I CRIED a lot last Friday. I was inconsolable. Yes there were personal contributing factors but reading January 27's depicted the sad truth about our island - one in a metamorphosis from a near paradise to Sodom and Gomorrah. All the hard work, ingenuity and struggle of many who came before us and some still alive today is being sacrificed for short term financial gain and prestige for the few while the majority of Bermudians and non-financial guest workers are being squeezed out of the picture. Corruption, whether it be in the public or private sector is becoming the norm and not the exception. And if this continues then all those operating in Government and business will be tarred with the same brush and the stellar reputation of our island will be obliterated.

Oh, there's an abundance of talk about God and religion but little of it backed up by spiritual behaviour. In fact we are in the midst of an island-wide spiritual crisis where economic apartheid reigns supreme. The fallout of this economic apartheid is the disenfranchisement of a large portion of our fellow Bermudians - black, white and all the beautiful shades in between. The sad results have extended to what I see as a deterioration in race relations but not necessarily black against white.

I have been mortified to see an emergence in black-against-black confrontations. This was also evident in the latest edition of this paper and it filled me with despair and foreboding. Two individuals, Dr. Eva Hodgson and Alvin Williams, stand out to me in their dedication to combat racism and they have sacrificed quite a bit to keep their messages out there in the face of criticism and unwarranted personal attacks. To see them at odds with each other now and to read Letters to the Editor from blacks who have been offended by ? and are now attacking ? Mr. Williams is incredibly disheartening. I make no comment on the justification of such responses because that is not where my concern lies. Rather this whole black-against-black business has to stop as there can be no winners, only losers.

The seeds of this conflict were sown in the minds of many blacks and whites alike by an evil white slave owner. Willie Lynch gave a speech on the banks of the James River in Virginia in 1712 to others of his ilk on how to control slaves. Essentially he explained how to keep black men and women from uniting against their white owners by pitting the young against the old, the house against the field workers and the lighter skinned against the darker through various forms of favouritism and punishment.

As long as blacks were competing against each other and selling each other out to gain favour or avoid pain, there was little possibility for them to unite against their white abusers.

Sickeningly, this mentality has to an extent survived almost 300 years. Examples run the gamut from black-on-black gang violence to the often deadly ends met by rival rappers to our own Col. David Burch calling Opposition blacks "house niggers". This internecine warfare is all prompted by the same motive the pursuit of power, the need to prop one brother up at the expense of knocking another one down.

The plight of many blacks nowadays can be attributed to both the legacy of slavery and the actions of many blacks themselves. This latter cause can be stopped within the black community itself. The legacy of slavery and white privilege is something we have a duty to address. Both have been contributing factors to the disenfranchisement now taking place.

Exacerbating this disenfranchisement are other factors unique to Bermuda - the unprecedented success of reinsurance coupled with the struggling tourism business; slipping standards of conduct within our public sector; certain private enterprises which behave so reprehensibly that the searchlight beams of the US Securities & Exchange Council and other regulatory bodies are now trained on us; and, of course, our ailing system of public education. The SEC actions present a worldwide embarrassment as this body's inquiries are published in financial newspapers worldwide.

This island is simply too small to experience much more growth in only one industry ? namely reinsurance. Any further expansion necessitates the influx of a homogenous breed of expatriate worker to serve this one economic deity and an underclass of other expatriate workers (maids, nannies, hairdressers, wait staff etc.) to serve their many needs at salaries that amount to a fraction of those earned by the newcomers arriving on the red carpet of international business.

The influx of a homogeneous class of expatriate worker (insurance/finance professional) causes further social problems with every new incorporation, namely a culture clash. Few international business workers and their families have any affinity with our island culture. When they arrive, few seem to want to move out of their comfort zones preferring to join the more elite golf, tennis and boat clubs. This, in and of itself, is not a big deal but then there is very little effort on the part of these same people to move out of these circles at all, even those that have enjoyed our island for over 10 years and, one would have thought by now, become somewhat assimilated and less fearful of our diverse population.

One prime example of this insular behaviour can be found at football matches. Anyone from the east of the Atlantic, especially the English, flock to football games every weekend. When I lived in London I was fortunate to have a best friend who had season tickets to Chelsea and there was always an extra one for me. This was the great English pastime - a game and vindaloo. But in Bermuda, a few hours flight from the land of football fanatics, football has become a black sport with only a smattering of white faces seen in the crowd. Is the game enjoyed any less once one arrives on our island? No, the bars are full when overseas games are aired on satellite TV - I can only guess that the white expats just don't seem to feel comfortable in a venue where they are the minority.

