Hire qualified BermudiansDecember 20, 2011Dear Sir,After listening to “Let’s Talk” on Monday evening I could not help thinking “The executives/personnel of these international companies are highly intelligent, highly skilled, highly trained and highly salaried why do they need Bermudians to put their case on talk shows when those of us who are listening can do nothing about it anyway. Surely they can put their own case directly to the Government.”Of much greater concern to me is another issue. We go to the public after we see the Government is not listening to us! Last night we once again heard that education is the answer and that expatriates spend money on rents and groceries etc. Our frustration is that even after our graduates get the education they may not get the employment (I know Dr Brown said our graduates have no entitlement to employment in Bermuda). But the expatriates who displace Bermudians are very often not even the highly salaried executives. They are just expatriates, who, like Dr Brown, think that Bermudians do not have entitlement to employment in their own country and, being in a position to do so they do what they can to see that they are not hired.We bring in expatriates who have “experience” and feel no responsibility to ensure that our graduates get “experience”. The irony is that we behave as if employed Bermudians do not also pay rent and buy groceries just like expatriates do! We have been hearing that if we buy local the money stays here, well if we hire locals all the money also stays here.On another issue: Greed can blind people. We hear that a minimum wage will discourage employers from hiring, that is because employers cannot see that the more they pay the workers the more the worker will have to spend with them. Part of the answer to the recession is to hire qualified Bermudian graduates so that all of the money will stay here and pay workers enough so that they will have enough to spend and so ensure that the money is going around rather than some of it being sent abroad or simply staying in the employer’s pockets (or bank account).EVA N HODGSONHamilton Parish