BERMUDA has become a society that over-promises and under-delivers, Sir John Swan charged this week.

Reiterating his continuing concern over the country's current lack of Government direction and failure to address pressing problems in a rapidly changing world, the leading businessman and former Premier said that while the many recent pronouncements on tourism provided glaring examples, this was not the only area where this phenomenon was prevalent.

Promises made on such social issues as low-cost housing, education, and drug abuse - to name but some - had not been delivered.

On the question of tourism, Sir John commented: "Although we continue to routinely promise our visitors value for money, good accommodations, first-class and friendly service, and a safe environment, there are increasing complaints that Bermuda does not provide value for money and there is mounting criticisms of indifferent, nonchalant service.

"These have come from visitors and residents alike," Sir John alleged, "and there is also the sense that our country is not as safe as it was even five years ago. Menacing beggars pestering people in Hamilton and the physical violence that we read about daily in our newspapers are a blemish on Bermuda's long-held reputation as a very safe destination."

Calling for an increased police presence on Hamilton's streets in the form of foot patrols, Sir John revealed that, just a few evenings ago, he became personally involved in a potentially unpleasant incident: "I saw a beggar approach two elderly ladies, took hold of one of the ladies' hand and was obviously not about to let go until he got money from her.

"I intervened and told this individual to stop harrassing these ladies. Fortunately, he moved on - no doubt, to find his next victim."

Noting the establishment of the Kindley Field air base by the Americans in World War Two linked the island to US, British and Canadian strategic planning for the next 50 years, Sir John said the air facility and "our magnificent harbour" enhanced our tourist base which became the mainstay of Bermuda's livelihood.

"Not only did we promise good service and high-quality accommodation for that time, we actually delivered it! This became our hallmark, both from the hotel and merchandising point of view - what we promised is what we delivered.

"Even with our limited resources, we were able to promise everyone that if we worked together, we would deliver a Bermuda that was better for future generations and, in many ways, when one reflects on Bermuda today in terms of home ownership, education opportunities and job opportunities, many of those promises were delivered.

"However," he continued, "we became promise-driven, thinking that if we we said something was going to happen, we assumed it would happen, but gave no consideration of how it would happen. We began to take things for granted in that promises made would be promises kept.

"And, as an end result of that philosophy, we became a systematically over-promised and under-delivered society, raising expectations among visitors and residents alike, but all based upon our historic practices.

"Failing to make the appropriate changes that would permit us to continue providing the goods and services for which we'd become famous, we now find ourselves in a vulnerable position."

There was now, Sir John declared, an urgent necessity to re-evaluate this state of affairs: "The fact that, all too often, our results have not fulfilled our promises has, I believe, played a major role in the demolition of our tourist business. We are not, however, just talking about tourism.

"Another thing we promised, but have not delivered, is low-cost housing. An adequately housed populace prevents a myriad of social problems, and the failure to live up to promises made in this area has added to the sense of dashed expectations, especially on the part of our young people, who have too often arrived at the door of delivery only to find something quite different to the inflated promises made.

"It would be far better," he retorted, "if we under-promised and over-delivered!"

What Bermuda needed to do now, he said, was to re-evaluate our society in a realistic way: "We cannot recapture the past and, even if we could, it is not a past we would want in the first place.

"The present," Sir John emphasised, " is the now and, as we know now, even that needs changing and the priority should be fulfilling the promises than can be realistically met and delivered to those who have all these expectations.

"Now, the `sixty-four thousand dollar question' is: How do we do that?"

First, he contended, Bermuda must be defined as it is today and by the global economic and social changes that are already impacting on the country from without.

"This," Sir John added, "has already been partially articulated in the papers through my City Plan and by my suggestion of using the former Club Med building in St. George's as boarding facilities for `At Risk' children.

"We have long been referring to those people who `fall between the cracks' and what we are talking about is, predominantly, the young black male. We must, I think, recognise that we never really made a promise to him, but kept stressing the conditions we were imposing on him which, in turn, caused him to be marginalised in this society, and we convinced him he was not a part of Bermuda."

There was, said Sir John, an urgent necessity to reverse that thinking and place him on an equal footing, inspire his inner spirit and equip him with the appropriate skills and interest to join in being a part of the new Bermuda.

Agreeing that the idea of a boarding facility for such young people could be a radical decision, Sir John reiterated his belief that children should be rescued from unfit parents and placed in a boarding academy staffed with first-class teachers and catering from students from eight to 14 years of age, since that was the age when youngsters start to crystallise their values: "What parent, we might ask, would want to give up the care of their child?

"No matter how much a parent loves a child, I do think that some parents are aware that they are not doing what they need to be doing for their children. This may be because they are single parents, working various jobs to make ends meet, or perhaps one or both parents are hooked on drugs, or involved in unstable, unhealthy or even violent relationships.

"I believe that many parents in those types of circumstances might be relieved if the state took them so that they could be involved, from an early age to be involved in character building and a good academic educational programme."

Acknowledging that such a scheme would cost money, Sir John quoted Benjamin Franklin's premise that "the only thing more expensive than education is ignorance": "I say, we should snatch these youngsters up before the military does - if we had them at the age of eight they would get a sense of values.

"As it is, too many children are living in anti-social, brutalised environments, so they end up with no idea of how they, in turn, should behave. Are we a compassionate society?" Sir John mused. "If so, we should start very early with these children so that they become compassionate, rather than full of frustration, anger and disillusionment.

"And on the issue of cost, an editorial in the Mid-Ocean News in July 2000 pointed out that taxpayers were paying $5,000 more for each public school student than that charged in the private sector. Morever, we spend over $40,000 to keep one prisoner per annum: the prisons are full and the majority of prisoners are functionally illiterate!

"The only conclusion we can reach - and which must be reached - is that if the overall education standards of our children were raised there would be a corresponding drop in our prison population."

If Bermuda had just one objective, this should be it - providing equal opportunities, to ensure that every child had a chance to reach his or her potential, said Sir John: "I believe that if we did this we would be making a big leap forward because the rest of the world is yet to address this area.

"We are so small that the impact of what we do is so much larger - and that, I would add, was a belief and desire held not only by myself, but by Freddie Wade and others.

"Yet it still remains a promise not met but which needs to be at the forefront today, as Bermuda goes through the changes - whether we like it or not - that the world will impose upon us."