June 10, 2014

Dear Sir,

I reference a letter in today’s paper which carried a letter from AS Simons, Paget expressing (more like bemoaning) the fact that according to him, none of the regular bloggers to your site have asked the proverbial “plantation question”.

If the rest of your readers were as myopic as the writer then one could easily come away with the impression that the phenomena of a multi-tasked Premier and therefore the question, somehow had its genesis with the Brown/Cox administrations.

The history of Premiers carrying additional portfolio is replete throughout the history of Governance in Bermuda, even before 1998, except different titles were in use to describe responsibilities.

The current Premier at the time of the writing of his letter was only ‘on the job’ some two weeks.

However, for the sake of correct historical record it should be established that Dr Brown was Deputy Premier when credited with the phrase ‘plantation question’. To quote: “A plantation question is one which conjures up for me stories of plantation life where the relationship between the owner and his servant was a “man-boy” arrangement.

“An example of such a question would be: “Did GlobalHue (a black-owned company) win the Tourism Ad contract because its owner assisted in getting Rev Al Sharpton to speak at the BIU banquet? It is often a question which is not asked of White politicians.”

For Mr Simons to assert that the multiple salary questions have not been asked prior of white Premiers or Ministers displays not only an inordinate lack of research but also clearly reveals the underlying intent of his letter, race baiting.

For his information Premier Dunkley was interviewed extensively on the David Lopes show just last week. And, wait for it, one of the questions was on receiving multiple salaries. So much for life on the plantation!

Could it be that Mr Simons and those akin are running short on positions of objecting for the sake objecting? Can we not agree that this one has been sufficiently beaten to death and that it is time to move on.

You can always find trouble if you really look for it.

Amazingly, the same energy can be used to find success … with the same outcome.

DAVID SULLIVAN