THE present is now so very fleeting in Bermuda it tends to be demolished to make way for the future before it has a chance to become established as part of our past. Impermanence seems to be the only permanent fixture of life on this island these days, a condition that has left increasing numbers of Bermudians in a state of wide-eyed and apprehensive incomprehension.

Seemingly in the blink of an eye Hamilton's storybook skyline has been changed beyond all recognition by sprawling new office blocks and ground is being broken for yet more towers on an almost weekly basis. The city is a work in continuous progress. Thes aftershocks of the upheavals taking place in Hamilton are felt around the rest of the island, of course, as increasing numbers of foreign newcomers needed to man the new Bermuda economy naturally increase the already ruthless competition for everything from housing to school places.

As the number of construction sites continues to mushroom, Hamilton's ongoing multi-million dollar make-over cannot help but bring to mind Peter Ustinov's observation about Toronto when it underwent its phenomenal growth spurt some 30 years ago: "I'm sure it will be very nice when it's finished."

Or not perhaps not so nice.

For unlike Toronto, that international model of sensible and sensitive urban design, a city which ended up expertly balancing the needs of industry with the needs of its inhabitants, Bermuda is about to reach a sociological and environmental tipping point. The island is racing towards a point of no return, a point when unrestricted growth favouring industry's boom town requirements over the inhabitants' quality of life reaches a type of critical mass and the graphs plotting the associated problems - everything from poverty to drug addiction to crime spawned by frustration and a sense of impotence - start spiking straight upwards.

A razor-walled chasm is opening up between Bermudians and their corporate guest workers, those on either side of the divide eyeing one another with mutual suspicion and increasing hostility. This divide will continue to grow because Bermuda is not being given the time to absorb one influx of economic immigrants before another wave washes up on our shores.

No recognition is given by either our political or our corporate leadership to Bermuda's limited space and limited resources.

No recognition is given to the simple economic precept that defines inflation as too much money chasing too few resources - and those with expense account lifestyles and housing allowances and other subsidies are clearly far better placed to corner the markets on these scant resources than the average Bermudian,

It's axiomatic, of course, that the disadvantaged, the dispossessed and the disappointed are the ones most likely to resort to anti-social behaviour against a society they believe has excluded them.

But in Bermuda today we have a Government, mesmerised by the seemingly limitless amounts of money our corporate chieftains warehouse here, who are doing everything except making Bermudians feel included in this bewildering new cultural and economic environment.

Government will put on golfing tournaments and music festivals but it will not build houses or overhaul a public education system that is largely responsible for the self-perpetuating and self-sabotaging form of economic and social apartheid which excludes Bermudians from the wider benefits of the one-sided affluence that surrounds them.

It's a classic bread and circuses strategy. Keep the voters' stomachs full and their attention permanently diverted by spectacles. But don't for God's sake get embroiled in any of the deep thought and heavy-lifting that is really required to restructure this overstrained society.

The biggest sideshow attraction of them all is, of course, the Southlands Resort. Straight-armed through the Planning process, straight-armed through the informed criticisms of Government's own technical officers, straight-armed through the objections of Warwick residents and environmentalists, this project is now a byword for mindless rapacity in the Bermudian vernacular, quite the most grandiose temple dedicated to Mammon ever planned for this island. Which is saying something. Its chief proponent in Government, the Premier, argues, among things, that Southlands will be a Rolls-Royce engine for economic empowerment, a powerful stimulus for enfranchising the disenfranchised.

Hardly.

When work commences on this monstrosity it will have precisely the opposite economic effect to the one now being ballyhooed by the Premier. While a relative handful of entrepreneurs will certainly prosper over the short term, in the long-run Southlands will simply further fuel the vicious inflationary cycle that makes Bermuda such an absurdly expensive place to live and work. The consequences of constructing the Plastic Pleasure Dome go far beyond its immediate and deleterious environmental impact: the enormous sums required to construct a 300-room resort will further overheat the economy. This will create inflation far more rampant than what exists now, inflation that will place an adequate standard of living even further beyond the means of the average Bermudian. Only the live-now-pay-later mentality that has resulted in Bermudians already having one of the highest rates of personal debt in the world camouflages the fact a growing percentage of locals are effectively priced out of their own community. And even now this camouflage is only about as effective as a fig-leaf on Godzilla.

Once you've factored Southlands and the nine-storey competitor (also rubber-stamped by way of SDO) slated to be built almost next door into the inflationary equation, the cumulative impact on our economy virtually beggars belief. When both hotels fail, which is almost preordained given the room rates required to even approach the break-even point would stretch the resources of a Rockefeller, the built-in dual purpose natures of these projects will quickly become apparent. Both properties will likely become seafront annexes to Hamilton, offering office and residential space to yet more financial services sector newcomers in more salubrious surroundings than the overcrowded city. More companies and more guest workers will be welcomed to Bermuda. And so the vicious cycle will grow still more vicious.

Our leaders are rushing headlong towards tomorrow, propelled by a supercharged economy, seldom sparing the time to take in the cultural landscape we are passing through let alone glancing back to see where in fact we've come from. Bermudians, of course, are expected to behave like a herd of polite cattle as their political and corporate masters relentlessly drive them onwards. They have no idea if they are being led towards greener pastures by kindly herders. Or towards the slaughterhouse by Judas Goats. But they increasingly suspect the latter. And with good reason. - Tim Hodgson