Tragic lack of judgment

This weekend has left me in a very negative mood, despite the great weather, spending time with family and friends, and crossing a few big TODOs off of my list.

The reason is that I am beginning to doubt that anyone on this island has an iota of good judgment, or could add one plus one and get three... I mean two.

1) Saturday 11:45am, I am heading east in my car just west of Barnes Corner. I am required to come to a full stop in my lane to make room for an SAL cement truck that is passing a stopped bus while at full speed. He gave me a thank-you honk. Heck, at least I am still alive.

2) Saturday afternoon, I am now heading west in my car on Middle road just past the end of Ord Road. I am required to come to almost a complete stop to make room for a passing car. That car was passing not one, not two, but three cars.

I have no idea what happened on Saturday night to those poor people on South Shore Road -- but with experiences like mine on Saturday, it's not hard to make some educated guesses.

3) This is unrelated to road safety but in the news this morning I learned that Government did deliberately mislead seniors about FutureCare to avoid over-subscription. Has the Government done anything in a straightforward, up-front, and honest way recently? The right thing to do would have been to admit they could only accept X seniors, open applications to all eligible, and have a lottery or some other criteria. That would avoided leaving seniors feeling confused and cheated.

In a similar vein, I now see that Government is mooting a congestion charge, presumably using the Electronic Vehicle Registration (EVR) system. Does anyone remember the promises that this would not be used for congestion charges? Of course at the time it was obvious to see that was likely not the case -- in all of the system manufacturer's press releases, the only application mentioned for EVR was congestion charging and tolling.

Julian Hall makes $200k/year

Heard on the radio this morning that Julian Hall now makes $200,000 a year as a special consultant to the Ministry of Works & Engineering, up from $119,000. I would love to know what he does for them. At least this time it's a local Bermudian consultant...

What did he mean? Sally Bassett & South Africa

I wrote a letter to the Royal Gazette about Rolfe Commissiong's latest tempest in a teacup (original link to my letter here, Rolfe Commissong's response here):

February 11, 2009

Dear Sir,

In today's article on the unveiling of the Sally Bassett statue, you quote Rolfe Commissiong as saying that the Governor's remarks were "insensitive and racially invidious", because the Governor drew a parallel between our statue and South Africa's Blood River Monument. It is unfortunate that Mr. Commissiong cannot see that there is more than one way to make a point.

As Government's race relations consultant, he has the unenviable job of helping our island understand the past and present of race relations. But, he only knows how to do this one way: by verbally whipping whites. Predictably, this is not getting the desired response from everyone; we all know that honey draws more flies than vinegar.

To me, the Governor was making the point that despite the atrocious events of apartheid, and the importance of the Blood River monument to apartheid's creators, even South Africa's post-apartheid government could see fit to leave the Blood Rver statue standing. And, if this is the case, whites in Bermuda can try to understand the importance of the Sally Bassett statue, even though they find it an unpleasant reminder of history.

Douglas S. J. De Couto Ph.D., J.P.

Southampton

It could be worse

Apparently the bad economy is causing ex-pats to leave Dubai in droves, according to the NYTimes.

The Assimilated Negro

Just came across this blog: The Assimilated Negro. It's funny & pointed & you should read it.

Dynamics of Diversity

A friend recently pointed me to this pamphlet on the "Dynamics of Diversity".  It's about "insiders" versus "outsiders", and although it's aimed at corporations or other organizations, I think it provides a useful way to look at our actions and relations to others when thinking about how to improve race relations.  For example, whites can be though of as the insiders and blacks as outsiders, to use the common stereotypical view (we're off to a good start already here, aren't we?), but it can also apply to women vs. men, or other divisions or groupings.  Within each group people can be of a different type on a ladder of types.  Insiders can be "unintentional offenders", "intentional offenders", "avoiders", or "change agents".  Outsiders can be "assimilators", "separatists", "fighters",  or "change agents".  The goal is to move along the ladder toward being a change agent...

Where are you?

Truth on Tourism?

I am so confused about what is going on with tourism and air arrivals.

From the Royal Gazette tonight: "Air and cruise arrivals were both down for 2008, Premier and Tourism Minister Ewart Brown announced today."

From the PLP blog, their blurb is titled: "Tourism weathers the economic storm".

Apparently not...

The PLP also writes, "The free publicity and affirmation of Bermuda from an international superstar like Beyonce is worth it's (sic) weight in gold." Well, it wasn't free, we paid a lot of money to get her here.

All I can to say is show me the numbers so I can make up my own mind.