for the people of Bermuda. That ranges from social assistance to housing to sports facilities. The truth is that there are needs in Bermuda and there are people who need help.

We would like to think that in an ideal society, an ideal Bermuda, there would be no people in need, certainly no children in need. Amid the opulence and the high standards of today's Bermuda it is too easy to ignore the needy or to dismiss them as somehow to blame for their own misfortunes or their own lack of success but dismissal is not helpful nor is it a solution.

It is, of course, the nature of any country for people to want more and for people to ask for more simply because they see other people with more than they have. Some things which are seen as needs in Bermuda would not be seen as needs in most other places but being deprived is relative to the lifestyles which surround you. In a small country like Bermuda the extravagant lifestyles are very visible. Many Bermudians who are much better off than they might be in other less successful countries still feel deprived in Bermuda simply because there are people with so much.

Sometimes the demands which are made on Government are not demands which any Government can meet. Governments function according to their ability within the means of the taxpayers and within the political boundaries of what taxpayers are willing and able to pay. There are always constraints because of the nature of people who do not relish taxes or tax increases. The public and its pressure groups too often think that Governments have a bottomless pit of money and can thus go on meeting public demands without considering the cost of those demands. That is not true nor is it ever likely to be true.

Government in very many ways is simply a facilitator. It puts in place a system which it thinks will benefit the greatest number of people and then allows the people, within the confines of the system and the law, to make their own way within that system. Problems arise when the system is such that people cannot make their own way and need help, paid for by the rest of the public, to survive.

Governments fail in their duty when a significant number of the people fail because the system is wrong or because the system is inadequate for their survival. That is not true in Bermuda although it is sometimes suggested that it is true.

What is true is that Bermudians have been told for a long time that they will not succeed and some, not many but some, have either ceased to try or been defeated by the suggestion that they will fail if they try. The prophets of doom have had some success and it is a success which does not serve other people well and does not serve the Country well. That is a Bermudian people problem and not a Government problem and it is one that Bermudians should be careful to examine. If you tell people long enough that their boat is sinking, they will inevitably drown.

Someone suggested to us recently something which we think is very true.

Bermudians too often complain that their glass is half-empty when in fact their glass is half-full.