what he perceives as anti-expat sentiment among some ranks of the Government -- so Hester thought she'd add her two cents on the contentious subject. Last week's SUNshine tabloid led with a headline which must have sent even more shivers down the spines of the Island's expat workforce -- especially in view of the Government's get-tough approach to handing out work permits.

"Explosion of foreign workers predicted'', says the headline, which Hester admits is an effective, but perhaps slightly dodgy-on-human-rights-grounds method of disposing of the expatriates infesting Bermuda. Okay, they're overpaid, over here, steal our men (or women), clutter up our roads with their sports utility vehicles, push up house rents and are allegedly completely wrecking the entire environment. And a lot of them have funny accents. But Hester isn't afraid to admit they're not all bad.

Careful reading of the piece, however, established that Home Affairs Minister Paula Cox hasn't gone completely crazy with some sort of Final Solution set-up. Instead, we were treated to an exercise in logical absurdity along the lines of -- if Bermuda's economic growth continues at its present rate -- by sometime around the start of the next century, the population of Bermuda will be somewhere in the region of 14 million -- and with declining birth rates and an ageing workforce, about a dozen of them will actually be Bermudian. But -- the PLP having a thumping majority and the UBP still shell-shocked -- the chances are they'll all be PLP MPs and still forming the Government, so we should be all right.

The great Aretha Franklin and the greatest living Scotswoman Annie Lennox once sang "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves''.

And now -- perhaps belatedly -- they've started doing it to poor unsuspecting chaps in Bermuda, or so it would appear. After the movies one night Hester stopped in at that well-known establishment the Pickled Onion . Amongst the black-clad gals and cologne-soaked guys on the prowl, she witnessed an exchange between two blondes at the bar and a chap, ah, chancing his luck a bit. As the ladies -- one Bermudian and one apparently Texan -- were enjoying a quiet drink and a chat, they were interrupted by a would-be charmer who shoved himself between them and said in broad Bermudian accent, "Hi, I'm Jermaine.'' The Texan lady drawled -- in the sort of tone traditionally accompanied in her part of the world by a fast draw and regrettable amounts of bloodshed -- "Not to this conversation you're not, hon.'' The bemused fellow beat a hasty retreat to try his luck elsewhere. And not, presumably, with another representative of the Lone Star State.

Speaking of the movies, Hester (being quite a fan of that cute young Matt Damon) was at a showing of The Talented Mr. Ripley when some ads sponsored by the Visitor Industry Partnership were shown before the main feature. In the ads, a bored chap surfing the Net happens across a Website gushing about the jobs on offer in the Tourism sector. As the camera zooms in on his computer screen, alas, we see the fine print: "Tourism job oppurtunities'' (is that Bermudian for opportunities??).