Your article on the front page of September 15's Royal Gazette , which reads: "Tempers flare at public meeting'', suggests that a cold front swept through St. George's that night and sucked out all the oxygen.

It regards the continuing furore about long-term residents to be given the right to live on a permanent basis here in "The Isle of sun and fun''.

The loudest objection to this seemed to come from that group of under-achievers who, dissatisfied with their own lot in life, can't bear the thought of some good coming to others.

They seem, for reasons I can't fathom, to want to vent their spleen at members of the Portuguese community. A formidable task for anyone dumb enough to take them on.

I understand that the Portuguese have latterly been re-accepted as white people; I could never understand that while the rest of the world knew the Portuguese to be white, here in Bermuda they were given separate racial status. What intellectual giant came up with that one? (I think I know the answer, but let's not go there.) Portuguese represent, I believe, about 15 percent of the white population and about 90 percent of the economic muscle.

How come 90 percent? Because they damn well worked for it, that is how. These people originally came out to Bermuda in the mid-1800s. They had nothing, so they came with nothing.

Upon arrival, they were given nothing and from that have acquired enormous economic holdings aside from their devotion to community life. They came to do the work that self-righteous Bermudians would not stoop to do.

And now the descendants of these same people want to make Bermuda their permanent home. Not an unreasonable request viewed from the less than lofty perch upon which I sit.

Perhaps we should take a closer look at what it is to be Bermudian as we approach the closing months of the twentieth century.

For one thing, we are not a country. Never have been and for a lot of us there is no wish or desire to change that status until we can find a government that can look at independence without a bunch of hidden agenda stuffed up their sleeves... I still haven't come across one yet! So stop saying `country this' and `country that'. Which in turn means there are no national parks, libraries, stadiums, heritage or international airports for that matter. Until we inaugurate domestic flights, it is just an airport.

We are a `dependent territory', which some piece of Euro trash dreamed up because it sounded worse than being a colony. I, personally, have no problem with `colony' or being a `colonial'; it sounds like `colonel' misspelled.

Therefore, we are dependent `territorials' or `terrorists' depending on how you want to use the word.

And how's our future looking? Jury's still out on that one.

Tourism has gone down for the third flush, leaving us to worship at the feet of the international re-insurance business.

Couldn't we have found another group? Remember, there is no fundamental difference between a reinsurance broker and the guy who stands on a soapbox at a racetrack laying off bets. These same people have absolutely no allegiance to Bermuda whatsoever. They are here because the bottom line says it's okay to be here. The moment that changes, they're gone.

I think we should be very careful whom we choose to worship? By all means, give these guys the best service we can... we have little else to offer.

It's tough to be at the mercy of outside forces over which we have no control.

So why all this excitement about long-term residency? We have a government that rules by emotion rather than common sense.

We have a population bulging at the seams and straining our natural resources to bursting point.

We have one of the highest per capita levels of illegitimate births in the western world, but it's still illegal to ride a bike without a shirt.

We have massive education problems with semi-literates wading into the job market.

We have a job policy where nationality is more important than aptitude.

Our Police force has become a political pawn at the whim of Government's Cabinet, singularly the most dangerous evolution in recent times. This list goes on.

Maybe residency ain't such a hot deal after all. But if these same people who we have accepted as our neighbours and welcomed into our homes for the past twenty-odd years want to share equal risk in our future... who the hell are we to say no? WANDERING ABROAD IN SOUTHAMPTON