Breezeblog

A very amusing musical take on the crisis that sums up a lot of public feeling right now about the Dishonourable Ewart Brown. But will he go?

[Disclaimer: contrary to a rumour doing the rounds I did NOT create this video. I picked it up off YouTube from somebody called “bermudastandup“]

Bermudians are being urged to take to the streets on Tuesday in an unprecedented “people’s protest” against Premier Dr Ewart Brown. The call, circulated by e-mail and social networking sites throughout the Island, states that a march on Parliament will take place on June 16 at 12.30pm. The organisers – who seem to be a mixed grassroots bunch led by an insurance clerk, Janice Battersbee – are calling for the Premier to resign and for the “Gitmo Four” to be returned immediately.

Realistically, they are unlikely to succeed on either count but the fact that this protest is taking place at all is an indication of the widespread anger and disgust people here have for Brown right now. It will be interesting to see if that widespread anger is reflected in the makeup of the protestors on Tuesday – that it is a true cross-section of Bermudians of all colours, races and political backgrounds rather than a gaggle of self-righteous white Bermudians and expats stamping their feet. Many people now believe Brown is someone who will politically, financially and morally bankrupt the Island if he is allowed to remain in power any longer.

With the UBP having tabled a motion of no confidence in Brown – and no doubt he will try and stifle that debate next Friday if he lasts that long – its going to be an interesting week in Bermudian politics. A watershed even.

Meanwhile, I highly recommend my fellow blogger Vexed Bermoothes for further commentary.

I’m not entirely sure  what to make of Bermuda’s controversial decision to accept four former detainees of Guantanamo Bay. On the one hand there is the “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” argument in favour of accepting the four Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim minority from the Xinjiang province of far West China. The four have long been declared a non-threat to the West and imprisoned unfairly by a paranoid and over-zealous US system and clearly could face torture or worse if they were sent back to China. As a strictly humanitarian gesture, Bermuda may deserve some credit. (Palau, a tiny Pacific island of 20,000, is to accept up to 17 Uighurs). After all, with the number of expats leaving the island right now, what’s four more at the end of the day?

But something clearly doesn’t smell right here, as it usually does around Premier Ewart Brown. The fact that the UK Government and the Governor knew nothing about this is disturbing and the Premier’s insistence that there was no quid pro quo just doesn’t ring true. The self-serving Dr. Brown doesn’t seem the type of politician to go out on a humanitarian limb without something in return. If not, why would the US ask tiny Bermuda to take them when there are bigger countries that could far more easily absorb the men?  The Bermuda public have a right to know what deal, if any, was done. Did Obama agree to torpedo the Neal Bill perhaps?

And on a purely selfish note, I’d like to know how come “the Uigur Four” get given Bermuda status and yet someone like myself, who has lived and worked here for more than 26 years, is denied this privilege?