SO far I have attended two of the three lectures held by the recently created Foundation for Bermuda Studies. The brainchild of Bermudians Arthur Hodgson, Lynda Milligan-Whyte, Michael Markham and Graeme Outerbridge, the Foundation is an independent, non-partisan think-tank hoping to stimulate discussion and analysis of some of the critical issues facing Bermuda.

The first lecture involved Governor Sir John Vereker and former Canadian legislator Brian Smith. The Governor's comments may have brought comfort to those who hope that Britain may be inclined to intervene in Bermudian affairs under certain circumstances.

However, his remarks chilled those of us who would be inclined to see British intervention in Bermudian affairs as potentially dangerous or destabilising because it would always come down to a question of how Britain was interpreting the on-the-ground circumstances in Bermuda.

Given the heated opposition to the introduction of single-seat Parliamentary constituencies and the clear desire of those who opposed the move to press for British intervention on this issue, I can see where we could face problems in the future.

The Canadian legislator Brian Smith was clear about why he opposed the use of a referendum to decide the important question of Independence for Bermuda. In his broad outline of Canadian political history, he cited the example of Quebec where the two referenda on Independence raised the spectre of a dismantled Canada and led to periods of sustained uncertainty.

His main theme was that Canada would be much better off it if did not have to go through such destabilising periods whenever the question of Quebec's sovereignty came to the fore.

Although Bermuda frequently talks about the need for national unity, I am not sure if we really understand what that means. Even though the Foundation for Bermuda Studies has started up with the best of intentions, I remain to be convinced that Bermuda's racial divide has been truly bridged and that we are now in a position to really lay the groundwork for a single unified country.

It was striking that the first lecture had a predominantly white audience, while the second attracted a predominantly black crowd. Clearly it was the differing subject matter of the lectures that decided the racial make-ups of the audiences.

At the second lecture the guest speakers were Dr. Waldaba Stewart, a lecturer on Caribbean history who offered a comparative study on the impact of colonialism in the Caribbean, and Dr. Esmeralda Brown of the United Nations Committee on Indigenous Peoples.

Clearly both speakers had problems fitting Bermuda into their specialist categories. While Dr. Stewart laid out the various stages of colonialism, neo-colonialism and post-colonialism in the Caribbean, he had problems identifying what stage of development Bermuda was in.

He wondered if Bermuda was not enjoying a stage of neo-colonialism in that while the island enjoys a high standard of living most of our economy (and increasingly large areas of our land) are in fact dominated by foreign economic interests, the classic neo-colonial situation.

I do wonder if we really understand the consequences for our children of the advanced off-shore industry that we are building. If current trends continue Bermudians will surely enjoy fewer and fewer benefits of this country's economy ? and find ourselves with less and less land to live on.

Nevertheless, despite any misgivings he may have had about the foreign domination of our economic infrastructure, Dr. Stewart finished his lecture by calling on Bermudians to join their Caribbean brothers and sisters for we have much to show about how to develop a successful economy.

His opinions on the old white aristocracy's control of Bermuda's tourist economy and the rapid transition to the new financial services economy segued into the topic discussed by the second guest speaker, Dr. Brown.

She offered her perspective on the need to protect indigenous peoples from the cultural and economic impact of globalisation. As was the case with Dr. Stewart, she found it difficult to pigeon-hole Bermuda into any specific category regarding indigenous peoples since Bermuda was uninhabited when it was accidentally colonised by the English.

Dr. Brown began her lecture by providing an outline of how the United Nations defines indigenous peoples. Essentially an indigenous people means a people who have lived upon the land for an interminable time and have developed, over that course of centuries, a unique culture and sense of national identity or ethnic cohesion before the arrival of a colonial presence.

Of course, Bermuda had no people living here before the arrival of the English in 1609. But Dr. Brown made the case that Bermuda now indeed has an indigenous people. In fact, Bermuda saw the arrival of two peoples who could claim to have developed into an indigenous population for the island within a few years of its colonisation, first the English settlers and later African slaves and Native American prisoners.

Dr. Brown pointed out that two peoples can claim to be indigenous Bermudians because we have lived on these islands for so very many generations and Bermudians do take pride in having developed a unique culture.

In terms of demographic realities of the Bermuda of today, population statistics show that 90 per cent of Bermuda's black population were born here while Bermuda's white population has dwindled, the proportion that were born here declining to the point that the number of foreign-born whites outnumber born white Bermudians.

Bermuda's history as a settled community is, of course, complicated by the racial divide and the struggle to end racism and to develop a democratic society. This brings it in line with the struggle of an indigenous people against a colonial system. That struggle continues.

When we look at the further development of Bermuda it is turning out to be a struggle between indigenous Bermudians and the persistent encroachments of foreign economic entities and foreign populations on Bermuda's traditional society.

This has been a factor that Bermudians have lived with for years and the island has provided a remarkable example of tolerance and willingness to share our small country with others not born here. But that period of tolerance may be coming to an end.

We may be entering a period of further strains brought about because of the increased pressure to find housing for our people and because of the fact that we are a very small country with no vast hinterlands to absorb a growing population, not as a result of natural growth, but because of the increased numbers of people we have to bring in to man our economy.

At some point hard decisions will have to be made. I think it would be better if we made them in a timely manner rather than under the circumstances of being forced to. All of these issues, the continued growth of Bermuda's economy, the question of who is a Bermudian and what shape the future will take, need to be discussed in a tolerant and level-headed manner.

So in that context it's good that Bermuda now has a platform to discuss these issues in the form of the Foundation for Bermuda Studies.