A New York newspaper interviewed Bermuda's Tourism and Transport Minister about the present situation of International Business on the Island.

In the article, titled, "A storm brews over Bermuda" published in Newsday on April 11, Minister Dr. Ewart Brown told a New York reporter that the insurance business, is a pillar of the economy that has changed the quality of life on Bermuda, including sky-high Manhattan-like housing prices.

"We've become a much busier place," Dr. Brown said in an telephone interview. "People are not as casual as they used to be. Everybody's working."

Dr. Brown said tourism, can have a positive effect on the Island because it offers more entrepreneurship opportunities for residents.

"We're adjusting our advertising effort," Dr. Brown . "Money is younger, money is browner, and younger people want more activity when they go to a destination."

And the current investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and other regulators on some local companies has Dr. Brown concerned, the article said.

However Dr. Brown said he did not think there was anything to worry about.

Royal Gazette editor Bill Zuill was also quoted in the story as a person in Hamilton who is warily watching the investigation.

"It's raised some big worries," Mr. Zuill said. "Throughout Bermuda's entire history we've always had to live essentially by our wits and be quite innovative. When an industry or economic sector declines, we've been able to find something else to replace it."

Reflecting back on the Tourism Minister's biography, the article said the 58-year old Deputy Premier practised medicine in Los Angeles in the early 1990s.

"Ewart Brown realised there were two things he couldn't shake: his hope of returning to his native Bermuda and his interest in politics," it said.

And it said when the leader of Bermuda's Progressive Labour Party Frederick Wade invited Dr. Brown home to take part in the 1993 elections, his answer was an enthusiastic yes.

"If you have to work at all," Dr. Brown said, "Bermuda is a great place to do it in."

The story said in the past two decades the number of tourists coming by air to the "pricey destination has fallen nearly in half...It is only because of its booming international business sector that the island has flourished."

Dr. Brown's goal is to inject "pop and sizzle" back into Bermuda tourism, it said and by 2008 Dr. Brown wants to increase tourists arrivals by air from 280,000 to 400,000 a year.

Dr. Brown has a BS in chemistry from Howard University, an MD from Howard College of Medicine and a master of public health from UCLA.

And following his father's footsteps, Dr. Brown has a son who is also a doctor in Los Angeles. He and his wife have four sons.

For escape, Dr. Brown and his wife spend August in Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard.

However he said compared with Martha's Vineyard, "Bermuda wins hands down".