If Government's aim is to make whites uncomfortable it's certainly worked with Jim Butterfield.

He's been harangued at race meetings, vilified in Parliament and has lost a business after Government made it clear he and his friends were no longer welcome at Bermuda Cement Company.

The question he is asking himself and all of Bermuda is: "What are we supposed to do?

"I wake up each morning asking that. Bermuda seems so divided. What this little company went through was a misunderstanding of the economics of a business which has now been taken away from us, handed on to other people.

"I wish the new operators well and I hope they succeed. But I hope this kind of behaviour doesn't continue — to just drill into somebody's business and take it away."

Mr. Butterfield thought he was a good corporate citizen.

At wholesalers Butterfield and Vallis, where he is president, ex-convicts and addicts trying to reform are given jobs.

The work was recognised last year with a Special Corporate Award from Bermudians Against Narcotics.

"We hire people out on day release or who have just been released from prison or are getting their life back together through drugs and alcohol treatment.

"We think we are a good corporate citizen. We get involved with all sorts of community activities.

"It's a well integrated company and we try and promote from within the company. Out of 250 staff I think we have one work permit."

In an effort to understand where Bermuda is now, Mr. Butterfield has gone three times to the Princess hotel to take part in the Big Conversation race debates.

He did so: "Because I am concerned as a Bermudian to bridge the gap to understand a bit more. But on a couple of occasions, it felt like you are being personally attacked and blamed. There seems to be little advantage to going down there."

He said in one case a political disagreement he had with someone was portrayed as a race thing.

"And it wasn't," he said. But that to me is an example of how things are so lopsided now.

"On another occasion it felt like my arms and legs were being ripped off but one wonderful lady came up to me and said 'Mr. Butterfield, they have no idea of what you do in Bermuda,' because it was being run by foreigners — an American woman and an American man coming to Bermuda, to help us like some marriage counsellors.

"But they don't understand us or how it works. But for some it was a great benefit. They could vent their anger and frustration. That's what I saw going on there. But the numbers just dwindled away.

"I think the last one I went to was five white people and 40 blacks. Dr. Bernestine Singley seemed surprised — 'don't these people care?'. Well, I care but to go down and get beaten up? More confrontation than understanding."

"They are wanting to blame the people like myself for the mistakes of the past.

"My hope is people learn over time. It doesn't benefit any particular group, it is just a reactionary thing.

"It will cycle itself around and around. At those meetings some of the black people were quite willing to say 'we have to move on'. Others in that same group would say we are not moving on, not one little bit, 'til we dig up all the pain and anguish and anger.

"One black girl said we have got to move on and some would get yelled down when they said that — by people who would say 'we are not willing to move on, not at all'.

"There is this whole notion now of we have to be made to feel uncomfortable. That is like a Government edict now. We are going to make you feel uncomfortable. I am not sure how people are going to react to being made to feel uncomfortable on a daily basis. You can fight against it, accept it, or move away from it. What is the human reaction to being made to feel uncomfortable?

"Do you endure the pain or because someone is inflicting pain on you do you react? Or do you move away from it? We may see all three, I don't know."

Certainly Mr. Butterfield has moved away from BCC after more than two decades as general manager. His involvement began in 1981 when original manager Jack Watkins, who had set the company up with 12 shareholders, stepped down.

The Bahamas Cement Company owned 40 percent and shipped up cement three times a year.

"This year we did 13 or 14 ships," Mr. Butterfield said.

But the business wasn't loved. In 1984 the lease came up for renewal but Wedco wanted BCC to cut the silos in half because they were "too high", there were requests to move to Morgan's Point.

Then Wedco asked BCC to paint the twin silos — at a cost of about $1 million until then-Cabinet Minister Quinton Edness intervened and the lease was extended until 2005.

In the summer of 2001, lease inquiries began again as BCC stated an intention of a $3 million upgrade.

Finance Minister Eugene Cox understood the urgency and importance but talks snagged when responsibility was moved over to Minister Ashfield DeVent.

"From there it went downhill," Mr. Butterfield said. "We kept badgering people. Trying to make appointments."

After no luck for a while, a meeting with Premier Alex Scott was set up. "I was asked 'Is it fair to say you are an uncooperative company?' But believe me we were doing everything to try to resolve it.

"They had wanted to put our rent to ten percent of gross sales. Our rent would have gone from $50,000 to around $800,000. So we said we are not doing that.

