Hayward: Economy, Race, Environment

January 25, 2012

Yesterday [Jan.24] Chairman of the Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce [BEST] Stuart Hayward Speech spoke to the Hamilton Rotary Club.

Mr Hayward touched on a number of matters including environmental, economic, racial and social aspects. “We don’t produce a single thing that the rest of the world needs,” said Mr Hayward.

“All we have is a uniquely beautiful physical environment, a healthy and productive economic environment and a safe and cordial social environment — this is our edge. This is what has enabled us in the past to be on the leading edge with tourism and international business (IB). That was the basis of our success”

Speaking on matters of race, Mr Hayward said, “The main providers of foreign currency are tourists and IB. The vast majority of them are white and they’re all foreign.

“As a majority black population with racially injured past, we Bermudians must resist the temptation to present a hostile face to our clientele, most of whom are white, whether they be tourists or the movers and shakers of the IB sector. We must resist as locals the temptation to be hostile toward our guests who are predominantly foreign, whether tourists or imported workers.

“Is there anything to gain by stirring up racial hatred when the vast majority of our clientele are white? I don’t think so. Is there anything to be gained by stirring up feelings of ethnic hatred, xenophobia? I don’t think so”

Mr Hayward’s full speech follows below:

Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for this opportunity to talk a bit about BEST, the Bermuda Environmental sustainability Taskforce, and the work we do.

Most often when people hear about BEST it is to do with some controversial issue. What many do not realise is that by far most of our work takes place “behind the scenes” as it were, and is hardly considered newsworthy.

Today I will speak about:

  • BEST’s Mission
  • How we have approached our Mission
  • What are we doing now
  • Our concerns for the future for the Physical, Economic and Social Environments

What do we do?

Our mission statement is: “To preserve and enhance the quality of life in Bermuda for present and future generations by advocating for sustainable management and development of the physical, social and economic environments.” We are best known for our advocacy for the physical environment but, as I shall come to later, there are aspects of the economic and social environments that merit our attention too.

BEST has four main areas of activity. Number 1 is Responding to Events. That’s how we got our start. We monitor Planning applications twice a week and respond as appropriate. The first public stance of our predecessor was protecting the Botanical Gardens; our latest involved the development proposed for Devonshire Marsh. In between, there are dozens of developments where our interventions don’t become news items, and hundreds where we don’t intervene at all.

The 2nd area of activity is Influencing Policy

We would rather do more than just react. As examples of our efforts to influence policy, we made over forty submissions to the Draft Bermuda Plan 2008 — for which we received commendation, by the way. We also made a submission to the Ombudsman’s investigation into SDOs (Special Development Orders). We are anticipating release of her Report any day now.

The 3rd area, Education & Outreach includes youth activities, events like the annual Earth Day Celebration and public information events. We also produce position papers, and we distribute information via our website and Facebook.

Building Capacity is the 4th area of activity. That is to enable ourselves and other organizations to become more capable of fulfilling their missions. We initiated a community empowerment workshop a few years ago and recently initiated and hosted a workshop on Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs).

BEST tries to use innovative approaches to engage the community. For example, with The Botanical Gardens campaign, we invited members of the community to wear green one day in support of the campaign. This slide shows the senior and junior schools at Saltus wearing green, and a group of us standing at Crow Lane with Johnny Barnes.

Another innovation was what we called a ‘virtual petition’, where supporters took photographs of themselves holding a sign indicating their support, then posted the photos to a FaceBook page.

With the campaign at Southlands, it wasn’t easy to convey to the public the notion that South Road was to be diverted so that the Bermuda public would have to travel through a tunnel.

So early one morning we went to the site and stood on the roadside with placcards. The first one said, “You are now entering the tunnel.” Every fifty feet there was another sign saying, “you are still in the tunnel.” At the emergent point, which we had worked out from the plans, there was a sign saying, “you are now leaving the tunnel.” This really brought the point home to the public.

A few weeks later in another innovative action we wrapped ourselves in in yellow caution tape at the entrance and “declared” the site an environmental crime scene. We also hosted a South Shore walk. This was extremely well supported and again gave people a feel for what was there, and how it was likely to change. All our actions prompted the government to offer a swap of the near-pristine Southlands property for “brownfield” at Morgan’s Point — a win-win-win solution for the developers, the government, and the people of Bermuda.

Last year we co-hosted another walk, part of the Tucker’s Point campaign, again with the intention of showing the public first hand what was going to happen, what areas would be affected and what the alternatives were. An estimated 2,000 people joined that walk.

