Race is a hot topic in Bermuda, but history will only tell how well the Progressive Labour Party Government is actually doing to improve human and race relations on the Island.

And while the talk shows daily air grievances and all sides of the divide discuss the problems of race, it remains difficult to quantify how far things have changed in the past three years.

After extensive consultation and some acrimonious debates behind closed doors, former Home Affairs Minister Paula Cox came out much admired in the business community and a solution to the problems of work permits, long term residency, and with former Developement Minister Terry Lister, race in the work place.

In May Ms Cox announced the long-awaited new rules on restrictions on work permits.

The PLP in its manifesto promised more jobs for Bermudians and ways to tackle long-term work permit holders.

Six year limits were set on work permits, which came into effect a month later.

But there was a large loophole, with exemptions for well-behaved companies and their key staff.

Ms Cox said that the measures were needed to ensure firms had a genuine interest in training Bermudians, but she added that the system would be kept flexible to ensure it kept its business edge.

Both Government and business had won the day in a compromise that suited both sides.

Ms Cox said: "We are now competing to attract workers with skills that are in short supply, not just in Bermuda, but across the world.

It would be wrong if term limits led us to lose such people."

The implementation of the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality (CURE) legislation took a step towards fulfilling the PLP's manifesto to improve race relations on the Island and prevent discrimination.

However it can be argued that the vow in the party's 1998 election manifesto to "Expand the role of the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality so that it can truly function as Government's official watchdog agency in the area of human rights" has not happened.

While CURE has collated information on race in the workplace, it is a toothless watchdog when it comes to companies that have been proved to have poor race relations.

In May, the first annual review of the workplace survey was released. It showed what everyone already knew to be true, that whites have more of the top end, higher paid jobs.

Institutional discrimination was alive and well in Bermuda and huge racial imbalances exist in income and positions of power. But Government said it would not use the results for witch hunts or retributions, it was said.

Mr. Lister, was faced with a difficult task when he took over the CURE portfolio that would not only require the patience of angels, but also utmost tact and a lightness of touch.

Mr. Lister had to walk a fine line between the aspirations of the black community for more integration and a bigger slice of the pie and not killing the goose that laid the golden egg by scaring away businesses fearful of quotas being set up to ensure racial equality in the workplace.

But CURE, while it cannot punish a company for not having enough of one colour or another, has held public meetings and goes out to the business community to help companies understand discrimination and how to combat this scourge of society.

Honest and frank discussions on race have taken place mainly for whites and organised through CURE.

But many other non-Governmental bodies have continued to involve themselves in improving race relations.

And with these bodies it is difficult to tell how much was encouraged by the current Government in power, or whether this is a natural evolution for a racially diverse Island in a new millennium.

Black on black forums, which have been seen as very useful, have been a collaborative effort between the Human Rights Commission and the National Association of Reconciliation.

Cris Valdes Dapena, who was at the time president of the Chamber of Commerce, and community activist Rolfe Commissiong, organised a 90-minute discussion on ZBM in December 2000. More forums were planned, but never materialised. This again was not organised by Government, but seemed to fill a void between business and the ordinary man in the street.

Although some improvements have been made between blacks and whites, many Portuguese feel left out in the cold by race reporting not taking them as a separate entity.

Their feeling of being third class citizens with no-one to address issues specific to their socio-economic group was emphasised by forums on long-term residents which left many of the Portuguese community feeling even more alienated.

The non-profit Bermuda Diversity Institute which organises many events and programmes, such as Diversity in Film and Diversity in B Flat, is not Government funded either, but does a great deal to help the up and coming generations to live side by side and integrate.

But the PLP manifesto to "work assiduously to remove areas of gender discrimination" and "develop guidelines to protect against age discrimination" have not seriously been met as yet.