AM not quite ready to give up on this island of ours just yet despite the fact the quality of life here is measured solely in terms of dollars and cents and most Bermudians have experienced a severe drop in their buying power in recent times. This is likely to be an ongoing problem for the forseeable future thanks to the fact Bermudians are sorely underrepresented in the International Business sector and ridiculously overtaxed by their own Government (although it's not meant to be a profit-making entity, that hasn't stopped Government from accumulating some $211 million in surplus tax revenue over the last four years) .

My biggest hope for some kind of Bermuda turn-around is based on the fact that since the Scott Government has been a failure of such monumental proportions the continuance of the prevailing political apathy among Bermudians is simply out of the question for purposes of both safety and longterm survival. We simply cannot continue along the road P. has embarked on without serious ? very serious ? consequences.

The paragraph below describes a leader??.but which one?

It would be quite understandable to mistake the subject of that pointed paragraph (written by the late, great Hunter S. Thompson) as our own leader. But, in fact, HST was describing Richard Nixon circa 1972/3. We all know that history repeats itself but who would have expected it to do so with such alacrity? And in Bermuda, of all places, with "The Man" standing in for RN and haplessly duplicating all of "Tricky Dicky's" mistakes? Let's start this discussion by focussing on some of the latest examples of the Scott Government's unerring ability to wrong-foot itself in the best (worst?)Nixonian style.

The first involves the wrong-headed restriction on property sales to non-Bermudians, a policy which has just been delivered what may turn out to be a mortal blow in the courts (something I predicted would happen from the day it was sprung on an unsuspecting public).

When interviewed on the court's decision, Home Affairs Minister Randy Horton said he had not had time to read the judge's opinion, being some 30-odd pages in length, and therefore could not comment at the time.

At this point it should be noted that the judge's opinion far surpassed the original decree in size, constructive thought and reasoning - basically it contained everything the policy lacked.

When asked whether he would appeal the ruling, Mr. Horton said he could not comment until he talked to his lawyers - something he seemingly failed to do when his Ministry unilaterally enacted the policy (this is pure speculation on my part - and if I am wrong and he did take legal advice then his lawyers should be fired).

I personally lost little sleep over the Minister's policy and, in general terms, have little sympathy for most of the well-to-do Bermudians who owned properties over the relevant ARV and were unable to sell them to non-Bermudians. But the abridgement of anyone's rights is an abridgement of everyone's rights. And the reality is this ill-advised and (in my opinion) unconstitutional policy could do nothing to ease the housing crisis ? the purported reason why it was introduced.

In fact, Randy Horton ended up awarding non-Bermudian property owners with an unrealised capital gain given they could still sell their homes to whoever they pleased ? and by reducing the number of properties on the market, the price of those still available (the ones owned by non-Bermudians) went up. Dramatically.

It was the law of supply and demand in action, folks. The demand for upmarket properties remained constant, the supply dwindled - the prices of those non-Bermudian owned houses still on the market, of course, spiked.

And, in an even greater travesty in my opinion, at a stroke of the Minister's pen this policy devalued the prices of those high-income homes owned by Bermudians by virtually eliminating the market for such properties.

Need I prove this graphically? It's Economics 101 and should be a no-brainer for anyone who can balance a cheque book. This policy significantly reduced the selling price of many Bermudian-owned homes (I know of market values that decreased by over 30 percent). And it did not just impact on the mega-wealthy bluebloods we all secretly love to hate.

There are many younger Bermudians who are not from old money but who have worked hard, sometimes pooled their resources and invested in property on a speculative basis, adding on to or upgrading the homes they have mortgaged themselves to the hilts to purchase. They, too, were faced with undeserved losses in market value thanks to the Minister's policy.

How was this ill-conceived act ever going to ameliorate the housing crisis?

