The Senate rubberstamped the Bermuda Bar Amendment Act today. It says something about Bermuda that a law that regulates a “trusted advisor” role is weakened … against the advice of the “trusted advisors” it is intended to govern! It also says something that this law was given priority of passage through Parliament, when it currently [...]
Entries from December 19th, 2008
Senate Quality Control
December 18th, 2008 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics, Reform
It is rare in any country to have a public law passed for the benefit of a single person. It says a lot about the PLP’s priorities. I’ve already commented on the new Bermuda Bar Amendment Act 2008 that was ramrodded through Parliament to allow a bankrupt lawyer to continue practicing. Members of the Bermuda [...]
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Written Questions
December 17th, 2008 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics, Transparency
The Bermuda Government has been stalling the introduction of Public Access to Information for years. Similarly, all sorts of tactics are used to dodge Oral Questions from being asked (or answered) in Parliament – which would be another avenue to increase transparency of our public sector. Why then does the Opposition not take advantage of [...]
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On Leadership
December 17th, 2008 · Comments Off · Accountability, Bermuda Politics
The duty of leadership is misunderstood by most of today’s politicians. They claim their role is not to “represent” but to “lead” and considerable resources are put into burnishing their image of what a leader should be. Hence the entourages and trappings of power. However elevating politicians, who are supposedly representatives of the people, to [...]
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Searching for Andre
December 16th, 2008 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics
Either he’s compulsively vanity searching, or there are a lot of people pissed off at Andre Curtis. Andre Curtis and variants involving corruption/fraud are by far the most frequently used keywords from Google searching this site in the past two years. My favorite is still “bermuda sunshine and boobies” which seems to show up every [...]
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Shifting Winds
December 16th, 2008 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics, Tourism
Many of you know that the Turks & Caicos Islands have been struggling with accusations of rampant “official corruption and dishonesty” under the leadership of Premier Michael Misick. The whole sordid affair has attracted much negative media attention, and the UK has commissioned an independent inquiry (kicking off its own mini-scandal after witnesses allegedly suffered [...]
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Pinstripe Pirates?
December 16th, 2008 · Comments Off · Business
The Guardian has taken up the banner against the offshores, with some exuberant charges of criminality and piracy. These vile tax havens have had their day I will leave the polemics for another day, because the world in which politicians regarded tax havens as necessary adjuncts to the all-powerful financial markets has crashed, and overdue [...]
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Results
December 15th, 2008 · Comments Off · Tourism
On September 5, Sales Focus announced that it would be outsourcing sales for the Bermuda Department of Tourism (which resulted in the controversial layoff of a team of Bermudian civil servants based in New York). They said: “Our proven process allows a quick, clean and focused launch of new [sales] territories in less than 45 [...]
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What Makes PATI Good?
December 14th, 2008 · Comments Off · Accountability, Reform
The Bermuda Government has been promising a Public Access to Information law for many years now. the promise seems to get reiterated whenever the heat picks up regarding transparency, but then fades into the background again. The facts show that it’s not a priority for the PLP. Meanwhile, other countries move ahead one after the [...]
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Are They Tone Deaf?
December 12th, 2008 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics
Tom Vesey argues that “Our leaders must change their tone on race” in the Bermuda Sun: MPs congratulated themselves heartily after their impromptu “race debate” last Friday … While praising themselves for launching a “big conversation” on race among the Bermudian people, they have proven to be almost totally incapable of mature sustained dialogue on [...]
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