There is a certain inevitability about Bermuda’s gradual move towards marriage equality. History shows us this; it is invariably the result of acknowledging that civil rights previously only available to straight couples should be afford to all.

In the successful fight against Proposition 8 in California, in the Civil Partnerships Act of 2004 in the United Kingdom and the subsequent Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, the law eventually caught up with the evolution of society itself. In Australia last year 61.6 per cent of the population voted for marriage equality in a postal referendum after years of ineffective debate in Parliament.

In Bermuda the passing of the Domestic Partnership Act 2017, which overrides the Human Rights Act 1981 and removes the rights of gay couples to marry, means the argument is going back to court, again. If the not too distant past is any indication the judiciary is likely to rule in favour of those who support equality in marriage, continuing the precedent set last year by Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons in the Godwin & Deroche v The Registrar General, the Attorney General et al case.

In her judgment Mrs Justice Simmons said that denying these rights against the backdrop of changing attitudes towards same-sex relationships was “out of step with the reality of Bermuda in the 21^stcentury”.

Among opponents to marriage equality in Bermuda there is a grudging acceptance that the battle will eventually be lost. The passing of the Domestic Partnership Act prompted Pastor Paul Heffernan, of the Evangelical Church of Bermuda, to tell the religious website onenewsnow.com: “If it [the process] is going to follow the regular pattern that we’ve seen globally then I believe that it [the Domestic Partnership Act] will be a stepping stone unless the Lord intervenes in some way.”

Unfinished Business

In the 26 countries around the world that have recognised same-sex marriage God has been strangely silent on the subject, considering the insistence of most religions that homosexuality and same-sex marriage is an abomination and those who are gay face eternal damnation.

Instead, life has carried on as normal, and the fears expressed by C.V. “Jim” Woolridge during the passing of the Stubbs Bill in 1994, where same-sex marriage in Bermuda might be said to have its roots, have not yet come to pass.

The Private Member’s Bill, named after Dr John Stubbs, decriminalised sex between men in Bermuda some 27 years after it had been decriminalised in the United Kingdom. In a heated debate in the House of Assembly, which was punctuated by the removal of Bishop Charles Foster Fubler of the Christian Coalition from the public gallery, Woolridge, then the UBP’s tourism minister, voted against the motion, saying: “Bermuda up until now has been referred to as a paradise. Soon we’ll be known as the fairyland.”

The process in Bermuda towards granting a minority group rights that the rest of us take for granted has largely been about forward and backward steps; and the clash between progress and religion has changed little in the intervening years.

In 1994 Dr David Dyer of the UBP attacked his Government for not bringing the Stubbs amendment forwards itself. “There was a serious lack of judgment, and even cowardice,” Dr Dyer told the House. He called on black colleagues to remember the past. “Many of your ancestors were locked up for something they had no control over, and those doing it felt justified in doing it.”

It is a sentiment that would not have been out of place when judging Premier Michael Dunkley and the OBA’s approach to the non-binding referendum on same-sex marriage in 2016. The rebranded UBP did at least advance the issue with the passing of the Human Rights Amendment Act 2013, which prohibited discrimination against anyone on the basis of their sexual orientation. It was this Act that opened the door to the ruling by Mrs Justice Simmons last year.

Progress has been slow, painfully so at times, but every block that has been thrown up has been overcome, eventually. Bermuda was not ready for Renee Webb’s attempt to introduce a Human Rights Amendment Act in 2006 – a proposal that was met with deafening silence in the House at the time.

Faced with Wayne Furbert’s Private Member’s Bill for solidifying in law that marriage is between a man and a woman, the Domestic Partnership Act, which still does that, but, also gives some, though not all, legal rights to those in domestic partnerships, was the best that Walton Brown and the Progressive Labour Party could have reasonably been expected to achieve.

History will undoubtedly show it to have been a step, one of the last, on the road to marriage equality.

It is impossible to discuss the relationship that Bermuda has with members of its LGBTQ community without discussing marriage, but that is far from being the whole story.

Convincing either the Christian right, or those on the other end of the spectrum, to change their minds on the marriage issue is about as likely as convincing members of The Flat Earth Society that they won’t sail off the edge of the world at some point. So entrenched are the respective positions that short of God Herself descending from the heavens to settle the issue, nothing seems likely to bring these two groups together.

However, in Bermuda, something has been lost in all the noise, in the hateful rhetoric spewed by those on both sides; and that is the people behind the headlines. In many ways the Domestic Partnership Act and the push for marriage could be said to be putting the cart before the horse in a country where; gay politicians and gay Premiers have not been, and are not able to be, open publically about their sexuality, where gay sportsmen and women remain resolutely in the closet, and where members of the LGBTQ community still feel uncomfortable doing something as simple as going on a date.

In discussing the Domestic Partnerships Act, Walton Brown, the island’s Minister for Home Affairs, said the aim had been to “strike a fair balance between two currently irreconcilable groups……..Bermuda will continue to live up to its well-earned reputation as a friendly and welcoming place, where all visitors, including LGBT visitors, will continue to enjoy our beauty, our warm hospitality and inclusive culture”.

Not everyone agrees with that final sentiment, no matter how genuinely Bermudians feel it to be true.

Andrew (not his real name) is a young, gay, black Bermudian. He has not yet felt able to tell his family, who he no longer lives with, that he is gay, although they know anyway from family friends. This is his story:

“I’ve known I was gay my whole life; I didn’t know what the closet was until I was in middle school when the bullying started. I was constantly picked on, and bullied, my first year at middle school I was jumped by five guys, in high school it all stopped, but people still talk about me today.

I think I was picked on because I was flamboyant, and because of the attention I was getting from the girls, I guess. They [other people] couldn’t accept that I was being true to who I am, and sometimes people pick on you because they are insecure about themselves. They find a way to intimidate you because you are doing better for yourself, and they can’t do that.

I still get dirty looks from people when I’m walking around town, but I brush it off because their opinion doesn’t mean anything to me. But that’s just me, I’ve been through it already so there is nothing you can say or do to me that can affect me now – I really don’t care.

As far as my family is concerned they didn’t find out until a couple of years ago, but they didn’t hear it from me, they heard it from other people who were talking about me. I was always insecure about coming out; I was always flamboyant, but I always denied that I was gay.

They still haven’t heard it from me, personally. But they have speculated and come to the conclusion themselves, so I didn’t really have to tell them, which kind of made it easier. But, I did move out last year, which eased the tension on my part.

My support system is mainly friends now. Right now I’m living with a roommate, and he’s also gay. His family is fully supportive of him, well us I should say, and I am thankful for that. I guess it is hard to find supportive families [in Bermuda] because a lot of people are Christians and believe what the Bible says about homosexuality, and that things should be a certain way because society says so.

I do feel that things are changing for the better though. The younger generation is more accepting of the LGBTQ community because they’ve seen more, travelled more, they’ve learned more and they can fully grasp the bigger picture, as opposed to the older generation who were stuck on this small rock, and limited in their understanding of the world.

I just want to see more acceptance from the rest of Bermuda, more happiness, more honesty, more freedom for people to openly express themselves. I want gay politicians to stand up for people like them. I heard a gay politician having a discussion about this, and their argument was that they were representing the people and they had to do what the people want. But, we’re still the people as well, you’ve got to represent us, it goes both ways.

It has taken time over the years for me to become comfortable with who I am. I fully understand myself, and know exactly what it is that I want out of life. If someone who was in the closet came to me I would tell them to be true to who they are. You will have some people who will threaten you, but there are people out there who will support you, who will be with you.”

I like men

The assertion that Bermuda is a “friendly and welcoming place” with an “inclusive culture” is one that its residents repeat proudly for all that will listen. It has formed the basis for many a successful tourism campaign and, like any mantra repeated often enough, is held to be true.

Of course, that perception all depends on whether or not you live in the Bermuda bubble, and whether you are part of a community – straight, Christian, conformist, not a guest worker – that the island’s permanent residents believe worthy of inclusion.

There is, as Kirkland Hamill wrote in his column on advocate.com, an ugliness that lies just below the surface of turquoise waters, pink beaches, and constant smiles that greet the unwary. Kirkland should know. The son of a Bermudian mother who brought her children back to the island when he was eight years old, Kirkland believes the island’s ‘charm’ can also mask a deeper reality.

“I’ve been thinking about all the things that Bermuda and the Bermudian people are; and all the things that they aren’t,” Kirkland says. “I haven’t met people friendlier than Bermudians, but it’s often an aggressive friendliness. There is an aura about the place, that kind of veneer of being really intimate and close. Everything looks so beautiful and inviting, it’s almost like it creates this wall to [prevent you] going a layer or two deeper to anything that is authentic.”

For Kirkland the inclusivity that Walton Brown referenced when discussing the Domestic Partnership Act only applies to some. “If you are an extroverted, straight, masculine guy, Bermuda may feel as much of a paradise on the inside as it looks on the outside,” Kirkland says. “Where it gets tricky is where you step outside of that lane.”

The need to remain resolutely friendly, to not rock the Bermuda boat, has caused its own issues, at least from Kirkland’s perspective. “I think there is a correlation between Bermudian superficiality and the amount people on the island drink; stay drugged in order to accommodate contradictions, avoid complexity, and maintain the appearance of easy-going homogeny,” he says.

“I think there is a systemic inability to confront difficult topics. I think many white and black Bermudians would say, ‘well, we get along great, there is no problem’. Whereas, people looking from the outside, would notice the racial tensions immediately.”

