Dear Sir,

In any depressed economy, there are always plenty of problems to uncover. You can fire a shot in the dark, aiming almost anywhere and hit the bull’s-eye of a problem area.

However, it’s not as easy to find a solution. I recall meeting groups of Somalians back in 1978 and thought I had met some of the finest human beings on Earth. They seemed so warm and human, full of compassion.

Later, about 1990, with the pullout of the Soviet Union and its military bases, the country suffered a serious financial collapse. The result being starvation and destitution, which sent this once country with a familial atmosphere into a spiral that turned almost overnight into a state of each man for himself and barbarism.

So, the great call during depressed economic times is to retain our civility and dig deep into our humanity to embrace values that can offset the tendency to worsen our economic woes by adding bad and inhumane behaviour.

Greater still is the call to look for solutions. The old saying “the answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind” is perhaps a metaphor for our time.

There is no value at the moment for political grandstands; we all need each other and more so than ever before.

Our economy depends on what’s happening in an ever-shifting global market. Opportunities come and are quickly captured by those who are eager and ready.

Time does not allow for politicians to talk about what they would or would not do, simply on the basis of showing up the other. Reality is that what is seen today has to be seized today; otherwise, someone else will have it, leaving with only the memory of its thoughts and words, which are no longer worth the breath it takes to mention them.

It is now past the time when political parties unions and activists work together. I am thinking of Ron King’s words, “Can we all get along?” We must do so and the best of our leaders today are those willing to risk the comfort zone of their loyalties to embrace a new relationship with yesterday’s enemy for the good of the country.

Yes, everything is important, all the issues on the table need to be addressed, but we must realise that all of them are at risk if we don’t find the way towards mutuality.

The walls that divide us must come down. I know it might sound like “Kumbaya”, but, really, it’s do-or-die. Bermuda is a gem and, in someone’s eye, it will always be a gem.

The question will be, who can afford to have this gem in their pocket?

It will not sink, folks; well, not for ever. The context of its continuation is wrapped in who invests in our future and what relationship does that investment have with our present generations and culture.

The other old saying of “whoever pays the piper calls the tune” will have its impact in Bermuda, as it has all over the world.

Yet I say, fear not. The world is becoming more diversified and indeed a global village.

The sooner we embrace that reality, the better and more prepared we shall be to take advantage and actually benefit from what this new world has to offer to those countries and people who are ready.

KHALID WASI