---

Premier Dr. Brown, when it is convenient, points to "the friendliness and warmth of our people" as Bermuda's best selling point. Yet, to sell Bermuda, he has now quashed the jobs of between eight and 25 Bermudians in favour of a U.S. company, Sales Focus Inc. (SFI), that has no history with Bermuda and, judging from its website, no experience marketing a tourist destination.

And how did "our people" find out? SFI was inviting applications for their jobs - even before Cabinet had approved the deal. In a cruel insult, added to the injury and injustice, SFI advertised that applicants for the jobs would travel to Bermuda to be trained.

So while Dr. Brown's government has enacted legislation requiring international companies have their non-Bermudian staff train Bermudians, his own government may now be requiring Bermudians to give up their jobs and train foreigners to replace them. This is becoming typical of Dr. Brown's style: to say things, then do something contradictory.

Also typical is the abuse of power and the public's money. In the past, for example, Dr. Brown's messengers have met one-on-one with individuals he has wanted to move out, and made them offers they can't refuse, either resembling threats and intimidation or handsome severance packages.

To prevent this from happening again, the NY tourism office staff has vowed not to meet individually with Dr. Brown's messengers to avoid any possibility of being played off one against the other.

How tragic all this is. Dr. Brown had such promise. Here was a strong and purposeful black leader who seemed ready to get things done. Unfortunately he seems stuck in a "payback" mode, which finds him endlessly "getting even" with some real but more often imagined or cultured enemy.

He seems to depend on rewards-based loyalty. He tries to blunt criticism by having his defenders portray critics as "haters" - thus allowing him to assume a role as victim.

He has brought this on himself. Instead of rising to the heights of statesmanship, Dr. Brown is sinking into the depths of despotism and self-victimisation.

Those of us who view his conduct analytically are no longer surprised at the acts arising out of his office.

We are not surprised that the legislative agenda has been weighted toward Dr. Brown's pet projects rather than substantive platform items like Public Access to Information to boost transparency, or corruption legislation reforms to dispel suspicions of illegal behaviour.

We are not surprised that the "Dignity at Work" report was released just in time to overshadow allegations of political interference and intimidation in the civil service workplace, or that the poverty-line study didn't surface until Phil Perinchief made public reference to it.

We are not surprised that the delivery of tourism statistics has been adjusted to provide photo-ops for the Tourism Minister, or that the statistics themselves have been massaged to favour his agenda. We are not surprised that a million and more dollars are paid to entertainers for a single tourism event but tourism jobs are being axed to "save money".

We are not surprised that Bermuda is given five months of high-profile public-relations blasts about golf tournaments and hip-hop music concerts, but barely 48 hours notice of public meetings dealing with energy and fuel costs. We are not surprised that Dr. Brown refers to promises of free bus travel and free day care as though they've already been delivered.

We are not surprised that the government response to the Auditor General's Report was published online long before the Report itself was publicly available, nor that cherry-picked excerpts of reports are the subjects of pronto press conferences while release of the actual reports are extensively delayed.

In short, the administration of government is becoming progressively more self-serving for a few in Cabinet and recipients of their patronage, and progressively less in the interest of the broader public. Our friendliness and warmth is being stretched to the point of breaking.[[In-content Ad]]

---