In that context, for Kirkland, religion too is a drug, used as a cloak of truth when convenient. “I believe that most Bermudians don’t know how much pain is generated by their religious certainty or how cruel is their righteousness,” Kirkland wrote in his column.

The debate over marriage equality has certainly brought that cruelty to the surface, and exposed to the world the refusal of large numbers of the island’s residents to even acknowledge the existence of gay people in their midst.

“There is no gay community in Bermuda, no safe space. I think the fact that it [a safe space] doesn’t exist there means the community can never really develop.”

“When I worked with the Human Rights Campaign we opened a satellite office in Mississippi, and there was a lesbian couple who gave me a profound insight into their lives. They said they discovered one day that even when they are in their home that they sat on the opposite side of the couch from one another because they were so conditioned, even in their own home, to feel like they had to maintain some sort of distance. I would say some place like Mississippi, or the Deep South, is where Bermuda is right now, or [Bermuda] is even a little further behind because even in Mississippi they [the gay community] have spaces to come together.”

Kirkland, who now lives in Washington D.C., believes that while incremental change in the acceptance of gay communities in the rest of the world has led to marriage equality, the reverse could be true in Bermuda.

“I think you can actually start [with marriage] and it can backfill from there,” he says. “Certainly the fact that it [marriage equality] happened and then was taken away, I’m hoping is going to create enough discomfort in the economy that the politicians are going to have to start reflecting on those things because the marriage issue forced it.

I like girls

Liz is a foreign guest worker, she has been in Bermuda for several years, and comes from a liberal country where there is a greater acceptance of people from the LGBTQ community. She agreed to talk about her experiences on the understanding that we change her name.

“The dating scene in Bermuda is almost non-existent. Although I date, this is via chance meetings not through any type of scene. The atmosphere means you can’t ever really relax on a date. I generally do not feel comfortable giving any indication during a date that it is more than two female friends having dinner.

“As a foreign gay woman I do not really have any issues, outside the scarcity of potential partners, and the lack of a supportive gay social group. However, I think life as a young gay black Bermudian man would be very difficult.”

“I don’t think that there is a difference between young and old when it comes to acceptance, the split is more along racial lines and level of education. There needs to be a greater effort to bring the two communities together. I would consider that many Bermudians don’t actually know a gay person, or think they don’t.

“I work and socialise with young Bermudians who do not support gay marriage, but change their mind when talking to someone it would affect, and whom they like on a personal level. In these cases it was an education problem, and they had never actually associated with a member of the gay community.

“Having an openly gay politician could help, but I would not think an openly gay man or woman would have a successful political career in Bermuda. But, it is more important to be on the inside, in the room where the decisions are being made in hopes of making life better for your gay countrymen/women than being out on the streets waving the flag.

The church leaders and the power they hold over the government angers me. Church leaders should really be looking at all the Bermudian children born out of wedlock before they start pointing fingers at the gay community who want to go down the traditional route of marriage, then children.”

I like, who I like

Shae, 30, Bermudian: “I don’t have the typical “coming out” story. I didn’t go through a phase in high school of trying to figure out my sexual identity like most on a timeline. It wasn’t any pressure for some sort of big reveal, if you will – I was just ‘me’ going through my own process without bringing attention to how I felt. I knew that I had an attraction towards females, but it wasn’t a shock to me that I found them attractive. I can’t say that in my teens I even understood what I was feeling. There were moments where I would feel a connection with a close female friend, but I always chose to keep it to myself, or simply thought that it was normal, and I’ve never really been good at expressing myself verbally. I wasn’t looking to pursue a female, and was in a serious relationship with a guy until I was 24. Growing up I went to church on a regular basis and was involved in the youth group ministry, so I tended to ignore what I was feeling anyway. After all, it wasn’t appropriate according to my upbringing.

Things became a little interesting when I befriended a woman that was older than me through mutual friends. I was a bit naive towards how everything eventually played out. We exchanged numbers and went out together for a few months. You would’ve thought we were best friends due to how we interacted with one another and how often. One evening I went over to her house because she wanted to speak to me about something. It took her forever to get to the point when I arrived. She was fidgety, displaying nervousness. I was thinking she had done something ridiculous and didn’t know how to tell me. When I was about to leave to pick up something she stopped me by the door. Nothing was stated, it was only movement – her movements that made me freeze. We kissed, passionately. I left without saying anything because I was rattled. I enjoyed it, but was left speechless and confused.

After I had accepted what happened that night, we both spoke about it. Like me she also came from a similar Christian-based background. Her father was actually a pastor; she had a child and was in a relationship with a man. As we started talking about “well where do we go from here” I caught myself thinking logically about what needed to happen. She was more on the emotional side of things, willing to follow her feelings that she had towards me. I just didn’t know how to handle the matter. I felt the same, but chose to ignore my feelings because I didn’t want to be shunned by family members/friends and whatever other dramatics came with it. Ultimately, I ended up lying to her. I told her that I didn’t feel the same way, I guess because from my end I needed to dig deeper within myself. I needed to figure out what I chose to neglect for a very long time.

There were questions that I couldn’t answer. Was I gay now or was I considered bisexual?

I found myself looking at the descriptions of each letter represented by the gay community – LGBTQ. When I researched this it didn’t really make much sense still. I wasn’t any of these descriptions. What I am is apparently a Pansexual, meaning I like who I like. Whomever I have a pull towards is not limited to a person’s gender.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve truly realised the importance of being true to self, and that it really isn’t the end of the world to have a feeling towards someone of the same sex, someone that is a transvestite, or identifies differently. We’re all human. We all have feelings, and just because someone’s sexual preference may not align with yours doesn’t make them less human. Love is love.”

Right to love

Marriage equality is not about same-sex couples wanting to stand in front of an altar to say ‘I do’, although those of faith may well wish to do so. It is not about creating a legal basis for forcing churches to conduct marriage ceremonies against their beliefs; Britain’s approach has been to create civil and religious marriage. It is not about saying one group’s rights are more important than another group’s. Similarly, marriage does not belong to religion. As a word, as a concept, its roots are far older than most of the ones we still practice, as is homosexuality. Through hundreds of thousands of years the world has not ended because two men, or two women, loved each other. Faith should be a personal matter, between a man, woman, or those of alternative gender, and their god. Too often it has been used as a justification for subjugation, and things far worse than denying two people the right to be happy.

And that is ultimately what it comes down to; happiness, sadness, for better or worse, in sickness and in health – the right to experience life in all its forms with those you love most. A ceremony does not have to be religious in nature, many straight couples today don’t want to get married in a church, but they do want to be able to declare that love in front of family and friends.

But beyond love, beyond the joy of committing yourself to someone, there is the right to be consider human, not matter what. And if you are denied legal rights and protections that others have, you are deemed by them to be less than human. History has shown us what happens in this instance.

Mildred Loving knows something of the fight for equality, this is what she said in 2007, on the 40^thanniversary of her famous court case: “…..I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight, seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.”

The post The Right to Love: The Unfinished Business of Being Gay in Bermuda appeared first on RG Magazines.

From East to West we searched, eating our way from Dockyard to St George’s. We divided burgers into three categories – gourmet, comfort food, and hangover cure – and judged them based on taste, presentation and value for money. Here, then, are the results of a definitely unscientific, but nonetheless very tasty, experiment.

Not all burgers are created equal, and these restaurants have taken the humble dish from a grab and go option to a gastronomic experience in their own right.

Gourmet Burgers

Bulli Social – Classic Burger, $14| 4.5 out of 5 stars

So many burgers, so little time. In the end we opted for the simple Classic Burger, a 6oz patty made from grass fed beef, with American cheese, tomato, onion, lettuce and pickles. It almost seems a crime to judge just one of the options available, but our wallets and waistlines would not allow us to sample all nine. Although, longing glances were cast in the direction of the Quebecois, a burger covered in poutine; which, for the uninitiated, is a mixture of chips, cheese curds, and gravy.

Given the expertise in the kitchen it would have been a surprise if the burger wasn’t among the best we tasted. In the end the raw onion, which rather overpowered the other flavours, counted against it getting a top score.

Devil’s Isle – All Natural Bacon Burger, $25.20| 4 out of 5 stars

One of two available on the restaurant’s menu, the All Natural Bacon Burger is not your average burger. From the homemade patty, to the home-baked ciabatta bun, and white truffle mayo, it is obvious that the ingredients involved are of the highest quality, and you can almost taste the grass in the grass-fed beef.

This is the healthy option on this list and is no lesser a burger for that. The juiciness of the 8oz burger, combined with the caramelized onions, and Swiss cheese was a delight. The only downside was the homemade ketchup, which was slightly disappointing.

Marcus’ – Pitts Bay Burger, $27| 5 out of 5 stars

This was the best burger in its class, a beautiful blend of sweet and savory.  Featuring a great blend of beef with a nice and juicy and soft texture, awesome sharp cheese, with the mix of a sweet onion jam, and crispy bacon, rounded out with crisp lettuce, tomatoes, red onions and smooth avocado purée, and all inbetween traditional Portuguese Johnny Bread. Overall it’s great value for money at $27, being that you’re also paying for the atmosphere of the restaurant and great views of Hamilton Harbour.

Comfort Food

There are times when only a beer and a burger will do. Throw in the comfortable atmosphere of some of Bermuda’s best-loved pubs and there are days when finding an excuse to leave is harder than finding one to go in the first place.

