Part one of a three-part series

by JULIAN HALL

"I'm so bad, I even make medicine sick"

-Cassius Clay, aka Muhammad Ali

A YEAR and a half ago, I took it upon myself (entirely without being invited or asked to do so) to mount a spirited assault within the media in support of the election of Dr. the Hon. Ewart F Brown to the leadership of the Progressive Labour Party.

I was no less vocal during that bitter dispute surrounding the BHC investigation; a dispute whose limbs and allegations seem to regenerate out of nowhere, despite the complete absence of admissible or reliable evidence.

I even felt compelled to unleash my own personal blitz in the electronic media.

I did what I did for a number of reasons. Frankly, I don't expect to be believed: but it is true that, apart from a real sense of disgust at the direction in which the PLP were going (and by definition taking Bermuda with it), there was no self-interest involved on my part whatsoever.

I really do love this country; and I hate what pulls us apart.

Mostly, what I did concerned the qualities of Dr. Brown as I have perceived them.

I have known and watched Ewart Brown for just about my entire life. Most of my generation of black Bermudians - like him or not, agree with him or not - have for many years regarded Dr. Brown as an icon.

By the time I was an undergraduate at Mount Allison University in Canada, Ewart Brown was featured in Time magazine and other American publications for his bold and articulate Student Union leadership at Howard University, one of the most prestigious black academic institutions in the world, during a time of epochal global change in race relations and civil rights.

From an early age, Dr. Ewart Brown publicly identified himself as an implacable foe of racism and the doctrine of White Supremacy; and it was clear to those of us who actually studied these phenomena that he applied himself, with all the interests of a scientist, to battling and dismantling both racism and White Supremacy. This by itself amounts to a tall order; in which, unless you are assassinated, you are pursuing an inevitably thankless task.

If there was any doubt about it before, I concluded that Ewart Brown's fate was sealed from the moment he publicly announced that Collie Buddz' song, I'm Blind to You, Haters, was one of his favourite pieces of music.

In our community, the last thing the "haters" want is to go unnoticed; unidentified certainly, but unnoticed, never. The clear difference is, of course, cowardice. That, ultimately, is what the " 'aters" are: cowards.

Those in positions of real economic and political power in Bermuda knew for years precisely the threat conveyed to their way of life and their own separatist, unequal, unfair, unbalanced and segregationist vision of Bermuda by the young Ewart Brown and those he might inspire and influence.

It is hardly a new discovery to describe Ewart Brown as "arrogant"; although I genuinely feel that "self-confident" is more accurate. But in Bermuda you can only be so much of that, and black at the same time.

And it is a matter of undeniable and incontrovertible historical fact that, like many black leaders and potential leaders in Bermuda before him, Ewart Brown was the object of a well-coordinated and ultimately successful attempt to prevent him from engaging in his chosen profession, the practice of medicine, in this the country of his birth.

It was said that Dr. Brown, despite exemplary academic achievements in the United States, had on more than one occasion "failed" the local examinations and was therefore unable to practise medicine here. Dr. Brown repeatedly argued that he was being kept out of Bermuda professionally by those who felt threatened by his political influence and oratory. Some - and this included many of "his own people" - who knew absolutely nothing about medicine or medical examinations, claimed that he had intentionally earned a "Fail" grade in order to bring attention to himself and to make himself a Bermudian martyr; an entirely stupid approach, of course, often taken in Bermuda, with which I have some familiarity: "blame the victim" is what I call this practice. And, often, it works.

Anyway, to paraphrase Muhammad Ali, the man was so bad he even made medicine sick; at least much of the historically white-dominated medical profession in Bermuda have been known to froth with contempt at the very thought of Brown's political rise.

Certainly, by the time he did return to live here in the land of his birth, uttering the somewhat infamous pronouncement that he had "scores to settle, accounts to draw even", Ewart Brown was one of Bermuda's best known social activists, both nationally in America and on the international scene. He had clearly cultivated, from an early age, an aura of fearlessness and the very image of boldness in the face of overwhelming adversity and power.

Growing up must, I conclude, have presented some quite significant difficulties for young Ewart.

