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Responsible vs. irresponsible parenting

In the wake of the murder of Kellon Hill, apparently by a gang of teenagers, there has been much bellyaching about the failure of parents to live up to their responsibilities to parent their children. This evening I had chance to see perfect examples of both responsible and irresponsible parenting when I went to the 6.15pm showing of The Dark Knight at the Little Theatre.

The Dark Knight is rated PG-13 - or to give the rating its full description, "Parents strongly cautioned: Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13". Indeed. In particular, the violence, and threats of violence, carried out by the Joker even made me feel queasy. He talks about how he put razor blades in his mouth to match his wife's disfigurement; about how his father took a knife to his face to cut him a smile; and at a couple of points in the movie puts a knife to the mouth of his victims and threatens to do the same.

In front of us was a mother with three boys between perhaps 8 and 11 years old. When it got to the scene with the Joker talking about the razor blades, they got up and walked out; I think the boys may have even expressed some disquiet and asked to leave. I applauded their mother for taking them out.

In contrast, across the aisle were a mother and father with two young girls between maybe 6 and 10 years. They stayed for the whole movie. The kids were restless through much of it (not surprising - the movie was over 2.5 hours). Their mother laughed at a couple of the more sadistic scenes (can't imagine how confused that must have made the kids feel) and would not go to the bathroom with her kids until they had stood in the aisle pleading with her for a minute or two. In short, the parents just didn't seem to care.

I was so angry that by the end of the movie I was ready to confront them about whether they really thought it was an appropriate movie for their children to see. To my shame, I didn't get to them before they left.

I can't blame the cinema for letting them in. Young children are even permitted in R-rated movies if accompanied by an adult. But perhaps the cinema should stop every family they suspect of taking an under-age child into a movie and tell them about its content in an effort to dissuade them. Perhaps there's even a case for making age restrictions on movies mandatory, even if an adult is present.

Some may say I have no right to question their decision of these parents to bring their kids. The movie was PG-13 and they had every right to take the children to it. Yes they did. But that doesn't mean their behaviour was responsible.

Parents have the primary responsibility for raising their children, and as such should always be given the first chance to parent their kids. However, when parents are unable or unwilling to do so, I believe the rest of us need to be prepared to speak up and challenge them. The principle of non-interference in parenting needs to die.

Not The Royal Gazette

What do you do when you can't stop yourself paying attention to the local news, but don't want to be angered or depressed by the incompetence and dishonesty on display? Answer: Find a way to laugh at it instead.

And thus Not The Royal Gazette was born.

Modelled on the Ironic Times, with a dash of The Onion, it's an experiment with an uncertain future. The plan is to try to publish one issue per week, but I'm still doubtful about whether I can find enough material to do so, and whether I'm capable of making it funny.

On the one hand, I don't really care if no-one else finds it funny. I'm primarily doing it for myself. I'm mostly curious to see whether I have the ability to produce something that I find funny, and as an exercise in writing satire.

But on the other hand, I obviously hope that some other people will get a laugh out of it too. The more people that like it, the greater incentive I have to try to keep it going. Best case would be if I could find a few other people with a talent for comedy willing to help me produce it.

Realistically, however, it's just an experiment that's probably not going to last more than a couple of weeks. So in the unlikely event that you do like it, enjoy it while it lasts.

Revolitionsing

The PLP say they're "revolitionsing the education system".

Clearly it can't come a day too soon.

Elevated debate

Premier Ewart Brown, in his latest speech:

"Lately we find ourselves in a media frenzy usually reserved for election campaigns. It's unfortunate that election-style tactics continue to be the only means by which some can dialogue. You know what I'm talking about."

Yes, I do! You're talking about the PLP blog, aren't you?

"Well, an elevated level of debate on the issues is what I covet."

Bullshit.

If you wanted an elevated debate you wouldn't have threatened to physically assault Grant Gibbons in the House of Assembly, or called him a racist.

If you wanted an elevated debate you would have told us how much it would cost to provide free daycare to otherwise eligible non-Bermudian families, and why you think that's too high. You wouldn't dismiss those suggesting it as wanting to put the interests of foreigners above Bermudians, or disparagingly brand them as "pro-guest worker".

