---

There may be something a little demeaning about running around the U.K. in pink Bermuda shorts or turning a famous London restaurant pink in an effort to boost tourism.

But this is what the Premier and other Bermuda officials are doing in Britain this week.

Meanwhile, the Immigration Minister has been engaged in an occasionally demeaning effort to help Bermuda's other big industry of international business.

He offered 10-year work permits on one hand, defended term limits on the other, maintained that no legitimate business requests for term limit waivers are denied and lectured young Bermudians on the need to get proper qualifications.

The Minister insisted he should never have to apologize for sticking up for Bermudians.

He's right. It is our island's sometimes humiliating fate to be entirely dependent on two industries that clearly put us in the pockets of foreigners.

We have to make our money somehow. Our leaders have to carefully balance the need for Bermudian self-esteem with the need to keep and attract tourism and international business.

International business, by definition, is foreign owned. By practical necessity, it is almost entirely managed by non-Bermudians and the customers are entirely foreign as well.

The customers in tourism, too, are 100 per cent foreign. And the big tourism businesses they give their money to - the hotels, airlines and cruise ships - are so expensive to create and run that they are almost entirely owned by foreigners too.

Bermudians are big beneficiaries but only bit players in their own economic destinies, smiling happily and trying to be helpful.

A few decades ago, when tourism was the unquestioned king of the economy, international business was seen as a wonderful way to diversify.

It wouldn't interfere with tourism. It was non-polluting, it wouldn't ravage the landscape and it wouldn't require the importation of huge amounts of foreign labour that we didn't have room for.

Wealth

We were partially mistaken. International business grew larger than anyone imagined and required a much larger workforce.

It led to a lot more building, a lot more cars and a lot more wealth than anyone thought possible.

Almost any way a community makes money puts it at the mercy of others.

Even the proudly independent fisherman or farmer is almost always dependant on his relationship, directly or indirectly, with a giant international conglomerate. But it would be hard to find another country so immediately, directly and thoroughly dependent on outsiders.

And everyone - not just those directly employed in tourism and international business, but the restaurant workers, taxi drivers, accountants, lawyers and telephone repairmen - is constantly reminded of it.

The tourism industry and international business are quick to remind us - and they are accurate and being fair when they do - of the possible consequence if we refuse to cooperate.

If we don't give tourists and international businesses what they want and need, there are plenty of other places they can and will go instead.

It's nothing personal. Why should they stay here if somewhere else is better?

So many of the things we do as a society are done to try to please other people and not ourselves.

Violence

The Premier is pushing a plan to introduce casino gambling. If we do it, it's not because Bermudians want it for themselves but because we perceive foreigners may want it.

Even things that affect us immediately, directly and powerfully are coloured by how we think foreigners will react.

Gun violence makes us fear for ourselves and our fellow Bermudians but we worry - sometimes more - about its effect on international business workers and tourists. Bermuda is struggling to rebuild tourism and hang on to international business.

We're probably making more compromises than normal to get the job done.

The foreigners we depend upon - airline operators, hotel owners and developers, leaders of international business - feel pressures of their own. They are in a position to make more demands than normal.

Yet at the same time, Bermudians need to nurture some kind of national self-esteem and identity. We need to feel we are doing something for ourselves.

It isn't an easy combination - as the Premier surely recognizes as he promotes tourism in a pink London restaurant, or the Immigration Minister recognizes as he deals with frustrated businessmen by day and frustrated Bermudians by night.

[[In-content Ad]]

---