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Fair or fair-weather?

Dwight Jackson has declared as an independent candidate for Smith’s West (Constituency 9) in the next General Election (Photograph by Akil Simmons)

The Throne Speech has been fed to the nation as a “fairer Bermuda”. Perhaps, finally making it right would have a better endorsement. The irony of this government is that it is selling a solution to a problem that it created.

The lack of synergy with ministries, the lack of accountability within the bureaucracy, and the lack of accountability for capital projects that have gone through iteration after iteration have been bizarre. A sidebar to this is the hardware and equipment that have been binned along the way — the public could have benefited or the Government could have recouped some costs.

Restaurants and hotels continue to receive duty relief for capital investments to improve their facilities until 2029. For a Labour government that espouses a fairer Bermuda, there was no mention of duty concessions for small businesses or of Black empowerment zones or Black businesses. Perhaps Bermudian entrepreneurs will be continually saddled with deferment and “scraps”, while the rich get the better end of the deal with concessions.

What are the latest numbers or projections on employed Bermudians in fintech? Corporate Income Tax and the initiative to have it pull the country out of debt will depend on the person that will occupy the White House in 2025. He will have his own version of a fairer America, which will impact Bermuda and our fragile economy.

Despite the instances of the Government being benevolent by bailing out the Fairmont Southampton in 2020 and orchestrating lower energy bills through legislation with Belco, it has missed the opportunity to mitigate the volatility of life that can be inevitable. There was a great opportunity to look at nationalising power for the latter. Any percentage of ownership in Belco might have been significant.

Spending $100 million on the Bermudiana Beach Resort and suggesting more will be spent on another major investment at Morgan's Point — shelling out $200 million in another bailout — shows this government can find money for party interests, but fails to find sustainability for the people.

The Google deal is an example of this. Six acres for less than $5 million, a 262-year lease that equates to $1,500 a month. The length of this lease is audaciously ludicrous. There was thunderous uproar when the airport deal under a previous government was revealed. But now, the silence is deafening, Bermuda.

The Fairmont Southampton deal should have afforded local workers a voice per that bailout at $11 million. Revenue in the form of shares through a quango would have provided revenue streams that would not have come out of our pockets. This is the hybrid thinking that is needed to move Bermuda forward.

However, the norm in everyday life will be to further support importation on goods, while retail struggles to find new ways to reinvent itself and grow. There was a time when “Buy Bermuda” was a thing. However, now we have the Department of Consumer Affairs supporting buying overseas.

Our young males have not been adequately and specifically addressed. Their systemic marginalisation continues. It is evidenced in the workforce, especially in education. Traditionally a female-dominated field, there has been no effort to encourage more males into a system that clearly has scores of boys — adolescent, preteen and teen —who would benefit from the interaction of bonding and seeing more male role models.

Men encouraging men. Ideally, it should be an innate calling. However, remuneration should be attractive, meaningful and accessible. Our young people in general will never gain equity in the job market when laws allow persons to remain in positions that alienate, discourage and disenfranchise Bermudians.

Whether it be in hospitality, business or education, it is not OK for contracted persons to remain so long that residency and status are the end result.

An independent platform should provide a form of technocratic government where decision-makers have real expertise in their portfolio. When we succeed, we should do so as a nation.

• Dwight Jackson has declared as an independent candidate for Smith’s West (Constituency 9) in the next General Election

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Published November 21, 2024 at 8:00 am (Updated November 20, 2024 at 2:58 pm)

Fair or fair-weather?

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