Hayward Declines Premier’s Roundtable Invite
Well-known opinion columnist Stuart Hayward has said he expressed his thanks on being included in the invited list for Premier Dr Ewart Brown’s media roundtable to be held tonight, but has declined to attend as he is on vacation overseas and will not be in Bermuda tonight, and also as the “final curtain is all but drawn”.
Outgoing Premier Dr Ewart Brown will be hosting a Media Roundtable this evening, with representatives from the Royal Gazette, Bermuda Broadcasting Company, VSB, The Bermuda Sun, The Worker’s Voice, Bernews as well as Stuart Hayward invited to participate. We will carry live updates during the evening.
In annoucing the event the Premier said “Many of the representatives selected to participate in the panel are among some of my loudest and most vocal critics. I am excited to be in a position to give them have one final opportunity to raise tough, probing and pointed questions before completing my tenure in office.”
The event is free, open to the general public and will be held this evening [Oct 11] at the Berkeley Cafeterium starting at 8pm.
Mr Hayward’s full statement is below:
I have expressed my thanks on being included in the invited list but have declined to attend for two reasons:
First, I am on vacation overseas and will not be in Bermuda on that date.
Second, I have a conceptual problem with a “media roundtable” orchestrated by the Premier at the tail end of his time in office in that it provides little opportunity for there to be meaningful changes to his policies and practices. Yes it may provide him with an opportunity to offer explanations — explanations that could vary from confessions to denials and from truth to fiction. However, given the sudden ballooning of speeches, interviews, photo-opportunities and other media events appearing on CITV and being farmed out to the media, it is far too easy to perceive this as just another step in the Premier’s attempt to gild his legacy, and not in any way a move to improve the country’s governance.
This kind of roundtable would have been more welcome when it counted, that is, when those of us in the media — opinion writers and reporters — were asking questions the Premier might not have liked but should have answered. Then, when it would have counted, the Premier ignored, dismissed or demonised his questioners and critics, sometimes giving disrespectful responses to requests for information. He may have been accessible but substantive answers to questions were not.
What is the point of now offering to be open when his tenure is all but shut, of now offering to be transparent when the final curtain is all but drawn?
Ah….Stuart gives it the ole Ewart Sinatra ploy….”I did it MY way”.
And guess what, he did.
Wonder how extra body guards will be around tonight. I won’t be there either. I’ll be scouting for cheap houses on the plantation……….
I want to give him a high-five. I agree with every word, and he said what I would like to. Well done, Mr. Hayward.
I’m torn between hoping that nobody but the treefrogs turn up for this “legacy guilding” excercise and wanting to know what the answers to the questions could possibly be.
Bravo Mr. Hayward. I don’t understand why all of the other media outlets aren’t doing the same. Bernews – would you mind letting us know why you have decided to attend?
No reason not to, we go and cover events as able, and this is an event.
By “boycotting” the event we would be accused of political bias.
If any politician from any political party invites us to cover an event, we try to make it.
Bear in mind we are still around 32 weeks old and are in the position where we are attempting to break into the market, without the “prestige” of print and broadcast to back us. It isn’t unusual for me to turn on the radio or read other news sites to see something from a press conference….that I had no clue was happening as we weren’t invited.
Being frank, we are still trying to ensure we get invites to conference, last thing we do is turn them down. We actually appreciate all those that take the time to include a grassroots online media org, considering there are still some who simply will not.
Patricia
Thanks for the explanation. I can understand going to cover the event as a news story, but participating in it by asking the Premier questions is a different matter. If you believe that the way the Premier treated the media during his tenure was unacceptable then I think you have an obligation to do something about that. It’s not politically biased to do so, it’s about standing up for your fellow journalists even if you have not (yet) suffered similar mistreatment yourself. I think Bermuda’s media should stick together much more on issues that concern them all – for example, I never understood why the Bermuda Sun didn’t join the Gazette’s “Right To Know” campaign even though freedom of information legislation was in their long term interest too.
unfortunately i think that had the media boycotted, it would have only strengthened Dr. Brown’s position that the media is biased.. and of course, with no one to be there to counter is claim, he could easily then push for it being race based bias.
this is one of those tricky things.. the media says they want ewart to be more open and honest, and that ewart constantly denies questions, answers, and interviews. I dont think it would score the media many points if they then turned around and declined to show up for a “round table” meeting.
