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This will be a special Christmas. Several things have happened. Though they were not directly connected, they were still strongly connected.

     I travelled to the African continent, setting foot on a part of the globe from which my forebears had been ripped and then sold into slavery. I went to Robben Island and Johannesburg and saw the cell and jail that once held Nelson Mandela.  I stood on the corner of Pike and Broadway in Seattle, joining in an uninhibited and noisy street celebration as thousands of ordinary Americans celebrated the election of a black man as their next President. This year I saw and felt the impact of vast change.

    In my lifetime, I have seen many positive changes. I've lived in a Bermuda that went from being a closely regimented and highly segregated society;  to a society that is wide open to people of all skills despite, or without any regard for, their  God-ordained skin colour.  I've seen major Bermuda and global change from concerns about colour of skin to content of character.

    Sadly, I've also seen some regression. This year, in Bermuda, the voices of 'race moaners' grew loud and then too loud. With their loudness came evidence of regression.

In the bad old days when white skin colour gave advantage, the Bermuda government's overall pool of employees was about 90 per cent white. This, in a base population that was only 35 per cent white. Now, when skin colour is not supposed to give advantage to either colour, this pool of government employees is 80 per cent black. This, in a base population that is only 65 per cent black.

With the passage of time, one bad imbalance has been swapped for another bad imbalance.

On Saturday 29th November 2008, Omari Gordon is alleged to have fired shots at some Policemen. More than three weeks later, Omari Gordon  is still on the loose. During all this time, Gordon has had to drink daily, eat frequently, defecate regularly, and sleep at least four hours out of every twenty-four. So Gordon has either found a fresh-watered and food-stocked Eden of a hiding place in some wild and remote corner of Bermuda's tiny 13,000 acres; or Gordon is being hidden within a human sub-culture that has the will and the skill to successfully evade the whole of the Bermuda Police Service.

During the Second World War, from 1941 to 1945, the French Resistance movement - the Maquis - fought the German occupiers. The Maquis were concealed from the Gestapo, the SS, and the German Army by an ambient French population that was big enough, determined enough, and sufficiently willing to accept the risks of discovery; that they would at least not talk or speak about local Maquisards. The least and smallest supportive action that the ordinary French person could take was to remain silent. That individual silence alone was both an indication of, and was critical practical support for, the anti-establishment - anti-German - actions of the Maquis.

So the silence that surrounds Omari Gordon disturbs me. That silence demonstrates the existence of a layer of support. That support will only come from persons who are willing to accept the risks inherent in defying the 'established order'.

For a man to be concealed for so long, in so small an urban and rural space, there has to be either a very good support system; or a high degree of incompetence amongst the searchers.  Both are bad.

But with or without the intrusion of Gordon and all that supports him, it is still a good time to be alive - and in Bermuda.

Family and friends are around. If not physically present, they're only an email or instant message or cellphone call away. The price of car gas is coming down. It looks like the 'leckalight fuel surcharge will follow suit. No snow or ice or sleet in our weather forecasts - except as they apply to North America. There may have been some small job reductions here but nothing on the scale of Citigroup's 35,000 employee slash.

It has been a good year. This Christmas season, my wife and I had the fun of taking our great-nephew A'ziah to the Pantomime. We're enjoying another great-nephew, three and a half year-old 'Baerli', who now understands the idea of Christmas.

I wish you well. I hope that you and all your family and friends have a happy and joy-filled time.

Happy Christmas.[[In-content Ad]]

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