We had a number of other innovative approaches that were first used in the Southlands campaign. From this aerial shot you will notice that except for Southlands, Astwood Park, the Belmont Golf Course and two Nature Reserves (Warwick Pond) the land is densely dotted with white housing roofs. This should be an eye opener and should trigger questions as to whether or not we want the whole Island to be developed like this.

So to help illustrate to the public what was going to take place we did “Before and after shots”. On the left were live shots; on the right images from the developers’ website.

This aerial shot, courtesy of David Skinner, really conveys the beauty of the Southlands property. We then superimposed this shot from the developer’s website to show how the area, once relatively pristine open space, would be completely transformed.

BEST has hosted several public forums. Our first was on Tourism and Sustainability that featured a stellar panel to discuss the issue. This past November we initiated and hosted a workshop on EIA Environmental Impact Assessments. We had approximately 75 professionals: architects, developers, planners and environmentalists who attended the workshop. This is the kind of thing we’d like to do more of.

We initiated a petition on Southlands and here is yours truly handing over to then Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield binders containing letters and petitions — over 3,200 signatures. We also did a petition on Warwick Long Bay, which gathered over 5,000 signatures and was presented to Members of Parliament on the front steps of the House of Assembly.

At Warwick Long Bay, in case you don’t remember, there was a scheme to build a beach bar. We along with the residents of the area objected and the application was turned down by the Development Applications Board. The applicant then appealed to the Environment Minister. The Minister disregarded the advice of relevant government agencies and the Independent Inspector and allowed the appeal, without giving any reasons. We went to Court and won the Court case, which resulted in the appeal decision being reversed. This was a whole new dimension in BEST’s activities.

We published position papers. Here is a sampling of titles, the most recent being a review of the Shipping Channel Study. These are research papers. We have several volunteer researchers and each document is thoroughly vetted before they are released. And while we have been challenged on occasion for our point of view, we have never been challenged on our facts. Of that we feel very proud. We do this to raise awareness. These are all accessible through our website.

While we focus on environmental protection for the wellbeing mainly of humans, we cannot ignore other species who are fellow-inhabitants of this Island. Species like the longtail, the skink and the cahow. And of course bluebirds. [Calvin & Hobbes]

So this is what BEST is about. We support and promote sustainable development. What is sustainability? For us it is a system of management that balances near-term interests with the protection of the interests of future generations.

This brings me to the first of the major issues that we believe will impinge on our future, population growth [global pop slide]. Let’s start globally. The world’s population is growing by 222,000 additional people per day. That’s births minus deaths, 222,000 every day (more than three times Bermuda’s total population); 9,260 every hour; 150 every minute; 2.6 every second.

Why is this important? Because every day those 222,000 additional people means the planet has to find 222,000 additional places at the global table for breakfast, lunch and dinner; 222,000 additional units of housing; 222,000 additional toilets and solid waste disposal capability, every day. Schoolbooks and school teachers for 222,000 additional children, every day. We have to be thinking about job opportunities, jobsites and paychecks for an additional 222,000 people today and every day this week, and every day next week. And, unless we want to introduce some diabolical scheme of war or disease or social design that compensates for that growth, that’s 222,000 additional people every day competing for everything we make use of.

Remember, we don’t manufacture anything of substance that we consume here in Bermuda. Everything from cars and washing machines to iPods and cellphones, we have to import. We don’t contribute anything to the raw materials, the production and storage facilities, the transportation means or the fuel to power it all. The only thing we put up is the money for purchasing. And what do you know? That money also has to come from overseas — Bermuda dollars won’t buy a single peppercorn!

At the same time, we don’t produce a single thing that the rest of the world needs. All we have is a uniquely beautiful physical environment, a healthy and productive economic environment and a safe and cordial social environment — this is our edge. This is what has enabled us in the past to be on the leading edge with tourism and international business (IB). That was the basis of our success. I’ll come back to that.

But first let me touch on the local side of the population issue. Bermuda is adding one person per day due to natural increase, that is births minus deaths. While our rate of pop growth has slowed, we still must find an additional place at the table every day of every week of every month and year. Bermuda already has 3,200 people per square mile, making a 7th most densely populated state on the planet. Note that the six in front of us are all associated with larger land masses.

So we’re number 1 in population density for standalone communities. There are many things for which we are proud to be in front — this is not one of them. In densely populated territories, social and economic problems are linked to dense population. As examples (again from 2006-08 stats which were the last years before the current economic downturn began to bite): traffic congestion, accident increase, the shortage of affordable housing alongside an excess of luxury condo construction. Crime was up 70%; car thefts doubled and burglaries were up 11%. Crimes of violence were up 46%. Firearm offenses up from zero in 2007 to 8 in 2008 — now off the chart.

