Dr. Brown front and centre, again?

It's probably just me, but I found it a bit unusual that the former Premier took the time at a Labour Day function to go into detail to his own personal/past endeavours while he was Premier of the country.

The tone of the speech did more to fuel the rumours that:

• the former Premier is preparing to mobilise to re-enter Bermuda politics in some shape or form
• the PLP and by association the BIU, could be planning to destabilise the ruling party led government by any means necessary.

Again, we still have a high number of Bermudians who feel frustrated and or left out of the possibility for success in this island, and need something to get behind or hope for. And there are no shortage of political movements out there willing to reel them on board.

Next year? Things are going to get heated in September and onwards, without a doubt.

Police blitzes are never for running stop lights

Still waiting to hear about Bermuda Police's big road safety project. Ho hum.

Meanwhile, the occasional traffic blitzes during morning rush hour continue. The usual checks for seatbelts and the like along slow-moving roadways when the volume of traffic is high and the speed seldom dangerous.

And once you get through that and into the city itself, you find yourself slowing down at a red light, only to find the car to your left speed up to get through, and the motorcycle *behind you* accelerate to pass you and zoom through after you've already stopped at the red light.

Yep. Bermuda traffic. Ho hum.

Advertising overkill

I'm sure this was just a one-time glitch, but it made me chuckle to see my Internet Banking screen look like this:

I suppose they were really, really trying to encourage me to click on one of the ads, that they displayed eight of them in a row above my Account Summary.

Oddly enough, that may actually be a good marketing strategy for a while. After all, people who are using Internet Banking are probably likely to be interested in other bank products. So why not throw the kitchen sink of opportunities at them? Heh.

The OBA and Gov TV

When the PLP-led Government created GovTV, UBP members were quick to claim that it was a waste of money. Frankly, I was in full agreement. Bermuda had three privately run TV stations, and if Government wanted to produce their own programmes for local consumption, using those avenues would have been cheaper than forming a brand new station. All this, without even going into their "only public station... if you're a cable subscriber" nonsense.

Several months into an OBA-led government administration, there hasn't been a peep on it. Rather, it would appear that the OBA are happy to let the station exist and do its thing. Which suggests to me one or more of the following:

• The OBA(then UBP) claim that CITV was for government propaganda was a load of bollocks - and now that they're "in control", they own the propaganda medium if they wish, so no matter
• CITV, rather than being a waste of money, is actually beneficial in that either it earns revenue or provides enough jobs to make it viable, in which case they should apologize to the PLP immediately
• They, similar to what's happened with the public transport situation, haven't even given it a thought up to now.

The current Premier was one of the harshest critics of CITV on its formation. What says him now?

If CITV is a loss-maker for government, then it would make sense to try to farm out the infrastructure and development to FreshTV, the folks behind Channel 82, or the legacy broadcasters at VSB or Bermuda Broadcasting. But who knows.

Bermuda online commentating still abysmal

Online dialogue remains as vicious and nasty as ever, which isn't frankly that shocking. Go on popular articles on the Gazette or Bernews, and the comments section continues to be laced with personal attacks, stereotype labeling, claims of sheeple or kool-aid drinkers, self-centered attitudes and a complete lack of moderate dialogue or empathy.

It's like a boxing match except the combatants are wielding pitchforks and torches.

Despite clear and blatant missteps by *both* political parties in Bermuda, they retain a collection of (paid?) vociferous defenders and cheerleaders, who are adamant that the other side is the real evil and that only their side can lead the country out of the pitfalls currently being faced.

Reasoned discussion is looked upon with scorn unless it conveniently falls in line with the angle being argued over.

It takes thick skin to be a politician, yes, but it takes the hide of a rhino to put up with some of the nastiness online.

What will it take to have a place where people can respectfully discuss and debate without the usual flinging of crap? I'd have suggested a non-anonymous forum, but we've already seen on Facebook that people don't care how nasty they sound.

So, retreat to a safe haven, non-partisan reader or commentator. But prepare to be hounded nevertheless by those trying to win your vote, usually with a "don't let the other guy win, they're evil" message.

Long overdue, Carla Zuill

Carla Zuill's been doing this for years, with representation in the Gazette, the Sun and on TV, but it's only belatedly that I draw attention to her compiled works through this site.

Apparently she's also known locally as "The Oprah of Facebook", which has to be high praise indeed.

Give her offerings a whirl sometime, folks. Lots of varied subject material in her postings at CarlaZuill.com.

Bermuda post-Cup Match, let the storm rise

Bermuda's other de facto national holiday, Cup Match weekend, has concluded. The usual pontifications about coming together in unity, blah blah, have come and gone.

Aren't political messages that congratulate us for coming together 'despite our differences' just a reminder to return to your corner after?
— Christian Dunleavy (@cdunleavy) August 3, 2014

Meanwhile, the reality is that we still have significant national issues at hand and divisive ones at that. Our politicians by and large continue to fling mud at each other. Meanwhile, regular folk retain genuine concerns about employment and expenses.

Wouldn't be surprised to see August bring even more tempestuous situations for Bermuda. A hurricane could be only the mere appetizer for the chaos ahead.