Recently, I have been getting a lot of very negative comment in the letters column of the Gazette. It is always flattering when someone takes issue publicly with something you have said or written. It establishes that someone reads or listens to what you have said and was touched by it. It does not matter whether the reader was disturbed or impressed. What does matter is that they were introduced to your point of view and reflected upon it.

However before I comment on some of the criticisms, I would like to state my appreciation with respect to the recent budget presented by Minister Cox. From my point of view, it was a masterpiece. She addressed the major concerns of the electorate — housing, senior citizens, community issues, and promised very real financial assistance to resolve the issues. In so doing, she did not succumb to the temptation of engaging in tax rebates as the Opposition insisted she should but chose instead to introduce policies that would keep the economy on a safe and stable course through one of the strongest booms Bermuda has ever experienced. I congratulate Minister Cox.

The performance of the PLP as depicted by the recent budget has been a slap in the collective faces of the UBP whose campaign theme during the 1998 General Election was that the International Companies would flee the country if the PLP were to be elected. Not only have the International Companies remained in Bermuda, they are lined up trying to get in here. That includes the foreign owned hotel sector who for the first time in almost two decades are carrying out marked investment in properties that have been lying idle or in serious need of renovation. The performance of the PLP government has been so strong and intelligent that the UBP has been forced to adopt a strategy of accusing the PLP of corruption and lack of ethics.

Lets face it, when we get into basing governmental decisions on ethics, we will often find ourselves in a quandary. For instance, there are certain religions that abhor homosexuality. Members of these religions would love to reinstitute Bermuda’s old laws punishing such acts. I certainly do not deny that ethics are important and, in a democracy, people have the right to follow whatever set of ethical behaviour suits their belief system. If any individual or group feels strongly enough about their particular set of ethics, they have the right in a democracy to campaign to have those ethics imposed upon the rest of society. This was just accomplished with the ban on smoking in public places.

The fact that negative criticisms of the PLP are continuously in the print media, led Mr. Derrick Burgess to state in his retirement speech that the print media was keeping racism alive. The Declaration by Mr. Burgess was well received as humour by the majority of the attendees at the recent BIU Quadrennial convention. I joined in the fun and was severely criticised by a Gazette <$>humorist named “Hector”.

I accept the fact that the media have a responsibility to make critical comment on just about anything to which they object. The interchange between the media and the citizens of a country is a valuable cornerstone of democracy. I for one would always fight for the right of the press to report what it thinks it sees. However, when there is only one daily, that privilege comes with a heavy responsibility to be fair.

Finally, I have been accused of hating white people. Let me emphasise that I do not consciously hate white people. I emphasise “consciously” because the centuries of discrimination in Bermuda have left most black Bermudians with an ingrained suspicion of white Bermudians and has left most white Bermudians with an equally ingrained “guilt” with respect to their past victimisation of black Bermudians. This suspicion by blacks and guilt by whites, rears its ugly head from time to time in socially unsettling behaviour.

I remember the 1968 civil disturbances that occurred in April of that year. I was watching the Easter parade and remarking to associates that the participation of both races in the events was heartwarming. A little later there was serious rioting just a few feet from where I stood admiring the racial harmony I thought I perceived.

I could relate several instances that have convinced me that negative racial feelings are alive and well in most of us. In my opinion, the best thing we can do about them is to release such feelings in positive communication. We conceal or hide them at our own peril.

My own concealed racism rears its ugly head from time to time despite the fact that my life has been integrated to an extent that very few people have experienced in Bermuda or elsewhere. I have experienced the Black versus White antagonisms in Bermuda, the French versus English antagonisms in Ottawa, Canada and the class antagonisms in Dominica.

I have been in two mixed marriages, one to a white Canadian and the existing one to a Black Dominican. Bermudians may be surprised to learn that I found very little difference between the two in terms of behaviour. Neither was intimidated by the need to mix with persons or groups of another race. I believe this was because both grew up in circumstances in which race was not a determinant of their ultimate success. However, race continues to be a determinant of success in Bermuda.

I have been educated at the graduate level in three almost lily white Universities; Queens University in Kingston, Ontario; American University in Washington DC., and the External Department of Webster University at the Kindley Navel Base in Bermuda. From these Universities, I have acquired a Degree in Economics, a Masters in Technology of Management, a Masters in Business Administration and a Masters in Human Resource Management.

I was employed as an Economic Statistician at Statistics Canada, an institution with 3,500 employees of whom only two were black. I directed a small staff of 35 consisting of 30 French Canadians.

With the above background, I can say that I have been exposed to the problems and tremors of race to an extent that most persons have not and never will. Yet in spite of that wide exposure, I cannot say with any confidence that I am without racial bias.

Still, I must ask whether we need to love another human being in order to interact with him or her positively? I do not believe this needs to be the case. What is necessary for successful interaction with another human being is the ability to concentrate on the message being communicated and not the communicator. That is easier said than done. However, in my opinion, this is a skill that must be acquired, if we are ever to achieve the harmony to which we all aspire.Calvin<$>[AT]northrock.bm