Unfortunately this even is just playing into Dr brown’s hands either way. If they come, then he gets to give the same old answers, but throw out a few one liners to rile up the crowd. If they dont come, they get called hypocrites and bias.
Well said Stuart! And agree with Phillip, why give the man the satisfaction of actually showing up at this waste of time PR event ..
lol I just realised that the background of the “thanks but no thanks” image has McCain/Palin written in the back. lol forever.
Your eyes are better than mine! Off to edit the pic
Mr. Wells, if the media don’t turn up he’s won again. Never thought that those words would come from you after what has been done to you and family.
There’s a time for all to come out of the closet, even cedar lined. We bitch and moan for years and then when given the opportunity we walk away.? This would be the opportune time to turn on the rinse cycle and finnaly get rid of the spin cycle.
This is too little, too late, Terry. No useful information will come out of it. Whatever the media do he’ll try to paint this as a win; at least by not participating the media can keep their self-respect.
Mr. Wells your correct on the “too late”. But I must disagree with you on the “No useful information will come out of it”.
You of all people should know that ‘moderation’ is the way to go. You have kept many things in over the years after you took a back seat to all the blogs and comments. Shows character and control.
The “media” do have their “self respect” as can be seen by what they print.
We/the country and it’s peoples have played this game for four years under his leadership and now we/you don’t turn up?
Ewarts spin doctors ( he got them from stem cell research- the little thing that spins around) will have a plantation day with this and he will hand over the reigns to the Delegates and everything will be cool runnings until the voters realise they have been “Snow Jobbed”……………………………
Whats he gonna do. Send the boys after Trimminham, Smiths, Coopers…hijack a crooze sheep………
Gombeys come out at certain times of the year. Tonight should be the final performance of this troop. The rest are our heritage and have not sold us out.
I’ve lost my train of thought. Ah well…lets put a few bricks in the tracks for tonight because it can’t get any bumppier and the ‘conductor’ needs to be asked about the last 4 years and the miles………
Oh…and as for Stuart Hayward. He can bloody send a text and ot twitter or whatever. Laim/lame excuse……….
A good indicator of a strong black leader, is a leader the white folks love to hate. A good indication of a week black leader is the one white folks approve of.
a good indicator of a strong leader is one who can inspire and lead all.
And that’s the problem, you all don’t want to be lead by strong black leader. That strength to you, is arrogance and obnoxious, but that same personality cumming from a white leader, is assertiveness and prudence. This is buried deep in your subconsciousness, something you cant control, hundreds of years of mental conditioning just doesn’t go away way in a couple of decades. The damage is usually harder to fix, so it may take a thousand years to reverse to damage that has been done to you all, and that’s because you all don’t realize that you are damaged. For us, we have already started the repair process, so it might take us another hundred year or so to repair our damage.
I don’t know of any former white or black Bermudian leaders that have:
> Quadrupled our debt in less than 4 years to the point where we are paying $27mn in year in interest payments alone
> Breaking of BDA’s consitution by making one man decisions
> Overseeing the worst tourism numbers in 3 decades and still claiming it to be a “Platinum Period”
> Lying to the House and to the people
> Having DoT purposefully manipulate tourism figures
> Dockayd Lease Scandal
> Abusing their political powers to strip one man of his company in order to give it to his cronies (i.e. BCC)
> Having that said crony swindle millions of tax payers money as per the emals revealed by the RG
> Interfering with the civil service (i.e. bully)
> Faith Based Tourism
That is not strong leadership. I find it hilarious that all you Brownites just revert back to the overplayed tactic of blaming any and all critics simply on racism and never, and I mean NEVER, rebut any of the criticisms put forth. I understand that it is simply that you cannot defend and/or spin any of the above or any other shady so you seek to sow seeds of hatred against the critics.
But all you are doing is boosting his ego while proving to be nothing but a liability for the betterment of BDA and her peoples.
So if you are such a “Critical Thinker” at least try and address the points above instead of just calling everyone racist.
Ahhh….the sound of silence when confronted by facts…its the Brownite way…
What???????
I meant what???? to critical thinker!
And white people are racist?!
“He who knows not and knows not he knows not: he is a fool – shun him. He who knows not and knows he knows not: he is simple – teach him. He who knows and knows not he knows: he is asleep – wake him. He who knows and knows he knows: he is wise – follow him.”
So you are racist?
Search yourself and figure out which one fits you, when you do, your healing process will begin. If you don’t you will die ignorant.