Flanagan’s Irish Pub – Plain Burger, $14 |4.5 out of 5 stars

Imagination is the only limitation to what your burger can be at Flanagan’s. With extra toppings ranging from $1 for mushrooms and jalapenos, to $6 to make it a three-quarter pounder, the possibilities are endless. To keep things simple we opted for the plain 6oz homemade burger, which is char-grilled and comes with lettuce and tomato. The result, perfection.

From a seasoned patty that our taste tester described as “awesome” to a soft bun of sweet brioche bread, the simple choices can often be the best ones. Great value for money and, depending on your tastes, perfect for anyone. If beef isn’t your thing, then the pulled pork or chicken burger option are just as attractive.

The Frog & Onion Pub – Frog & Onion Burger, $16.99| 4.5 out of 5 stars

Basic it may be, but you’ll struggle to find a better burger west of Hamilton. Swiss cheese, crisp bacon and fried onions sit on top of a burger that our taster called “texturally awesome”. A perfect blend of sweet and salty, the juicy patty sits in the middle of a burger that has well-defined layers and is as delicious to look at as it is to eat…almost.

Swizzle Inn (North Shore) – The Swizzle Burger, $17| 4 out of 5 stars

It’s hardly a surprise that this eponymous Bermuda restaurant would feature on our list. Popular with locals and tourists alike there is no secret behind its popularity, just good food and good fun in a friendly atmosphere. Of course, that does not always mean the burger will be a winner, but in this case, it was.

A 6oz all beef burger with crisp bacon, real cheddar, lettuce, tomato and dill slices, our taster called it a “great bacon cheeseburger with a good balance of flavour”.

The basic burger can be topped off anything from fried onions, to blue cheese, or guacamole, all for an extra $1.50.

Hangover Cures

Last, but by no means least, comes this selection of tasty morsels. For those times when even speaking can seem like rocket science and your head is thumping like the speakers in your ace boys car, these are the places to go.

Mr Chicken – Swiss & Mushroom Burger, $8| 3.5 out of 5 stars

No pretence, no fancy get up, just a solid, tasty burger. The mushrooms were firm enough to go well with the juicy burger and the cheese only added to the enjoyment. Topped off with some seriously good seasoned fries and this burger has everything you need at any time of the day or night.

Bermy Cuisine – Double Decker Hamburger, $7.50| 3.5 out of 5 stars

Burgers that are homemade with plenty of fresh ingredients and a healthy dose of love, the overall eating experience is an enjoyable one. The burger is tasty, the lettuce was nice and crispy, and as everyone knows, nothing can go wrong when you mix mayonnaise and ketchup. The only downside to this burger is the bun, which was too small to accommodate a double patty, and as a result the burger fell apart a little too easily for our panel’s liking.

 The Beach – The Beach Burger, $14| 4 out of 5 stars

If the Doghouse is where we all end up on a Friday night, then Bermuda Bistro at the Beach is the destination for many the morning after the night before.

A juicy hand-crafted burger topped with lettuce, tomato, raw Onion and pickle. Again, our panel was not entirely sure about the raw onion, but this can be swapped out with fried onions if you choose. Added extras include Irish bacon, Chorizo, fried egg and avocado, all at $3 each.

The post Burgers passing the taste test appeared first on RG Magazines.

Led by a referee and his assistants, two teams of players march out on to a pristine pitch as Handel’s Zadok the Priestis played over loud speakers and a crowd of thousands waits in anticipation of the game to come. It is a familiar sight to anyone who has watched the Uefa Champions League over the past several years, and now it is happening, minus the crowds, on the North Field, at the National Sports Centre, in Bermuda.

The brainchild of Kenny Thompson and Andrew Bascome, the Youth Football Super League Bermuda is the latest attempt to provide ‘serious’ football competition for local players with aspirations of being the next Lionel Messi, Christian Ronaldo, or Nahki Wells. A league aimed at players from the under-9 to under-15 age groups means for many involved that dream is still very much alive.

On Monday evenings the island’s young footballers play in their own champions league under lights in an atmosphere that while not quite electric, has the feel of a competition that carries as much weight for the players here as it does elsewhere. It is a place where, for a while at least, those taking part can believe anything is possible.

“It is normal for players of that age to have ambitions to be professionals – the reality is that very few will get there, but I am a firm believer in ‘why not’,” said Thompson. “Why not go for it, who am I to say that only a few can make it, so don’t even try. It is our responsibility to give them the best chance to succeed.”

It is not a chance that the island’s best young players have always been given. There is a valid argument to be made that the likes of Shaun Goater, Kyle Lightbourne, Reggie Lambe, Nahki Wells and others succeeded despite the system they were developed in, rather than because of it. The gap in youth development has long been recognised as being an issue in Bermuda; it is a gap that Thompson, Bascome, and the Bermuda Football Association, who support the initiative, are hoping to close.

“We do very basic football activities very well, for children that want to play football the opportunity is there,” Thompson said. “Then there is part of the football population, they are very serious [about the game], and they have serious ambitions, and they have to be catered to as well. I think overall, in Bermuda, we have tended to leave out [the needs] of that serious population.”

Thompson knows what it feels like to be let down when, as a young player in Bermuda, your expectations aren’t met. He and Bascome were what he terms ‘serious players’, ones whose approach even in the week preceding a pre-season friendly was dominated by training, eating, and sleeping right. He quickly learnt that not everyone felt the same way.

“I would take it very seriously, and then arriving for the match that all falls out of the window because I’m taking it seriously, but there are no goals, the field is not marked, there is no official referee, no uniforms,” he said.

“There is a level of disappointment there, and that was a recurring situation, and that’s pre-season. The league matches weren’t that bad, but still there was a feeling that we weren’t serious. In many ways it didn’t live up to our expectations.

“I think today we’re getting that [same sentiment] from young people, taking into consideration that back in our day we didn’t have all the information at our fingertips that these children have today. We didn’t know what top football looked like on a regular basis, you fast forward to this generation and they’re watching the Champions League, and the Premier League, and La Liga, and Bundesliga, and this is every day. They see it on the internet, they see it on their phones; they are just in touch with the reality of what top football looks like.”

With knowledge comes a realisation from young players that in many ways they were being short changed by the system that Bermuda had in place for developing the skills of the next generation. “These serious players, we give them what amounts to be nothing more than just a kick-about – an open space with a football, two teams playing, that’s about it,” Thompson said. “And that has its place, definitely has its place, because everybody should have the opportunity to play football. But, for those serious guys, their expectations are much higher than any other generation before.

“They can pinpoint what they have, in comparison to what they see. At seven, or eight, nine, 10 years old, they are flying with ambition and we keep disappointing them, and at maybe 12 the interest starts to wear off, and by 15 or 16 they’re not playing at all. And we see, progressively, that as the players get older the number of players is dropping off.”

Player development is not something new to Thompson or Bascome, both have tried their best to improve football on the island at a variety of levels. The new competition was the result of a realisation of their own, that something serious had to be done to serve the ambitions and abilities of the island’s talented young players.

“We felt that this was the time to do something very, very serious for youth football; something that spoke to meeting the expectations of young players,” Thompson said.

Serious meant competition, a pathway for players to improve, coaches who understood that making mistakes is as important in player development as winning, and that building character, moulding a professional mindset was all part of what was missing.

“ Even on an island of 60,000 people, why shouldn’t these young people dream, and the fact of the matter is that the next Lionel Messi could come from anywhere in the world,” Thompson said. “We won’t know, and we won’t provide that individual with the best chance unless we provide these sorts of things, and in this case, this competition.”

Thompson knows that the percentage of players who actually make it as the top level is impossibly small when compared with those that dream of making it. But, he also knows that being exposed to a serious environment early can lead to an ability to have a career off the field as well.

“It’s the same whether their ambition is to be a professional footballer, or the ambition is to get a college scholarship, the demands are the same,” he said. “It’s going to take sacrifice, it’s going to take perseverance, it’s going to take really hard work. You have to better than the next person, it’s all the same.

“With this competition we are building that mentality to give the next Nahki Wells a really good chance to succeed. I’m so proud of Nahki, and Reggie (Lambe) and others, and the thing is they’ve done, they’re doing it, but they’re doing it despite [coming from Bermuda] not as a result of some system that we had in place.

“So, imagine what they could have done with a much better structure in place.”

The post Kenny Thompson: Chasing the dream appeared first on RG Magazines.

“It doesn’t take a lot. You just have to eat healthily and get into exercise. Just go out and start walking every day. Just start that. It doesn’t have to be in a gym; it can be anywhere – just get physically active.”

And it isn’t as expensive as people might think to eat healthily, either, she said. “It’s about the choices we make at the grocery store. Some of our fresh fruits and vegetables are expensive, but you have frozen options that you can use that are just as good. Is it expensive the choices you have to make to avoid kidney failure or having body parts removed? What is it worth? It’s all about priorities and our health.”
Ms Hodgkins said she welcomes the introduction of a sugar tax – something she has advocated for over the years. But for the sugar tax to have any effect, she said she hopes to see the money from the tax put towards subsidizing healthcare and educating the public about making healthy choices.
“I am very concerned about the figures of diabetes in this country. What is it doing to our children and what is that doing for the healthcare costs to everyone else that is healthy and that has to pay these premiums in healthcare because of the bad choices that some people in our community are making?”
She said many people still don’t realize that sugar is equivalent to a drug and as addictive as cocaine.
“If you’re choosing to make bad choices then you’re going to have to pay higher taxes on it,” she said. “It may not deter people from making bad choices, but it may help us to help subsidise the healthcare system. People make the choices to eat bad foods, and they know they are making a bad choice, but it’s all about taking care of yourself and making a choice to not end up with the same diseases as your parents had.”
Education in the schools about the benefits of healthy food choices needs to continue, she said, but with more emphasis on the diseases that can contribute to health complications, such as loss of limbs.
“It starts with education in the schools because a lot of obesity is hereditary in the sense that these food habits are passed down from generation to generation. Diabetes runs in my family and I will never forget when I went to visit my uncle, who had diabetes, and I asked him why he was missing a finger, and he said it was because he had diabetes and he had to have it removed. That has always stuck with me, and I knew that I never in my life wanted to lose a body part because of a disease.”