This graphic shows the Spirit of Bermuda with a backdrop that is not Bermuda. How do we know? Because there’s no houses or other development. Bermuda’s high and growing population density is eating away the few remaining rural areas. For example, look at Flatts in the 1950’s; and now at the same area in 2007 (the sandpile is Bierman’s quarry – note the size of it compared to nearby houses.) Here are a few more shots showing our sense development.

One of the proposals put forward a few decades ago to make more “efficient” use of land was to cluster the buildings together and leave some areas permanently undeveloped. It was a good idea. Unfortunately, the land left as open space was then further developed. So instead of having clusters surrounded by open space we have clusters surrounded by more clusters.

We’ve been also poaching on the open space at golf courses (notably the Fairmont Southampton Princess and Tucker’s Point), which are probably the most significant privately owned open spaces on the Island. This is something we’re keeping our eye on.

So why are we doing all this development? The blunt answer is that we are being forced into it to cater to the growth in population, aided by the forces of speculation. With population growth there is more demand for housing, parking space, open space, offices, recreational space, and so on. With speculation, there is a drive to build in excess of need.

That brings me to the second major issue that is affecting us now and will affect us more so in the future — a facet of our economic environment, our labour force.

While overpopulation is already a serious problem, Bermuda’s pool of workers doesn’t provide enough people to do all the jobs being created. We generate more business than we can fill solely with a local workforce. This situation has shifted lately with the economic tide, but it was true in 2006, when the economy was booming. What we were hearing from leaders was that we must create more jobs. But look at the statistics. In 2006, 75% of new jobs created went to people who had to be imported to do the work. Another 15% went to foreigners already living here. Non-Bermudian spouses of Bermudians took a further 4%. Only 6% of jobs created were filled by Bermudians.

Is this our economic future, that for every 100 jobs created, only 6 Bermudians will actually get a job? Or, looked at another way, in order to get 6 Bermudians employed, do we have to import 75 foreign workers? If that is our future, we are in serious trouble the demands of 75 workers for housing, transportation, food, recreation, entertainment and health and social services is an extortionate price to pay for putting a mere 6 Bermudians to work. This is not sustainable economic model. (As an aside neither is it a sustainable cultural model. Bermudas traditional cordiality cannot be demonstrated or preserved by a mere 6 workers in 100.)

So let me now turn to the social environment.

We recognize that a big part of successful tourism is about getting visitors to the Island; about having a variety of residence options, adequate transportation, entertainment and activities. But at its core, tourism is about relationships. In addition to our attention to infrastructure, hotels and activities, we must give attention to the relationships between our people as hosts, and individuals who come here as tourists and/or guest workers. This relationship is in jeopardy. The main providers of foreign currency are tourists and IB. The vast majority of them are white and they’re all foreign.

As a majority black population with racially injured past, we Bermudians must resist the temptation to present a hostile face to our clientele, most of whom are white, whether they be tourists or the movers and shakers of the IB sector. We must resist as locals the temptation to be hostile toward our guests who are predominantly foreign, whether tourists or imported workers.

Is there anything to gain by stirring up racial hatred when the vast majority of our clientele are white? I don’t think so. Is there anything to be gained by stirring up feelings of ethnic hatred, xenophobia? I don’t think so.

I call on citizens on all sides of the racial and ethnic divides to

  • speak without being offensive,
  • listen without being defensive and
  • disagree without being disagreeable.

These are prime ingredients in the recipe for a healthier social environment and will help insure our future success.

It wouldn’t hurt for these to be adopted as ground rules for every arena where healthy relationships can improve the outcome: parliamentarians in their debates, businesses in their meetings, parents and children in their homes, teachers in their classrooms, students on the playground, reporters/journalists in their writing, moderators for their weblogs, hosts for their talk shows — wherever what we say can be hindered or helped by how we say it.

  • Speak (write) without being offensive,
  • listen (read) without being defensive and
  • disagree without being disagreeable.

So there you have it. While we at BEST can see clearly our path to protect the physical environment, solutions for the economic and social environments are more elusive — they involve a wider dialogue. We do recognize, however, and accept our responsibility to analyse and comment on these facets of Bermuda’s environment as part of our Mission.

Our mascot Kermit the Frog would say, “It’s not easy being green”, but we’re trying our BEST.

Thanks for listening.

