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Why no majority black support at Hogges games? Why hugely black support at any Devonshire Cougars' game at the 'Rec' - just 300 metres away along Frog Lane?

Globally - the U.S. excepted - professional football is a sport characterized by intensely loyal - even fanatical - bands of supporters who follow their teams and watch every game, whether at home or away. Devonshire Cougars have been around for a long time. They have a sizeable following made up of their highly partisan neighbourhood supporters.

The Cougars win many of their games. Hogges have yet to hit a winning streak. Bermudians - especially black Bermudians - have a well-established habit of supporting winners, and not supporting teams or entities that they consider 'losers' - even if they're national teams. Look at the low level of support for many of Bermuda's other sporting teams and events. Bermudian support for Bermuda's WCC team was generated more as the result of international interest and comment on the 'newsworthy' and comedic aspects of the team's performance. Note the drop-off in interest once the team returned.

The BFA's entry price to a Cougars' game is far less than the minimum $25 that it costs to watch a Hogges' game. A father - or mother - could take two kids along (as happened so often) thus dropping the real attendance cost to under $9 each. So taking a family to a Hogges' game was actually a good form of cheap entertainment. Statisticians don't hide the income differentials that do exist in Bermuda, so some people will always find it easier to pay $25 or $35 than others.

Some people were prepared to pay, and pay well, to watch a bunch of Bermudians learn to play high quality professional football. Some people understand that a team needs support when winning as well as when losing. Some people understand that spectator support is as much an investment in the team as are the hours and dollars that others spend on the actual team itself.

Overall, a different pie-slice of Bermuda's resident society attended the Hogges' games than attends the Cougars' - or other BFA - games. Most of the black non-support at the Hogges' games was caused by the combining of all - and then some more - of the factors that I've set out.

There are many differences between blacks and whites in Bermuda. These differences are often glossed over. Just as often they break through. They broke through and showed themselves in the blue seats at the National Stadium.

We are still two Bermudas. Each behaving and reacting differently.

Southlands? Until 1998, black Bermudians were powerless. From 1834 through to 1997, black Bermudians could only try to influence Bermuda's real power-wielders. Blacks did this in two ways. From 1834 until 1964, they begged for better treatment and more inclusion. In 1964, black Bermudians joined the newly formed UBP and tried to insert themselves inside the white political power structure and use a power-sharing process to get better treatment and achieve more inclusion.

Between 1963 and 1998, by providing the possibility of an alternative PLP government, blacks, now operating in both ways, did strongly influence many of the political actions of the white power-holders.

That changed in November 1998. Bermuda's black majority, in a successful bid for political power, grabbed all of that power. They have had it ever since.

Now that Bermuda's black majority has its hand on the levers of power, it is using that power. That majority has now become comfortable with power. The Southlands decision is a clear demonstration of their power.

There will be damage to the environment. But for these power-holders, this damage to the environment is - in U.S. military parlance - acceptable collateral damage. The overall action at the 37-acre Southlands is not markedly different, in plan and in principle, from the 1920s sale of 510 acres in Tucker's Town to the Bermuda Development Company.

Julian Hall, Dr. Smith-Wade, even, at times, Dr. Eva Hodgson, write and talk about a passed past. The Bermuda that I see is a Bermuda where power sits in the hands of Bermudian people like Gerald Simons, Ewart Brown, Vince Ingham, Derrick Burgess, Charles-Etta Simmons, Philip Butterfield, Paula Cox, Neletha Butterfield....But power also sits in the hands of people like the boo'ers at Snorkel Park and Election Day Voters - and these know that.

So listen carefully to all the cries coming out of Bermuda. Keep your eyes open. See who is crying and see the power-wielders against whom people are crying out. Look, see, listen, hear.[[In-content Ad]]

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