“Gimme a Round De World.”

A uniquely Bermudian drink when a patron wants a beverage consisting of a variety of flavours such as ginger beer, grape, fruit punch, cola, sprite and whatever else. Not sure where it started but for argument’s sake, let’s say it started at Byrdie’s on Parson’s Road. You know, the place that has Bermuda’s best beef pies.

So, in honour of Byrdie’s, today’s column will be a “Round De World” of topics.

Regional stars

First off the bat, let’s give congratulations to our Bermudian young people who have thrived on the regional/international stages in recent Carifta events in the Bahamas with athletics events and in Curaçao at swimming events. They showed that they could compete with and stand on the podium some of the best in the world in their respective age groups.

As we know, the Caribbean region owns the athletics events at the Olympics. Almost every Caribbean participant has taken part in Carifta before making it to the world stage. So when we see our young Bermudians winning medals, we know they have the potential to make it at the highest level.

Once again, let’s big them up.

Truisms

Lately, there have been a few valid points that have become an almost daily diet of both conversation and contradiction.

From an economic viewpoint, we know that in order to grow jobs we need to see increases in both our tourism numbers and resident populations. I won’t get into the semantics of how many residents we should have or how many hotel beds we need. The non-argumentative point is that we need to find ways to grow both.

Now here comes the other side of the coin or, as the saying goes, “here is when the penny drops”.

Seemingly, every time a proposal is put to the public to build a hotel or high-end residences, there is an almost automatic choir ready to cry down any given project. Now before the critics start, I don’t agree with the volume of those grey buildings at the Fairmont Southampton. The question then becomes this: if we are attempting to increase the volume of high-end tourists and residents, where do we logistically want them to be housed?

If not on the most scenic parts of the islands, then where? If not in multilevel units, then how?

Newsflash, folks: we do not have a lot of open space. So the most efficient designs will be some form of multilevel residences. The irony is some of the folks complaining are the same ones saying we need more residents. So how on earth — pun intended — can we think about increasing the population by between 4,000 and 8,000 people if we do not increase the housing stock by a few thousand units?

Upcoming regional elections

On Monday, there will a General Election held in our sister Overseas Territory of the British Virgin Islands. In total, there are roughly 20,000 registered voters. At stake, there are nine district seats and four territorial seats for a total of 13 representative posts in their House of Assembly.

There are three main parties contending for posts — the incumbent Virgin Islands Party, the National Democratic Party, the Progressive Virgin Islands Movement and the Progressive United Party. There are also a number of independent candidates.

A local media house, 284 Media, has done a stellar job in giving every candidate a 30 to 50-minute platform on a one-on-one interview series called Just for the Record. They also hosted a well-oiled televised debate between the leaders of each of the four parties.

Bermuda media can learn much about how to properly highlight both the candidates and relevant issues.

Hope you enjoyed the “Round De World”. See you next week.

• Christopher Famous is the government MP for Devonshire East (Constituency 11). You can reach him on WhatsApp at 599-0901 or e-mail at carib_pro@yahoo.com