November 18, 2013

Dear Sir,

Doug Soares is completely right. Bermuda’s immigration laws can neatly be summed up as “screw you and screw your money”.

Who - from abroad - would want to invest in Bermuda when (a) you virtually can’t and (b) if you do you will be treated like a second class citizen? Hello Grand Cayman.

The reserved occupations list looks like it was drawn up by a white South African in 1965. All the blue collar low paid jobs are reserved for...foreigners??...seasonal workers???...nope; Bermudians.

So why bother having a decent education system? Ally this to a not uncommon attitude where if a Bermudian does go abroad for an education they then expect to come home and immeidately get a top line job and there exists a huge swathe of the population who are just about educated enough or nowhere near experienced enough.

Bermuda should educate her people better who should then move abroad to work and gain experience. The automatic UK passport opens up all of Europe, a fair chunk of the Commonwealth while the Bermuda status make North America so much easier to get into than for virtually any other nation.

Bermuda’s work permit policy is insane.

Thousands of dollars for a foreign work permit. So...if you are an employer who has spent $5000 (say) on a qualified worker would you let them go if a similarly qualified Bermudian came along?

If that work permit cost $100...

Then the government obfuscates the population figures to justify its daft immigration laws. I would lay good money that Bermuda’s population is under 60,000 and falling rapidly.

There is a PLP wedded to policies designed to keep black people poor and an OBA wedded to the policy of making things like they used to be - and that world died in 2008.

Down both roads lie ruination.

With the money in Bermuda its children should be some of the best educated in the first world. With its infrastructure and location it should be one of the easiest places in which to invest and settle. With its size and general congeniality it should be one of the easiest places to govern.

Instead of which it is governed by a sclerotic and rotten legislature that takes months to make a wrong decision that will be implemented poorly to the detriment of the population while the powers-that-be take their 30 pieces of silver.

Will companies decide to move en masse to jurisdictions that permit workers to settle with their families? Will East coasters decide to haul ass for an extra 2 hours to the Caribbean and pay EC$25 for a burger and fries in a brand new hotel and casino instead of US$25 in an old hotel with no casino?

That time is getting closer. As Bermuda becomes more Caribbean, Bermudians had better hope that there is not another UK Overseas Territory with the wit to become more mid-Atlantic.

There is no future in living in the past and Bermuda needs to wisen up quick. By the time these 2 useless divisive political parties cotten on it will be way too late.

As for the Sage report - the irony of a 142 page government report on government waste should be lost on no one - words fail me.

Faithfully,

Robert Dobson