Want more!? Check out Catherine Burns’ tips on eating clean

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I’m not going to throw a book of statistics at you, but we all know our diabetes rate is sky-high across both sexes and within an increasingly younger demographic. Heart disease is the biggest killer of our women and cancers are significant too. The crazy thing about our disease incidence is that so much of it is preventable. Not only are we suffering through unnecessary pain and lifestyle limitations, but we’re bankrupting our economy too. Health insurance is cripplingly expensive, not because our domestic insurers are greedy, but because it has to be to cover the monumental number of claims. And if we lost health insurance benefits as we know them, because we ate too much KFC, drank too much soda, or didn’t get our veggies in, how frustrating would that be?

When you break it down to individual behaviours, you’d be right to say that something like “eating Cheetos” doesn’t translate to escalating healthcare premiums. But an accumulation of these behaviours does. And it’s rare for someone to eat a completely healthy diet with just a sprinkling of Cheetos on top, because junk food is addictive. Food manufacturers know that there’s a special ratio of ‘salt: sugar: fat’ that gets your brain wanting more. No wonder it’s hard to say no, and no wonder one cookie leads to another. After all, humans eat for pleasure (hedonic hunger) as well as for necessity (biological hunger) but that’s dangerous in an environment that’s riddled with cheap, easy and socially acceptable junk-food options.

I teach a six week optimum nutrition programme called Nutrifit. I wrote it to help people understand the basics (blood sugar balance, improving digestion, liver function and more …) but also to teach individuals how to navigate our current food environment. Lots of people need help figuring out how to succeed within an environment that’s currently set up for them to fail. And the main philosophy underpinning what I teach is simple. It’s to “choose food that nourishes you.” The idea is to remember that the food you eat is supposed to do a job for your body. The fuel you choose will very simply make every other aspect of your life harder, or it can make it easier. We make this point within our Beat the Couch running programme as well; when you’re trying to get fit, healthy eating will give you energy and support injury recovery, whereas eating junk makes you feel lethargic and inhibits healing.

Of course, all this comes close to the concept of “You are what you eat.” And do I believe in that? Absolutely. But in order for “you are what you eat” to be really useful, it’s worth taking a closer look. Here are some things to consider:

You are what you eat, but more specifically what you digest and absorb.
Good digestion is critical for optimum health. A healthy balance of gut flora and a good supply of enzymes help to break down your food without discomfort and improve your absorption of nutrients. A diet of sugary, processed junk (and caffeine/alcohol) can inhibit enzyme function and also trigger dysbiosis (an imbalance) within your gut flora. Commonly that would lead to fatigue, bloating and bathroom issues as well as compromising your immune system. As an aside, if your digestive system is compromised for any reason (maybe you’re ill, going through treatment or have some allergies flaring up) then although raw food generally contains more nutrients, your body might more readily absorb them when they are gently cooked.

You are what you eat, but how you prepare it matters too
Did you know that if you boil broccoli for longer than five minutes you’ll have up to a 77% nutrient loss? So if anyone tries to make you eat soggy vegetables you’ve got the perfect excuse to refuse them now. I wish I had known that at school! The best way to prep your veg is to steam it, even if you are cooking it from frozen. Cooking vegetables within dishes (soups and curries etc) is fine so long as the dishes are simmering rather than boiling. Roasted veg is good too, just try to do it over a lower heat for longer, than a higher heat for a faster period of time. In addition, some foods benefit from special preparation in order for you to maximise your nutrient exposure. For example, the heart healthy properties of garlic are more readily available when you crush the clove before chopping it.

You are what you eat, but you are what you eat eats too
Do you follow me? What I mean is that you get much better nutrition from animals (and animal products) that have been fed a healthy diet vs a factory-farmed diet. For example, much of chronic disease is linked to omega 3 deficiency, but more specifically, to a really high ratio of omega 6 intake compared to our omega 3 intake. Grass-fed cows carry a lot of omega 3, but factory farmed cows (which are fed a diet of soy and corn) carry much more omega 6. That affects the ratio of the fats you absorb through eating meat and dairy. So if you can, choose grass-fed, organic beef and dairy.

You are what you eat, especially if you exercise
Many people think that if they exercise off the junk, that what they eat doesn’t matter. It actually couldn’t be further from the truth. Exercise, especially intense exercise, whilst being great for your body strength and cardiovascular fitness, also generates a fair amount of free radical activity in your system. Left unchecked that can contribute to accelerated ageing and other types of cellular damage. But the good news is that eating lots of fruit and vegetables helps to cram your diet with the antioxidants that help to neutralise free radical activity. So there’s no excuse not to exercise, you just have to eat well too!

So that’s it! You are definitely what you eat, but it’s a little more complicated than that! To learn more, join me in the clinic, for Nutrifit or for the next Season of Beat the Couch. Season 11 starts February 22 — early bird information, pricing and registration is online now! All details at www.natural.bm

The advice given in this article is not intended to replace medical advice, but to complement it. Always consult your GP if you have any health concerns. Catherine Burns BA Hons, Dip ION is the Managing Director of Natural Ltd and a fully qualified Nutritional Therapist trained by the Institute for Optimum Nutrition in the UK Please note that she is not a Registered Dietitian. For details regarding consultancy, Nutrifit and Beat the Couch, please go to www.natural.bm or call 296-6609. Join Catherine on Facebook: www.facebook.com/nutrifitandnaturalnutritionbermuda.

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That these gangs are populated by young men who operate on the fringes of society is also not news. Between January 2009 and November this year there were 35 gun deaths attributed to gang violence in Bermuda, with another 90 people shot and injured. In the courts there have been 20 convictions for murder, 19 for attempted murder, 17 for unrelated firearms offences, and one conviction for manslaughter. During that time the police have seized 47 guns.

There have also been stabbings, drug busts, petty thefts, and myriad other offences that are associated with gangs and the crimes they commit.

For some these young men are “a cancer”, an “enemy within” and an “evil minority” (The Royal Gazette editorial, Wednesday, June 1, 2016). Others take umbrage at this characterisation of the more marginalised members of our society, suggesting demonising them ignores the root causes behind gangs and deprives the community of its “grief and angst around these issues” (A.S. Simons, Letter to the Editor, June 3, 2016).

There are merits to both sides, although neither completely addresses the reality of the situation. On the one hand there is little understanding of, or appreciation for, how and why young men are being drawn into a life outside the boundaries of what is acceptable in civilised society.

On the other is the longstanding inability to address the issue honestly, if at all, which is not something that Bermuda, with its small close-knit community, has historically been good at; be that talking about gang violence or drink driving.

“I think for a long time people turned a blind eye,” said Antoine Daniels, the Assistant Commissioner of the Bermuda Police Service. “They said ‘this is Bermuda, it doesn’t happen here’, or the other one was ‘it doesn’t affect me’.”

The unwillingness to speak ill of the dead reflects the realities of living on a small island, but it also exacerbates the situation by papering over the cracks of the problem. Having honest conversations about the person who died and their lifestyle, while expressing sympathy for the family left behind, are not mutually exclusive.

Someone can be a “loving father or son” while also acting in such a way that their death or incarceration becomes a foregone conclusion. But, barring a few rare cases, people are not inherently evil, nor born killers. They do not grow up dreaming of being gangsters, but there is a moment when that becomes the most appealing, or sometimes only, avenue available to them.

It is in understanding that process, talking honestly about the realities of a life where anger dominates love, and learning how to change those realities that lies at the heart of reducing the violence that has gripped the island for the past decade and more.

The Community Activist – Desmond Crockwell

Desmond Crockwell is a passionate believer in prevention being better than punishment; unfortunately he believes he is in the minority and that people in Bermuda do not care enough to stop gang violence from happening.

“The problem is the attitude people have; ‘as long as it doesn’t happen to me, or my immediate family, I really don’t care’,” he said. “Our children can die and we do nothing. No one is marching up and down for that. Two guys want to get married and people are marching up and down.

“We [Bermudians] are very proud, but we don’t want to get our hands dirty. We’ll talk about everybody in the world, we love running our mouths, but tell us to go out there and do something, and it’s a whole different story. We need to make sacrifices. If we don’t we’ll just continue to talk.”

For Desmond, there is no mystery in what propels young men towards gangs. He has been there and come out the other side. He understands the anger and the frustration that come from feeling marginalised and isolated in your own country; from feeling trapped by a lack of opportunities and forgotten by a political class that seemingly does not care – or cares only when it comes to photo opportunities and good publicity.

Desmond sees the decades of investment in the court building, police station, airport and sporting events as ample evidence of where the Government’s priorities lie, and he does not believe it is with those that are suffering the most.

