Dear Sir,

I was privileged to have first met John Swan, Premier of Bermuda, as he was known then, in January 1989 when he privately hosted a small group of visiting Caribbean dignitaries in Bermuda. Sir John was charismatic, gregarious, charming and gracious; inquisitive, exploratory and knowledgeable.

Sir John's statesmanship and innate self-assuredness was evident.

By his pattern of conduct and philosophical underpinning, at home and abroad, throughout the years, a thinking person would agree that Sir John carried Bermuda and its people with him at all times. Notwithstanding, an important takeaway concept in his posthumous letter to his people could be interrupted by a few readers as circumscribed.

By no stretch of the imagination was he insular, but highly aware of and sensitive to the dictates and importance of regional and international interdependencies and relationships.

As most ought to be cognisant of, Sir John was raised in an era of traumatic racial upheaval, political activism and likely paid close attention to men and women of substance such as Henry Tucker, E.F. Gordon, Gladys Morrell and Edward Richards, who became national heroes because they laid the groundwork for social, personal and political change to which Sir John was also deeply committed and from which he was ultimately a beneficiary.

Except perhaps for spontaneous ones, altruistic acts do not routinely materially arise from a cloistered existence and sameness. Sometimes altruistic acts and national development evolve from integrating differentiated cultural experiences and exposure, as distinct from an abyss of unadulterated painful experiences, sameness and myopia. The United States of America is a living example of the greatness of a blended society.

British neurologist and politician David Owen and psychiatrist Jonathan Davidson describe hubris syndrome as an occupational hazard, an infectious disease visited on politicians and kingmakers of long standing, where grasp on power and reality, influence and personality intersect to create a unique set of characteristics not limited to political arrogance, contempt for criticism and a messianic complex.

To his great credit and eternal legacy, to his death Sir John Swan remained devoid of the hubris syndrome.

Well done, good and faithful servant.

KATHLEEN PINDER

Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago