June 23, 2006<$>THERE are other ways of trying to “Keep up with the Joneses” or copying others which are just as destructive as those commented on this week by your columnist Alvin Williams. Recently, President George Bush once again reminded Americans that they were a nation of immigrants and Bermudian politicians frequently try to remind Bermudians of the positive aspects of our “diversity” as a result of all the “immigrants” we have from every country in the world.

There are certainly some positive aspects but the historical consciousness of the majority of born Bermudians is not that of an “immigrant” heritage but of a slave heritage and Dr. Kenneth Robins in Heritage<$> pointed out how from the beginning, after Emancipation, free Blacks protested the importation of our first “immigrants” who were imported specially to displace newly-freed black labour.

Imported immigrants have continued to be used to the disadvantage of those with a slave heritage. D.A. Brown (the father of the current Minister of Tourism), a hotel worker, once told me that he could tell me the exact time that foreigners were imported to displace blacks in the hotel industry — after the beginning of Dr. E.F. Gordon’s labour movement. The current protests of the construction workers is just the latest frustration of born Bermudians with our becoming “a nation of immigrants” like the USA when our heritage is very different.

Then there is the recent effort to “keep up with America” and declare that there is a separation of the Church and State when, as a British Colony, our historical tradition has, on the contrary, been a union of the Church and State with the Head of the State, the Queen, also being the Head of the Church.

But more than that our own Constitution states that every Denomination has the right to educate its adherents EVEN IF it receives funds from the Government — an unlikely situation in the USA. Then, of course, there are the recent attacks on the Church, the AME Church in particular, when it has been the Church, and in particular the AME Church, which has sustained and given support and a sense of self-worth to born black Bermudians during the worst time of our oppression and exploitation and not only the denial of our human rights but our very humanity.

Then, of course, the current call for Independence is justified on the basis of “Keeping up with the Joneses” of every other little island, no matter what disadvantages it may bring us. It is particularly ironic in our case because, unlike every other jurisdiction while we are calling for Independence from Great Britain who is no problem for the average Bermudian, we are giving the actual country away to foreigners and guest workers beginning with HSBC.

We are all too aware of our dual economy, the wealthy economy of which our politicians boast and which benefits our guest workers and those whom we have imported while a large percentage of born Bermudians live in a Third World economy.

Even professionals are saying that they must leave their own country because they cannot buy their own homes and others cannot afford shelter while foreign workers not not only have shelter but often luxury shelter and all kinds of other benefits and consideration not given to Bermudian workers.

There are not only construction workers feeling marginalised but taxi drivers, teachers, photographers and others with skills who are being displaced in favour of foreigners. Others, like Mr. Whitecross, are frustrated because we are even giving our arable land to developers for the ultimate benefit of foreigners.

We are “Keeping up with the Joneses” in ways that are destructive to our history and culture and giving our country away and marginalising and undermining born Bermudians — and no one seems to care — while calling for an Independence that is irrelevant to most Bermudians simply because others have it.EVA N. HODGSON

Crawl<$>PS: While we boast of having a “rainy day fund” for those who might require a hand up from the Government, we do not seem to even use it for even the most needy Bermudians, like the intellectually disabled at Hope Homes or providing vans for those at Wind Reach. Ordinary Bermudians just do not seem to count. Some of us are hoping that the formalising of the Farmers Market will continue the dream of Frances Eddy by supporting Bermudian agriculture and Bermudian crafts. What matters to most Bermudians must begin to matter to those who are making the decisions.