trouble thinking that this is one of the most terrible places on earth where the great majority of the people are poor, deprived, uneducated, badly housed, badly treated and generally miserable. The truth is quite the opposite but you would never know that from the apparently small group of repeat callers who dominate the talk shows.

We have to wonder why the people from all walks of life who love Bermuda do not call the shows and have their say. Perhaps they are radio shy or reluctant to put themselves "on the line'' but by not calling they simply allow the nay sayers to go on dominating opinion.

As Bermudians we all travel abroad and while there we generally sing the praises of Bermuda as the great and highly successful place that it is. That is difficult to reconcile with the bad mouthing of Bermuda which takes place at home.

No one is suggesting that Bermuda is a perfect place nor is anyone saying that we should ignore the problems. But Bermuda's social development, its economy and its quality of life are far, far ahead of just about anywhere else on earth today. Why don't we celebrate our astounding success rather than dwelling on the mistakes of the past and the problems of today? The true test of a country is whether or not its Government is caring and responsive to the needs of the people. If you look at Bermuda today you will find that there is not one single problem that people are not working to solve. By all means decry a country where nothing is happening and where no one cares but that is simply not true in Bermuda. There is great concern by Bermudians for the needs of other Bermudians.

Listening to the talk shows you would think large numbers of Bermudians are unemployed and that is not the case. Unemployment is less than two percent and some of those are unemployable for one reason or another. There is social assistance and housing assistance and while housing right now is a problem there are great efforts toward solutions. Bermuda has not ignored education as is so often suggested. On the contrary, we have spent millions and millions of dollars to restructure education to prevent people from "falling through the cracks'' and to offer opportunities. Drugs are a difficult problem here and many other places but the problem has not gone unnoticed and there is progress in treatment. Tourism is being restructured in every area from new hotels, to heavy renovation of facilities to a new approach to labour-management relations. There is great economic opportunity and employment in the international company sector for those Bermudians we have educated to high standards.

These major achievements are too often ignored and left unspoken for the sake of complaints about the past and any number of minor or personal problems.

Then too there are people who would see Bermuda divided both racially and socially because they see some personal advantage or some kind of retribution in dividing Bermuda. You do not help anyone by destroying a flourishing system in just the same way that you do not help the working man by destroying employers.

There is only one way for Bermudians to go forward and that is together, no matter what some politicians and the nay sayers may tell us.