'France has no permanent friends; only permanent interests' Charles de Gaulle, president of the fourth Republic of France.

Charles de Gaulle may have been the only head of state to voice the above sentiment. But it is the guiding principle of all heads of state. Barack Obama is only following a well-worn path when he states that American offshore companies domiciled in our country may not be in America's interests and therefore should be closed down.

What we in Bermuda forget is that Obama is an American and if he gets elected in the upcoming presidential election he will do what every American president did before him, and that is carry out the policies that he deems to be in America's interests. There is no doubt that black people in Bermuda are torn between the idea that we may in our lifetime see the election of the first back president in America's history. We are faced with this conflict of emotions because of our racial past and the fact that, just like our African-American counterparts living in America, we are not yet healed from the experience of racial oppression afflicted on our ancestors. The consequences thereof still have an emotional, cultural and economic impact reaching even into the time in which we are all living. Those of you who missed the film and the lecture put on by internationally renowned author and speaker Dr. Joy Degruy-Leary and heard her thesis, "Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome" would have missed a great opportunity to begin the process of coming to an understanding of not only the psychological impact of this great crime against humanity, but its continuing influence on our society today.

But to return to the possible impact of an Obama presidency on Bermuda and his promise to end American corporate inversions out of the United States and thereby escaping the payment of taxes on profits earned outside of America Senator John Kerry who ran for the presidency in 2004 referred to such companies as Benedict Arnold companies after the American traitor who portrayed the American patriots fighting for American Independence.

Bermuda has been at great pains to try and convince the many detractors of the presence of American offshore companies here that it does not fit in the category of aiding and abetting American tax dodgers. For a long time it has had success in doing so. But the climate has drastically changed with the catastrophic potential meltdown of the American economy, with corporate America bearing much of the blame. Even with this most recent near trillion dollar bail- out of many economic entities entered into very reluctantly by America's political leadership, the American people as a whole are not in the mood to save those economic managers who are considered to be at fault for the economic predicament that their country now finds itself. If it is thought that American companies are in any way escaping their duty to their country in the paying of taxes, this sentiment is going to be reflected politically.

Barack Obama is on the right track politically with his focus on American companies overseas. The American people may very well demand in the light of this economic dislocation - now being called the gravest economic crisis faced by American since the great depression in the 1930s - that the economic pain should not be borne by them alone. That the fat cats and heads of companies from Wall Street to American companies based overseas should equally bear such pain.

My question is, should the Bermudian people be told the truth concerning the possible economic ramifications of Bermuda's most vaulted offshore business and its possible fate during America's economic crisis? Should we become even more aware of how fragile our economic position now finds itself in, having grown to depend on the presence of these companies?

Everything evolves in cycles and Bermuda's economic position has been no different if we care to look at our history and the various economic activities we have engaged in since human settlement began on these isles. The question is, have we arrived at just such a junction where once again our economic well-being will have to depend on different economic circumstances that are yet to reveal themselves?