WELL Bermuda, it is finally happening - the beginning of the end of international business' dominance and its perceived untouchable nature. By this I am referring to the belief held by so many people, both in Bermuda and overseas, but especially in Bermuda, that international business will never die. Well, I see the writing on the wall and remember where you heard it first.

Sadly, when international business dies or suffers its inevitable decline, we will not have another pillar for Bermuda's economy because for years we have essentially abandoned the tourism industry and focused on banking, insurance, financial services, reinsurance and the like.

More on this after the Top 20.

Up to number one is Take A Bow, a sad love story by one of the hottest pop divas around, Rihanna. Boy is she cute.

Up to number two is the soca anthem, Defence (the anthem) by Machel Montano featuring Lil Jon and Pitbull.

Tumbling to number three is Love Is Wicked (Soca Remix) by Brick and Lace featuring Kess.

Now, shifting to dance music, DJ LT's favourite.

Soaring to number four is When I Grow Up by the Pussycat Dolls, one of the hottest, sexiest and most creative groups around.

Up to number five is Give It ToMe by Madonna, a kicking dance track.

Spotlight, by American Idol diva Jennifer Hudson, advances to number six. This is a cool, standard pop song which is flexible enough to have really good remix potential.

Improving to number seven is Road Jam, a soca kicker by recent visitor Shurwayne Winchester.

At number eight is Put On by Young Jeezy featuring Kanye West.

Falling to number nine is Heaven Sent by Keyshia Cole.

Down to number ten is Trey Songz' new hit, entitled Last Time.

Up to number 11 is Jazmine Sullivan with her new hit entitled Need You Bad.

Improving to number 12 is Disturbia by hot girl Rihanna, a smooth dance track that currently sits atop international dance charts.

Climbing to number 13 is The Business by Yung Berg featuring Casha, a current hip hop fave.

Improving to number 14 is Whatever You Like by T.I.

Up to number 15 is Can't Believe It by T-Pain and Lil Wayne.

Slipping to number 16 is A Milli by Lil Wayne.

Falling to number 17 is Chris Brown's single, Take You Down.

Down into the number 18 spot is I Luv YourGirl by The-Dream.

Dropping to number 19 is Fall by Kimberley Locke.

Tumbling to number 20 is a former essential new tune, Teenage Love Affair by Alicia Keys.

Now back to this week's words - what shall we do when there is no more international business -as we know it today? That, my friends, is the million-dollar question.

Let's be real, the Bermuda Government has not exactly been responsible for the success of international business.

Neither the UBP nor the PLP can take credit for international business. I will say that Sir David Gibbons was instrumental in prompting Government and the country to shift its focus from tourism and look at international business, but this industry thrived in spite of any action or inaction by the Governments of both of Bermuda's political parties. Sure, Sir David was smart and invested his own paper in these fields, in the Caribbean and in Bermuda, but reinsurance, insurance and financial services just took off on its own. Bermuda was just the lucky location where this industry has decided to make one of its homes.

The important clause in that last sentence is "one of its homes". This is to remind us that international business can just get up and leave at a moment's notice. In fact, I have on good authority that many companies are leaving, have left or have moved people overseas. I also know that being the switched-on individuals and high achievers that most leaders of these companies are, they've developed contingency plans and strategies to ensure that they can function outside of Bermuda and still make as much money as they are currently making.

So, on one hand, I'm saying that we must be fair with international business and ensure that we put forth our best effort to create the conditions that will ensure companies remain in Bermuda. But on the other hand, I'm saying that we erred by abandoning tourism during the 1980s and 1990s.

The '80s were the time when we should have been investing in our tourism industry but we didn't. Instead, we arrogantly thought that tourists will always come, no matter what we do. Oh how wrong we were. They have stopped coming and new destinations have happily and humbly welcomed them. Let us not make the same mistake with international business, especially now in the middle of a credit crunch, when financial giants like American International Group are on the verge of going belly up. Unless we humble ourselves and play fair, they too, will stop coming.

However, at the same time, we need to build up our tourism industry. I've long written that an economy needs more than one successful pillar of the economy. Perhaps others now understand that we cannot bank (excuse the pun) on international business. We must have other sources of income that contribute significantly to the country. I predict that we will soon see Bermudians coming back to work in the tourism and hospitality sector, because there simply will not be as many jobs available in international business. I can't be mad at those who left for bigger salaries and more sociable hours, but all good things must come to an end and I suspect that the end is near.

Some people will say that if international business fails, so to will tourism. I disagree with this thinking. There are wealthy people all over the world who will not be affected enough to stop vacationing and needing to travel for business purposes. If we had a decent and adequately-sized convention centre, something I've been suggesting for years, we could do a significant amount of convention business. Also, the crunch is affecting the America more than other countries. Thus, we should look to other jurisdictions for both tourism and international business development.

As it stands now, Fairmont is the only game in town and they can only do small conferences. You can't imagine the amount of business that doesn't come to Bermuda simply because both Fairmont properties are busy and/or their conference facilities are too small. An addition of this kind of conference space could be a source of income for the tourism industry, however, we have to invest in it now because it will take five years to erect a decent convention centre. Even the fact that we built one would be exciting news in the world tourism market. It would make Bermuda a hot destination, something that it currently is not.

In any event, given the tough times ahead, we have to hunker down and solidify the existing sources of revenue in our economy and look at ways to fortify both tourism and international business. We don't want to lose what we have but we must look to develop new business sources. So, we have to keep our existing customers happy whilst simultaneously generating new opportunities, both in tourism and in international business.

Now, let's do it!

Au revoir ... and peace!