-

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Category: All, Environment, News

Comments (26)

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  1. d-reader says:

    Interesting

  2. Triangle Drifter says:

    Stuart Hayward speaks of simple truths that far too many Bermudians either cannot see or refuse to accept.

    If Bermuda sank in the middle of the ocean tomorrow it would be news for maybe a week, provided some Hollywood scandal did not trump us, & then Bermuda would be forgotten forever.

    Some of us need to get over ourselves. Bermudians are not Gods gift to the world. Though some behave as if is another world, it is only another world in a well worn song.

  3. hammer time says:

    What about our grass?

  4. Hmmmmm says:

    At the risk of causing it to rain or pigs to fly, I agree with you Mr. Hayward. Good speech and an excellent counterpoint to the Sir John Swan/Larry Burchall road show. Now if we could only get a political Party who would stake out some of this ground so that people had a real choice in ideology at the polls we’d be ok.You realize that you’re the only one who could give this speech? If a member of the Government gave it they’d be accused of beiung “unfriendly to business/ex-pats etc”. The only point I think is wanting is the absence of an equality or redress argument. A “racially injured past” cannot be covered up in the three maxims you set for us to follow. Those rules can only be followed when redress and equality is achieved because it (the racially injured past) will then really be the past. All that said, this is a useful contribution to the debate. Watch out for flying swine.

    • WillSee says:

      Hmmmmm,
      Pls explain to us how redress and equality can be achieved.
      Do you expect tourists and Ib people to provide redress and equality?

    • Sandgrownan says:

      Restitution? Really? How much? What exactly? When would “you” actually be satisfied? Would you ever be satisfied? Would you then start to take responsibility or continue to play the blame game? Zimbabwe style land grabs? Is that what you’re suggesting or merely hard cash? Who pays? Affirmative action? To what degree? Will it reward mediocrity in the name of providing questionable equality?

      I agree with you other points (there go those pigs) but what does “redress” mean. I get equality but these are serious questions.

      • Hmmmmm says:

        Chill. The moment one invites white people to make amends up go the defences and cue the Mugabe music.”Redress” can take any number of forms. The Anglican Church did nothing but apologize for its role in the slave trade and it worked. No false arguments about “all the people who did it are dead” and the rest. Just a simple apology and it was pretty much enough. Redress in the Bermuda context is tricky because our affluence has cloaked the true impact of the disparity…there really aren’t any slums and obvious poverty-stricken masses to point to in support of the claim for the need to redress the sins of the past. The start point for redress is an acceptance by whites that the past is real, that it was wrong and that its impacts are equally as real. An apology for the evil of racial segregation and institutionalized racism would naturally lead to what should happen next.

        The gap between acknowledgement and redress is magnified by the false outrage of amember of clan Boyle in a City of Hamilton public meeting complaining NOW about taxation without representation. Well duh, welcome to my world. Six taxpayers in a house on Angle Street and once vote between them versus his patrician business votes based on property and tenants etc mattered not up to 2010. NOW there’s injustice because HE is disenfranchised?!
        His demand for fairness has to be preceded by an admission of what was and that it was wrong. And don’t cast aside the importance of that. An apology softens people and takes off the blinders that cause the “its my turn now” mentality that characterized the end of colonialism. Long answer but i know you get it…..

        • sandgrownan says:

          I do but, collectively, the white community does accept constantly even if most of us are not beneficiaries of past wrongs.

          So, I apologise for the wrongs inflicted by white Bermudians on Black Bermudians, long before I was born in another country and I’m off the hook? Is that it? I’m not being flippant.

          Can I know criticise the PLP for being sh*t without someone calling me a hater or a racist?

    • Stuart Hayward says:

      The ground rules are not intended to cover for an injured past, rather to assist in preventing a further injured future. Also, I believe there is value in having these “rules” NOT imposed from outside oneself, but rather voluntarily self-imposed as a useful tool for building relationship…

    • specialgirl4you says:

      @ Hmmmmmmm you did put it so clearly and succinctly. I also believe that if a government minister said it, they would be accused of being unfriendly and not wanting foreigners on our shores. I have also expressed concerns for the “sociological impact” upon Bermuda’s society with the large influx of foreigner labours, and how long this can be Sustainable? The only disagreement I have with Stuart’s article, is the expression of the ““racially injured past” which can not be covered up….this has to be addressed for things to change. Blacks have to be given more equality. But will whites be willing to take such a step over the broom?

      • sandgrownan says:

        What do you want?

        Detail “more equality”. What does that mean?

  5. Phillip Wells says:

    “Bermuda’s traditional cordiality cannot be demonstrated or preserved by a mere six workers in 100″.