"It is an equation they use for other tenants up there — if you have an ice cream stand or a small gift shop they get a percentage of the gross sales — but those little gift shops moved into a facility that's been built by Wedco who look after the security, the lighting and the air-conditioning.

"In our case we built the whole plant."

He said that formula of profit rake-off was putting off smaller operations from moving to Dockyard rather than staying in Hamilton where costs were fixed and there was no snooping on company figures.

"In our lease we had to show them our financial statements and give them 2.5 percent of gross sales so our rent went from $50,000 to more like $200,000.

"At one point they offered us a three-year lease."

It didn't make the upgrades economical. "We could not get what we were asking for — a 20-year lease," Mr. Butterfield said.

Next Wedco said cement distribution in Dockyard would end. "I looked all over Bermuda and finally found a small piece of land in Ferry Reach and bought the land."

But Esso controlled the dock and wanted to charge $800,000 to use it.

"It would have put the price up so high to build a new facility and pay that kind of rent."

Then Wedco did a U-turn and wanted bids to use the silos. "So we now get a request for proposals on our own business. We were awarded it. But that just bought us some time."

The company agreed to a demand to sell 25 percent of the company to the public. At that stage, there were 12 local shareholders plus 40 percent owned by Mexican company Cemex.

"Then they tried to move us to all sorts of locations," Mr. Butterfield said. "They were going to move us next to the Shell tanks, then they were going to move us down the road, then at one point they said could we move the office but leave the silos where they were?

"When we were told we could build a dome for $3-5 million dollars we were keen to do it. We would have started the next day. My eyes were opened when we went to Boston and the first dome I saw was $23 million."

Other quotes came in but were still too pricey.

"We kept coming back to the huge cost. The lease said you have to build a new plant and turn it over to the landlord in 20 years, destroy the current one which is another million dollars and open it up to the public."

He said the figures meant it would have been a very poor investment for ordinary punters wanting a slice of the action.

"With a 20-year lease it has no life. It is not like a grandfather can hand the shares to his grandson or granddaughter."

He found the only time he could force Government into a meeting was when he went to the media.

Afterwards Government would ask for him to remain silent.

He would for a while and then go public again months later when he realised it was just part of a delaying tactic. "In all this process I think they just wanted this company to go away quietly and die," Mr. Butterfield said.

In desperation he turned to the Ombudsman who was keen to help but Government Sen. David Burch said he wasn't willing to go that route.

"On the Government and Wedco side people kept changing. We were always starting again, trying to explain the difficulties we were having.

"We were getting to gridlock. They were saying this is the lease, there is no turning back. We have given you a two-year extension.

"I think they thought I was just playing a game — get 20 one-year extensions and Jim gets his own way. I wasn't (playing a game).

"We could have done a relocation on the cheap and nasty for $12 million. It might have been steel silos."

Wedco wanted the BCC to move south. Why? "We were told at first it was for boat storage and recreation, then later we saw another plan that showed a shipping terminal for big ships.

"Then they told us it was for low cost housing, that the contractor was anxious to get started and we had to get out right away. The latest one I heard was only about six months ago was high-end luxury condominium towers.

"So there was not a lot of trust or confidence. How believable is that when you are told four different things?

"At one time I offered to meet with Wedco every week." But BCC were told Wedco was 'only the landlord'.

"Yet there were all these incredible conditions being written into a business lease on the backdrop of someone saying it is not our problem, we are only the landlord. Yet here's a lease that demands you sell shares to the public, and give us the keys 20 years after you built your facility?"

At one point Wedco said BCC may or may not have to remove the plant themselves at the end of the lease — which could have been a huge cost.

"They finally saw the wisdom that how, on the last day, do you tell your tenant to take it down? So they backed off."

Meanwhile the word on the street was "they are out to get you", said Mr. Butterfield. "I heard that from all over."

At one meeting Wedco said BCC was a 'group of racists ripping off the community'.

"But anyone who understands this business probably realises we probably haven't been good businessmen because we could have made a lot more money selling cement in Bermuda," Mr. Butterfield said.

"Look at Bermuda and the other islands. Bermuda is so much cheaper on cement. I have had so many foreigners tell me that, saying they can't believe the prices in Bermuda.

"But we have always said we are the only one doing it, we have to be fair to the community. None of us are saints, the staff did well, the shareholders did well and that was the equation we operated on."

Then came the final ultimatum — accept or go.

"BCC took a stand — we are either going to sell cement from this location or we are toast," Mr. Butterfield said.

Some still see the pressure on BCC as intended to break elites and share the wealth.