” If you don’t you will die ignorant”
looks like we are in the same boat my friend…
So the only trait that actually makes him a strong leader is the fact that he hates white people.
Wow so debt, crime, education, housing, healthcare are just side issues to you? No wonder we are in the state that we are if hating on whitey tops your political agenda.
I don’t think it’s just “hating on whitey”. I think that his entire reign has been characterised by divisiveness, and that’s not just white/black, although that is his favourite card. I can’t stand the man, but I have to commend him for the way he played the politics game. Dividing people and preying on their conscious or unconscious prejudices is one way to gain emphatic support (along with the natural emphatic criticism).
Agreed.
Dr. Brown is probably by far one of Bermuda’s most intelligent and charismatic leader since the formation of teh two main political parties.
Unfortunately he utilized his immense talents for the worse (as you described above).
A missed opportunity for sure.
Because he makes you feel uncomfortable doesn’t means he hate you. It just means you are not used to feeling uncomfortable. So how dare him take you out of your comfort zone. Until you are black, you will never understand what it means to be black. we live in two totally different worlds and the power structure that controls the most wealth wants you to remain ignorant and you all don’t mind remaining ignorant because the only side effects of your ignorance is the privilege of being white. And I am sure you have no clue that you are so privileged, because you think everything you earn is due to your hard work and quite rightly so. But you ave the luxury of enter into a room and you are perceived to be competent, knowledgeable, full of integrity. A black man enters the same room, and he is viewed with suspicion, he has to prove his intellectual abilities, he has to prove he is trust worthy, in fact he has to be ten time as good as you to be viewed as equal, and he has to do that every day, for the rest of his life. So you see my friend, the little uncomfortableness that Premier Brown has let you feel by highlighting the fact that there is still a lot of racial disparity, is nothing compare to what we have to go through on a daily basis. And I am not talking about your black buddy that feels none of this, in fact I myself feels little of this, but the vast majority is in this boat. But for most most of you, to admit these facts some how make you either feel guilty, or try not to feel guilty, either way it make you uncomfortable so any one who dares to highlight these facts, are perceived by you to be haters of white people. And you all have not mastered the art of not taking things personally, when someone speaks of a general rule, you all internalize it and say well I don’t hate black people, I wasn’t borne privileged and so on and so forth.
And if you think I am a P.L.P supporter you are wrong. A critical thinker is what I am, so that leaves me, with no capacity to be so affiliated with any political or religious organizations. So now to address your concerns about all the above, crime and the likes, I can tell you that I am from a place where I have seen the ugliness of crime first hand and I have seen the progression and I know where Bermuda is headed for. So if you think that by defending Dr. Brown leaves me with no capacity to be concerned, you are again wrong.
A critical thinker is one who has the ability to see things for what they are, not what people tells them. A Critical Thinker is free from brain wash education. So I am able to understand were this crime is coming from and all the other vital concerns that this community should be concerned for, but are not. I am able to not think that criminals are the result the ruling party, whomever they are, I leave the shallow thinking to the party loyalist, because they are driven by ignorance. I know that crime, and more specifically, the crime that we are now faced with, is a seed that has been planted decades ago. And don’t feel guilty, I am not blaming “whit people” This is a result of the way your economy was, and is set up. When the education system doesn’t cater to all the people of a country, then this is just one of the side effects. When there are no real outlets for the artistic, the mechanical inclined, you know the folks that are not neurologically wired for academics ( A critical thinker has does his research and is aware that all brains are not wired the same) So is your education system pushes out these folks, that given the right environmental factors, would otherwise be you inventors, your musicians, your athletes and so forth, now becomes criminals. And this is just simplifying it a bit, because you must also be aware that, there are numerous reasoner why someone falls through the cracks. (Being born to a drug addict, an socially dysfunctional family and so forth) If these people are not included in your economy, then the end result is what you see, and it just gets worse. And I know it’s very easy to pick out a child that was borne to a crack addict and became a Doctor, and say then why can’t they all do that. Again, a critical Thinker doesn’t take that easy position, it’s lazy and far too easy. What a critical Thinker does, is study the phenomenon and research why that is, then the conclusion would be one that is formed based on information and not ignorance. He will see that personality of that child was a major contributing factor and some luck along the way. But basically these examples are what is known as “an exception to the rule” So the rule is, if these folks are not included, then the end result is what you see.
