Tourist bus row shows Minister is in a muddle

Similarly, the idea of taking care of Bermudian jobs first and placing the retention of non-Bermudian jobs as a secondary matter also makes complete sense — if indigenous Bermudian interests are the primary job creators.

But if Bermuda is in the tourism business and if Bermuda is a platform for international business, then neither idea makes sense.

The fact that Transport Minister Lister and Economy Minister Kim Wilson have both put forward those concepts demonstrates just what a deep muddle Bermuda is in.

I recall the three witches in Macbeth: “Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

The last time that Bermuda and Bermudians created their own jobs was before 1920.

Footprint

Since 1920, all jobs and all economic progress has required and been funded by an inflow of foreign dollar capital (1920-80) then foreign intellectual capital, bringing with it additional foreign capital (1980-present day).

Bermuda’s high — but now falling — GDP is entirely and solely dependent on the presence, the footprint, of international business in Bermuda.

International business’s Bermuda footprint began shrinking significantly in 2007. The impact soon appeared. GDP fell 5.8 per cent in 2009. By 2010, GDP was down 10 per cent from 2008.

The idea that the preservation of non-Bermudian jobs is a secondary matter needs revisiting.

It is actually the other way around. Bermuda — specifically the Minister for the Economy — must concentrate on retaining the intellectual capital (people) and the dollar capital that keeps international business at or above critical mass. Failure here will lead to the absolute loss of thousands of Bermudian jobs.

This is why I see a muddle in the idea of making the preservation of Bermudian jobs the immediate priority. Bermuda’s whole prosperity is based on a successful international business sector supported by a functioning tourism sector.

In tourism, the muddle starts with the reality that Bermudians got out of the tourism business more than 20 years ago.

In 1992, writing about Bermuda’s Tourism Industry, I wrote: “We began to lose the atmosphere of the Living Room.”(*)

Canadian Professor Duncan McDowall expanded on that point in his in-depth analysis, Another World. Bermuda and the Rise of Modern Tourism.

In 1994 Bermuda and Bermudians switched into international business, abandoning tourism to lower-paid foreigners.

Visitors

Bermudians vacated their own ‘Living Room’ and left Bermuda’s tourist guests to be hosted by lower-paid foreigners.

It is now true that Bermudians view today’s massed cruise visitors differently than they saw yesteryear’s more spread-out and longer-staying air arriving visitors.

So the Minister for Transport faces a muddle and, poor soul, he is muddling through as best he can.

But muddlers cannot effectively manage Bermuda because the fires are burning and the cauldron is bubbling.

(*) The Other Side. (Looking Behind the Shield), Larry Burchall, 1992.