Last year, I made a point of asking readers to take the time to personally call to thank the international exempt companies for their contribution to our community and to the GDP of our country. One or two people notified me that they sent a message. This was a disappointment. I was too naive in hoping it would be substantially higher.

Bermuda routinely trumpets the reports of the high Gross Domestic Product of our country. In reality, it should be called the Gross Expatriate Product, since they, by and large, are the ones whose superb intellectual and corporate efforts have generated the outsize results.

The GDP calculation for Bermuda should instead be called the Net Domestic Product because without those high earning outliers, our real GDP would be a significantly lower number. These companies should be thanked again this year. But that is the subject of another article.

We are observing the annual giving of thanks for our lifestyles. It is propitious that today, on a US holiday weekend, many Bermudian residents also celebrate and reflect on our good fortune — and throw in a pile of power shopping for good measure. Through the sheer luck of the draw, we are fortunate enough to be in a country where individual rights, manners, civility, and caring for your neighbour can still count. We are grateful that we are not in Mumbai, being targeted by those, who do not know anything about us as Westerners, but hate us enough to kill indiscriminately.

This is also the second year of the awarding of the Annual Gratitude Award. So let's list select a few things we should be grateful for, with the provision that for one day we stop the negativity and the complaining about our lot in life. At the end, you can guess who will receive the Annual Gratitude Award.

• Personal power and the right to choose. We can basically do what we want when we want, while choosing our method of implementation. We can drink, eat, work, exercise, dress, dissent, worship, and love too little or too much. It is all within our power of choice, and no one can tell us differently. Except for the odd person too intoxicated to move, or a terrible relationship gone completely destructive, we have tremendous personal rights of freedom to choose.

In certain other countries and cultures, there is no such thing as relationship tolerance where partners may have long-term relationships, short-term dating, or marital indiscretions. In our world, these are deemed private, personal matters between the parties, unless or until, the matters become inappropriate for the circumstances.

We take these rights completely for granted, completely oblivious that in more places than you'd realise, moral relationship codes are strictly enforced. Alleged perpetrators of any age, whether innocent or guilty of social indecency in any form are violently punished: doused with acid, shunned, severely beaten, hung and stoned to death.

• Pensions and health care are mandatory in Bermuda. Our domestic agenda is better at caring for the health of the population. Through Bermuda legislation passed over the years by thoughtful public servants, we do have a right to health insurance if we are employed. This translates into significantly lower infant mortality rates, communicable diseases, and the promotion of well being among all residents here. In emerging market countries and failed states, as many as three out of five children will not see their fifth birthday while the average adult mortality age is in their late 30s. Across the pond, the United States has a deplorable health care record, with more than 50 million of its residents without basic health and dental care. President-elect Obama stated it succinctly; health care should be a right for all.

• The opportunity to succeed is unlimited. Some countries still abide by caste systems and the influence of powerful persuasive special interest groups to completely inhibit the advancement of individuals. In our democratic society, you are hindered only by the limitations of your own mind. Many will read this and say that I have no idea what it means to be unlucky and on the fringe trying to succeed. I do know; I watched our father struggle endlessly in tiny highly competitive business. But none of us, I'll wager can imagine what it was like to be interred for years in a concentration camp, tattooed with a number and surviving as a skeleton with a vision of future success in a hospitable country. I knew people like that, too. There are so many, many success stories about determined individuals (global leaders indeed) who simply refused to give up, no matter the odds. Success brings its own luck.

l The right to a fair trial and an appropriate sentence term. In civilised worlds, the mantra, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" is not interpreted literally. Even those convicted of crimes, who have fulfilled their sentence, have the right to try again as law-abiding citizens. In other less civilized nations, convicted criminals receive harsh treatment, outsize sentences, routine loss of limbs (i.e. hands off for stealing) and beheading.

There is so much right about our society, and yes, some things not so right. We have much to be thankful for.

We are a generous of spirit people that show great caring and compassion to those less fortunate, but we must care for each other by protecting our individual rights of freedom of choice; the right to know about our government; the right to truth; and the right to dissent and disagree. By our actions (or lack thereof), we shall be known to the rest of the world.

And the Second Annual Gratitude Award goes to — every single individual who has had the honest courage to speak the truth of his or her personal convictions in print, in the media, in person. Whether you agree or disagree with a particular issue, you are all to be commended for taking a personal leap of faith, even though your stance may expose you (and your family) to ridicule, scrutiny, derision or more positively, applause, appreciation and accolades. Healthy dissent means a healthy country. Healthy dissent promotes positive change.

Martha Harris Myron

In gratitude for life in Bermuda

November 2008