I HAD believed that when it came to the question of the recent demise of the Front Street store Trimingham Brothers, the Progressive Labour Party Government, on this occasion, could not possibly be blamed.

But, alas, it appears that I too occasionally suffer from those convenient short-term memory lapses that are so characteristic of Bermudians. After all, I have often used the term the Fig-Leaf Society to describe the mental vicissitudes of our country and our willingness to embrace delusions rather than bare facts about the way things are here.

So I thought the recent flak directed at Finance Minister Paula Cox for calling the buy-out and take-over of the Bank of Bermuda by British banking conglomerate HSBC an international sector/Bermudian "partnership", though truthfully one more example of our fig-leaf mentality, nevertheless was a bit harsh.

A terse editorial that criticised the Finance Minister in the wake of HSBC's absorption of Trimingham's, for instance, may have been written at a time when feelings were still pretty much raw in the wake of the sudden announcement the bank was taking over the retail giant.

The take-over of Trimingham's by the British HSBC is rich in irony from my point of view. Here we are in a country in which the opinion polls state that the people are not for Independence; yet we are seemingly upset that a banking institution from the Mother Country, so-called, has not only taken over Trimingham's but also gobbled up one of Bermuda's four banks.

Is a spark of Bermudian nationalism in evidence given all the furore over the Trimingham's sale? Perhaps. Or, more likely, it's just one more example of our fig-leaf mentality manifesting itself.

After all, since some would have us believe that it is in Bermuda's best interests to remain a British Overseas Territory, then logically we should embrace the HSBC take-over of Trimingham's as the natural order of things, unless, of course, you are a real Bermudian nationalist ? in which case your advocacy of Independence would be further strengthened by this latest development.

However, continuing on the theme of the consequences of being a fig-leaf society (and someone else's overseas territory, to boot), it is in Bermudians' real interests to start to try to get a better understanding of our relationships with outside interests ? be they political or economic. On the whole, we do seem to lose the plot when it comes to these things.

For example, if you ask the average Bermudian what it is that gives the Bermuda dollar its value, most will be lost when it comes to an answer. I know whereof I speak because I often use my working colleagues as sounding boards on ideas about where I would like to see our country go.

I recently broached the question of what it is that gives the Bermuda dollar its value with a fellow worker. Now, this fellow Bermudian is very much a typical Bermudian: owns his own house, likes to travel, said he votes for the PLP but is concerned about its perceived push towards sovereign Independence and is torn about what he may be forced to do with his vote over his fears about nationhood.

Now, if you support Independence for Bermuda as I do, how are you going to convince such a person to go along with your idea for the future of your country? One thing that you can rule out for the moment is an appeal based on any latent Bermudian nationalism (although there is hope in that area).

Instead, I told this same colleague that he and I are not real Bermudians, officially recognised as such, that is. Oh, this set off a mighty explosion. My colleague was shouting at the top of his voice that he was indeed a real Bermudian, having been born in the country from parents who were also born in the country, and no one was going to tell him anything else.

I told him to calm down and go home and look at his passport and read what it said. By this time he was getting really red in the face (he is one of our light-skinned black Bermudians).

At this point we returned to the question of what gives the Bermuda dollar its value. He plainly had no up-front answer to the question, although in the back of his mind he had some idea but in typical Bermudian fashion he was holding that answer to be used at the appropriate time. We continued our talk, and I asked the question: "Do the British give Bermuda foreign aid? Or the Americans for that matter?"

He agreed that there was no evidence that this was so.

Now on this question of what gives the Bermuda dollar its value, I admit that even I had no full answer. But I do read a lot ? including the opinions of people that I am not likely to fully agree with. One such person is Mr. Robert Stewart, one-time United Bermuda Party candidate, former policeman, economics lecturer at the Sixth Form Centre (now the Bermuda College), one-time CEO of the Shell Company here and author of the book .

I bought his book for information, not for its ideological bias towards what could be called orthodox capitalism. The answer to my question of what gives the Bermuda dollar its value comes down to our ability to earn the American dollar, the leading currency in the world.

At least that is what I got out of Mr. Stewart's book on this issue. I told my colleague this answer and he stated that he thought the value of Bermuda's dollar had something to do with the American dollar, though he did not know the exact connection between the two.

Did I convince him that Bermuda could go Independent without that fact changing? Well, I have to consider this a draw for the moment for in the next breath my colleague stated that he was thinking of getting a British passport, to which I replied, "Didn't you just tell me that you are a proud Bermudian and now you are telling me that you are going to get a British passport?"

He only smiled ? in the back of his mind he was planning another trip. I just smiled and shook my head and said to myself: "Patience, patience, remember this is Bermuda, the fig-leaf society."

But it is on this ground that the question of Bermudian Independence will be won or lost and in that respect Bermuda's Independence struggle is indeed unique but not, in my view, something that cannot be attained.

In fact, support for an Independent Bermuda can come from what may seem on paper to be a most unlikely combination of supporters. I have often pointed out that Bermuda's national symbols only include those from one ethnic group, the British connection. They do not represent Bermuda's black majority.

But there is a second group that is just as ignored and that is Bermuda's second largest ethnic group, the Portuguese community, who are just as excluded when it comes to being represented by Bermuda's national symbols.

Many people were taken aback with the displays of Portuguese nationalism in Bermuda during last year's European soccer championships in Portugal. Portuguese flags suddenly appeared from cars, trucks and even houses.

It was the greatest display of Portuguese nationalism that Bermuda has ever seen and once more most of those flags were being flown by Bermuda-born people of Portuguese descent. And that showed me something about the strong feelings engendered by a national identity.

For a long time this question of who is a Bermudian has been an issue within the Portuguese community. I have always got the feeling they believed they could not be Bermudian unless they downplayed their Portuguese roots and became Anglicised Bermudians. In recent times we may have seen a backlash to this and hence all those flags we witnessed last year.

Now as a black Bermudian, I saw no threat in this for I know that I will not be giving up my Caribbean-African identity. And does this conflict with my support of an Independent Bermuda? Not if Bermuda is prepared to accept that it is a multi-ethnic country.

In an Independent Bermuda no one's ethnic identity needs to be suppressed as long as we have a common national identity which an Independent Bermuda would give us. Interestingly, Canada is a good example of how we can develop a common national identity through our national symbols.

When Canada originally became a self-governing Dominion its national symbols, including the flag, highlighted the country's British character. Yet Canada is made up of many ethnic groups ? from native people who lived there before the coming of Europeans to small groups of black people who arrived during and after slavery in America to recent immigrants from the Caribbean and Asia. And, of course, there is a large French-speaking population in the province of Quebec.

Clearly, if Canada was to build the idea of a single country it would have to begin by creating a set of national symbols that all of its population could identify with. So the Union Jack ensign was dropped (although it was retained as the provincial flag of Ontario) and no one can argue with the design of the current Canadian flag with the red maple leaf at its centre.

For the maple leaf is one symbol that all groups who have ever lived in Canada can identify with and one which is not exclusively associated with any particular ethnic group. This is something that Bermuda can learn from.