"When the request was made — would you be willing to sell 30,000 shares on the street, I totally understood that. It was a desire of the new Government to say let's try to distribute in a small way, because this isn't a huge company. Had that been the single request and we stayed where we are and we are a profitable company, that might have all made sense.

"But when you put the other requests on top of it my concern was anyone who did buy these shares would wake up one day and say I have been ripped off — I am getting no return on something which was perceived to be an absolute gold mine. They are asking us to do something which is going to backfire.

"Their aim was to say how do we get this into the hands of other people? The irony is they are left with three of the original shareholders and eight of us going."

Two of the three key players are white. "You now have two black shareholders, before you had one," Mr. Butterfield said.

But there are fewer shareholders — there were 12 shareholders, now there are six.

He doesn't know if the new owners will be asked to move.

"My only hope is the Government or Wedco will see the folly of putting those demands on a small company or they have to accept the price of cement is going to go up. If the community decided Hamilton Docks was going to move we would all have to pay an awful lot more to move the docks to North Shore."

He said most of the old BCC shareholders wanted no part of it. "We would probably have then been perceived as gouging the community."

Asked if he would sue if the conditions were changed for the new owners and they were allowed to stay Mr. Butterfield said: "That would be unfair but we are going to accept it. There's probably a good case for that but we are not going to pursue that, no."

But he said a new deal would indicate clear bias in Bermuda's business environment.

"It's who's doing the business, that is what is going on here."

He personally feels targeted but has noted a lack of support from other business colleagues. Some have told him they are afraid to get vocal because they don't want to lose Government work. "Two businesspeople told me that."

"I am very relieved it's all over. I did my best for six years. Part of me said I quit, but the other part of me said you tried absolutely everything and you have got to know when it is time to move on."

He said Wedco once told him BCC was one of the last monopolies and so Wedco intended to break it. But with new ownership it's difficult to see what has changed.

Mr. Butterfield said there was an element of independence in the old BCC set-up with only a minority of shareholders involved in the building business. Now it is in the hands of building bosses Dennis Correia and Paul Simons.

"I am glad, at the end of the day, two parties stepped up to the plate and said the true value of this company is $5-6 million and we are willing to pay you a million dollars for it."

"There were two parties but I had to honour Dennis because he was the first one."

Bierman's and SAL have stayed involved and the four employees are still there — for now.

Mr. Butterfield feels attacked by the whole affair but doesn't believe his public support for the UBP is at heart.

"When Derrick Burgess said up in Parliament that the Butterfields have to go and we have to look after our own people, I think it is more of a family thing. It is who I am and who I represent."

But Mr. Butterfield believes in its search for symbolism Government has totally misunderstood who he is and who he represents.

"I came back to college to Bermuda and my wife and I tried to work hard to benefit the community," he said. "We took up running because it was probably the most integrated sport around.

"Tennis and sailing are predominately white. Cricket and soccer are predominately black.

"I am alarmed by how divided we are and it seems as if that division is something that is being perpetuated by the Government."

He hopes moderates in the middle of the two political parties truly understood that the races need to come together.

"There is going to be a hard core on both sides. There are rednecks who are not going to tolerate, understand or give in and then there are hard core blacks who make the same kind of comments.

"But I hope the greater numbers can meet in the middle. The election was a wake-up call that maybe brotherhood is far more important than the divisive tactics which have gone on dividing the races."

He said he knew white families who had left Bermuda because of the unpleasant racial situation.

"Some talk about it, others have moved. I am sure some people will say 'that is great, we didn't particularly like you anyway so if you say you are going to move, that's fine — free up some houses, free up some apartments, get out of here'."

He said there is an uneasiness in the white community now. "I have heard it from white people saying I don't feel like I want to be as friendly as I was and they fault themselves for that which is an interesting comment, it is almost like I know I am wrong to feel this way but I don't feel like I want to make the effort, or be friendly or say good morning.

"You want to be insular rather than expose yourself," he said. "Tolerance is an interesting discussion to have as we must if we are going to succeed. But it is almost like road rage — someone is mean to me and cuts me off, then my behaviour gets like that too.

"Road rage is an example of with one aggressive move suddenly other people are aggressive as well and an aggressive nature takes hold but we need to be more tolerant and understanding because we are all going to be living closer together.

"There is less space now — recreational space, working space, we are living together at a time that requires greater tolerance.

"If we are not willing to take a deep breath and understand one another we are probably on a path that's not so healthy for us."