Government must not only adopt a framework that will allow black people to achieve economic empowerment but it must work to help them believe they can aspire to greater things Shadow Transport Minister said.

He said the road towards economic empowerment for blacks and whites must begin with Government policies that lift up small business owners and help to create opportunities to build not only their business but their level of confidence as well.

'We have to give all small business owners the hope to become not only an owner of a pop and mom business but an institution," said Mr. Simmons.

"We must put a structure in place that will give people the ability to say I can do this, we must kick down the last vestige so there is no new obstacle and keep an open door. The old way of doing business is done."

Mr. Simmons said constructive criticism must replace the old "I told you so attitude" and that once people were given opportunities, they must take responsibility and be prepared to act on the opportunity.

He suggested Government work with businesses in North Hamilton to help them grow and start teaching Bermudians in the school system from a young age about how to handle their money.

"With knowledge comes wealth and success breed success," said Mr. Simmons. "We have to educate parents, we have to build and engender among black people to aspire to a greater sense of aspiration, to not only say I work for this company, but to say one day I will own this company."

Mr. Simmons said if blacks were making less money than whites they should be educated to negotiate salaries and put in place Government policies that emphasise change in all sectors of the community.

Shadow Home Affairs Minister said all members of Government had an obligation to demonstrate their commitment to creating economic parity in Bermuda.

Government should emphasise support schemes to prop up black owned businesses that undertake Government projects and create a structure so that black owned businesses had the support system to empower themselves financially.

"We must be prepared to accept the past for what it is, and in the going forward it gets all the more difficult from there," he said. "We must begin to create structures that will help all of us benefit and get a piece of the pie, the divide over the last seven years has grown wider than it has today. We must bridge the gap between the haves and the have nots."

Mr. Burgess said the days of sitting and talking were over ? Government should get to work through partnerships with organisations like the Small Business Development Corporation to create a new era of economic empowerment.

"It is our moral and human responsibility to make sure we acknowledge this issue, we must work collectively to close the gap.

"We have to have a system that supports them and at the same time is designed to encourage them when they fail to learn from their failures, to get back up again and dust themselves off, to work with them and show them how to get it right."

Minister of Telecommunications and E-Commerce called the Opposition's draft legislation weak.

"In this country the causes for this discussion has been the non-empowerment of a group of men, women and children for a period of 200 years of enslavement when labour was given by blacks, forced from them on their backs," he said. "This concept remains with us today."

Mr. Scott said the Opposition failed to confront history in their take note motion, which "was not good enough".

Then he asked what the point would be of "including everybody" including whites in an economic empowerment draft legislation.

But he disagreed with MP Renee Webb that "Government has done nothing since 1998" about black economic empowerment.

"The PLP has never been far from this subject in its whole history," he said, before questioning the use of the word "expedient" in the draft legislation and said instead it should have read "vitally necessary".

Shadow Environment Minister said black empowerment began in the mind.

"In the 1960's you had the Donald Smith Travel Agency, Dismont Robinson's and Dowling's Cycles in St. George's," Mr. Simons said. "While people didn't support them, they said, we have to do it ourselves. You can't have a victim mentality.

"If in their minds they feel they are contributing to society a positive result and position incurs," he said.

More black financial institutions needed to be supported for a black economic agenda to succeed, he said.

"We have blacks at the heads of banks and insurance companies but they are still employees, and as a consequence nothing has changed," he said. "They have to deliver policies given to them by their corporate directors."

Mr. Simons added that Portuguese Bermudians were also economically left out in the past.

"Let's get rid of the economically uneducated and transform them into the economically empowered," he concluded.(PLP)said racism adds power to prejudice.

He said black businesses needed to "get away" from private organisations like the Chamber of Commerce which was why "we need Government to assist".

The Chamber could veto what goods were sold by a vendor at a Harbour Nights type venue, he said.

"We can't have that," he said. "Some other type of vehicle is needed for those who have not been advantaged."

Mr. Scott advised black businessmen to use a portion of their wealth to strengthen their community to ensure their wealth was passed on to future generations.

"We have to teach our people," he said. "We now have to diversify it and teach people about the principles of business."

"This could see a change in the wealth," Mr. Scott said.

Shadow Education Minister said "at the heart and soul of every black Bermudian is empowerment".

"You can't pay in real terms for the atrocities that were committed during slavery," Mr. Darrell said. "But why did it happen? Why was it perpetrated so long?"

Affirmative action could be the step for Bermuda if we want to achieve economic empowerment for all citizens, Government backbencher said.

As MPs debated the economic empowerment legislation proposed by the United Bermuda Party, the Government called on all employers including the international business sector to get in line with ensuring all Bermudians received access to opportunities for employment and economic empowerment.

MPs agreed that economic empowerment must start with relieving economic disadvantages and examining the workplace which may be preventing economic parity.

Although issues of race and historical practices of black economic disadvantage at the hands of whites were discussed as practices which had not helped to level the playing field for blacks in Bermuda, MPs agreed that more could be done legislatively to ensure blacks received equal opportunity in the workplace.

Mr. Perinchief said he had encountered many residents with degrees who could not get their foot into the door at international companies. He said these companies who had set up shop and were not taxed have a duty to train Bermudians and teach them new skills and to help train them as far as top management positions including the level of Chief Executive Officer.

