IN a recent edition of the , a Letter to the Editor asked: "What on earth do we need from the Caribbean Community?" The writer, using the pseudonym Fact or Fiction, had a number of things to say on the question of Bermuda's links to the Caribbean which generally had an anti-Independence tone, and in addition accused the PLP Government of corruption.

The letter dated February 21 was printed during the so-called Black History Month and I chose not to respond at the time as, in keeping with the spirit of Black History Month, I was in the middle of writing a series of commentaries in which I highlighted the role of black Bermudian political leaders who in my opinion had a lot to do with the liberation of Bermuda and bringing about the society in which we live today.

It was a question of putting my pen where my mouth had been in criticising the dearth of black Bermudian history, in a month where we are supposed to celebrate the role and achievements of black people in history, at a time when we seem to be leaving out the historical role of black Bermudians in the development of this country. I have never felt it was the responsibility of any other people to do that for black Bermudians. It is something that we must do for ourselves.

At any rate, in regard to the comments of Fact or Fiction, I now take the opportunity to critique some of the opinions contained in what was a rather lengthy letter. Now I know in today's modern world, the Internet allows most newspapers to be read online far beyond the shores where that newspaper was printed, and quite frankly some of the opinions written by Fact or Fiction did not sit well with me, especially when he took to broadcasting a whole range of opinions that had the effect of deriding and insulting an entire region and its people. As a Bermudian, I certainly did not want to be associated with such a broad-based polemic.

Let me begin with an answer to the headline on the letter: What on earth do we need from the Caribbean community? In my opinion, Bermuda has greatly benefited from its historical, cultural, social and sporting links with the islands of the Caribbean, and although the black Bermudian community may have been the greatest beneficiary of that reciprocal association, I believe that the links have had the effect of benefiting Bermuda as a whole.

I am not going to go into details at this time because those who are interested in my opinion on the subject, and especially Fact or Fiction, can refer to my commentary in the December 17, 2004 edition of the , in which I talked specifically about what Bermuda has gained from the Caribbean.

But I will say this in regard to Bermuda's links to the Caribbean ? they are no less important, and may be more important, to most Bermudians than the historic, political, and cultural ties some others feel for Europe, Britain, Canada or the United States.

Some people may consider Bermuda to be a Eurocentric society and in many respects it is, but I am a black Bermudian with a free black mind, and it is a natural thing for me to seek out links with other black peoples on this planet.

My first reaction upon reading Fact or Fiction's suggestion that Bermuda is somehow superior to a whole region as diverse as the Caribbean was that he or she was betraying extraordinary arrogance or was suffering from extreme delusion.

I wondered, what judgement does he use to come to such conclusions about the Caribbean? For if Bermuda in its sum total is greater than the whole of the Caribbean, then, for example, what contribution to the world of music have we made that is the equivalent of Jamaica's creation of Reggae; where is our Bob Marley (pictured)and his global impact on the world of music?

What have we to compare with the steel pans of Trinidad, the unparalleled orchestra of the common man, and the unique rhythms of calypso? Where are our Nobel Prize winners for Literature such as V.S. Naipaul from Trinidad and Derek Walcott, who still lives mostly in his native St. Lucia?

How can Fact or Fiction propose that Bermuda is somehow superior to the whole diverse region of the Caribbean, when he has so little confidence in its people that he is fearful of an Independent Bermuda; so lacking in testicular fortitude that he cannot see that Bermuda will never unleash its full potential until it ceases to wallow in a colonial dependency complex and reclaim a sense of self-determination once held by earlier Bermudians?

BERMUDA has always created its own destiny. We receive no foreign aid from any country, and we can rightly claim the credit for creating the environment which has attracted foreign investors to our shores. We have created an economy which ranks us, on a per capita basis, among the greatest nations in the world, and no nation, even if it produces nothing more than peanuts, gives credit to any other country for its efforts.

I don't know where this myth arose about our charities being unable to exist without foreign financial support. My understanding of the history of my country in this regard is that the first charitable organisation created in this country was created by Bermudians ? the Sunshine League, well before there was any foreign entity here.

In addition, there are many charitable organisations run and supported by Bermudians which receive little recognition. Something like 30 per cent of Bermuda's population is foreign; as a country we have been most tolerant, even though in this very small country, the Bermudian has been squeezed to the utmost in the area of housing, in school places, road traffic and just plain living space.

In other countries the threshold of tolerance for the presence of foreigners occurs much earlier than the 30 per cent foreign workforce that Bermuda now endures. In many European countries, immigrant populations of not much more than five per cent will bring political rumblings and calls for borders to be closed.

Even in America, land of immigrants, there are increased calls for its border controls to be tightened and self-styled vigilantes calling themselves patriots have taken to patrolling the border with Mexico.

On the question of land and the PLP Government's new policy in that regard, the trouble with Bermuda is that we are a small country with big ambitions. We have only 21 square miles and a population over 60,000 means that in reality there is not enough land for Bermudians to live in. Already much of the land and property is locked away out of reach of the ordinary Bermudian.

Once I went to a wedding here and arrived in an area which I thought was another country; there was so much undeveloped land, yet it was priced far out of the reach of most Bermudians. There are even private beaches in this country which generations of Bermudians have never seen or walked on, and are lost to present enjoyment or a place in the memory of most Bermudians.

The new Government land policy purports only to do what must be done to prevent any more of our country being sold from under our feet.

Fact or Fiction calls us a nation and is sick of our country being divided by race, but we are not yet a nation; we are not of the same tree, not until we officially declare ourselves a nation, not until we take real steps to allay the legacy of Bermuda's racial past.

Fact or Fiction calls for the return of Sir John Swan to once again lead Bermuda, but was he not the one the United Bermuda Party's conservative political base kicked to the kerb because he broached the idea of an Independent Bermuda?

THE day that the electorate can be piped in the one direction by a single leader is long gone, and if the United Bermuda Party was to be returned to Government, it would face a crisis of expectation that would make anything faced by the current Government look modest by comparison.

The future of Bermuda will be one of continuous change; a successful Government will effectively respond to that change and manage it, for the alternative is to be swept along by forces out of our control.