If you wanted an elevated debate, David Burch would not have sneeringly dismissed Michael Dunkley's objections to the dentistry bill (which were shared by every non-PLP senator) as worthless because "a milkman is unlikely to have legal expertise greater than people in the Attorney General's chambers".

If you wanted an elevated debate, you wouldn't seize a picture posted by a notorious right-wing commenter on an online forum and cite it as proof of the racism of the UBP.

If you wanted an elevated debate you would have passed Public Access To Information legislation months ago, the better to ensure that any debate is an informed one.

If you wanted an elevated debate you wouldn't be whining about how the UBP is always criticising you. You know they have a responsibility to do so. You'd be explaining why the UBP's criticisms are wrong, or their proposals wouldn't work.

If you wanted an elevated debate you wouldn't be only publishing complimentary comments on your blog while leaving unpublished the critical ones (however polite). You'd publish them all, then rebut them.

If you wanted an elevated debate you would engage your critics, not attack them or seek to portray them as a vast UBP-orchestrated conspiracy.

But an elevated debate is the last thing you want. You're not confident that you could win if you had to compete head-to-head with the UBP on ideas alone. Much easier to simply fan the flames of racial injustice and xenophobia instead.

Those in glass houses...

If the requirement for scrutinising legislation in the Senate is legal expertise greater than that of the Attorney General's chambers, as David Burch claimed today, can someone tell me why the PLP have a 26-year-old radio DJ as one of their Senators?

Or is that kind of expertise simply not required on the PLP side, since all they do is blindly nod through Government legislation anyway?

Teaching discipline

In his article "The case for conscription" in today's Royal Gazette, Al Seymour suggests that the Bermuda Regiment is essential for teaching discipline to some young Bermudian men and women. It's probably the most commonly heard argument in support of conscription, yet it's illogical and disputed by some former senior officers.

If the purpose of the Regiment is to teach discipline, then surely only those who need it, male and female, should be sent there? What is the purpose of sending those whose family, schools and neighbours have already done the job?

The thing is, the purpose of the Regiment is not to teach discipline. Former Bermuda Regiment commanding officer Eugene Raynor, a supporter of conscription, recently said, "The army needs productive people in order to do what they have to do. If you are able to sort out a few on the side that's fine and that's been going on all along. It's not the role or intent for people going into the Regiment to be sorted out."

If the Regiment itself does not see teaching discipline as it's raison d'etre, how can anyone else justify its existence on that basis?

Citizen journalism

Jay Rosen has posted a great, pithy definition of citizen journalism.

"When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism."

After the difficulty I had yesterday finding out what was going on with the Causeway, I'm again thinking about how to apply this here. What could be set up in Bermuda to allow ordinary people to inform each other about what's going on, without the need to wait for the middle-man (i.e. the media)?

I'm not just thinking about "disaster" scenarios like hurricanes and so on, I'm thinking about how this could be used for all news reporting (even hyper-local stuff that wouldn't even make it into the Royal Gazette, like which kid won the running race at the Francis Patton sports day).

Some things to think about:

• How do you maximise the uptime and timeliness of the service?
• How do you persuade people to contribute, and how do they do so?
• How do you keep out the trolls?
• How do you present the information in a digestible way?

I have a few ideas, which I'm exploring, but I'd be interested to hear yours too. Could something like this work here?

Another broken promise

I've just sent this letter to the editor regarding the Government's free child care bill, which was introduced in the House of Assembly yesterday:

"Dear Sir,

I was intrigued to read in today's newspaper that the PLP's free child care will only be available to Bermudian parents with a gross income not exceeding a "maximum prescribed amount".

While restricting free child care to needy families may be an entirely sensible thing to do, it is nevertheless not what the PLP promised before last year's General Election. On 13 December 2007, the PLP published a statement on its website which said, "The PLP will provide free DayCare for all Bermudians. That's a big difference between us and the UBP. The UBP will only provide day care for so-called 'needy' families."

It seems that the PLP is not so different from the UBP, after all.

Phillip Wells
St. George's"

I pointed out the contradiction with statements coming from other members of the PLP at the time, but the party stood by its statement.

Just another example of the mendacity of our current Government.

Bravo!