To be sure, by his return to Bermuda Dr. Brown had already catalysed the development of a silent army of detractors and haters in the truest sense, determined that he should not rise, either professionally or politically.

These were not all white people; in fact I would venture to suggest that the majority were "coloured". Many are still around; as the Jamaicans would say, "they smile in ya face".

Before Dr. Brown returned to Bermuda to finally enter into medical practice here and to participate directly on the political scene, he had already accomplished a multiple of what the average black Bermudian professional had achieved.

As a physician and developer of impressive medical facilities in California, Ewart Brown achieved tremendous successes and the respect and admiration of many.

As an alumnus of Howard University, he is well-established in academia; and could conceivably become a university Chancellor upon retirement from political life.

And as a social and civil rights activist, Ewart Brown has come to achieve arguably more renown and respect outside Bermuda than in. Unless the Bermudian political machine succeeds in completely destroying his personal image overseas, you can expect Dr. Brown to assume an international, possibly inter-Caribbean, position of leadership and prominence in the remaining global crusade against colonialism.

He, and his family and friends, have had more than sufficient justification for feeling deeply proud.

But he did stay away from Bermuda for a very long time; arguably too long.

For it is a given that Ewart Brown's period of absence from Bermuda embraced the '70s and '80s, a period of substantial political, social, cultural, ideological, and legal change on this island. Many within the Labour Movement argue that he simply wasn't here during the period of greatest struggle and social and constitutional change; and that that alone explains the expanding ideological gap between the political arm of the Labour Movement (the PLP) and its historical "partners" the trade unions. I don't buy that argument for one minute, by the way.

And, if anything, I am more interested in the fact that the distance between our trade union leaders and the Bermudian workers they purport to "represent" is growing at an alarming rate simply because, in terms of industrial relations, times have changed and they haven't.

The late Dame Lois Browne-Evans, while not quite as opposed to Dr. Brown's rise in the PLP as some would like to have us think, did indeed consider his approach and manner a little "too American". (More on this later when I come to consider the criticism that Dr. Brown is now "out of touch" with the Bermudian psyche, and also the current state of relations between what has been at least historically, and what was originally intended to be, the two key arms of the Bermuda Labour Movement, the PLP and its sister trade unions).

I have the fondest memories of countless humorous discussions with Dr. Brown's colourful father the late "D A" Brown, and his mother Helene [former UBP parliamentarian]. "D A" never struck me as a UBP fan; not hardly. He was a first generation Jamaican-Bermudian. Helene was a descendant of a long and distinguished Bermudian bloodline, often regarded (at least by themselves) as "coloured royalty" (and you would have to be Bermudian indeed to appreciate that apparent oxymoron). Those who really know how black Bermudians were indoctrinated by the divide-and-rule forces of racism and colonialism will appreciate just how vitriolic that combination must have been in the Bermuda which saw Ewart Brown grow up.

Suffice it to say that by that combination of DNA material alone, family conversations of a political nature must have become quite exciting, if not heated, on many an occasion; particularly if both Ewart and his father were present. Ewart's "antics" and his in-your-face attacks on the Bermudian white oligarchy would certainly have been a frequent topic of concern to his mother, his aunt and other more conservative black Bermudians.

"Against racism!" was how he inscribed the graduation portrait which he gave to his aunt Gloria.

Indeed, most significantly to me, Dr. Brown's maternal aunt was the late former UBP Cabinet Minister the Hon. Gloria McPhee, aptly described by Sir Henry Tucker as the UBP's "secret weapon". Mrs. McPhee passed away last year and I still miss very deeply my dear personal friend and mentor.

Given Ewart Brown's full frontal assault in the '60s on the white Bermudian power structure with which his mother Helene and his aunt Gloria in particular, were so closely politically identified, again you can surmise that he was required to learn early the arts of absorbing and processing personal criticism.

To be sure, one has to acknowledge that it has also been a rare combination of biographical circumstances that amount to the life of Ewart Brown.

When I think of the Premier, I have in mind what Winston Churchill said of Russia: "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. But perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest."

So, if Russia is only about Russian national interest, is Ewart Brown (as some argue) only about Ewart's self-interest. Let's face this issue head-on, shall we?

In the next installment.

To be continued next week