This would not necessarily be the case if we were a haven for artists, like Santa Fe, or a mecca for certain sports as pursuits such as these cross racial and economic boundaries. But the white collar international business sector lacks the kind of social diversity that would promote a more integrated social scene. Talent, artistic and creative ability and sporting prowess are colour blind and greatly level the playing field. Intelligence likewise is colour blind but sadly the level of education and opportunities to enter top institutions of learning have not been and are still not available to all. Those that lose out do so because of a lack of finances and/or contacts (Old Boy networks) and the education and experience available to students still prefers the privileged that are predominantly white and/or wealthy and well connected.

This is where the economic apartheid still comes from in Bermuda.And it's why we lack the diversity in international business and financial enterprises that can be seen in many of our local, non financial services companies such as hotels, retail and artistic enterprises.

And the blame cannot be solely laid on our less-than-adequate public education system but also with those who fail to integrate socially with a cross-section of society. In short, blacks have always joined white institutions while few whites have acted similarly. I have found, for the most part, having been initially raised in the privileged white Bermuda, that the only black friends my then social group associated with were those blacks that did cross over and join historically white clubs and institutions.

When I expanded my horizons to venture into predominantly black venues as a result of my new friendships, this was frowned upon by many and I'd hear how so-and-so was a bad influence or dangerous or using me. Twenty years later those statements have never been proven true and, in fact, some of these diverse friendships I made in my late teens have been the only ones there for me when I really needed help in my later years.

Quite frankly, other than a few truly loyal white friends I have known over 20-odd years, it has been my black friends, both long-term and recent, who have helped me make some very difficult emotional transitions since I returned to the island in 2005 after a five year stint working abroad.

You see, it's those people that accept you as soon as your star is rising or bank account is swelling who drop you on the first sign of a downturn, be it emotional or financial. Fickle, fair weather friends I can happily do without. However many Bermudians and residents have made money into their God. But you can't create a deity when you don't control the heavens. In the end we may all become victims of this pervasive greed.

Many of our leaders want Independence to fulfil their megalomaniacal dreams because an Independent Bermuda will enrich only those in power and their inner circle. Those with great jobs and wealth / property on the island don't want Independence at any cost because that will threaten their income streams and property values. And as for the rest of the disenfranchised, they will continue to miss the gravy train whether we go Independent or things remain as they are under the status quo.

My personal choice is for us to fix all the many areas of social and economic injustice now. There is nothing stopping us as we have control over our internal system of Government and it is this internal system that needs fixing. Housing, education and judicial reform must be addressed first and by people who have a track record of success in these areas. Such work cannot be undertaken by those already tainted with allegations of unethical and corrupt dealings nor by those who have simply been proven incompetent in their current positions.

I listened to a few of the Sunday radio talk shows this weekend and I think it quite important for those who aspire to lead this island to do so too, not necessarily to hear the cemented opinions of those hosting, but to get a feel of what the callers are concerned about. As I feared, there is another dangerous myth out there that prevailed in the lead-up to the 1998 election. Bermudians who, for the most part, I would classify as the disenfranchised are labouring under the misconception that their working and living conditions will miraculously improve upon Independence ? just as many believed the same would hold true once the Progressive Labour Party attained power. Some believed that under Independence we would be able to either put a moratorium on guest worker arrivals while others saw kicking almost all of them out as a panacea. Folks, that could be done today - we don't need to be Independent to implement those foolish actions. Any extreme move to restrict the flow of necessary human capital would have immediate effects and none of these effects would include promoting Bermudians to take expatriate jobs. Companies would simply leave or scale back operations significantly.

This would have a knock-on effect of other businesses closing as they relied on the patronage of the expatriate community and their employers. Bermudians renting to expatriates would find leases legally broken (as most have get-out clauses in the event tenants must leave the island because of job relocation) and be themselves unable to make mortgage payments or suffer significantly reduced incomes.

Independence is something we need to be ready for. The leader to take us there needs to earn the right to do so because its effects will be his or her responsibility. Of the politicians that I have witnessed in my lifetime, only a very few have deserved the island's confidence. In our current Government there are two contenders, the only Ministers to achieve results in their respective portfolios. Unfortunately one of them stepped down, unable to deal with the sheer arrogance, sexism and incompetence of our current Premier. The other seems mistrusted by too many simply because, I believe, he is misunderstood and quite brilliant. What is it about a black man with a brain that people fear? It is quite irrational.

As a postscript I'd like to add that I am not against international business, . But, folks, we are reaching the point where our golden goose is so full of eggs she may burst. Like so much else that's going wrong in Bermuda, growth of the international business sector needs to be better managed.