Global Hue: Business Insider Posts Email Trail
“Ewart Brown, the former premier of Bermuda, emailed me recently to accuse me of being a racist simply because I questioned the way the Caribbean archipelago nation paid the ad agency handling its tourism account,” Jim Edwards of Business Insider reports today [May 14].
“I do not know you, but my experience has taught me that people who write like you do are usually committed to a Racist agenda,” the reporter says Dr Brown said. “I pray that you will stop practising Racism.”
BusinessInsider posted a long email trail [read here] which they said occurred between Dr Brown and the reporter, which centered around the allegations about Global Hue, racism, tourism and included Dr Brown offering to cover the expenses if the reporter wished “to debate these issues in Bermuda.”
Last year, the Public Accounts Committee tabled a report [PDF here] covering a number of aspects of the Global Hue contract, with the US agency having been selected to manage Bermuda’s tourism marketing.
The report said the CEO of Global Hue wrote a “shockingly strident and totally unprofessional letter directly to the Premier/Minister of Tourism & Transport containing insulting personal attacks on the Director of Sales and Marketing…”
“The direct access to the Premier/Minister of Tourism & Transport [Dr Brown] gave Global Hue the licence to ignore established protocols,” said the PAC report.
The PAC report continued on to say that, “Evidence presented to your committee showed that civil servants responsibilities were over-ridden by the Premier and Tourism & Transport Minister and Global Hue.”
“The evidence also showed that Financial Instructions were not adhered to. Under these circumstances value for money from the public purse was not likely achievable.”
In February 2011, the then-Tourism Minister Patrice Minors said that the GlobalHue contract was not renewed. In 2012, Boston-based Fuseideas was named as the Bermuda Department of Tourism’s advertising agency of record in North America.
A responsible reporter would have contacted Dr. Brown for a comment before post the information above.
Bwwwahahahahaha…..
A responcible Premier wouldn’t have left us in this situation!!
responsible… before anyone complains
Lol how much more do you want him to say? The more he says the worse Bermuda looks. It seems everybody but you is enjoying forgetting about him.
I imagine he is hard to track down on his yacht these days.
Besides, he already made his comment in the e-mails — read them.
How many e-mail accounts do you actually have LaVerne? I would say 4 so far under your name. Under anonymity which you so despise, god only knows. Don’t get them confused, some of us are watching.
You are a liar “Come Correct”.
Really? Shall I point out the articles where your faces are different? Different e-mail different face silly girl, tricks are for kids.
@Come correct. I weren’t going to say anything but since you broached the subject, I have also been keeping an eye on the avatars being assigned. So far I recognize two for LaVerne. I have been waiting for Betty and the rest to show their ID’s this way. I haven’t seen Betty comment here recently, maybe she/he has caught on?
Minister Fahy on election and voting reform…your face changed again…e-mail #2… Looks to me like you’re the liar and a hypocrit.
The reporter should have contacted you for the truth???????? Hell NO.
Regardless of whether you think the reporter should or shouldn’t have published the emails…it is quite clear the Ewart Brown said what he said to this man. Follow the link to the full article and emails…quite disturbing.
Wow, now Ms. Heather Jacobs is a sellout or an “aunty jane?”
Nice, Dr. Brown. Nice.
Can’t wait to read the comments coming for this…..
Assuming the emails are from DREB, and posted accurately, what an odious, twisted, sick little man he is, confirms much of what many of us believed. How does he even stand up with that chip on his shoulders!?
What bitter, , incoherent rantings. Almost laughable.
no surprise. we all know how things were handled during his watch. It’s our fault collectively, we voted for this to happen. Now Gov’t workers b!tch!n’ bcuz the gravey train has run dry…..no wonder. Still don’t have a clue do you….try connecting the dots….again
Meanwhile, the self-important, self-righteous little people that we are miss the most important aspect of this story: an agency that couldn’t survive Bermuda’s bizarre little sick fishbowl politics is doing SuperBowl ads for Jeep. They’re not good enough for us but they’re good enough for Jeep and the SuperBowl…a media market we can’t even afford to window-shop in. One day we really do have to get over ourselves and until we do, this place is just doomed.
No one said that Global Hue wasn’t good enough for BDA.
The issue was the billing and that was confirmed by two Auditor Generals as well as the bipartisan Public Accounts Committee.
Nice try. That was NOT the issue at all. It became the issue but from the start all and sundry of a certain hue and of a certain political persuasion questioned GlobalHue’s selection. Do not attempt to change the facts like it was happiness and light until the billing issue arose because it was NOT. GloblaHue was opposed every step of the way. In fact, here’s the proof: how many people can even name Bermuda’s agency of record right now? Or even one of the agencies that do PR, marketing or ad work for Bermuda? No-one. And why? Because the pigment issue is now resolved; it doesn’t matter if they fail us because the numbers going down since 2011 when Global Hue left must be anyone’s fault except the nameless agencies. We don’t even care who has the account now because the media don’t care. We only care what they tell us to be concerned about. If it was that important, we’d all be able to reel off the name(s). Ewart may be coarse but the truth often is exactly that.
Ok.
