Hashtag: #BurchallReport
Burchall Report: Macabre Death Race
[Written by Larry Burchall – Column deals with death, please do not click through and read full post if easily offended] There is a macabre race underway. Today is 24th August 2010 and the race ends 31st December 2010. The race is between road deaths and gun deaths. Until today, Bermuda had seven deaths attributed to road accidents, with the... Read more of this article
History: Gangs Back In The Day
[Written by Larry Burchall] Right now, with all the shootings, woundings, and killings, most people are saying that the current level of violence in Bermuda is unprecedented; and that gangs are a new thing. The first part is right. I’m not so sure about the second part. According to ‘old-timers’ Bermuda had gangs ‘back-in-the-day’. However,... Read more of this article
Bermuda Police: Fighting Crime & Government
[Written by Larry Burchall] The Bermuda Police Service, currently engaged in a hard fight against gun carrying gangsters, is also, behind the scenes, fighting Government over long-running pay issues that stretch back as far 2005. Essentially, Policemen have been able to retire at age 55 or after twenty-five consecutive years of unbroken service. Across... Read more of this article
Why You Should Love HSBC & Kiss Banker Phil
[Written by Larry Burchall] You gotta’ thank Philip Butterfield CEO, HSBC (Bermuda) Ltd and HSBC Holdings Ltd. At the moment, you may not know why. But when you’ve finished reading, you’ll probably want to hug and kiss the guy – and thank Phil’s bank HSBC (Bermuda) Ltd. The story starts with Bermuda’s Minister of Finance. Back in May... Read more of this article
Burchall Report: PLP Delegates & Votes
[Written by Larry Burchall] One man, one vote, each vote equal value. Between now and the end of October, that is not true. Not true at all. In October the PLP will hold its annual general conference, and under its constitution every few years its party leadership is up for grabs. With Dr Brown stepping down this year, there has to be a selection of... Read more of this article
Cup Match: History Behind The Holiday
[Written by Larry Burchall] Cup Match began as a day off to celebrate Emancipation Day 1st August 1834, the day when all slaves in Bermuda were freed. One year on ex-slaves who were now employed as paid workers simply did not turn up for work on 1st August 1835. They stayed off work and celebrated. Amongst black ex-slave Bermudians, the practice of... Read more of this article
Opinion: Conscription and Selfishness
[Written by Larry Burchall] Too busy? Too involved? Don’t like being required to do something? Yes, but jobs still need to be done. Responsibilities still need to be shouldered. Those are the core issues involved in conscription. But there’s this as well. There is a streak of selfishness – Me-Me-Me – that is running through the current... Read more of this article
Burchall: Brother Territory In Trouble?
[Written by Larry Burchall] As reported by the Jamaica Observer, the Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands is hurting. The Observer reports that TCI “Government could do well with the millions in revenues earned yearly from work permits and residency fees.” The Observer says that in TCI investments have stalled, jobs are drying up,... Read more of this article
History & Procedures: Queen’s Birthday Parade
[Written by Larry Burchall] Bermuda’s annual Queen’s Birthday Parade on Front Street has been happening for more than a hundred years. Until the late 1950’s, it took place in Bernard’s Park. Prior to the 1940’s, it happened at the Prospect field that has since been turned into the National Stadium. In 2010, the Ceremony is undertaken by the... Read more of this article
Police Weapons: Tasers, Guns, Grenades & More
[Written by Larry Burchall] The Bermuda Police have an arsenal of weapons ready to use. They range from the almost traditional police truncheons in the form of ‘ASP’ expanding batons up to weapons capable of firing up to 700 full metal jacketed bullets in a minute. - Armed Police conducting a raid in Pembroke - May 2010 - Published in the Official... Read more of this article
April’s Consumer Price Index
April’s Consumer Price Index [CPI] shows some interesting ups and downs. If you stayed away from lamb chops, pastas, and fresh fruit then your groceries should have gone up only 0.2 percent in April. Those items went up 5.0 percent, 3.8 percent, and 3.4 percent, respectively. There was a 0.5 percent rise in rents in rent-cotrolled properties,... Read more of this article
European Union Allies Itself With Bermuda
[Written by Larry Burchall] As reported in “The Hill”, on April 30, 2010, nine CEO’s of major US based Insurance providers wrote to the US Congress to express support for the Neal Bill and to urge Congress to take action to stop what they described as tax avoidance by foreign-owned insurance companies who strip their earnings into overseas tax... Read more of this article
Burchall Report: Bermuda’s Big Borrow
[Written by Larry Burchall] It has been reported that the Bermuda Government has hired HSBC Holdings plc. to arrange a series of bond investor meetings in Asia, Europe, the US and in Bermuda. Cbonds reported that investor meetings will start on Monday in Hong Kong, moving to Singapore, Los Angeles and Boston and end up in New York a week later. Should... Read more of this article
North Village Band: A Living Link To Slavery
[Written by Larry Burchall] In Bermuda, on Emancipation Day 1st August 1834, slavery ended. Twenty-three years later, on 29th June 1857, a group of men, all of them musicians and members of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows Alexandrina No. 1026 got together and formed the Alexandrina Band. These men were all black, and as Lodge members, probably... Read more of this article
Living Links: Alexandrina Hall & Swan Building
[written by Larry Burchall] Living Links appear in unexpected places. Standing on the hillside on the Court Street side of the House of Assembly grounds and looking east, you can see a living link between Bermuda’s heritage and past, and Bermuda’s present and future. On that hillside, looking east, the closest and biggest building that you see is... Read more of this article
UK Elections & Bermuda: A New Arithmetic
[written by Larry Burchall] Will Thursday’s national elections in the UK have an impact in Bermuda? They will. But not quite in the way that you might first think. At the outset, Britain’s Labour Party seemed set to win the larger number of Parliamentary seats while the Conservatives were expected to pick up the next largest group. The Liberal Democrats... Read more of this article
