October 1, 2007

IN every country where racism has been the overriding policy Britain has been less of a problem to the blacks in the country than the local authorities.

We can, of course, consider both the unilateral Independence of Southern Rhodesia and the situation in the former Dominion of South Africa, where the brutality of whites towards blacks increased so greatly after their Independence.

But we have our own local experience to consider. When Dr. E.F. Gordon went off to London with the White Paper proposing comprehensive reforms in Bermudian politics and society, it became the basis for the piecemeal restructuring that eventually began to be implemented at the end of the 1950s. Great Britian has not been particularly heroic but from the earliest days she has been a modifying influence on the brutality of local policy makers.

I would frankly be more interested if this current call for Independence was cast in terms of nation-building and the creation of the kind of democratic society from which all black folks would benefit (I say black folks because white folks are going to benefit no matter what!)

As it is now, even - as your columnist Alvin Williams has suggested - if great reserves of natural resources were found off Bermuda and we were Independent most black folks would benefit very little if the present is any indication of the extent that we would share in the wealth.

Even under a Progressive Labour Party Government (with a nod towards the efforts they have made) because of the influence and status of economic power in this community and the psychological imprint of past (and perhaps present), racism it is still too greatly influenced by the undemocratic and exclusionay values of a traditional white world.

So I continue to believe that our local authorities are a greater problem for me than is Great Britain. But I would never attempt to stand in the way of, or persuade otherwise, a rising tide of the people who really wanted Independence regardless of the consequence, and who did not need Commissions to examine the pros and cons before they demanded it.

But even then I would be more interested in their ideas of nation building a democratic and inclusionary society where all were seen as having true value.

DR. EVA N. HODGSON, Crawl