The PAC and Auditor General’s reports are there for all to see.
But if you want to make it a race issue then that is your right.
Make it a race issue ? It is what it is. The race to finish the dock in 2008 was corruption. The race to finish the dock in 2013 is a national imperative. The only difference seems to me to be in who was doing the racing. So, what kind of issue is that? Don’t call it what it ain’t; call it what it is.
Ok.
Like I said you can ignore the findings of the PAC and AG. You can ignore the previous contractor’s (he is white by the way) emails, revealed by the daily, to his overseas contractor instructing him to up his charges. You can ignore the fact that the Pier went over budget by some 60% as well as ignoring the fact that despite paying the previous contractor tens of millions of dollars that part of the dock was broken within a year after a Cat 1 hurricane and required another $20 plus million to ensure that it is ready for this cruise season.
But it is obvious that we can’t have a decent conversation or debate as the facts will just keep on getting into the way of your defense.
Anyways have a great day sir and I hope for all of Bermuda and her people that the dock is completed on time and up to standard.
PS: Fuseidas is the new ad agency utilized by the DoT. And it was the former Government that appointed them.
Racist
To Hmmmm,
Many of us in the silent majority CAN indeed name the agencies out there.
They are:
Lou Hammond for PR in USA who has been there for far too long and should be
replaced by the OBA as soon as is possible when their contract is up.
The advertising agency in the USA is Fuseideas who came up with “Bermuda Is So Much More” campaign and probably should be kept on to afford some continuity.
In the UK the agency is “Publicasity” who it is hoped that the OBA will also replace as soon as their contract is up.
Global Hue’s contract was questioned from the very beginning because of the enormous costs it required and certainly not because of their “hue” as you are assuming here.
The only hope now is to get the politics out of the Bermuda Department of Tourism (BDOT) and move quickly to the Tourism Authority.
Thanks for the info. Very helpful. Does your plan to depoliticize the BDOT and move on to the authority include holding David Dodwel and his group accountable for the 9 Beaches lease?
That said, I know you all are not concerned about accuracy, especially the reporter, but just a few tidbots to make you question whether this guy is worth reading:
1. Bermuda is not a “Caribbean archipelego”
2. Dr. Brown did not “take the tourism portfolio” in 2006. He was appointed Minister of Tourism by Alex Scott in 2004.
3. GlobalHue’s bid was competitive; six companies bid. And just like the OBA’s Heritage Wharf upgrades 6 preferred companies were invited to bid; and just like the OBA’s Heritage Wharf upgrades the company that was doing the work before won the contract. Wonder if that “coincidence” is worthy of the Auditor General’s inquiry? Please who am I fooling….wrong cast of characters.
Isn’t that IRS story across the way interesting? Seems an independent watchdog was targeting certain groups and people deliberately. Funny that…….and hey Crock said last night on the news that he’s instructed his marketing people to go after African-Americans as tourists for Bermuda…….now where have I heard that before?
Er no, under IRS, political organisations are not tax exempt. Tea Party groups are political. F&@ck them.
That’s why churches are on dangerous ground when they get involved in political policy
So much more from the famous peelpee.
famous peel facken pee lol
This is so thoroughly embarassing for Bermuda. So much hate and ignorance distilled into one man. How on earth did he manage to get in power if this is the way he corresponds with people? In this day and age! Was EB drunk when he sent these? Absurd!
Oh God! It’s like being caught up in the nightmare once again that was Dr. Brown’s premiership! Forgive him, it’s all he’s got to fight with… non-stop allegations of racism.
Enough already. Ewart Brown continues to make this island look stupid. How clearer do you need things?
GIMME ALL MY/OUR MONEY BACK
Everyone has to go to the link to read the entire email exchange. It’s shocking! Dr. Brown genuinely believes that he’s in the right. Incredible.
http://www.businessinsider.com/bermudas-ewart-brown-globalhue-and-tourism-2013-5
“Btw, do you think that a non-white agency can win a contract without crooked dealings?”
^^^^This is one of the most important sentences about this email fiasco.
Kind of implies that the writer doesn’t believe they could and therefor points to something crooked having happend
white or black or other, its slimey business deals like this one that turn my stomach. It was wrong when the UBP done it, it was wrong when the PLP done it, and it will be wrong if the OBA do it. Stop basing your argument on race and focus on the slimey behavior.
I red the exchange and Ewart made some good points and the reporter made some good points, I believe they both have agendas.
looks like Ewart is out to settle scores…or perhaps he’s feeling some pressure coming from the outside. Maybe the other shoe will fall at some point!
Sir, it is unfortunate yet predictable that you made a race issue out of this.
You clearly had nothing to say of any real substance.
Thank goodness you returned home to the USA. Please stay there.
We want to forget you as soon as possible.
Just seeing or hearing the name Ewart Brown makes me sick!! His racial rants +shoot the messenger tactics to distract from embarrassing facts is getting’old’! His ‘benevolent despot’ regime of ‘friends+family’has almost(+ still may have) destroyed our beautiful Island and forever entrenched him in historys’ ‘Hall of Shame’! Let us forever ban the name Ewart Brown from the Bermudian Lexicon!!