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You've probably seen a dog, trying to climb a tree to catch a tree-climbing pussy cat. But I'll bet you've never seen a chicken - not even a Bermuda chicken - trying to swim. I, too, haven't seen a swimming chicken - or a chicken trying to swim - until now! Well, it's not actually a chicken. But what I am seeing is pretty close.

Take any group of Bermudians. Born in 1967. Educated in our education system and graduating from Bermuda High Schools in 1984. In 2007, 23 years after High School graduation, when they're 40, you go headhunting in this group. You're headhunting for someone to be a highly paid Insurance Underwriter, or a Chief Financial Officer, or a Chief Executive Officer, or people to take over and head up a new company that investors are capitalizing at $100,000,000.

Pay? No problem! For the right individual - or individuals - with the right experience and the right temperament, the pay can start at $180,000 basic. With stock options, bonuses, and housing allowances thrown in, the real pay will be $360,000 a year - or more!

Goody, goody! Now let's go find us a Bermudian who'll accept the pay - AND who can and will carry the responsibility.

Let's start by looking at every 40-year-old Bermudian. Male. Female. Gay. Straight. Christian. Non-christian. Muslim. Rasta. Black. White. Portuguese. And even a St David's Islander. An absolutely non-discriminatory search.

So who'll fit the bill?

Start with education. The Bermudian individual will have had an excellent education. Probably graduated from a High School with eight, nine, or ten good O-Levels or O-Level equivalents. Thereafter, probably attended a college or university that had high admission standards. Graduated from that college/university with a degree - which demonstrates to all and sundry, that he (or she) has the capacity to apply herself (himself), absorb information, and then deal with that information in a mature and productive manner. Certainly, the degree will demonstrate that the faculty of that university is proud to proclaim - to the whole world - that this Bermudian is a fine graduate of their establishment. (If he or she did not graduate from High School, then she or he will not even be looked at. This applies right down the line.)

This Bermudian, aged about 22, would then have spent the next eighteen years - from age 22 to 40 - working and demonstrating and proving that she (he) is as good as, and in many cases better than, other people in his (her) age bracket. This Bermudian, accepting that he (she) needs the broadest possible experience may even have spent some years working outside Bermuda.

Now aged 40, and though his (her) competition may be from the U.S., or Canada, or the U.K., or India, or Australia, or South Africa, or anyplace else - this Bermudian has demonstrated, and demonstrated conclusively and consistently, that she (he) is as good as - or is better than - anybody else.

So, with a new group of investors with $100 million of - hopefully - clean dollars to invest in a new insurance company in Bermuda, our 40-year-old Bermudian has as good a chance as any other person. On top of that, there's no Work Permit issue with our Bermudian. He (she) is already here and is part of the scenery.

Do others control your life?

So does that Bermudian get the job?

  Well, there are two correct answers.

If you're a black Bermudian with a 'victim' mentality and believe that 'white supremacy' rules in Bermuda, and that other people have control of your life; you'll feel that no Bermudian will ever get the job. More, you'll believe - absolutely - that no black person will ever get that job.

If you're a white Bermudian with a 'victim' mentality you'll feel that no white Bermudian will ever get that job. Same thing if you're gay, or Portuguese, or St David's Islander, or Muslim, or...           So that's the first correct answer.

But if you don't have a victim mentality, you'll look around 32N64W. You'll see Philip Butterfield. Gerald Simons. Vince Ingham. Sir John Swan. Tony Joaquin. Shaun Morris. Wendell Brown. Why you might even see a guy named Dr Ewart Something... his name escapes me for the moment.).

You'll see people who strode out into the world and who 'made it happen'. You'll see people who could win that job - hands down!

That's the second correct answer.

I reckon that people who hang on to the first correct answer are like chickens trying to swim.

Maybe, just maybe, one day I'll see a chicken swimming?[[In-content Ad]]

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