pool containing what he called "bright women and dumb males''.

Sen. Smith said young black males had been left behind as technology, business and industry had moved on.

He said re-training had been ignored, isolating a section of society who needed to be brought back in to the fold -- and who had fallen behind women in the community.

"When we are in a country where 85 percent of the black population is born here, what kind of gene pool develops? Bright women, dumb males,'' he said.

"The reality has been ignored.'' Sen. Smith said mechanisation and the changing face of Bermuda industry, from tourism to international business, had dislocated the black males, who were less suited to the new era.

Women, who were more in tune with academic study, tended to find employment more readily in that area, he said.

"There is a major need for re-training, we have to look very closely and very quickly.'' Sen. Smith was speaking as the Senate passed the Electronic Transactions Act 1999.

Sen. Mark Pettingill said it was important that when e-commerce was an unknown quantity, that the act was live and made allowances for all Bermudians.

Senate Leader Milton Scott said it was important that people got on board and were not left behind with the advancing technology.

But he also called for local companies to move forward or they could be left behind in the use of new technology for buying goods.

Opposition Senate Leader Max Burgess said he hoped there was some substance behind the bill, which he said would be useful as a marketing tool.

But he warned, if companies wanted to come to Bermuda, there would need to be other businesses here also.