One well-intentioned but ill-informed Bermudian told me the policy would not actually help the housing problem but it would mean that no more Bermudian land ended up in foreign hands. There is a law out there on the books prohibiting the sale of more than 2,000 acres to non-Bermudians in the aggregate. He thought this policy would ensure that only the 1,600 acres currently in foreign hands could now be sold back and forth between our wealthy residents and the figure would never reach the 2,000 acre limit. Wrong. Because this self-same policy also provided certain exemptions which allowed non-Bermudians to purchase acreage from original developers, for one, thereby precluding any benefit to us at all.

In the process, of course, millions of dollars in Government revenue from foreign sales fees has been forgone and the rental market has seen no relief. In fact since this policy was enacted we have seen rents reach the highest levels ever as a result of both the overall housing crisis and the reluctance of Bermudians to sell their properties at reduced values. They rent them out instead as this inflated rental market is providing a superior ROI (return on investment) than most financial instruments today.

One more point of interest is that this policy likely screwed up a singular opportunity to begin to integrate Tucker's Town (the gated section, at least) for the first time in living memory. Instead, Oprah Winfrey laid out some serious cash in the Caribbean and, for the time being, Silvio Berlusconi, remains that neighbourhood's most exotic resident!

A second pressing social problem centres around the number of expatriates in Bermuda, the companies they work for and work permit issues involved. Don't get me wrong - the work permit issue affects all economic brackets but some industries have what could be described as a virtual and others (local firms and hotels) have to justify nearly every application.

There are basically three classes of guest workers and, these classes divide, like most anything else in Bermuda, economically ? professional, technical and what could be termed blue-collar.

However, we need all three classes to help our thriving economy survive from a purely business standpoint (although from a social standpoint there are many we would be better off without).

Nevertheless, every non-Bermudian working here has been through a health and background check that one could safely describe as overkill and pretty much guarantees that most everyone has the qualifications and abilities their employer and, therefore, Bermuda needs. So they deserve respect when fulfilling their employment duties and where they do or do not come from is irrelevant and has no bearing on how well they do or do not perform their duties.

However, in the last few months I have been stunned, then dismayed and now angered by the fact some of our leading public figures ? men who should be role models ? have attempted to discredit professionals working here because they are non-Bermudian. As a Bermudian I can honestly admit the majority of non-Bermudians brought here to work in a professional or technical capacity can teach most of us a thing or two.

So when Progressive Labour Party MP Glen Blakeney physically pushed ZBM'S Gary Moreno while simultaneously insulting him on the basis he is a Trinidadian national, it was embarrassing.

And now Works Minister David Burch has exhibited this same xenophobic behaviour when a longterm journalist asked him pertinent questions about the Berkeley Institute project, questions we the public have a right to have answers to.

Burch used the excuse that because journalist Gareth Finighan was an expatriate and works for a newspaper he deems incredible (presumably because said newspaper has repeatedly exposed bad behaviour on his Government's watch) he would never answer any of his questions.

No one deserves to be mistreated or disrespected because he or she is an expatriate who happens to anger a Bermudian because he or she is performing his or her job professionally. I'd assume that when Finighan made his inquiries Burch simply could not answer as the latest in what has become a long series of Berkeley cover-up plans was still in the making.

And as far as the ongoing Berkeley boondoggle is concerned we have seen attempts by Burch to discredit Canadian whistleblower Gabriel Martel simply because he is a foreigner. Never mind Martel's qualifications. Never mind his long track record as a site inspector on construction projects all over the world. Never mind the specific - and very serious - problems he has itemised at Berkeley. The Works Minister is content to dismiss all of this on the basis that Martel must be a "lying foreigner". I suppose I'm not really surprised Burch has taken this expat-bashing approach to Martel's revelations ? anything else would, after all, amount to an admission of incompetence. And this Government has demonstrated it will do or say anything to avoid taking responsibility for its more questionable actions. Which brings to mind an old Richard Nixon joke. Hear what's inscribed on Nixon's headstone: "Here lies Richard Nixon (So, what else is new?)"