amazing sense of togetherness in this new democracy which has announced itself as the Rainbow Coalition.

Only a few years after apartheid, the very first thing which strikes a visitor to South Africa today is a strong sense of optimism. There is an often repeated determination to go forward...together, and that determination seems just as strong with Cape Province vineyard owners as it is with the leaders of the African National Congress and with National Party leader F. W.

DeKlerk.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu recently joked with editors attending the Commonwealth Editors' Forum in Cape Town that he would give them a prize if they could find any institution or any person today who admitted to supporting the apartheid government.

Archbishop Tutu also told the editors that they would find in South Africa an amazing lack of bitterness given the short time which has elapsed since the horrors of apartheid. He was right. From the townships to Parliament there was every sign of a truly amazing lack of bitterness.

Despite problems with the economy and immigration, the lack of even adequate housing, regardless of a very frightening crime wave, no matter the growing pains of a free and open society described as "democratic, non-racial and non-sexist'', the general cry is that there is no other way to the future but to go forward together. One very interesting symbol of this is the new South African flag which appears everywhere. Aside from flagpoles, it is worn as sashes by waiters, made into girls' hair bands, painted on children's faces, draped on tables, used to decorate store windows, printed in books. It is literally displayed with pride everywhere.

The pride and the joy in South Africa and the obvious lack of bitterness, despit the legacies of apartheid, must be unique in history for a country emerging from oppression. It is certainly a revelation for someone who is used to the divisions in Bermuda.

Very often, Bermuda beats itself nearly to death with the sins of the past which no one can change. Those with "scores to settle'' and those who have been educated to believe that Bermudians should pay for sins commited in the United States, take repeated vengeance on other Bermudians. Instead of looking to a better future they wallow in the miseries of the past. Then we all wonder why there are continuing divisions in Bermuda today.

We must escape from those who would trap us in depression because they are without vision and we must learn from South Africa. The best way forward for everyone in Bermuda is together. The politicians could start by setting a good example. If any country is a rainbow of human colours it is Bermuda. Now we need the coalition.