Against 'da tide

New artwork was unveiled this week on Front Street, which aptly summed up the mood of the times. Bill Ming's "Against 'da tide" depicts men in a boat pulling together against the roaring waves. In the words of the artist, it is supposed to represent the fact that "We are all in the same boat, striving, trying to make it together."

There has been a couple of bits of news this week representing the changing of the tides and a need to stick together. It is starting to truly hit home that Bermuda is not going to escape the global downturn as it looked like it might. Up till now, it seems to have escaped relatively unscathed.

Maybe not if you ask a local. There is still nostalgia about the island's heyday of tourism and economic boom being behind us, but speaking from the voice of some experience of just how bad things were in London when the credit crunch crunched, it hasn't been that bad. Yes shops have shut, there's been a handful of redundancies and homeowners and small businesses have felt the pinch, but then no one was throwing themselves from office blocks on Front Street and people are still sipping lavish cocktails and dining out. I remember the Big Smoke being like a ghost town in Autumn 2008 as the realisation of what lay ahead became all-consuming and people just stopped going out. Bars, restaurants and shops closed down and Tesco's starting raking it from all the stay at home revellers turning to a six-pack of beers and frozen pizza for a good time.

Times are however a-changing. The Friday night scene continues to buzz unabated and there's even been a few major bar and restaurant renovations in recent months (Flanagan's, Frescos, Indigo), as well as some entirely new faces. Flying Fish, I salute you, fantastic food and atmosphere. Never before have I had my shrimps and scallops flambeed in Pernod and dusted in paprika but I'd certainly go there again. I was drooling over the table cloth when it was right there in front of me and my saliva production is on the up again just thinking about it. Anyway... I digress... back to how bad things are getting here!!

Scallops and sparkling wine aside, there was a painful reminder that the recession isn't receding this week when 25 people got the chop from Butterfield Bank. Although not a total shocking following the over $200 million losses reported by the local bank last month, it was still nudge and a wink to many that all is not rosy and pink in paradise.

Perhaps even more worrying was the revelation that 1,000 customers have had their electricity cut by local energy supplier BELCO this year due to unpaid bills. And as many as 250 in one day faced life without power. That's a pretty significant percentage of BELCO's 36,000 customers, facing such financial hardship they can't pay their energy bills. It'll come as no surprise when I say that energy is expensive here. I live in a house share of three and bearing in mind there is no central heating in Bermuda and we are out most of the day in full-time jobs, we still have a hefty $400 to pay a month. This is something I think the Government needs to get a grip on before the cost of running A/C in the summer makes things even worse. Ironically the news of the cuts on Bernews.com was accompanied on the same page with an ad that read "BELCO...empowering Bermuda." Maybe time for a rebrand!

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel of a depressing week as some of the seasonal eateries re-open this week for summer and Fairmont Hamilton's happy hour kicked off again. Let's hope it's happy ever after...