Those interested in knowing what happened at Minister Burch’s meeting with Bermudians In International Business can check out the 21Square twitter feed (on the right of this site) for notes I took during the meeting.
I’d like to extend my thanks to Minister Burch and his staff for hosting the meeting, it was very informative and I greatly appreciate his willingness to not only listen to and hear the views of Bermudians in International Business but also take notes and genuinely respond to every question and comment, sometimes even in a lighthearted and entertaining manner.
Personally I hope a number of things come from this meeting. One recommendation was extending the term limit to 10 or 15 years with perhaps an extension halved once that is up. I believe this would be a positive move. Another was to hold a similar meeting for non-Bermudians, I wholly believe that this would do a great deal to help improve perceptions among the expat community. I also believe it is worthwhile for Bermudians to deeply question our desire for no further long term residency grants given it’s impact on the contributions of long standing key non-Bermudians.
Finally I hope that more meetings like this occur and that we’ll see the rise of an association representing Bermudians In International Business as this style of gathering and voices of Bermudians working in the industry should have been formed long ago and has considerable value in helping our leadership understand how they can represent the interests of Bermudians in industry.
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Edit: I’d like to add that while I was not fond of the approach taken to the meeting regarding “Bermudians Only” and the requirement of wristbands I decided to reserve judgment until the end. My thoughts now are that despite this rather controversial means of going about things there was considerable value in having only Bermudians attend. Hopefully to quell the negative PR that has occurred Minister Burch will follow up with a similar meeting for non-Bermudians for I believe it would go a long way towards changing perceptions for the better.
Only Bermudians that weren’t uninvited, that is.
I know of at least one that was turned away with threats of being physically escorted off the premises.
I appreciate the twitter commentary you provided to us – thanks and well done.
Thanks Denis, excellent coverage.
I think your points are good. I think the greatest problem is Burch’s approach. Perhaps if he just had someone else deliver the messages for him.
I think it is a salient point that the longer term limits will encourage more investment in Bermuda by those from overseas, it would also encourage more investment by IB, more security for them.
I too would like to see him call a meeting with non-bdian IB workers, that would certainly quell alot of the noise of unfairness and discrimination.
The impression I got is that the term limit policy was introduced as a means to address the desire of Bermudians to eliminate Long Term Residency and that Minister Burch’s position is that as long as that is what Bermudian’s want that’s what he’ll aim to do. He also suggested that the policy is relatively new and unproven being only 3 years old and he is gathering feedback to share with Bermudians for us to decide whether the policy meets our desired goals or whether our goals should change.
What I take from this is that Bermuda needs to establish an association for Bermudians In International Business to gain a greater voice on these kinds of issues. Largely I thin k the issue is that when Bermudians as a whole hear ‘International Business’ they fail to think of the many Bermudians who work in it because there is no distinction made. I believe a BIIB organization would go a long way in changing perceptions of the average Bermudian if we were actively promoting the value of Long Term Residents to the development of international business and the island of a whole because it would be coming directly from Bermudians in the industry speaking to Bermudians as a whole, thus being taken with greater value than IB alone.
I’m giving thought as to what it would take to form such an organization.
I got that impression, too…
My problem is with the “…as long as that is what Bermudians want…” part.
Where is this coming from? Why aren’t we shown the data that’s leading to this conclusion?
I would suggest that you contact the Minister directly Mr. Elvis. He is always open to views and has done a great job with rebuttals and queries.
Everyone jumped on him as can be seen by blogs and forums. Blogging and flogging and forums don’t compare with what he has done in the past week and all the ‘UBP’ers walked away with a sense of ….well that makes sense it’s just my attitude.
Gotta run…losdt track like most do……Deer running onn my porch…………..
I’m sorry, but are you saying that people commenting on his heavy-handed “uninviting” of Mr. Fahy, a Bermudian in International business, as well as several others that I know of, shouldn’t happen?
If your refering to my comments, I never said it should not happen. That is what you may have read into it.
I am sure you know many in International Business but that has nothing to do with Mr. Burch’s comments and stand.
Mr. Fahy has nothing to do with this except for the exchanges done via the Web. The matter is between them and as far as I can see it has been resolved and is over with, along with Mr. Dunkley et al.
As for “uninviting”, thats politics and I am sure that Col. Burch has made a point and I support him.
A great day too all.
Rummy.