Dame Lois Browne Evans: `Paranoia' September 6, 2000 IF the public hearings of the Commission into Serious Crimes in Bermuda had not had at its core the unavoidable, officially-to-be-avoided Rebecca Middelton tragedy they would have been farcical.

I, for one, have never heard so much gratuitous rambling, quasi-theatrical ideology and embellished personal scrapbook memoirs spun out for the general lavage of the collective Bermudian brain.

Commissioners and witnesses alike rambled on and on. We were treated to vintage Dame Lois Browne Evans paranoia of the suspected turncoats in the auditorium of her past.

We were given camp slogans like "Walk the talk'' -- whatever that is supposed to mean. No precise answers, because there were no precise questions, except to a select, currently "serving'' few, for whom were reserved whiplash questions and whose answers were not permitted to stray by even a comma! We had to listen to a "witness'' who lamented being a victim of the system of discrimination, because he went into debt by a million dollars or so! He made an impassioned dissertation to the Commission to the effect that it was the colour of his skin, which was the reason why one of the established banks decided to call in his loans and to refuse to finance further business ventures. Had he been white, naturally they -- the bankers -- would have thrown good money after bad, and he would have been a shining success! If it hadn't been for God in his life, we were told, he would have committed a serious crime, even murder! I hope someone has the courage to tell that man that money is colour-blind but has a great affinity to the qualities of caution and industry.

What an insult to the community! Any person who can get into debt by a million plus is not poor! He is also not a victim! Nor have the banks shut the door on him -- not by a long shot! He is just someone who has no talent for business. Any business community abroad, in any other country, including all of those on the African continent, would be repelled by this man's degree of self-pity and shameless exploitation of his African ancestry to explain away personal failure. This community gave him a sporting chance. He blew it.

What a disgrace, to have to listen to apologists, who had no other purpose in appearing before this commission than to excuse not just the horrific torture of Rebecca Middleton but also any other violent crime of young black men against anything at all, which they perceive as connected to the "white world'' as rooted in oppression of African-Bermudians by the "white'', "Eurocentric'' establishment.

When will all male Bermudians stop whining and obsessively looking for the causes of personal failure in the history of their forefathers, roll up their sleeves, and start to take full responsibility as the makers, and creators of their own futures? Heaven alone knows, there cannot be too many other places in the world still "fighting'' over employment.

If all this self-pitiful escape into mind-altering substances would stop -- and apparently there is no lack of money to cover these day-to-day living expenses -- and a little more appreciation of the basic quality of industry and self-discipline needed for success would start then this community might have a chance of recovery from mass delusional psychosis.

Tourism, hitherto guaranteed to prop up the all-pervading Bermudian traits -- sloth and preoccupation with gossip -- by marginally earned, but guaranteed greenbacks is withering.

The commission did at least uncover one vital piece of evidence: Mr. Justice Moore's favourite song is Ebony and Ivory . Not all the time was fruitless.

CLINGING TO REALITY IN PEMBROKE PS: If you happen to talk with former Police Commissioner Colin Coxall, sir, say a "Hallo'' to him from the rest of us in Wonderland. Tell him he was the last person the commission wanted to see -- which goes very much to his credit!