“Government has to take a lot of the blame for the way things are,” he said. “They spend millions on prosecutions but tell us [in prevention] that there is no money, so I know you don’t care.

“Where are the community centres? Where are the schools for troubled kids? The sporting clubs are kicking them out. There is nowhere for them to go to vent their anger, their frustrations.”

Ultimately Desmond believes the solution lies in a reworking of priorities and investment, not just of money but of time. The emotional needs of children coming from broken homes require just as much focus as those whose anger stems from an education system that has let them down badly.

“The feeling [in the gangs] is ‘you’re going to wait for me to shoot somebody before you recognise I’m here’,” he said. “You’re not coming to me, so I have to shoot now before you even understand that I’m frustrated.

“We need to talk to them to understand why they are so upset. There all these underlying issues that we don’t know about, that we don’t take the time to know about. Sometimes they just need someone to talk to because otherwise they are bottling up that anger – and it comes out.

“Not listening has a serious impact on our community. Sometimes it’s just a case of talking. They might have trouble at home, be hungry, and they are angry because they don’t think they can tell anyone. There are underlying things at home that we don’t know about, which is why we need facilities in these areas where children can go to be safe, to talk to people.”

For Desmond, one of the most telling moments in his life came through such an opportunity: a chat with a neighbour who told him to focus on the positive aspects of his own character.

“Those people [the ones who listen] are the heroes,” he said. “A guy no one would have thought about said to me ‘listen Desy man, you’re a good person you know I’ve seen you do good, all those good things that you’ve done, and this [the bad] is what you want to dwell on? Because everyone is dwelling on it? You need to see yourself as this, then you can help the ones coming behind you’.

“You can’t tell a youth ‘you’re a bad child’. You can say ‘you’ve done a bad thing’, but not ‘you’re a bad person’. There’s a difference. There has to be a difference in the way we talk about our children. If you tell a child ‘you’re never going to make it’, eventually they will believe you. Tell a child they’re trying, they’ll keep trying until they make it.

“The little things we say, the little things we plant into our children’s minds, the places that we take them has a lot to do with how they think about themselves. That is something I really try to emphasise; we don’t have bad people, just bad choices.

“What we do and tell them [the youth] matters. We can’t just keep telling them ‘straighten up before I help you’.”

The Gang Member – Anonymous

It is difficult to get gang members to talk for obvious reasons. The fear of being identified, of being accused of talking outside the gang, for bringing unnecessary attention to themselves – all of these things plays a part.

Still, to truly understand the reasons someone may have for joining a gang you have to go to the source.

The concerns lessen for those who have been caught and now reside at Westgate, although they never go away, which is why this interview was conducted with the understanding that the person consenting to it would not be identified in any way.

How did you get started in a gang?

“Speaking on my perspective, coming up some people’s not really got it [academics], and so you’re struggling. A lot of us turned to hanging on the streets, then it leads to selling drugs and some people get the impression…they feel they are upgrading themselves.

“I guess people just get over their heads with certain things and they feel that they are bigger than other people, and it becomes a pride thing.

“I wanted to be a mechanic; I used to like to fix bikes. But I got caught living in the fast lane by selling drugs, and I thought that was the right way to go because I was waiting for a paycheque. I was getting that in a week what I was earning in a month. So I was hooked on that instead of the job, but now I feel it and I have regrets.

“I wish I had…it was a good job and it was a well-paying one, but I just got caught in the fast lane. But that happens to a lot of people. If you can make $500 in a day, instead of waiting a whole week, then why not go for that?”

 How do you get the gang members today to understand the reality of what they’re doing?

“The only way they will get understanding is if they get it from somebody who has been there, has been in the lifestyle, thought that what they were doing was right, but end up finding out down the line that it’s not right, because friends that you think have got your back out there, they don’t have your back when you are in jail.

“They [friends] don’t put money at the canteen for you, they don’t phone, half of them you can’t even get to come visit. And the people that are looking out for you are the ones that are hurting – your family. They are the ones that will be there for you for the rest of your life. But the hurt, it always leads back to the family members.”

Isn’t providing for family what it’s all about?

“To a certain extent because at the time you think you’re doing the right thing. But then the shoe falls off the foot and you find out that path was really the one you shouldn’t have been walking down. That’s when reality sets in.

“Some families wouldn’t know because a lot of men are not going to go home and tell their momma ‘somebody’s trying to kill me’ or ‘I’m in this lifestyle’. They try to shield it from their family, and if something happens around the house, obviously they [the family] are going to be very frightened.

“It does have an effect on families. They have to live with that for the rest of their life; they’re not going to forget what happened. I’ve been shot at. It’s not a nice feeling, it’s not a nice sound. I’m just lucky I’m here to talk about it.”

How do you stop the younger generation wasting their lives?

“The only thing I can suggest, as someone who has lived that lifestyle, is to show them the things that have happened in my life. Show them that, all right, cool, you might be living your life, getting away with doing your thing, bragging to your girl, your boy. You think they’ve got your back.

“Those girls ain’t going to be your girl. She’ll be somebody else’s girl, and you’re going to have problems in jail. If they feel that that kind of lifestyle is cool, with one of their brethrens in jail doing a life sentence, then they’ve got it wrong, they’ve got it twisted.

“I’ve heard a lot of guys say ‘I’ll go jail’, but they don’t know – even the hardest of guys in here break down crying.”

What would you say to them if you could?

“I’d want them to know [that] no money can amount to human life and if the youths are thinking about picking up a gun, to just to show your girl that you’re some gangster, or whatever they have in their mind, let it go. Because when you’re sitting up in this jail cell, it’s not a good thing. You have no friends around you and when you’re in that quiet time by yourself, that’s when reality kicks in and you know you’re not going home.

“I would tell them get out, get an education, raise your family the right way, rather than have your child come and visit you in jail.”

The Family Member – Arreta Furbert

Arreta Furbert has endured a mind-numbing grief that most mothers could not fathom.

In October last year, her 19-year-old son, Isaiah, was shot dead in his bedroom as she folded his laundry in the room next door.

She watched helplessly and hysterically as EMTs tried desperately to save her only son’s life before rushing him to hospital where she was told he had died.

Just nine months later, Arreta saw her son’s best friend, Jahcari Francis, 20, murdered in almost identical fashion in the same Upland Street home as they sat down to dinner.

Police have yet to charge anyone with either murder, but the grieving mother rejects assumptions that her teenage son was mixed up in the tit-for-tat gang lifestyle.

She admits he had enemies, but insists his allegiance to the St Monica’s area was borne solely from family and friends that he grew up with, rather than any criminal enterprise.

“I never felt worried that my son was in a gang; they were throwing up the signs of where they came from in middle school, but I did not see that as them being part of a gang,” Arreta said.

“For Isaiah, it was where he was from. His grandmother grew up on Mission Lane and he would go up there to see his uncle. That recognition of 42 and 42nd Street to him was not what it may seem to a stranger.

“A lot of the tension with others stemmed from when they were at school and aged 11 or 12; punch-ups in the schoolyard and things like that. Call it naivety on my part, but I never took it to heart. I never imagined anything like this would ever happen.”

Arreta and Isaiah had lived under the same roof every day of the teenager’s life.

“As long as I can remember, it was always just me and Isaiah,” she said. “I worked two jobs all that time and he always wanted to be at home,” she said. “His friends would come over; they were always at our place, and that was just the way it was.

“I didn’t want him hanging out on walls; I wanted to have him in my sights. My mother was always there too; we were a very close family.”

In July 2016 Arreta, her elderly mother and Isaiah moved back to Upland Street for a second spell.

She said: “We had toyed around with the idea of him going to Canada after he finished school, because he was a Canadian citizen through me, and I tried to push him in the direction of navigation and ships.

“But he did not want to leave. He wanted to go fishing with his dad and spend time with his friends.

“Then things started to go a little haywire. Before, he was never really involved in the street; he never really hung out at clubs or football games. But then in the summer, before his death, he started going to things like Beachfest, Cup Match and Non Mariners.

“I knew there were people who did not like him and he was smoking weed, but I felt I was in control. He wasn’t stealing or anything like that. I would ask him what their beef was; he just said they were just jealous.

“He sometimes told us that he was not going to live to be an old man. Now that seems quite prophetic.”

Arreta insists she kept close tabs on her son, always checking his drawers and pockets for any signs of trouble.

“I don’t think I was complacent,” she said. “I felt like I was doing everything I needed to. Isaiah was not a good liar, so I never felt he was drug dealing or anything like that.

“His behaviour was not strange. Some people had said to me you need to get him off island, but I remember him saying he would not let them chase him away. He said he had not done anything wrong. Even now I cannot figure out what the hatred was all about.”

Arreta described her son as a “good soul” who was popular and would give friends the shirt off his back.

“I feel like I ran out of time with Isaiah; they pulled the rug from under me,” she said. “He was no angel but I keep thinking, if only I had just had a little bit more time with him.

“I would like some kind of closure. I want to see the man who did this to my son and ask why. I just don’t understand, but I refuse to let them win.”

The Police Officer – Assistant Commissioner Antoine Daniels, Bermuda Police Service

For Mr Daniels, the fight to combat the gang problem in Bermuda begins in the schools.

With gang members getting ever younger, the Assistant Commissioner is under no illusions as to the task the police face in helping to solve the problem.

“Bermuda is no different from any other Western civilisation, where you get a lot of the kids displaying a lot of antisocial behaviour and delinquency if you don’t get into them quickly,” Mr Daniels said.

