Bermuda's problems are insignificant when put in context

FRIDAY, MAY 18: Poverty in Bermuda seems to be everywhere — especially for those whose income has been savaged because of lost jobs.

On East Broadway on 25th April there were placards encouraging commuters to fight it. The Royal Gazette of April 24th had an eloquent but nonsensical letter from Nicola Feldman of The Coalition for the Protection of Children calling for a national plan to address poverty; and a same date editorial entitled “Tackling Poverty” recommended the appointment of a poverty Czar as well as a poverty summit.

Unfortunately, although the intentions are good, both ideas would be a waste of time as it would be handing over to government the problem of finding a solution, when they are the very people who created the problem in the first place.

Governments rarely admit to mistakes, especially bloopers of this magnitude.

Five years ago, Bermuda, according to Government Facts and Figures 2009, had the highest per capita income in the world at $91,477 which meant the average family of four had an annual income of around $365,000 — not poverty by any stretch of the imagination.

Problem

What happened?

From King Midas wealth to poverty in five years must be something of a world Olympic record — although not one to earn a gold medal.

Let’s start with a little history because the problem of poverty is really the history of mankind. 

• 2000 years ago there was hunger and famine at such a chronic level that thousands of Romans threw themselves into the River Tiber.  

• In 1709, in France more than a million (20 times the population of Bermuda) died of starvation.

• In 1839, almost half of London’s funerals were for children under 10. The average age of death was 27, 22 if you were working class. Of London’s 2.1 million residents, 500,000 had typhus fever.

• In Bengal, India 1.5 million people died of starvation in 1943.

• Even today in many parts of Asia, South America, and Africa millions suffer from starvation and diseases the Western world ended many years ago.

• Of the world’s 7 billion people, 2.8 billion live on less than $2 per day, and 1.2 billion on less than $1 per day. Eight out of every 100 infants do not live to see their fifth birthday.

I could cite many other examples but I think the message is clear – Bermuda has difficulties but they dwarf into insignificance when compared with conditions in other parts of the world, and the historical record.

Economic history is the story of man’s progress from poverty to affluence, from savagery to civilisation, from barbarism to culture, from degrading poverty to affluence, and from debilitating illnesses to good health to cooperation but most of all from early death to long and fruitful lives.

The really interesting question is why does Bermuda, together with most of Europe and North America, no longer suffer from the terrible famines and diseases so rife in the recent past, and why are we immeasurably much better off than countries in the Third World?

• Part two will run in Wednesday’s Bermuda Sun with Part three scheduled for next Friday.