Archive for the ‘bermuda politics’ Category

Biting the debt bullet

Posted: December 3, 2012 in Bermuda, bermuda politics
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Following on from my recent posts about PRCs and Bermuda’s public debt, Nathan Kowalski’s Financial Ramblings From The Rock column in today’s Royal Gazette is well worth a read.

In it, Kowalski, who is a chartered financial analyst and chief investment officer at a Bermuda investment firm, sets out just how serious the island’s debt is and some possible solutions. He says the Bermuda Government needs to adjust its budget by $200 million (either through cuts or increased revenue) to avoid an alarming increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio that could potentially send the island into bankruptcy. Just to give you an idea how much that is, it is equivalent to cutting the entire Department of Health (current spending $191 million).

He says measures to grow the economy must include a change in immigration policy. “Without a pro-immigration policy, it is very unlikely that Bermuda will be able to grow economically,” he writes. “To encourage retention a permanent residence programme and/or full citizenship needs to be offered to foster loyalty and a commitment to the country from future immigrants and current ex-pats.”

 

Into the fiscal abyss?

Posted: November 28, 2012 in Bermuda, bermuda politics
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I don’t pretend for a moment to be an economist but you certainly don’t need to be one to appreciate that Bermuda’s economy is in bad shape. Whether you blame the global recession or the Government, it’s getting worse and shows no signs of recovery into 2013.

According to Bob Stewart, writing in today’s Bermuda Sun, the Island could well be heading towards bankruptcy. Could we really become another Greece? Mr. Stewart, who used to run the Shell Company in Bermuda and knows a lot more about economics than you or I, says that the failing economy and massive debt means Government simply won’t be able to pay for things like seniors’ healthcare and Government pensions. With life expectancy increasing, medical insurance and treatment costs going through the roof, the working population decreasing, and wages fast losing pace with inflation, the math doesn’t add up. It’s simply unsustainable.

Writes Stewart: “There are two major government obligations for which adequate money has not been set aside. These are medical insurance (mainly Future Care), and government pension plans of which there are two major schemes. The first is the Social Security Fund, and the second is the Public Service Superannuation Fund. To meet their obligations, without calling on future tax revenue both of these funds should be funded at around the 100 per cent level. Both are massively underfunded – around 35 per cent for each.

“The total for such unfunded retirement liabilities is somewhere around $1.5 billion which is in addition to the government debt of around $1.5 billion. In other words, Bermuda is in debt to the tune of $3 billion or around $60,000 per Bermudian, including children.”

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Time for PRCs to stand up and be counted

Posted: November 21, 2012 in Bermuda, bermuda politics
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The election is less than a month away but as yet, none of our local candidates have knocked on my door. Maybe they’ve done their homework and realised there is no point in canvassing someone who has lived on the Island for 30 years, owns a local business, is the father of a Bermudian child and pays taxes like everyone else but is still not permitted to vote in a democratic election.

It’s a pity they haven’t stopped by because I’d really like to hear what they think about the continued and unnecessary discrimination against long-term Residents and what their Government might do about it.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the few benefits that a Permanent Residency Certificate (PRC) gives me – for example, I can come and go as I please without needing a work or re-entry permit (albeit at the discretion of the Government) – but it falls woefully short of what most normal democracies would offer people in my position.

Without the right to vote and the absurd restrictions on buying property (more of which in a moment), PRCs are little more than second class citizens in the place that we and our children call home. In fact, we’re not even classed as full citizens in the same way that Bermudians and Status Bermudians (long-term residents who received citizenship up to the 1980s or obtained it through 10 years of marriage to a Bermudian) are – yet to even qualify for a PRC I had to have been on the Island before August 1, 1989, lived here for 20 years, and be over 40 years of age.

Between us, my wife (also a PRC) and I have 56 years residency in Bermuda, so our commitment to the Island is not in doubt – in fact I have lived here longer than I lived in my native UK – so why should we not have a democratic say in affairs that affect the lives of our family?

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