    Are you implying that Bermudian workers are more cordial than foreign ones? I’ve met just as many rude Bermudians as I have rude non-Bermudians.

    “Looked at another way, in order to get six Bermudians employed, do we have to import 75 foreign workers?”

    I think you are presenting a very skewed picture with these statistics. According to the Government’s Facts and Figures booklet for 2011 (http://bit.ly/yGPGU0), in 2010 only 31% of jobs were held by non-Bermudians. Or put another way, 68% of jobs in Bermuda are held by Bermudians. And I’ll wager that the proportion of non-Bermudians has dropped since then.

    • Stuart Hayward says:

      Cordiality is just one of a number of characteristics exhibited by Bermudians in tourism and related jobs that gave Bermuda a hospitality edge in the past.

      Of course there are some Bdns who are less than cordial — there’s likely a bell-curve distribution in people from anywhere. My only point is that whatever the sum of those characteristics that gave Bermuda a hospitality edge will be harder to preserve and pass on if Bermudians occupy only 6 in every 100 jobs.

      If you will read the entire speech (on our website you will see that I selected 2006 data as indicative of our direction before the economy began to cool down.

      • Stuart Hayward says:

        Entire speech published above.

      • Phillip Wells says:

        “My only point is that whatever the sum of those characteristics that gave Bermuda a hospitality edge will be harder to preserve and pass on if Bermudians occupy only 6 in every 100 jobs.”

        Perhaps so, but what proportion of the current jobs in the hospitality industry are held by non-Bermudians? As I mentioned above, in the workforce as a whole it’s only 31%. I find it hard to believe that the proportion of non-Bermudians would ever rise to anywhere near 94%.

        • Stuart Hayward says:

          I do see that as as my data referred only to NEW jobs created in 2006, it wasn’t the best of ideas for me to treat those numbers as though they were representative of the entire work force. You are correct. The percentage of foreigners in the total workforce has hovered in the low 30′s for a number of years.

  6. Pastor Syl says:

    O, Mr. Hayward, I so admire you!! Clear, to the point, simple without being simplistic or patronizing, non-partisan, and completely in congruence with the ‘ground rules.’

    @ Phillip Wells: From your comments, it seems to me you were searching, or should I say, reaching for some way to negate Mr. Hayward’s very valid analyses. Since 2006 (which is when Mr. Hayward’s figures are pulled from, not 2010), Bermudian workers have been subject to working as a minority with folks whose customs, manners and mores are often widely divergent not only from ours but also from each other – very stress producing and not conducive to cordiality. Sadly, it is easy to sink into the bad habits that stress (and proximity to other rude people) can produce. I am not excusing rudeness, just recognizing how/why it can manifest. I hope you are ensuring that your cordiality levels are high so that you are a part of the solution and not of the problem.

    • Phillip Wells says:

      I don’t think I’m reaching at all. My issue is that Mr. Hayward was making a point based on the proportion of new jobs going to non-Bermudians in 2006. I think the more relevant figure to his argument is the proportion of jobs held by non-Bermudians – and that proportion is the same today – 31% – as it was in 2006.

      Even then, I think non-Bermudians, especially those trained to work in the hospitality industry, are perfectly capable of demonstrating the cordiality that some seem to think is the unique preserve of Bermudians.

  7. Rhonda says:

    plain and simple…..Black people if you want to eat, you better be nice to the white people…

    • d-reader says:

      pond dogs cut thru the red tape every time

    • Stuart Hayward says:

      From my POV, there are three parts missing from your post:

      White people if you want to [fill in the blank], you better be nice to the black people.
      Local people if you want to [...] you better be nice to the foreign people.
      Foreign people if you want to [...] you better be nice to the local people.

      Then, the entire post might trigger less defensiveness if it didn’t have such a threatening tone, do you think?

      • Brian says:

        Now there is an interesting concept…
        Be Nice to each other and reap the rewards.
        Positive actions lead to positive results.

        This seems to be a much better solution than being nasty and negative with each other.
        Negative actions lead to negative results.

        Worth thinking about…

        • Fed Up Bermudian says:

          Right on. I’ve said it for years, it’s just nice to be nice. Apart from it taking way too much energy to be unpleasant on purpose, using honey almost always gets you the desired result. You DO reap the rewards. Thanks for this, Stuart. I’ve always admired your calm and your reason.

  8. Bermudians jus Talk says:

    Hayward all the noise u make is POLICTICALLY MOTIVATED ive called ur OFFICE MANY times in regard to issues WITH NO REPLY