Larry Burchall nails the problem with Tim Wise and groups like CURB in an excellent opinion piece in today's Bermuda Sun. For those who may not know, Mr. Burchall is an older black Bermudian who lived through segregation.

On Tim Wise:

"Tim Wise came to Bermuda to make money. Tim Wise makes his money pandering to a bunch of strangely anguished white Bermudians and inveterate black Bermudian race-moaners."

On CURB:

"Do I need to see white Bermudians walking around in sack-clothes and ashes, wailing and gnashing their teeth about their past behaviour? No!"

On Lynne Winfield's ridiculous assertion that his belief that blacks should move on means that he thinks racism is in the past:

"In 2008, does it matter - to me - that any person, white or black, practices discrimination? Yes! Yes! Yes!"

His advice to "inveterate black Bermudian race-moaners"? To do what he did:

"Bermuda's walls of lawful segregation fell in 1960... That fall provided equal, or relatively equal, access to the playing field that lay behind those walls. Once on that playing field and now playing equally - or near equally - with every other player, I needed the playing skills that they had.

I had two choices. I could sit on the playing field and moan about the past... Or, I could get the skills, get the knowledge, get whatever else it took, then get that ball and start making my own plays...

My choice was no different from the choice that faced every black person who - like me - was born into segregation. The only sensible choice was the choice that I made."

Bravo, Mr. Burchall. If only more people thought like you, Bermuda would be a much better place.

Jesus Christ

Now some people are comparing Premier Ewart Brown to Jesus.

Well, here's another Biblical reference for you:

"Hear this, you stupid and senseless people! You have eyes, but you cannot see. You have ears, but you cannot hear." Jeremiah 5:21

Tim Unwise

After reading the interview with American race "expert" Tim Wise in Friday's Mid Ocean News, I have completely lost all respect I previously had for him.

Two passages stood out. First, his response when asked if there could be racism against white people in Bermuda:

"I definitely don't think it's happening here... Real racism, in order to be effective, has to actually oppress people. We know what anti-black racism did. Here, in Bermuda, there is nothing that (Mr.) Scott or (Premier Ewart) Brown could do. Let's just say they absolutely hated white people - I find that to be a fanciful, almost absurd characterisation but I know many whites believe it - what could they do? This is a country that's entirely dependent on foreign dollars and tourist dollars for its economic vitality and those are dollars that are mostly invested and spent by white people. So they could absolutely detest white people and there's almost nothing they can do to them. It doesn't make it right for them to hold a prejudice, it doesn't make it okay or fair, but really what it comes down to is Scott and Brown and members of the PLP, their only power is they can hurt white people's feelings."

The Government of Bermuda has no power? Yeah, whatever you say, Tim. Tell that to the chef who was summarily deported for making a joke about the Premier. It might not have been racially motivated, but it was a clear demonstration of the power the Government has and is unafraid to wield, without any recourse to due process.

And outside Government, what about black landlords and employers? Do they have no power to choose their tenants and employees, should they so wish, on the basis of their race? How can you be so sure racism against white people cannot be happening here?

Second, his response when asked if he thought every white person here was rich.

"Absolutely not. But the reality is the white people who aren't rich - is their mortgage in the hands of a black banker? Is their job in the hands of a black employer? Is their child's education in the hands of a black teacher? If so, then at least theoretically they could have a point although we'd still have to excavate the practicality."

Er, actually, yes they are, and your caveat makes no sense. Do you know anything about Bermuda?

It's comments like these that have, over the years, caused me to lose any interest I once had in taking an active role in the fight against racism. By legitimising feelings of victimhood in some members of the black population, people like Tim Wise and the guilt-ridden appeasers at CURB are only making the problem worse.

Muzzling your critics

First, appeal to race by accusing your critics of asking "plantation questions".

Second, use the courts to shut them up, appealing all the way to the Privy Council if necessary.

Third, intimidate and arrest the country's financial watchdog.

Fourth, pull funding from critical media outlets.

Fifth, shut down debate in the House of Assembly whenever Opposition MPs get too critical.

Sixth, avoid answering inconvenient Parliamentary questions by strong-arming the Speaker into quashing them.

What next?

