THE book the Bermuda Industrial Union commissioned me to write on its history has now gone on sale in the island's bookstores and pharmacies.

The man responsible for its distribution is the union's Education Officer, Collin Simmons. He said it had simply been amazing to see the interest generated in the book.

Previously it was only available from union headquarters, where staff were kept busy satisfying discounted prepaid, pre-publication orders by individuals.

A great many of them, after a cursory look and feel for the book, immediately made multiple purchases. One shop steward, Herbie Bascome (pictured right), set the record, buying eight copies.

Meanwhile, union president Derrick Burgess satisfied the BIU's legal responsibility, one that devolves on all local publishers, by depositing two copies at the Bermuda National Library.

He made the presentation (see photo above left) to the Head Librarian, Joanne Brangman, in the presence of the author and Minister of Community Affairs Dale Butler, who has responsibility for the Libraries.

As a courtesy Mr. Burgess had some complimentary things to say about the author, the graphic artist David Wellman, staff at the Bermuda Press and all others involved in what he termed a commendable, pace-setting, totally local production.

ON another front, I am constrained to note that, not unexpectedly, some nitpicking dimwit has surfaced in a purported critique of my work, which I can only construe as more of a dismal effort to draw attention to his own muddled thinking than anything else.

It appeared in the longest Letter to the Editor that I have ever seen, a half page, in fact, appearing in the Mid-Ocean News, dated Friday, October 29, 2004. It carries the signature of Khalid Al-Wasi, complete with a big black banner headline and a photograph taken in September 2003 at the unveiling of a plaque naming a section of Hamilton as the Dr. E.F. Gordon Square.

I have to give Khalid credit where it is due, for the observations he condescended to make in his opening paragraphs about "the well researched" and "timeless form" in which The History of the Bermuda Industrial Union is presented and made available to future generations.

He goes on to concede that the book "chronicles in a lucid and largely challenging way, with concise but comprehensive details, those issues that give rise to the formation of unions and in so doing highlights the struggles of black people and the pernicious nature of white suppression during the 19th and 20th centuries . . . bringing to life those epochal movements that rose to challenge that suppression."

But, from there on in, I parted ways with Mr. Al-Wasi.

I MIGHT not have even taken note of Mr. Al-Wasi's outpourings had he not made this observation: "We have to bear in mind the immense level of entrepreneurship present among blacks in Bermuda from the 18th century through to the 20th century, which saw the advent of trade unionism locally.

"We have to determine posthumously what happened to nearly two centuries of entrepreneurial development in the black community."

I sincerely wish someone would tell me what Mr. Al-Wasi is talking about! Would someone educate him as to how chattel slavery in Bermuda existed up until the Emancipation in August 1834, and was then supplanted by the most pernicious racism and economic slavery that persisted in one form or another until well after the death in 1950 of Dr. Gordon?