Just my view………….

Thank you for getting back to me.

I believe I understand your point, and I think when you think about it you may understand mine. 2003 is not ancient history as you put it. It is in fact far too recent for the full voting rights black Bermudians have strived for and deserve to have been granted. It should have happened decades before.
I take exception to your characterizing 2003 as the year of “full voting equality”. There are a number of people that have lived, worked and contributed to Bermuda and Bermudian society for a number of years, that do not have the right to vote in Bermuda.

You suggest an interesting perspective.. I’ll follow through and start with the property voting qualification; and I’ll add this important numeric fact – since 1833, black Bemudians have always out-numbered white Bemudians.

100 years ago takes us to 1916. In 1916, the total number of votes that could be cast by a white man who owned property in all nine parishes was 36, because he could cast a vote for each of four candidates in each of Bermuda’s nine parishes.

A black man might also own property in each of the parishes. However, each of his properties might not be valued at the sixty pound tax value that was the threshold for acquiring the vote. Since, in 1916, there were no blacks in decision-making appointments in the ‘tax office’, that black landowner might have zero votes because the ‘tax office’ rated each of his properties at fifty pounds per piece.

One hundred years ago, that was the norm. Voting records confirm that up until the 1950′s, the number of votes actually cast in a General Election always exceeded, sometimes by a multiple, the number of persons actually registered as voters. That happened because Bermuda’s white community used their political power and plurality of votes to reduce and out-vote the mostly single vote capacity in Bermuda’s black community.

in 1916, Bermuda’s white Bermudian community manipulated the rules so as to maintain their ascendancy, and this continued right up to 1968, when the vote finally became nearly equal.

Full voting equality, with ‘one man, one vote, each vote of equal value’ did not arrive until 2003.

That, in a conch shell, is the history of voting here. The memories are not ancient. 2003 is a very recent year.

I hope that helps give you a better understanding of that third paragraph.

Larry

Bingo.

Grass roots my @r$e. Half a dozen previous ‘peoples campaign’ protests (yeah right & lmao) that barely got 200 people at a time to come out so the PLP/BIU organizers did the only thing they could do, seek the help of the union members through ignorance, obedience & intimidation. Same old same old really.

The grass roots People (IOW’s grass roots Bermudians) don’t protest unless the union calls them out, haven’t done so since the theater boycott so calling this a grass roots movement or a labour issue as the media incorrectly did is laughable.

Doing what is right, no matter who it might disadvantage is always the right thing to do. A pathway to status to all who have earned it, no matter the colour of their skin, is the right thing to do.

Thanks

curious myself but our economy is based on more people working…ennit?

this is an interesting question and really requires a proper address from those more adept at figures and explanation than I can avail knowledgeably.

I’m still struggling to connect the dots here. I’ve reread your third paragraph and I think what you are suggesting sounds a lot like extortion – are you saying that Pathways To Status cannot happen until we’ve conquered the legacy issues we are experiencing from racist policies of the past? My mother used to say ‘two wrong don’t make a right’ so I don’t understand why we should repeat what happened in the past by blocking people from gaining status. Instead we should allow these people who have been in Bermuda a long time to be able to fully participate in a country which they love and call ‘home’.

One group of the population cannot withold demographic participation rights based on historical events from almost 50 years ago. This approach is causing a paralysis in our ability to own our threats.

How do we intend to grow our population?

Larry , I hope I get the wording right on this and it goes through , but as True Lies has already said
** So the reason they were protesting is because they want to make sure that black Bermudians control all future votes? Who’s racist, here ?** I hope I won’t offend anyone .

Are you suggesting that blacks feel their vote is more valuable than anyone elses ?

There is no doubt that this fear of dilution is only because of the perception that these new status holders would not vote for the PLP , but what if we were talking about a near totally black group of new status holders ? Would there be any fear of ‘dilution’ then ?

Remember , this group who is so offended by this whole process of vote dilution comprises the PLP’s monolithic support base . A group that is far larger than that group of whites who are always chastised as unswaying UBP/OBA voters .

So can Larry elaborate on this in the context of his opinion piece, if this is a MUST then is he saying;

a) that ResPop increases should be of black decent only and only aligned with the current majority black political party for us to ever get legislation approved?

b) we need to recognize and acknowledge the feeling within the Black community around ResPop and then educate that community around the process…?

my real question is that the reality of ResPop increase is going to be predominately white, asian etc. and as such, is the black community not going to always look at this as a vote issue and continually protest anything that sees an increase in any other population other than back?