The Order of the Shrill

I joined it. Stuart Hayward joined it, as he demonstrates again today. Some say Larry Burchall has joined it too. In fact, I think most columnists and bloggers in Bermuda are now members.

What am I talking about? The Bermuda chapter of the Order of the Shrill, made up of "those who were once sane, fair, and balanced, but who have been driven into shrill unholy madness by one or more of the mendacity, malevolence, incompetence, or simple disconnection from reality of the [Ewart Brown] administration".

And I suspect that the longer the Premiership of Ewart Brown continues before some members of the PLP with some balls step up and put an end to it, the more members it's going to attract.

Complacency

Vexed Bermoothes is taking me to task for allowing my interest in local politics to decline:

"Our complacency is.. what allows Bermuda politics to become the comfortable bastion of the self-interested and the vicious."

When I was running A Limey In Bermuda I used to chide those members of my family who kept silent about Bermuda's governance, for the same reasons. Now here I am, doing just the same.

Vexed is right. Governance in Bermuda will not improve until people demand change. By tuning out of the local political scene, I'm no longer doing anything to help make things better.

That said, I'm no longer doing anything to make things worse, either. My writing on LiB sometimes veered towards the shrill or self-righteous, and my attempts at humour were often misunderstood. Some Bermudians reacted badly to this, and my message was lost as a result.

In that respect, I think that Vexed is a better writer - his posts, while pointed, are usually temperate - the kind of thing you might read in a leader in The Economist. In many other countries, I'd say that would give him a better chance of improving things. Unfortunately, I don't think most Bermudians respond to that style of writing, be they black or white, PLP or UBP supporters. Loyalty here is tribal. It's not about doing what's right. It's about supporting your side.

I don't see how any individual will change that. I still think that the only way to achieve such a huge paradigm shift is for both the PLP and the UBP to die. The UBP had a golden chance to precipitate that change after the last election, by disbanding. Instead, they flunked it by focusing on how close they were to winning office. But that's not the point. It's no good having the UBP in power if the mindset in Bermuda stays the same.

I'm not complacent. I know the risks of letting our leaders do as they please. I just don't have the energy to worry about it any more.

Detachment

Continuing my gradual detachment from Bermuda's political scene, yesterday I unsubscribed from the feeds of most of Bermuda's political blogs. The only ones that survived the cull were Politics.bm (out of a sense of loyalty to Christian) and Vexed Bermoothes (which is by far Bermuda's best political blog right now), although I still skim the Royal Gazette every day too.

Bermudian politics is mostly populated by the incompetent, the ignorant and the corrupt, and I find little enjoyment in constantly reminding myself of that.

Criminal negligence?

For the Government to suggest that no inquiry is necessary into the disturbance of asbestos at the Club Med site because, "The Ministry of Works and Engineering is... satisfied that immediate and appropriate steps were taken once the disturbance was discovered" is surely to completely miss the point. An inquiry is needed because the disturbance should never have happened at all.

Indeed, given that it was known that there was asbestos at the Club Med site (as evidenced by the Government's admission that it was in the process of hiring an asbestos abatement crew) I wouldn't be surprised if the Government was guilty of criminal negligence.

UPDATE: A lawyer friend of mine writes:

"Not criminal negligence but I would have thought they are certainly at risk for a negligence claim by the hustle truckers unless clear warnings were handed out to them by the contractors not to do work near particular asbestos areas or carry out the type of work that would disturb it."

Jobs for life

I've deliberately avoided writing about politics here so far. This is not A Limey In Bermuda, nor its successor.

But this is too much. I can't believe that the BIU are suggesting that the Government has no right to fire a drunken ferry pilot who crashed into a dock, and are threatening a transport strike unless they get their way. He had an accident while driving a public vehicle with 60 passengers on it with more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood, for Christ's sake. And he was found guilty in court. Of course it's a frakking sackable offense. The Government has no obligation whatsoever to give him another job. Sheesh, talk about an entitlement mentality.

I can't believe that some members of the public are actually supporting the BIU too. Symptomatic of the tolerance for drunk driving in this country, I'd say.

Thank God that the Government seem to be standing up to the Union this time. It's long overdue.

UPDATE: I take back my complimentary comment about the Government. It seems the BIU's bullying has caused them to wimp out, after all. Pathetic.