Tempestuous times

...And the budget beat goes on! That is until it is ratified by the House of Assembly at the end of the month.  I won't bore you with the details but this little tit bit caught my eye regarding a certain 'Hustle Truck.' The locals are up in arms about it and the fact there is no $$$ for it in the budget, so it sparked my interest. 


Well, after some googling it appears that it is indeed a real shame that this is being cut, along with many other charities' budgets. Introduced by the previous Labour Minister in 2007, the Hustle Truck was billed as the answer to "one of Bermuda's most enduring social problems of wall-sitting." H.U.S.T.L.E stands for Helping Unemployed Sustain Themselves Limited Employment. The truck picks people up willing to work but unable to get jobs for various reasons, e.g. criminal records, illiteracy or age discrimination etc., in the morning and takes them to work sites to perform casual landscaping, cleaning and general manual labour. Some days as many as 100 people hustled onto the two tonne trucks for a chance to earn up to $550 a week. Tasks completed over the years include a Boaz Island Youth Centre, removing rubbish at Gulf Stream in Soutside and removing graffiti from school grounds. Seems like a win-win to me and sad that it's losing out.

Also, wasn't I only saying in the last post how rising gun crime was one of the island's biggest issues? Well, someone give me a parliamentary seat as sadly last week saw the second shooing fatality of 2011. A 26 year old guy, who's girlfriend was expecting their baby - a true tragedy. A 29 year man was also fatally shot on February 4. A court case running at the moment on a murder that took place last year has heard that the gun in that shooting has been linked to February murder, along with others. This confirms Police suspicions of a small number of guns being recycled within gangs as the tit-for-tat killings go on.  It will be interesting to see if the huge Police budget cuts are still passed at the end of the month.


Continuing this stormy waters theme, we move onto art. It is expected that the "Tempest" exhibition from Bermudian artist, Rebecca Hanson, will create "a storm of interest" (nice pun www.bernews.com!).  Inspired by the three most destructive recent hurricanes, the show is named after the Shakespeare play that it is claimed is based on the real-life ship wreck of the Sea Venture in 1609 leading to the settling of Bermuda. Yep, you heard it right fact finders, another claim to fame for this little island.

So that's earth (landscaping), wind (hurricane art) and now fire! Bernews is reporting a large-scale fire at Riddell's Bay Golf Course this evening. The extent of the damage is at this stage is unknown but I doubt it risks Bermuda's reputation as home to more golf courses per square mile than anywhere in the entire world. And another claim to fame... they just keep on coming!!