Rule Britannia!!

The good ol' humidity has been back this week in all it's glory, it was somewhere around 90% which is pretty standard in the summer. It's gross. It is one of the hardest things to get use to when you first get here, if you're not from South East Asia or South America that is. Lots of tips on how to deal circulate the community. It's a funny thing to get used to, having to stir your drawers. Yep every couple of days you have to move things around or end up with a mouldy wardrobe. Being a girl, I have a lot of handbags and shoes and they require the same treatment. It's a little tiresome but I learnt the hard way when I hadn't moved three bags hanging on the back of my door for a while and one grew mildew. Grim. 


In the height of summer, you also get used to never really being dry after a shower and OMG don't even get me started on the hair. Frizzy, frizzy, frizzy! You certainly come to realise why corn rows took off but I haven't succumbed... yet. 


As the humidity count went up this week, so it seemed did a general feeling of tension. I'm sure it's related. Being hot under the collar does get you stressed out. Not me however, I've been cool as a cucumber sandwich all week. Apart from my face which is suffering from post-trauma-free sunbathing syndrome. But everyone else seems overwrought, particularly in the political arena. 


The Premier Dr. Ewart Brown was on his independence agenda last night. This week, Bermuda played host to a meeting of the Overseas Territories Caribbean Heads of Government. Welcome to the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla and Montserrat. At a formal dinner last night, the Premier toasted: “to the people of the overseas territories – not to be known forever as territories.” If you're interested his full speech is available on good ol' Bernews. His sentiment was echoed by fellow MP, Terry Lister, who said: "Colonialism is a hold over from a previous century which really has no place in today’s world.” I think there is some truth in this, although I wonder realistically whether little Bermuda and its even smaller fellow British overseas territories could really go it alone in the big bad world. But then this is more of a hunch that a well-informed argument. 


At face value, as I've said before, Bermuda doesn't feel particularly English. Apart from the union jack in the corner of the Bermuda flag, red letter boxes, driving on the left and the popularity of afternoon tea, you'd actually struggle to tell it was a British owned island. There aren't even that many British expats here, we're are heavily outnumbered by Americans, Canadians and South Africans. Bermuda is no banana republic though, it is surprisingly sophisticated for an island of it's size. It has is own stock exchange, quangos, a Chamber of Commerce and multi-million dollar home-grown companies.


Then on some levels it is in the dark ages, the Yellow Pages is still a well-thumbed institution here, national TV is sketchy to say the least, racial tensions run high and homophobia is rife. However, giant leaps happened in this area this week when a gay cruise was welcomed on the island, a similar visit was cancelled as little as three years ago amid religious protest. 


I haven't really got a sense of how strong the pro-independence cause is, I would hazard a guess that's it's fairly split between for and against amongst the general public. A visit from the Queen was very well-received in November 2009, with the streets lined with thousands of Bermudians. However, the message from the top was a bit more luke warm as she was put up in a hotel rather than offered a bed in the Premier's official residence.

The Premier's independence stance has got him into trouble with the British establishment. Never more so than last year when he sanctioned the landing of four ex-Guantanamo detainees. Apparently a decision that was not his to make but no doubt put Bermuda in Obama's good books, which isn't a bad place to be!