During the past week, many letter writers to expressed views on the recent forum on Independence sponsored by the BIU and on conclusions reached by myself (Calvin Smith) in a series of articles on Independence published in .

The Forum on Independence was organised by the BIU Political Education Committee. It was the fourth of a series of interesting topics such as: Two forums on constitutional change; a forum looking at measures to assist with the positive development of Bermuda?s Youth; and a forum on Independence for Bermuda.

A new forum titled ?Bermuda?s Housing Shortage ? Causes and solutions? has been scheduled for Tuesday, July 20, 2004. At the recent forum on Independence, there were five presenters who did an excellent job.

The presenters were: Mr. Chris Smith who perhaps voiced the views of many younger people with the question ?Independence, What?s in it for me?.

Mr. Smith was followed by Dr. Eva Hodgson who queried ?How will independence improve the lot of Black Bermudians??, barrister and former PLP Cabinet Minister, Mr. Arthur Hodgson, discussed ?The evolution of the concept of Independence within the ruling Progressive Labour Party?.

UN Consultant, Dr. Pauulu Kamarakfego looked at ?Some benefits of independence? that are largely unknown or have been ignored in the debate to date.

Professor Frank Parker from the Carroll School of Management, Boston University added a new dimension to the forum by summarising the presentations and asking each panellist two penetrating questions in preparation for the question period.

Mr. Parker also wrote a very positive account of the forum in the letters column of of June 26, 2004. The question period that followed the presentations was lively and always expressive of the deep concerns of those who were in attendance.

This is usual at BIU sponsored forums. What was not usual was my obvious annoyance at a question by a member of the audience that did not arise out of the presentations.

The question had to do with a recent interview of myself by a reporter. I don?t remember the details of the interview but at one point the reporter asked what I had meant in an opinion I had written here, in early May.

I will quote the referenced paragraph in its entirety. ?I conclude, therefore, if Bermuda is to survive as a successful economic entity, the onus is on white Bermudians to make a greater effort in assisting the PLP government in guiding Bermuda to a place where race ceases to be a factor in the achievement of national political and economic goals.?

The questioner had read the reporter?s version of the above paragraph and wanted a further clarification. Unfortunately, he did not stop there.

He then proceeded to criticise Mr. Chris Smith (my son) about a statement he had made in his presentation. I was very annoyed that the young man decided to be rudely critical of my son.

As a result, I proceeded to tell the young man, in rather strong language, why I had made the statement that concerned him. When I was through, my son whispered: ?Daddy he?s my mate.?

This embarrassed me greatly. The last thing I wanted to be accused of was that I attacked a friend of a family member. I immediately apologised.

Mr. Greg Brown, writing in the letters column of the of June 29, 2004 complained that the Independence discussion strayed off the topic of Independence.

The accuracy of that criticism depends on how one defines the topic of independence. If Independence is restricted to the simple act of Britain relinquishing its remaining vestiges of control over the island, the forum did stray of the topic.

Britain retains control over foreign affairs, and appointments of the Governor, Police Commissioner, Commander of the armed forces, the Chief Justice and the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Hence, in this view, Independence simply means that the government of Bermuda gets to take over these appointments. However, Independence means much more than that.

For instance, Independence will empower the government of the day to make substantial amendments to Bermuda?s constitution either during the process of separating from Britain or later.

An amendment that might be made immediately could be the removal of dual citizenship. At the moment, one cannot hold citizenship in a non-commonwealth country and contest a seat in Parliament.

This rule could be extended also to include Bermudians who also hold citizenship in Britain and other Commonwealth countries. Then there are certain laws that many Bermudians would like to see repealed but cannot do so because they are the law in Britain and the European Union.

Examples that come to mind are the Bermuda laws permitting homosexuality and forbidding capital punishment. Than there is the control that Britain exercises over our Financial Affairs.

What safeguards will be put in place to maintain our financial integrity when we seek Independence? Some people, such as Mr. Phil Cracknell, are convinced that Independence will bring poverty.

He fully supports arguments made by a person writing under the pen-name of ?Observer? that were intended to dissuade black Bermudians from any association with their cousins to the south of us.

Observer quoted statistics of average per-capita income that indicated that average incomes in Bermuda were ten times that of Dominica. I responded to the article by pointing out that this would be the case, if a person could work in Bermuda and live in Dominica.

I justified this conclusion by pointing out that on page 76 of the 2000 population Census, Bermudian households that earned $45,000 or less annually were to be considered poor or near poor.

Yet, households with that level of earnings would be very well off in Dominica because of much lower living costs. Mr. Cracknell was unperturbed by this information and insisted that Bermudians were ten times better off than Dominicans because he had visited the island and knew what he was talking about. Really! I am married to a Dominican and also know what I am talking about.

An interesting point about Independence has been made by Mr. Guilden Gilbert. He wonders why Bermudians don?t analyse the Independence experience of the Bahamas rather than always looking to other islands to the South of us.

He notes that Bermudians and Bahamians both insist that they are not part of the Caribbean and both have an economy based on finance and tourism.

Further, he asserts that Bahamas has shown tremendous advances since Independence. Hence, given the obvious similarities between the two islands, he asks: ?Why don?t the people of Bermuda look at the development of Bahamas since Independence, if they really want to know the likely impact of Independence on their island??

Last week?s reviews of my articles and the BIU Forum on Independence as published in the letters column of , clearly indicate that there are many Bermudians who are deathly afraid to participate in anything that is led by black people.

This is unfortunate. I believe that Bermuda has a wonderful success story with respect to racial harmony, despite the serious racial prejudices and injustices that exist even today.

What is fundamentally different about Bermudians is that we have never let our race and class differences prevent us from working together towards the achievement of common goals.

It is this healthy characteristic that will sustain us in the future, not some long obsolete belief that our success, or lack of same, is due to our skin pigmentation and hair texture.