“That’s why we gear the gang resistance programme towards Primary 6 and M1. The 10, 11 and 12-year-olds; that’s the time of development where you see them bearing those certain characteristics.”

Research tells the police that children primarily join gangs for one of three reasons: social status, financial need and fear. On top of that, there is the disenfranchisement that comes from feeling that society has no place for them, that there is no hope for the future, so they create an alternative society.

“I was listening to the radio the other day where they were interviewing two teachers who were talking about the students in their classroom, and that they have to prepare them to learn. They arrive at school and they’re not ready; they’re hungry, there is trauma at home. The teachers have to deal with this before they can even teach.

“This is the type of situation that you’re dealing with in Bermuda, so it’s not lost on me that we have some serious problems.”

While the traditional aspect of policing – catch and convict – will always form the largest part of Mr Daniels’s focus, there is an appreciation, too, that the police can have a positive influence early on by working with charities such as Family Centre and Mirrors to provide safe and supportive spaces, mentorship and coaching for children that might not otherwise have access to those things.

Programmes such as the Youth Leadership Academy, Homework Academy and Beyond Rugby are important, so too the Gang Taskforce, which at the height of the gang violence went into the schools to educate teachers and parents about what was happening.

“We went to the high schools and middle schools [public and private] and had a real heart-to-heart with a lot of the teachers,” Mr Daniels said. “We’d bring them to the assembly and point out the gang paraphernalia that the children had on, and they [the teachers] didn’t even realise it.

“At some schools we found that students would form in certain areas of the school where there were gang symbols on the walls. We had those painted over them to try and break that up.

“It’s very sensitive how you do it. You never want to come out and say X-school is more gang-culture than Y-school. Although we know and recognise what is going on in those schools, we try and work with the principals and student body to resolve those various issues.”

Building trust in the community is also essential, but Mr Daniels also knows that people have to want to help themselves. “The biggest thing for me is to try and get people to understand that handcuffs are not going to solve the problem,” he said.

“We try to show the community that if you continually turn a blind eye to what’s going on, one day it may be on your doorstep, and that’s one of the biggest messages I try to get out there. Either get involved voluntarily, or you might get involved through some type of mishap. It’s not a threat, it’s not trying to scare people, it’s the reality of what’s going on. And I’ve seen that first-hand.”

The Politician – Wayne Caines, Minister of National Security

If people want practical solutions to the problem of gang violence, then Wayne Caines knows exactly where they need to start looking – at themselves.

The Minister of National Security believes that while the Government has a responsibility to help to solve the issue, with improving education being a major focus, communities must also take a greater role in preventing young men from falling into a lifestyle that too often ends in misery and death for those around them.

“In Bermuda, everyone wants to know what are the practical things we can do? On a practical level, we have to hold our sons accountable for their behaviour,” the minister said. “We cannot give safe harbour to anyone that is doing antisocial behaviour and it is as simple as allowing someone to use a car that is uninsured and unlicensed. This is fighting in the neighbourhood, this is selling drugs; all of these things are interconnected and basic things that we can do.

“Our parents, our community, we have to hold everyone accountable for their actions. We have to make sure we create safe environments for our young sons. The sporting groups have to create an environment [that is safe] from first thing in the morning to last thing at night. A lot of our young men do not have safe environments, so we have to create surrogate families; whether it is our church, it’s the sporting groups, but they have to have a safe environment where they can develop, mentally and socially.”

For the minister, the disintegration of the family unit is crucial to understanding the problem that the island faces, as is understanding the psyche of the young men that are attracted to that lifestyle.

“We have to look, the black community specifically, we have to look at making stronger families because something that is crystal clear, when a young man does not have a father in the home, he is much more likely to seek solace, comfort and guidance from those in his peer group,” Mr Caines said. “The Government will do its piece, community clubs should be held to account to their piece, but the last piece is the family. The family has to be encouraged to make wise decisions; we have to encourage the family to play an integral part in healing our country.

“That goes to the next thing, mentorship. A lot of times we want performance without development. We have to ensure that we have every able-bodied man, whether they are black or white, getting back into our community and mentoring young men. We have a mentality of ‘that’s not my son’, or ‘that’s what’s happening in the back of town or Somerset’. We have to create a model of mentorship…I’m talking things outside of what the Government is already doing.”

One thing the minister is not convinced by is the argument that successive governments have been more focused on punishment rather than prevention. What he does believe is that a section of society was ignored in the race for economic growth.

“The reality of it is that for a very long time we have been successful as a business jurisdiction, a blue-chip jurisdiction,” he said. “We have allowed our success to permeate the business sphere, but the family was left behind. We are seeing the manifestation of the neglect to the social fabric of our country, but all is not lost. We have things to put in place that can solve this crisis and I believe together we can do it. I believe there is an opportunity to heal Bermuda.

“I would say that we have never looked at this as a public health crisis. We have to take a more clinical approach, we have to deconstruct the psyche of those that are committing the violence and we have to incorporate what we have learnt, including from the police, and put all the different elements together.

“The Government has a plan, but as far as the community is concerned, everyone has to row in together. Sport clubs, families, churches have to come together in a holistic approach to solve the problem.”

There have been 35 gun murders in Bermuda since May 22, 2009 in 34 shooting incidents*

Malcolm Augustus

Deshaun Jerry Berkley

Stefan Burgess

Garry “Fingas” Cann

David Clarke

Fiqre Crockwell

Jonathan Dill

Patrick Dill

Prince Barrington Edness

Colford Ferguson

Jahcari Francis

Isaiah Furbert

Rico Furbert

Kumi Harford

James Lawes

Jahmiko LeShore

George Lynch

Dekimo “Purple” Martin

Freddy Maybury

Jason Mello

Shane Minors

Haile Outerbridge

Jahni Outerbridge

Michael Phillips

Perry Mosley Puckerin

Raymond Troy “Yankee” Rawlins

Erin Lee Richardson

Joshua Robinson

Kenwandee “Wheels” Robinson

Randy Robinson

Jason Smith

Morlan Steede

Lorenzo Stovell

Rickai Swan

Kimwandae Walker

* This list does not include Shaki Crockwell, who was shot in 2007 before the big outbreak of violence started (his killer, Derek Spalding, was sentenced to life behind bars, and must serve 25 before becoming eligible for parole) or Jason Lightbourne, who was fatally shot in 2006 (Prince Edness was charged and acquitted in November, 2014 – shortly before his own murder)

According to people who work with gangs, there are several reasons why children join them. These are the most popular:

• For money, jewellery, respect and power
• For a sense of belonging
• As a result of the neighbourhood where they live
• For protection
• Because they were forced into it
• Out of boredom

In the battle parents face in keeping children out of trouble, here are some tips from the Gang Prevention Unit on how you can spot if children are going down the wrong path.

• Watch their friends and associations carefully and observe whether they move around the Island with friends for protection
• Be concerned if they do not want to travel to certain areas
• Monitor Facebook postings
• Watch out for the use of multiple cell phones, which can be a sign of drug dealing
• Look out for signs of drug and alcohol abuse and failing schoolwork
• Be wary of them throwing up gang signs and being made aware of gang-related incidents instantly.

The best ways to prevent young people getting caught up in gangs are to:

• Give them as much encouragement as possible and encourage extra-curricular activities such as church and youth groups and sport
• Encourage them to stay focused at school
• Discuss the consequences of gang life and what it leads to
• Open their eyes as much as possible about other countries and cultures
• Discourage any glorification of gangs, guns and drugs
• Monitor what they see and listen to on the television and internet

This article was featured in the December 2017, RG Winter Magazine.

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Spending the winter in Australia is a well-trodden path in the professional ranks, with the hard nature of the game Down Under, and the quality of opposition, often acknowledged as an essential part of any young player’s education.

Attached to Sydney Cricket Club, Delray is based near the Balmain suburb of Sydney, some 20 minutes from the city centre and world-famous attractions such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and Darling Rocks.

In this issue of Big World, Delray talks spin bowling, leaving home, and why Christmas in Australia does not mean missing out on spending the day at the beach.

So, Delray, you’ve been in Australia for a couple of months, how are you finding it?

“Pretty good so far, the weather has been average, but I’m enjoying it. It rained a few times but it’s been better and getting warmer the last few days.

“I’m staying in Drummoyne, basically where the home ground is, just outside of Balmain, about 20 minutes out of Sydney. It’s a very good area.”

What’s first on the tourist list? The Blue Mountains, the Harbour Bridge?

“I haven’t had a chance to do much exploring yet. The few days I was probably going to do something it rained. Also, more of the Sussex boys are coming out soon as well, so I will do some exploring with them when they arrive.

“I haven’t really thought about what to see first. Some of the boys have been here before, so they know some of the good areas to go, and things to see, so I’m going to just roll with it.”

You’re no stranger to living away from home, but has it been difficult to adjust to being in Australia?

“It definitely takes a while to get used to being in a new place. Obviously I’ve lived away from home for a while now, over in England, but moving away from home again for five or six months has taken a little bit of time getting used to.

“But I got over things like jet lag, and I acclimatised and everything pretty quickly, and feel that I’m settled in and quite comfortable, and I’m just looking forward to the few months ahead, really.

“I was sort of looking to come last year, but then I was involved with the [England] under-19s, so I couldn’t come. Hopefully it will be a pretty big eye-opener.”

What does a normal day look like for you at the moment?

