Is invective now the norm?

June 21, 2010

Dear Sir,

I was a happy guest in Bermuda for over 12 years, and I am married to a Bermudian. I absolutely loved my years in Bermuda, and counted many of you as friends, regardless of your race, and left only because my husband's circumstances dictated it. How sad that the Bermuda I knew only 20 years ago is apparently lost forever.

I read every day with increasing horror, the spiteful and hate-mongering invectives thrown around by the ruling party. I am at a complete loss to understand how and when this became the "norm" in Bermudian political expectations*?* The fact that no one seems to seriously make an effort to put a stop to this behaviour is even more horrifying. I read the online stories about the Uighur fiasco, the scandalous spending on trips, the arrogance with which the PLP responds (or does not) to questions legitimately posed in the House by the opposition, and the unanswered questions about where all the money has gone, shaking my head over each new outrage.

But today's story about Mr. Burgess's response to Mr. Moniz strikes me as a complete loss of any kind of sense, responsibility or societal awareness. The thought that a government minister would publicly voice such a comment shows exactly how little the current government respects the people of Bermuda. It is bad enough that Mr. Burgess obviously hold such resentment against the non-black population, but the fact that he feels perfectly comfortable expressing this resentment in such a public forum is disappointing. And he does so, knowing that his own party will not only not censure him, but will probably congratulate him for the insult he has offered to the entire population. I am so sad that I can no longer recommend Bermuda as a travel destination to my many travelling friends and family.

Why would I send them to a place where there is no longer any respect offered, nor human kindness in evidence? The nice stories and letters from individual tourists praising individual Bermudians are lovely to read, but I fear, do not any longer reflect the attitudes of the majority of the population. For if the general population were really as disgusted by these behaviours as I am, they would surely do something about it.

BETH HALL

Silver Spring, Maryland