"There is no untouchability which exists with international companies, they are exempt from taxes and they are not exempt from employment legislation. They can employ our people and train them to be CEOs in these companies," said Mr. Perinchief. "There is no reason why a Bermudian with an education can not be trained to do insurance and reinsurance."

Mr. Perinchief suggested looking at countries such as the USA where policies of affirmative action work to eradicate discrimination in the workplace.

The PLP suggested looking at other countries in the world where employment practices were monitored by legislation, such as the US.

"There are myths in the US about affirmative action such as minorities receive preferential treatment," he said. "Hard evidence shows that reverse discrimination is rare.

"In the US there were 91,000 cases before the EEOC (US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) and three percent of those were reverse discrimination cases, the majority of those cases showed that these were brought about by white men without any merit."

Touching on the subject of independence, Mr. Perinchief said many Bermudians he had spoken to wanted Government to get its house in order as a precursor to independence.

"I'm a strong proponent of independence, I'm 63 years of age, and I'm tired of waiting for independence, but first we must collectively get our house in order and get our laws in place, our immigration laws, our social issues, housing, we have to work to bring about economic parity, we must take small steps to change the paradigm and bring about economic empowerment in this country."

Government backbencher said not much had changed in the community since the 1980s when blacks fell far behind whites when it came to job opportunities and economic wealth. He said white economic privilege had also made it harder for blacks to catch up to whites who had the benefit of disposable income.

He also said economic empowerment means nothing to the black community unless those who owned companies unless those who actually owned the companies would offer shares.

Speaking of is imediate predecessor as head of the Bermuda Industrial Union, Mr. Burgess added: "Ottiwell Simmons said in the 1980s when the UBP was claiming that not enough people were interested in their jobs ? we said give your employees some ownership and that hasn't yet been done."

Shadow Works & Engineering Minister said economic disparity highlighted Government's need to put substantial initiatives in place to elevate the circumstances of those who were not empowered economically. She said Government had finally recognised the need to implement a social agenda in its second term of Government but little had been done to achieve parity across the board.

"This legislation does not say that wealthy whites or wealthy blacks need to be empowered, its very purpose is to give those who are industrious the tools to help themselves," she said. "What we are seeing from these sentiments that have been expressed is a reluctant strategy that helps embrace the very people who are inclined to be a negative influence in the community."

Ms Gordon Pamplin said she did not see the purpose of discussing history unless it was for learning purposes. "I think we have no license to stay in the yesteryear, we can not use the past to justify ineffective activity, we have to institute economic opportunities to provide."

Shadow Education Minister Neville Darrell said the system must look at employment practices such as the "mirror complex" and systemic discrimination that has the effect of preventing changes in the workplace.

Mr. Darrell said the Government had done nothing substantial to deal with equity issues in the workplace as there was no critical framework for ensuring employees were empowered to move into leadership positions. He said the Human Rights Commission needed more teeth and could take on a more active role to ensure economic empowerment at all levels in the community.

He suggested an Employment Empowerment Commission to look more closely at these issues. "We need to ensure people in the workplace are making fair decisions so that people have the opportunity to develop meaningful careers."

Government backbeencher Glenn Blakeney (PLP) said "Government feels like the victim is being victimised again".

He said people know the history of this country which revolved around privateering and pirating. "People voted for this Government because they were tired of the insensitive treatment of 30 years," he said.

And he said he would believe that Bermuda was economically empowered once he saw a change from Front Street all the way to North Hamilton.

Under the previous Government, a system was put in place so that the black majority of the population could never be in power, Mr. Blakeney claimed.

"How dare they be so arrogant to say to us we should be blamed for the power they had economically for aeons," he said.

And he challenged the Opposition for not making their stand for or against whether Bermuda should go independent.

"Stop sitting on the fence," he said. "You will hurt your jewels."

He said he respected Mr. Dodwell for bringing the subject of race to Parliament, but said it was now up to the people to start gift clubs and business plans.

"We need to level the economic playing field or everything else we do is futile," he said.

As Bermuda grew economically over the years, the problems of race and housing "went on the back burner" and "these little sores were allowed to fester into the major social problems we have now", he said.

He said black empowerment was a work in progress but several black entrepreneurs including himself ? who is general manager of Hott 107.5 ? had already been helped.

Opposition Whipconcluded the debate on the take-note motion by saying Bermudians needed to see something in black and white so they could measure what economic empowerment was being done.

He chastised Government's "ad hoc" methods of black empowerment by citing Berkeley, BHC and Coco Reef as examples of mismanagement.

"We were told our criticism of Berkeley was wrong, but as we look back, whatever policy was put in place was nothing short of a disaster," Mr. Barritt said. "What kind of empowerment is that?"

He said Pro-Active, the very firm chosen to lead the way to empowerment for small black businesses had "the rug pulled out from under them".

And the firm hired to do the litigation in this matter was Conyers Dill & Pearman, he said. He said he could not wait to see the legal fees after arbitration.

Mr. Barritt admitted the take-motion was "a little late but that should not deter us from doing it". And many of the Island's problems were symptoms of its success, such as over-employment. He said the Opposition did not have access to legislation drafters like Government and apologised to Mr. Dodwell for not including the word "black" even though "we all know who we are talking about".

"We thought to be inclusive we would bring along everyone who needed help," he said. "Minister Scott would like a longer preamble, well he's in Government. Let's see it. I look forward to when we do get legislation so we all know what's being done."