“At the moment I’m doing cricket-skills training twice a week with Stuart MacGill [former Australia spin bowler], on Tuesdays and Thursday, and club training on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well. On the other days I’m in the gym and running – not a great deal at the start as I was having a bit of rest after the season. But these next few weeks I’ll hit it pretty hard before Christmas, and then after Christmas get right back into it to lead into the season.”

Will you and your Sussex team-mates get together over Christmas?

“They’re actually all playing for other club sides all within 20 minutes to half an hour of here, so we’re all around each other, which is quite nice. We’ll see quite a lot of each other, which is great.

“And I won’t miss out on being at the beach at Christmas. I’m looking forward to it, actually. I’ve heard a lot about Manly Beach. I’m looking forward to spending Christmas in Sydney.”

24 hours in Sydney

If you’re heading Down Under the chances are you’ll have more than a day to explore Sydney, but if you do find yourself short on time, here’s a guide to making the most of it in one of Australia’s largest cities:

9am – Breakfast

As with any city there are plenty of options for starting your day the right way. Two spots that standout among the crowd are: Two Good Eggs Café a rustic venue situated on Goulburn Street, just around the corner from the Capitol Theatre. And if quality coffee in a relaxed setting is your thing, then Pablo & Rusty’s on Castlereagh Street is as good a spot as any.

10am – Taking a stroll

A walking city like no other, Sydney has plenty to see if you don’t mind stretching your legs. Walk down to Circular Quay and check out the hustle and bustle of the ferries departing. Wander around the famous Sydney Opera House and discover this incredible architectural landmark building. You can even take a tour and learn more about this unique structure. From here walk around the Royal Botanic Gardens to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair; you’ll have picture perfect views of both the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Follow the walk around the water, through to The Domain and onto the Art Gallery of NSW, where you can view an extensive range of Australian art.

12pm – A view from above

Walk back into the city and head up to the Sydney Tower Eye observation deck for magnificent 360-degree views across the city. If you’re game enough why not venture out onto the Skywalk for a breathtaking outdoor experience.

1pm – Animal magic

Zoo or Aquarium, or both, in Sydney the three best options to get up close and personal to some of Australia’s wildlife. Darling Harbour houses the Sea life Sydney Aquarium, and the Wild Life Sydney Zoo, while a short ferry ride away is Taronga Zoo, home to some 3,000 animals from around the world.

2.30pm – Lunch on the beach

Catch a train to Bondi Junction, then jump on a bus from the Bondi Junction Interchange to Bondi Beach and grab lunch at one of the world’s most famous beaches! Enjoy the array of fabulous cafés and restaurants, then go for a walk along the beach—or if you have some spare time, why not try out the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk.

5pm – Sunset from on high

If you have a head for heights then you cannot visit Sydney without climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge. A must for any visit.

7pm – Dinner

Head to The Rocks, Sydney’s historic precinct, for an afternoon cocktail and dinner. Grab a drink at The Argyle in its gorgeous cobbled-stone courtyard, followed by dinner at New York inspired steakhouse The Cut, or modern Japanese at Sake Restaurant and Bar.

9pm – A little light entertainment

Head back to Sydney Opera House, where this always something going on in the evenings, from live music, to ballet, opera and comedy.

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In the Western world, constant access to news has, by and large, desensitised us to the suffering of others. A famine is just another famine; deaths from poverty, lack of infrastructure or fighting are quickly and easily forgotten by most.

Similarly, the constant use of the word “tragic,” to describe anything from a massacre to a cat being run over, has taken away the power and emotion those six letters used to convey. In many ways that makes the impact of seeing people living in mud huts without running water, electricity or even windows all the more powerful.

The village of Magereta is no different from countless others in Malawi. It has a chief, a collection of mud huts, a stone church built by a visit from a previous charity, a broken water pump, and not much else. Sitting in a valley dominated by the imposing Mount Mulanje, its inhabitants are subsistence farmers who work the land and make the most of the two cows and several chickens that roam the village.

And its men and women are dying of Aids-related diseases.

Working alongside Habitat for Humanity, BOM has been on 19 build trips in 17 countries over the 15 years of its existence. Roughly 500 people now live in homes around the world built by some 600 people from Bermuda who have volunteered with the charity.

There were 27 in the group that travelled to Malawi in the summer, enough to build four houses for families that the village council had deemed the most in need – which is saying something given the circumstances.

Elena Khumbanyiwa is an example of what we found. A 90-year-old great-grandmother she was the primary caregiver to four great-grandchildren, two boys and two girls, all of whom were 10 years old or younger. Their parents had died, their grandparents had died.

All five live in a single room, which also serves as a place to cook, and eat, and other things that the body does naturally. “The roof leaks heavily when it rains at night,” she told us. “We just stand until it stops; we are really tired living this way.”

Ultimately the hardest part of a trip like such as this is having to leave after two weeks with only four houses built. You could spend the rest of your life trying to make a difference and still only scratch the surface.

Next year BOM will be travelling to Bangalore in India to try to change the lives of families there. If you want to do something worthwhile next summer, there are worse ways to improve our world.

For more information on BOM, contact David Thompson via e-mail at [email protected]

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Also ideal for the occasional drinker, the club is an opportunity for you or a friend to discover wines that you may not have selected on your own.

Every month members receive a minimum of two carefully selected bottles of wine, and they can mix and match between white and red, as well as premier and classic memberships. Also included in the membership package are detailed tasting notes and information on the producers, regions and grape varietals featured.

With the holidays fast approaching, and some 300 wines in stock, Discovery will take the headache out of choosing a suitable wine for your family gatherings by hand-picking some for you.

After they select your new favourite wines, they send them straight to your door – for free. This saves you the hassle of fighting traffic and instantly crosses one very important duty off of your to-do list.

Memberships start from $39.95 a month, and include special offers, discounts on cases, and free delivery to your home or office. You can download an application form here, or contact Discovery Wines on 296-9463 or via e-mail at [email protected] 

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Striving to make themselves, their families and their island better than before, all are driven to succeed, but no two stories are the same. We spoke to 12 of these industry leaders of the future about their businesses, their motivation, and what it means to work for yourself.

Jahde Dowling
Business: King Jah Beatz
Audio engineer Jahde has had a passion for music for as long as he can remember, and by the time he was 15 had convinced his mom to buy him a beats machine for Christmas. That passion took him to Full Sail University where he graduated second in his class.
A producer at radio station Hott 107.5, he also works independently on the sound for commercials, and music videos.

Taking the step:
“Some of the biggest challenges in this industry when it comes to getting up and running I really didn’t have to face. I was afforded the luxury of being able to start in a place that was already established.
“I had a few bumps in the road on my way to finally starting my own recording company, and I believe that the hard times, and the desire to prove that I am good at what I do, drove me to start doing some independent work.”

Dream job:
“I would absolutely love to work with some companies like Disney, Sony and Warner Music Groups and possibly go to and live in the USA to become an internationally recognised engineer. I would love to win a Grammy or even be recognized by the Music Producers Guild for engineering.”

Michiko Campbell

Business: Chiko’s Smokey Rub
Not content with having one business, Michiko, who also is the chef at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, has three, and not all of them are in the food industry. While the Smokey Rub is the most well known, and the outside catering business is what you might expect from a chef, Michiko is also a carpenter of note, specialising in one of a kind pieces for private clients.

So, Michiko, a chef and a carpenter, tell us about that
“I had a talent for working with wood, so I started Chiko The Builder. I can create anything a customer wants; benches, coffee tables, bed headboards, anything. I started working in a carpentry workshop at the age of eight with my uncle. I believe it is always great to have a trade under your belt.”

How did Chiko’s Smokey Rub come into being?
“It started with a comment where someone asked me about a rub I had made. They said I should sell it, so, I did. Also, my wife, Sherelle Campbell, is my other driving force, she believed in me. From the first day I started I said ‘Chiko’s Smokey Rub and Rellz Hott Graphics [my wife’s business] working together will take us far’. She created my logos and does all my marketing. It helped get the businesses off the ground.”

What is the most satisfying thing about your businesses?
“Giving back every year because of how well the business is doing; or hearing the people’s comments and feedback, or just walking in the street and people saying ‘that’s the rub guy’ or just knowing you as spice man.
“I feel very inspired knowing that I’m doing something right and I have that consistent support from family, friends, and customers. I love the reviews I receive after building something for someone. I had built some planter boxes for a preschool and the compliments on my work that I received from teachers and parents were heartwarming.”

Andre Manders
Business: Fresh Fit
Andre’s business is fashion, specifically hats, he just loves hats – and Bermuda, of course, so it makes sense that his brand’s sole purpose is to promote “Bermuda pride and culture in a stylish fashion”

Getting started:
“As a college student studying abroad, I was big on representing my country. Each time I went back to school I would spend at least $500 to $1000 on Bermuda-branded. One particular mid-term break in 2011 I was in Brooklyn when I walked into a Lids store to buy a few hats. I noticed they had blank hats and offered customers the option to customise the hat.
“Being full of Bermuda pride I asked them to make me a hat that said 441 and BDA. I was in love with my hats. However, it wasn’t until the summer of 2012 when I wore one of my hats to a football at Rangers that the idea came to me.
“Everyone asked me where I got the hat from and how could they get one. That was the day I decided to start my own brand. I came up with the logo and name within the month. Although it took me four years to actually follow through with the idea, that’s how I got started.”

