I have an account and can ask any questions members here see fit. Please keep them somewhat reasonable and simple (therefore less spin). I will post any replys I get back either on the message board or through PM's.

Thanks Drew.

My couple of questions to start...

1. Can you please tell us which events have been run so far under the faith based tourism series, including cost and number of tourists attending?
2. Do you believe that there should be a separation of church and state?

Thanks

A question for those who remember the 1998 election.

My understanding (in simple terms) is that in the '98 election, there was a number of swing voters who effectively brought the PLP in from the cold.

Where are they - who are they....surely they have had enough of this Govt?

If they can bring about change in '98, surely they can do it again in '07.

Never is a long time... and I don't think it is close to Somalia rule. Lets not get carried away.

I wonder how many are truly swing voters in Bermuda.

Let's make a reasonable assumption that the UBP will get close to 50% of the vote.

I've been wondering what factors might drive the numbers into 50+ territory, what might sway staunch PLP'ers to either abstain from voting or directly vote against the PLP.

How curious are Bermudians to see the truth behind BHC, Berkeley, untendered Government bidding, Government studies... Who knows what other dirty laundry, previously hidden in a cedar paneled closet, may be revealed by a UBP Government. And if elected, the UBP must not flinch from discovering the truth, by perhaps citing national stability as a reason to let sleeping dogs lie. Bermudians can handle the truth.

This may seem cynical, but what is the degree of Schadenfreud between wanting to see the UBP suffer and the delicious desire to see EEEWWWart, Burch, Burgess, Rolfe, Burt et al squirm. The nasty side of me votes the latter. (Probably obvious given my descriptives.) As EEEWWWart might say, "That's entertainment."


As an aside, has anyone heard what the taxi drivers have planned. Will they be aiding the PLP, or sitting this one out?

In general since World War ll, much of Africa has not been on the radar of America. Apparently helping to encourage democracy was not part of the program of the States, as African countries were not a national security issue or as they say euphemistically, in the national interest. Certainly not in the current strateejerie.

History teems with the oppressed becoming the oppressor. It is so much easier to be a villain, because villains make the rules. Too often it is the bad guys that occupy the brief power vacuum after a revolution.

 

You say you've got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We are doing what we can
But if you want money for people with minds that hate
All I can tell is, brother, you'll have to wait

                                             - John Lennon

I'm not sure that to many people, this is the most important considerations. Things that directly impact their daily lives like education, housing, etc I think are more important to them.

I personally think these open-government issues are important, in part because they say something about the kind of people who are running the show, and I think effective action on these bread'n'butter issues are less likely with people with low scores on these open government issues at the wheel. Howewer, that's just my take, and I can see others disagreeing.

Where I think the PLP made a big mistake is playing the race card so hard. Positive racial relations are a major concern to a lot of people, and I get the sense that a lot of fence-sitters are being turned off.


If the UBP wins, I'd advise them to turn the whole mess over to an outside, independent review (albeit a thorough and searching one): the last thing Bermuda needs is to have any investigation into this stuff be seen as partisan payback. Bring in some respected senior people from the Caribbean countries, etc... (Yah, I know, more foreign consultants, but I think it's necessary if the results are to be maximally accepted.)


I don't think many people are looking at it in those terms. This is a serious decision with serious consequences, not theatre.


I seem to recall some quotes from taxi drivers in RG stories a while back (around the time of the recent rate increase) indicating that they were pretty ticked off, and saw the rate increase as a transparent attempt to mollify them - one that didn't succeed, in part because it was ineffective at its stated goal, since it came too late in the year for them to make money off it during the tourist season. I seem to recall something about 'no help with the next election', but don't have time to track it down.

Noel

Um... nnnnot really. Wasn't this "situation" shoved down their throats, even though they were overwhelmingly against it?