During the dog days of summer the media news rooms are supposed to have a dearth of news to report on. But not this year. In America a truly historic Presidential campaign is underway and there's no shortage of stories to report on the duelling candidates. And even in Bermuda, there's no shortage of news in high summer given we seem to have entered what I am describing as a season of meanness.

What is the difference between Hamilton Mayor Sutherland Medeiros and Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe?

Both have a claim to political power that could be said to be based on a dubious and limited political support base and both carry out their policies with little or no debate. Of course Mayor Sutherland has no goon squads who can strike at his detractors in the middle of the night (or even broad daylight as is increasingly the case of Mugabe's Zimbabwe).

But according to the testimony of Carvel Van Putten, former Common Councillor for the Corporation of Hamilton, which appeared in the Workers Voice, there have been so many shady moves and accusations of misgovernance at City Hall that Bermudians could be excused for believing that we are witnessing something other than the normal operations of the democratic process in 21st century Bermuda.

The City Hall cabal's recent decision to virtually double parking fees on city streets left me with the feeling that I had just been mugged, notwithstanding the flimsy pretext advanced by the Corporation that it wants to get Hamilton motorists to use its already crowded parking lots.

So here's a question I'd like to pose. While the British Members of Parliament from Westminster's Foreign Affairs Committee were here recently to investigate the conduct of governance in this British Overseas territory, how is it that they overlooked the goings-on at Bermuda's biggest municipality where there is clear evidence of a lack of a real democratic process?

Here is something else to think about. Since the Foreign Affairs Committee, in its report, was so concerned about widening the voter franchise to include long-term residents, how about also doing something for the long time suffering commuters who have to come into the City of Hamilton to work and run the risk of paying the city's unofficial tax every time we have to pay for parking? Give us the right to vote in city elections. Now that would be a real political reform.

Speaking further on Bermuda's season of meanness, Cablevision now wants to make its customers pay for the use of products it has been carrying on its lines free of charge up until now.

Well, at least we can do something about that. I have already asked myself if I really need all of these movie channels?

The meanness just keeps compounding when you look at Belco and its decision to punish its workers for issuing a 21-day strike notice. No company picnic I presume. No Christmas party. No social activities whatsoever for what it must consider to be an ungrateful staff.

All right, if that is the position management is taking, let me remind them of something: I don't think that there is a law that compels Belco workers to go out in the aftermath of a hurricane to put the lights back on. Now if the workers decide to stay at home in these circumstances, I would understand. I would not like to continue to sit in the darkness but I would understand.

War, war at least that is what the leaders of the Public Service Union have threatened against the Progressive Labour Party Government, Premier Ewart Brown and his Cabinet in particular. As regards one issue, at least, there appears to have been a lack of communication between Government and the union, a classic example of why there should be less war, war and a lot more jaw, jaw between the two parties involved in this labour dispute.

Now, when it comes to the issue of the Tourism Ministry employees in the New York Tourism office, I must confess to having some ambivalent feelings over this.

On the one hand, as a worker, I have great sympathy for fellow workers who will lose their jobs through redundancy.

But on the other hand I am well aware that we in Bermuda have been very fortunate when it comes to employment in our country. Yes, we have often had to engage in trade union struggles to improve our lot. But on the whole we have not suffered major unemployment problems like they experience in other countries. Anyone who wants a job in his country can find one, even if it's just as a stand-in while you are on your way to finding something that fulfills all of your expectations.

We have had a 50-year run of prosperity and that has bred a feeling that what they used to call "jobs for life" in Japan during its boom times is also an inalienable Bermudian right. After all, we have created so many jobs in Bermuda that you sometimes get the feeling that everyone and his brother is beating a path to our door. But, no, this is not a normal situation and should not be regarded as one. With America teetering on the brink of a full-scale economic recession, every day you hear of workers in the US losing the jobs they've sometimes held for years or decades. And those jobs are being lost, in many instances, for the self-same reasons that the Tourism Department workers in New York are being made redundant: their work can be done more cheaply and maybe more efficiently if it is outsourced.

It is probably a good thing to be able to work on behalf of your country overseas. And I have no doubt that Bermudians make good salesmen for Bermuda in the field of tourism. But such jobs obviously carry no more guarantees of life-long employment than any other positions.

The thing I feel ambivalent about is the clear inference that,beyond the loss of their jobs, the workers are being uprooted. What we are hearing is that people have put down roots, bought property, married and had children and more or less settled in the US while their pay cheques still come from Bermuda.

While it is natural, of course, for Bermudians working abroad to engage in such activities, nevertheless it sounds to me like we are talking about a form of quasi-immigration to another country while at the same time these people continue to work on behalf of Bermuda. I think in future we are going to have to ensure those working overseas on behalf of the Bermuda Government have contracts which spell out exactly what they can and cannot do in terms of taking up what amounts to a form of permanent residence in the countries they are posted to so we do not run into this sort of situation again.

The dog days of summer. A dearth of news? Anything but!