Denis over at 21 Square has an excellent post  about greater transparency and community involvement. Wander over and give it a read.

Be sure to check out his suggested sites as well. 

1. OpenBermuda.com
2. Bermuda.uservoice.com

An interesting letter to the editor  

"May 12, 2010

Dear Sir,

"Stupid Black Men" ... is the title of a must read novel by US national radio host and social commentator, Larry Elder, who has made a career out of being a thorn in the side of the conventional wisdom crowd. As a black man himself, he is not calling black men stupid. He attempts to bestow a heightened level of awareness and self worth upon them. And most importantly to me, he does not believe in excuses. One might now question the relevance of such an offensive title to a letter to the Editor and I will attempt to explain.

I consider myself a quiet, yet politically informed young, black, Bermudian male who is the first to admit to a plethora of personal flaws and, up to this point, is truly guilty of tolerating the ills of society. The principle behind this lack of concern originates from the fact that its effects on my quotidian schedule are negligible and have little direct bearing on my personal success.

However, after the most recent debacle plastered over the front page of your newspaper last week, I have come to a frightening realisation. There appears to be an infinite number of young black males who have no regard for the efficacy of our penal system. Plug any high profile criminal's name (or victim if you like) in the archive search engine of The Royal Gazette online and you will be guaranteed to find a litany of offences committed by the same individual that spans decades if the criminal is old enough.

Do we not have the ability to hand out sentences that run consecutively? What deterrent is there for someone who commits ten offences only to have them run concurrently? The public is so sick of the same old reprobates who refuse to grow up and take responsibility for their actions. If you have the audacity to curse out a Supreme Court judge upon being convicted of a crime or worse still, don a "Stop Snitching" T-shirt immediately after narrowly escaping conviction leads me to the following deduction; that we need to seriously amend our penal codes to deal with this new breed of criminal.

They need to fear Westgate facility, not hastily ask to be taken there to start another regimen of hitting the bench press while receiving ridiculous daily shoutouts from their babies' mamas on local radio stations before they are prematurely unleashed back on society. The sooner the black man realises that the 40 acres and a mule are not coming any time soon, the better off he will be when tackling life's obstacles. A career in crime will not suffice.

We live in a capitalist society that is heavily based on competition and has very little time for those who cannot compete. The black man has to realise that if he feels that this society is too unfair, then maybe he should look into emigrating to China or maybe Cuba. The most important lesson that every young black male needs to learn in order to compete is this focus on education. It is not the only course but it is a damn good one. The playing field is not level when it comes to achieving success we all know this but we need to get over it. It will be this way long after any of us on this planet are gone. Instead of touting "Stop Snitching" we should be thinking "Stop B—ching".

We need to rid ourselves completely of blame, white rule and the myriad of other excuses for not achieving personal goals. It is too easy and convenient and is a prophecy that will always be self-fulfilling. When one takes a good look in the mirror and is truly honest with oneself, most of life's failures stem from being ill-prepared or as result of bad decisions that are most often realised in retrospect. If only The Royal Gazette would allow more words to the Editor.

DISGUSTED

Pembroke "

What is a Bermudian?

"a Bermudian" means a person possessing Bermudian status under the Bermuda Immigration and Protection Act 1956;.  How does one gain Bermudian status?  It is not enough to be born on this 21 square mile land mass (Jus Soli).  You also need a recent blood connection (Jus Sanguinis).  If you are not born in Bermuda but have a parent who is "a Bermudian" and if that parent is domiciled in Bermuda at the time of your birth then you gain Bermuda status, and are "a Bermudian" if the parent is not domiciled in Bermuda then you aren’t. Worry not if you find yourself in the latter position and wish to pass Bermudian status on to your future child all is not lost you can travel to the island for the birth and bibbidi-bobbidi-boo,  you pass on Bermuda status,

This automatic entitlement of Bermudian status to a select group of beneficiaries is discriminatory, and racist.  It unfairly treats and diminishes the opportunity of a person, whose place of origin, or bloodline does not fall into the privileged groups.  Bermudian status by birthright is unearned and unfair.

Does one person become any more important than other based on a group they are born into?  By selecting and rejecting our citizens on the circumstances surrounding their birth, we reward luck over people’s choices, merit and effort.

