I got dragged into joining the Facebook community a couple of weeks ago. I was impressed with how quickly I was able to use it to locate friends from way-back-when... heck even back to primary school days (and I apologize for not remembering all my primary school buddies).
Within a matter of weeks, Bermudians across the land have signed up, joining the many college students and the like already registered.
One thing that certainly struck a chord, was firstly the formation of groups to support the two key political parties in Bermuda, including the appearance of party leaders Premier Brown and later his opponent Michael Dunkley, and then the quick flocking to either side by registered people.
What this tells me is that the political parties here are recognizing alternative venues to get their messages across, particularly the oft-neglected youth base which is internet-savvy and full of ideas and opinions. Kudos ought to go to them for reaching out.
There's a great discussion on the PLP Facebook group concerning voting by individual versus by party that I hadn't seen even in the blogosphere, for example. For the record, I idealistically prefer voting by the person, but recognize that in the age of single-seat constituencies and the limits of the Westminster system in a small place like Bermuda, that it will tend to be a vote for the party (and by extension the party leader), that is dominant. Woe be to the fledgling ABC (which has a website but I can't even find it on google to post a link... shame).
Some of my friends have joined the PLP group, others have joined the UBP group. Yes, the split is along racial lines, but then again I'm not even sure of the difference in idealogies between the two big guns, anyway. More later, I suppose.
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