So it makes no difference who is in power, so if your beloved UBP comes back into power, it will still get worse, because they like the PLP are politicians and we as critical thinkers, are aware that politicians can’t solve these problems. Why? they just lack the wisdom at the most fundamental level, to make policy decision that will really move a country forward. So it my be fine for the politically aligned people to keep putting the blame on one or another party, but this beast have already been let go and there is no turning back. Why? because the things that needs to be done will never be done, most politicians lack the testicular fortitude to just do what has to be done.
And also just to make you aware, yes to you whit folks, that love to hate Dr. Brown and any leaders like him. The more you chastise him, is the more the PLP supporters dig in their heels and will not weaver in their support. And why is this bad, well all those concerns you asked about, will not get addressed, because every time you criticize their leaders you galvanize their support and the result of that is, they will not be as critical as they should be about their leaders. And the more you act in a monolithical manner on every subject, well, that just galvanize them some more.
Every were else in the world people divided based on their ideological beliefs, but for some strange reason, in Bermuda 99% of whites see eye to eye on every political subject. And you cant say that about the Black folks here, because they are always the deciding vote, they are the ones to switch from UBP to PLP and visa-verse, the whites just see it one way. You my not like to sound of that, but that my friend are the facts.
“And also just to make you aware, yes to you whit folks, that love to hate Dr. Brown and any leaders like him. The more you chastise him, is the more the PLP supporters dig in their heels and will not weaver in their support. ”
Which just shows how intolerant and narrow minded the Brownite supporter base truly is. They would rather overlook all the negative aspects and the adverse affects on Bermuda related to Dr. Brown’s reign (and there are many) just to spite white people. It is pretty sad. A definite by-broduct of history, but still pretty sad and dangeros for the well-being of Bermuda as a whole.
So you seem to admit, somewhat, that the list above are valid criticisms and events which occurred under Dr. Brown’s tenure as leader. But yet you say that they will go unheeded and unaddressed simply because white people voice their concerns over actions that are adversely affecting the country which they love. And again white people are the racists?
PS: I don’t feel any guilt. I can also ensure you that everything I have, which isn’t much (no property and limited $$$), is through my hard work. Belittle it all you like, but I earned it as does everyone.
“but I earned it as does everyone.”
*but i earned it as does everyone who puts in hard days work*
I am not trying to insult you but but you need to understand human emotions, to understand why that is, it’s because, like religion, people that support “party politics” are not rational people, they are full of emotions and those emotional buttons are very easy to press. I can say something on this forum and predict what the response coming from a party supporter. The emotional mind prevents people from thinking rational, so for that individual, all his or her reactions in life are almost always of a knee kind. Totally unable to rationalize the situation and come up with a rational or scientific conclusion. So people like Dr. Brown brings out the worst in these folks, on both sides of the fence. I understand that at this point you may not be able to make the connection. But believe me when I say, we are heading for some terrible time, crime-wise. And trust me when I say, that bashing the PLP leaders will not help. And it’s not about criticizing the leaders, it’s the venom that’s unleashed when it’s done. And again, stop taking it personal if you are not one of them. But to deny that they are not among you, will not help.
If you value your Bermuda, and again, maybe you do maybe you don’t, so don’t take it personally. You can no longer sit back and think it’s only a black issue, so you will only come out and demonstrate when you think your toe is being stepped on and sit back when others demonstrate. This will affect everyone, because Bermuda don’t have the luxury of pushing it in a corner. It will wipe out your valued real-estate. Stray bullets will eventually get you or your kids. So the sooner you come together and fight this monster that has been unleashed the better it will be. Or you can keep bashing the PLP thinking that the UBP is the answer. You all need to realize that you are all in this little boat together. You can all float together or sink together. Either way the ball is in your court. And yes your court, you are the ones that has decided to keep the divide, we are always coming over the fence to meet you half way and in some cases all the way. But if unification is not realized you will all suffer together.
I will be the fist to tell you that I did not support the big conversation sponsored by the Gov. because if they really had the people at heart, they would have fixed education and create more opportunities than they did, ultimately empowering the ones that are, or felt marginalized. The racial debate belongs between individuals, like you and I, we can vent all we want and some my understand, some my become enlightened and some may choose continue the ignorance. But we would be further down the road to repair than we are now. To the point now where, based on my experience, the violence will only get worse. So yes they missed the bus on this one.