Let’s look at two adults, one is law abiding, and productive, the other antisocial, and a drain on public resources.  After a 10 year period one has contributed to society the other has not.  Is it really in our best interest to exclude the productive member because they were not born with “Bermudian” blood?  Or automatically include the antisocial parasite?

Another way to gain status and become "a Bermudian"  is through marriage, it takes ten years of marriage, of which the last seven they must be ordinarily resident in Bermuda but here is a very interesting section of the law which I feel should be expanded to cover all invidviduals wishing to be "Bermudian";

The Minister shall not approve an application under this section if

(a) the applicant has during the period mentioned in paragraph (b) of subsection (1) been convicted, whether in Bermuda or elsewhere, of an offence which, in the Minister's opinion, shows moral turpitude on the applicant's part; or

(b) the applicant's character or conduct otherwise in the Minister's opinion disqualifies the applicant for the grant of Bermudian status,

I propose that we do away with our current unjust citizenship model.  That we replace it with one that takes the content of a person’s character, their conduct and contribution to Bermuda as factors in determining who is rewarded with the privilege of citizenship.  This will lead to a better Bermudian and a better Bermuda.

I watched Friday night’s news in disgust after person after person said that if they see any extreme crimes being committed they are not likely to report it due to fear of retribution. Is that really how this thing is going to play out? Are we really willing to give our island over to LESS THAN two hundred lawless individuals when the remaining SIXTY THOUSAND PLUS! of us sit idly by and hand them the keys to our freedom? FOR REAL??

So many people that I speak to say that it’s only going to get worse and that we should just let them kill each other. Why is no one concerned that some of these people are perfectly innocent and even the ones who we have determined are disposable should not have to face a bullet as a form of justice – that’s what the courts are supposed to be for – right?

Let’s start fixing this by putting the blame where it belongs so that we can start fixing this problem. The blame lies with each and every one of us and the solution is in all of our hands.

STOP calling these punks gangs members it only reinforces the fantasies they have that are being played out all over the island. They think they’re in a war and Bermuda is the battlefield. If they want a war can we please have them go to a real one? May I suggest Afghanistan, Iraq or some crime ridden part of the United States?

STOP giving people the excuse of racism as a reason for being angry and not finding proper conflict resolution. I’m not forty yet, and I can say that my experiences with being followed around stores, spoken to as if I was stupid and having to work twice as hard as the next white person to be seen as half as good did not have my family throwing me a pity party. The message from home was that that’s the way it is, but you have to live your life and know that none of the treatment received by people who may have seemed racist is a license for you to act the fool.

STOP showing the police on television and in the paper with their heads down and their hands in their pockets looking like crack heads searching for lost rocks. It’s not a good image, it’s making them look clueless. I imagine the shooters/murderers sitting at home watching the news or reading their morning paper and laughing – they look like chickens about to peck for grain. While were on the subject…….

STOP with all these press conferences. Half of the time the majority of the public knows more about what happened than you do anyway. Are we really on a need to know basis with law enforcement? My preference would be if the police were just as secretive as the criminals. I don’t see them making an announcement about when they are going to wreak havoc and create mayhem, so why must you make announcements about when and how you are going to fix it?

STOP wasting time with those crime stoppers announcements as you can tell by the news report last night, people don’t seem to care about the offers of anonymity. The money being spent on that could probably be better used to offer rewards. As we know the money isn’t flowing like it used to and some of the people in the know would sell out a close friend for next to nothing.

STOP these women from standing outside the court houses looking like they’re waiting for a pop star parade to start. The way they reach out to these people who are on trial as though they are celebrities on a red carpet is disgusting. I know that they are innocent until proven otherwise, but perhaps the public displays of support would have been better put to use during their younger years when they most needed pats on the back to reinforce work well done in school, sports and church. I bet this is the most attention many of these kids have had from their parents and they love it.

STOP thinking it’s okay that the majority of the victims of these crimes are either foreign nationals or people who are living on the fringes of society. This country is so small and the possibility that either you or someone you know knows one of these people is great. People are just getting up, getting on their bikes and deciding that it’s a good day to take a life. That’s crazy. Ask them why this person deserves to die. No one is being brought to justice and they are becoming more and more bold. Doesn’t it bother anyone that there might be a serial killer among us?

Alright, the more I write, the more hyped I’m getting – I think that’s it for now, but rest assured I will be back. I have a fabulous idea that involves mercenaries that I would love to share with you.