What would Larry suggests are the first steps to take on this process as I to believe that substantial ResPop increase is needed?

Thanks in advance for further thoughts on this.

I was at the vigil supporting Pathways and it was not 95% white. We were there not because of race, but because if someone has lived in this country for 20 years, contributing to the economy and society, they deserve to have an equal say in how the country is run.

Between 2008 and 2014 the number of foreign workers declined by 3,391 people. In your and others logic that would simply free up 3,391 positions for Bermudians to take over.

Instead over the same time period 3,347 Bermudian filled positions disappeared.

Less people = less money = less economic activity = less demand for employees.

“Clearly, more businesses are needed to produce those 2,000 jobs, which was not the intent of the Bill.”

That is the exact intent of the Job Makers bill which you and the PLP have vehemently spoken out against with the latter stating that they would repeal it if returned to Govt.

Please, for your edification, read, re-read, and fully digest the summary set out in the third paragraph which starts
with: “The biggest ….. ending with … lack of racial understanding.”

I am not asking you to agree with that paragraph. I am asking that you understand the importance of that paragraph and the experiential gulf, more like chasm now, that it refers to.

Your polls may well indicate a majority in support of the PTS bill as thought to be drafted. I am highlighting the strong, deep, and powerful antipathy, in Bermuda’s whole black community, to any dilution or perceived dilution of the strength of their hard-won votes.

I will never ask you to agree with me. I will ask only that you understand. You can then take any stance that you like, but you would then understand why certain actions will precipitate a strong generic response from deep within and from across the whole spectrum of Bermuda’s black community.

Also, when trying to understand the 95% black response, you should tackle the matter of the 95% white counter-demonstration on Sunday 13th March.

Understand both and you will have a better understanding of real – not ideal -Bemuda.

Seek understanding. Then take your stance.

Larry.

Before you jump all over me, I’m a black swing voter (no I don’t enjoy feeling compelled to state my race but it is what it is in this day and age in Bermuda). I support this bill and will likely continue to vote OBA in the next election. However, I am disappointed in them not for what they’re doing but how. They should anticipate the backlash and not try to steamroll over it. They should lead the people by building consensus and unifying us.

I believe they are doing the right things in entirely the wrong way. If the protest serves as a wake up call to this government that makes them continue to do the right things only now in a unifying, consensus-building, leading, bringing the PLP into the fold and making allies of them (or at least being able to demonstrate that they tried), kind of way then the protest will have been a great thing for this country regardless of how many laws were broken and the inconvenience that was caused.

Yes, some PRCs and LTRs have started businesses here that have employed Bermudians…but that is the exception, not the rule. Most PRCs and LTRs during their time here have been working jobs provided by companies that existed when they arrived – hence the argument that they “wouldn’t be taking jobs from Bermudians because they are already working here.”

Wealthy individuals and businesses will only invest in a place when it makes financial sense to do so. Other jurisdictions have shown that they can do business much more cost efficiently than we do, which is why we are struggling to get back. For them, it is always about the bottom-line, especially in times of global financial uncertainty.

But, if we had (as you suggest) 2,000 people here, they would need housing so Bermudians would receive rent. That’s extra money Bermudian landlords can spend. They’d need food so Bermudian grocery stores would do more business, which would lead to more business for wholesalers, and truckers and dockworkers and shippers. They would need electricity which would need to be generated by Bermudians at Belco and the Bermudian civil servants are paid by taxes everyone pays on property, food, electricity etc. They would need to get around so there would be more bike/car sales, more work for Bermudian mechanics, gas stations, license fees, parking fees etc.

Then some of those 2,000 people would want to go out to eat occassionly and that might just be enough extra business for the Bermudian entrepreneur to open their own restaurant and employ Bermudian chefs and wait staff and managers ….

Get the idea? The restaurant won’t open until there are already people here to support it.

May someone please explain how simply increasing our population will lead to more economic opportunity for Bermudians? My initial thought is that we need an increase in jobs which will stimulate a need for more bodies, thus increasing our population…

If we simply add 2,000 unskilled workers, that will not increase the economic prospects of anyone.

Hence, my thought process is that we need to increase the number of jobs and wealthy individuals who will invest in our island.

Can someone provide some insight

Your article finishes with “…one thing that we must do is increase ResPop”. Did the bill presented not aim to achieve this?

Regards,
Vincent

What a joke.

It was a union/plp organized mob, not a grass roots anything.