Facing a challenge:
“When I officially started in September 2016 there were a lot more local talented entrepreneurs who had started their own clothing brands. The market isn’t as open as it used to be in 2012. A sense of Bermuda pride is a lot stronger now than it was. As a result there is a lot of competition, which is good.
“However, one of the biggest challenges is trying to differentiate yourself from others. People often think you are stealing or copying ideas. When the reality is, I have been planning this and thinking about this for years.
“I have a ton of ideas and in due time I will differentiate my brand.”

The future:
“I want to become well established here in Bermuda and be able to cater to everyone; locals and tourist. Secondly, my ultimate goal is to expand internationally. I have already received a few offers to have my brand in stores abroad; which is great, but I’d rather solidify my brand here in Bermuda first.”

Greg De Melo

Business: Misaki restaurant

As if being a senior technical adviser in the banking industry wasn’t enough, Greg decided to get into the food business. A meeting with Leo Calingasan, the former head chef at Pearl, changed his direction from a food cart idea to Bermuda’s first pick-and-mix sushi restaurant.

So, Greg, why start your own business?
“Tough question, I think the determination to be successful, to have something to call our own, and to have something that one day when I have kids they can be proud of and potentially be a part of.
“I wasn’t always focused on being successful, but after losing my father at 18 years old I was determined. I know he would be proud of my brother and I.
“You need to have the right balance for your business. You need someone who has the business skills and then someone who has the hands-on skills, Leo and I are a great combination of these. Make sure you choose the right people to go into business with.”

What advice would you give a budding entrepreneur?
“Choosing the right location is key no matter what business you’re in. Be prepared to do a lot of paper work, phone calls, following up, and running around. Make sure you ask questions and I would recommend speaking with someone in a similar industry so that you can gain some insight as to what to expect. When you make that commitment by signing contract or investing a large sum of money be prepared to work hard because it isn’t easy, but just keeping looking for the light at the end of the tunnel and you’ll get there.”

Russell Griffith (aka DJ Rusty G)

Business: DJ

From his start at college house parties to Bermuda’s Summer Splash, Rusty G is one of the island’s top DJs. Here he tells us about how he got his start in the business, and what drives him every day.

When did you realise this was what you wanted to do as a career?
“I started playing music in college at house parties, student events and clubs. It was with a group of friends, we had a sound called Immortal Vybz Sound at the time. It wasn’t long until I realised my passion for it and decided to continue on after I finished school.”

You never get a second chance to make a first impression
“Getting started as a DJ is the hardest part. Club owners, radio stations and promoters don’t know if you are good so you have to prove that you are ready to handle it. Once given the opportunity to play in front of a crowd you have to make sure you deliver or you may never get a second chance!”

What is the best thing about what you do?
“Seeing a great crowd reaction to something I did is always satisfying. Knowing that people genuinely enjoy themselves when I play is extremely rewarding in itself.”

Sam Outerbridge

Business: Coral Coast Clothing

Sam is one of the brains behind Coral Coast Clothing, alongside business partner and friend, Adam Petty. After escaping from desk jobs that left them unfulfilled the pair began life in New York’s garment district, and now have a luxury menswear label inspired by their island home.

Sam, tell us about those early days in New York
“We went to the garment district with a passion for our idea, but no direction. We definitely learned the ropes of the fashion industry through trial and error. We has were unhappy with our 9-5 jobs as underwriters and we really wanted to create a product that Bermudians could believe in and could be known as one of the best in the world.”

What was the hardest part in getting started?
“In the early days of starting a company if you aren’t prepared to really struggle, then you are being naïve. With every peak comes a lull that you can never forecast. You have to be strong and very adaptable in order to survive on your own.
“Most challenges in starting your own business will usually stem from a capital/monetary standpoint. You need money to make money in this day and age. Another challenge has been convincing stores and buyers that your product can compete with the big players in the market.”

What is the most satisfying thing about the work for you?
“The most satisfying thing about our business is that we are able to sell our dream to customers that genuinely love the product. It is extremely gratifying to think of a design in your head, bring it to life and then sell it!”

Piers Carr
Business: Current Vehicles

Another two man band, Piers Carr and John-Paul Doughty are the duo behind the island’s first car rental company. While John-Paul is a recent addition to the team, Piers has been dreaming of this moment for several years.

How did you first get started?
“I recognised that the corporate world wasn’t for me, and wanted to do my own thing.”

What drove you to start your own business?
“I was frustrated at seeing Bermuda consistently underperform as a tourism destination and identifying a lack of safe, reliable and affordable transportation as one of the major causes of this.”

What is the best thing about working for yourself?
“Doing something I really enjoy, and looking forward to going to work each day.”

What is the worst thing?
“It is 24/7 with very little down-time.”

What challenges have you faced while getting your business up and running?
“There have been too many to count. I now age in dog years.”

What is the most satisfying thing about your business?
“Seeing the smile on people’s faces when they drive our cars and helping to do our part to rebuild Bermuda’s tourism future.”

What are your hopes for the future?
“For Bermuda to fulfill its potential as a world-class tourism destination and for the island to make a total conversion to electric vehicles. There is no reason that within 5-10 years both can’t become a reality.”

Conor Outerbridge

Business: Freelance photographer/videographer

Something of a free spirit, Conor is hoping to let his artistic nature take flight as a freelance photographer and drone operator.

Conor, you dropped out of university to pursue your dream, tell us about that decision.
“I have always been into photography and videography and it [studying business] wasn’t something I wanted to be doing. I dropped out of Dalhousie University in December last year.
“I first got started when I was in Washington Mall one day and I saw a drone and just decided to buy it. I got my first job working on the Babymoon film with Burnt House Productions and then from there everything just took off.”

What drives you in your approach to working?
“The reason why I like it [being my own boss] so much is because I can work on my own time and pick and choose jobs I want to do. What drove me to start my own business here in Bermuda is to do something completely different than anyone else was doing. I find that a lot of people here just go to college and then come back and work in an office everyday for the rest of their lives. I want to love what I’m doing every single day.”

What has been your biggest challenge so far?
“Having to put in the initial investment of buying a lot of camera gear; drones, cameras, underwater housing , microphones, lights, the list goes on and on. Another thing that is challenging is trying to get your name out there.”

What are your plans for the future?
“I hope to travel throughout the year around the world as a freelance photographer/videographer and then be in Bermuda between May and August.”

Melvin Dickinson
Business: Mediaville

A multi-media marketing and digital agency, Mediaville is at the forefront of technology and innovation on the island, however, things might have been very different, as Melvin describes.

How did Mediaville come about?
“I give my brother Qian Dickinson the credit for getting me started. About 13 years ago my brother, under the brand Vybez Alliance, was building small websites for people while he was running his online business.
“I was in college planning to become a cardiologist and one day he called me and said he was swamped with work. He said if I was up to it he would give me one of his client websites, and I could keep all the money from the contract.
“Being broke in school I immediately took the offer, even though I knew nothing about website development. Qian sent me the files and details, I then found out that not only would I have to teach myself basic programming, but I would also have to teach myself FLASH programming and animation. With the help of Google I taught myself FLASH programming and animation overnight, and completed the website by the end of the week.
“The ability to create something from nothing was everything. From that day forward, I loved programming and I knew exactly what I wanted to do.”

What’s next?
“Our plan for the future is to continue to grow Mediaville as a powerhouse of technology and innovation.
Our goal is to revitalise the industry in Bermuda by building innovative technologies to better the lives of Bermudians. We also have plans for rapid expansion over the next few years opening satellite offices all over the United States and the Caribbean in order to continue growing our local team and expand on our international opportunities. Continuing to executing first class image, first class quality and first class service is Mediaville’s primary goal.”

Caleb Zuill

Business: Sail Bermuda

Summer is a busy time of year for Caleb, which is why we were thrilled to be able to pry him away from a day on the water for the fashion shoot and to answer some questions about his business.

Sailing is in your family’s blood, tell us how you came onboard at Sail Bermuda.
“My dad launched sailbermudayachtcharters.com right at the beginning of the dot-com era. At the time I was running a sail catamaran for another company. As his business began to grow he asked me to come and work as captain for him, which I did.
“Upon his recent retirement I rebranded the business and launched sailbermuda.com. We’ve been going ever since.”

What is the best thing about being your own boss?
“I don’t have to answer to anyone except my operations manager [Marilyn Zuill] who just happens to be my wife!”

What makes all the hard work worthwhile?
“You never really knock off, and juggling family time and work is always a challenge. Our children, who are 5 and 7, do not always understand why we have to work as much as we do.
“But, seeing smiles and hearing laughter from visitors is especially joyful for us! Also, when we receive a great Trip Advisor or Google review, it makes us realise how important businesses such as ours are to tourism and this island.”

Shaun Moniz
Business: Island Gentry

Accountant by day, gentleman by design, Shaun’s passion for style and image led him to create a social media presence that focuses on helping men become more self confident and live more meaningful lives.

Getting started
“The motivation and passion for starting my own business was ignited during a 3-day men’s lifestyle conference I attended in Atlanta in 2015 called StyleCon 2015.  The conference featured a panel of successful businesses, content creators and bloggers across the United States.
“Meeting and connecting with these individuals and business proved that it is possible to earn a living from content creation. It also offered opportunities to connect with other gentlemen that attended who also share a passion for self-improvement and to be a part of a community with like-minded individuals.”

Time crunch
“One of my biggest challenges is finding sufficient time outside of my full-time employment as an accountant to create content and grow my brand.  I find myself using my lunch hour, evenings and weekends to dedicate myself to creating content and working on my channel.”

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