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Am I crazy? Am I blind? Both?

According to the Department of Statistic's free booklet, "Facts and Figures 2007", last year in 2006 there were 39,686 people employed in Bermuda. Rounding-up, that's 40,000 people. The booklet says that 69 per cent or 27,383 were Bermudian. So 12,303 must be non-Bermudian. Rounding-up that makes 27,500 Bermudians and 12,500 non-Bermudians out of a total of 40,000 total persons working in Bermuda.

With 27,500 Bermudians in the workforce and with 61 per cent of these Bermudians 'black' (also in the booklet); then some 16,800 of the 27,500 total Bermudian workers must be black and Bermudian. That leaves 10,700 who are 'white' and Bermudian. This is simply M2 maths.

With 16,800 black Bermudians in a 40,000 person workforce, black Bermudians comprise only 42 per cent of Bermuda's total national workforce.

Government employs over 4,000 people (it's in the booklet). At least 75-80 per cent of Government's employees are black. (Don't believe me? Do your own looking, seeing, and counting.) So at least 3,000 of these 4,000 government employees are black. Taking out non-Bermudian government employees there are probably 2,800 black Bermudians in Government employ.

Starting with these officially published facts and my one assumption - and remember, the facts come from 'gummint, not from me - let's get thinking and calculating.

Thought one - With 2,800 black Bermudians in government employ; with only 16,800 black Bermudians available, there can only be 14,000 black Bermudians left working in the private sector.

The raw numbers are that 14,000 black Bermudians work alongside 9,700 white Bermudians (the 'missing' 1,000 whites have to be in Government employ, so look around you and count). So for the purely Bermudian segment of Bermuda's private sector Bermudian only workforce, the percentage of black Bermudians when compared to white Bermudians is about 59 per cent black to 41 per cent white. That's close enough to 61 to 39 per cent. So things are looking good.

On to thought two - We still have 14,000 black Bermudians and 9,700 white Bermudians working in the total private sector.

The entire national workforce is 40,000 total. Take out the 4,000 Government employees. That leaves 36,000 people who are working in the whole private sector. This means that Bermuda's 14,000 blacks are only 39 per cent of this 36,000 national private sector workforce; and Bermuda's whites are 27 per cent. (14,000 out of 36,000 = 39 per cent and 9,700 out of 36,000 = 27 per cent). Obviously 39 per cent is way too low!

New problem! The proposed Workforce Equity Act requires that employment profiles reflect Bermuda's national Bermudian racial demographics. The national racial demographic is 61 per cent black to 39 per cent white. We've already achieved 59 per cent to 41 per cent in the purely Bermudian sector.

To fix the national sector, we must make 39 per cent (14,000) grow into 59 per cent (21,200). That is, make 14,000 black Bermudians suddenly - and I do mean suddenly - expand into 21,200 black Bermudians. That means that we must immediately get 7,200 additional black Bermudians. No time to waste in copulation, gestation, education, and preparation. No time for all that! Just get 7,200 additional black Bermudians and chuck 'em in now! And, at the same time, chuck out 7,400 expats.

Tomorrow!

Unique

Using some unique process, and for Bermuda's private sector employers, provide 21,200 black Bermudians (59 per cent) and keep our 9,700 white Bermudians (27 per cent) and chuck out some expats (7,400) thus cutting back to 5,100 expats (14 per cent) = 36,000 private sector workers. The fact that our white fellow Bermudians drop way down from 41 per cent to 27 per cent isn't a concern. After all, it's just a number, isn't it? And it would be so nice to boot out all those expats - won't it?

Hmmmmm...

Oh, I almost forgot. Qualifications? Skills? Heck, Bermudians can do anything, right? So no problem here. Just decree that Bermudians are 'qualified'.

If we go the other route, and try to get black Bermudians up to 42 per cent of the private sector workforce; we have to provide 15,100 black Bermudians (42 per cent) and keep our 9,700 white Bermudians (27 per cent) and kick out only 1,300 expats as we cut back to 11,200 expats (31 per cent). So we still have to immediately produce 1,100 additional black Bermudians.

At the rate that us Bermudians descend to and ascend from our island Eden, it'll take over three years to add the 1,100 black babies. But we'd only actually get the re-balancing result 25 years later; and only if our booming economy stands still - doesn't grow at all - for each of those 25 years later. And what about white Bermudians?

So am I crazy? Can the proposed Workplace Equity Act actually work?

Before you answer...see my next comment.

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