Ah yes, the good ol’ America’s Cup. Let us not forget what potential chaos awaits…
There are times when words come out of the mouth that as you speak them, and they become readily audible, you wish you could suck them back in and have a do-over. But hindsight doesn’t work like that. There’s no rewind switch — once it’s out there, it’s out there.
Chris Furbert experienced such a phenomenon on Tuesday when he proclaimed: “The America’s Cup is in great threat of being derailed in June and July. The America’s Cup will be in jeopardy. The membership is not going back to work until those two matters are resolved.”
Even for someone of the Bermuda Industrial Union president’s bent — ie, possessing the innate ability to pick a fight in an empty room — these were comments worthy of instant recall. Notwithstanding that he confused the dates for the greatest event ever to hit Bermuda’s shores, exactly whose membership did he speak of, for “those two matters” relate to the airport redevelopment plan and the rejected work permit application of the Reverend Nicholas Tweed?
Neither is an issue that should concern the BIU and its membership — at least not until work is commenced in the vicinity of LF Wade International Airport involving unionised labourers. And the People’s Campaign does not have an official membership; nor is it recognised by the Bermuda Government as a union of any distinction.
The opportunity to recant was resisted in the subsequent 48 hours but there can be no doubt now, given the public backlash, that Furbert has bitten off a bit more than he can chew when he dragged the America’s Cup into the argument.
For, with that, he opened the door for the Government’s bona fide big hitter to weigh in on the ludicrousness that an immigration issue could have an impact on a month-long smorgasbord of opportunity for Bermudians that has the potential to yield a $350 million windfall.
Anyone who caught even a whiff of the World Series event in October 2015 would have to appreciate the feel-good factor that swept the vicinity, if not immediately feeling returns in their pockets. That is for the naysayers and race baiters to emphasise while reminding of the worst in our characters.
So Grant Gibbons, chiefly responsible as Minister of Economic Development for bringing the “Auld Mug” to Bermuda, was right to chastise Furbert for wholly irresponsible statements that have already done the island reputational harm.
Read on, courtesy of The Royal Gazette.
