […]

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TCD has released some details about how their RFID tagging system is working.
In the first 8 weeks that its four sensors have operated, the system has issued up more than 1,580 violations, each bringing a fine of between $750 to $1,000. 
Based on that performance, it’s likely that TCD’s previous estimates that up to […]

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The Premier’s announcement that the island will assemble a SWAT team in response to the escalation of violent crime has left me cold.
Typically, a SWAT team is a paramilitary police force designed to provide superior assault firepower in confrontations, such as bank robberies or hostage situations.
To put it bluntly, a SWAT team would not be […]

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Politics got around to reading the newspaper before me.  No doubt with a heavy dose of irony, today’s Royal Gazette has an ad recruiting a manager for “Bermuda’s newest daily newspaper” run by VistaMar Ltd.
This will be interesting given Dr. Brown’s pre-election hints about a pro-PLP newspaper.
In other news, PLP Newswire has announced it will […]

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Not The Royal Gazette.

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In today’s newspaper, Premier Ewart Brown said the Island would face three “thin years” for tourism and would be required to rely on its “creativity to keep numbers up”.
Umm, that creativity with numbers is part of Bermuda’s problem!  You mean we can expect to add creative numbers on top of our funny accounting?

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