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AGAINST


INDEPENDENCE


BERMUDA’S EXAMINATION OF INDEPENDENCE


Independence may seem a plausible idea in theory; but in practice, it would not improve Berumuda’s economic position but could actually jeopardise the country’s econmic wellbeing, says the Shadow Minister of Legislative Affairs, Justice, Telecommunications and E-Commerce.


Mr Trevor Moniz,


JP, MP, in Hamilton. Mr Moniz is Shadow Attorney General and Shadow Minister of Legislative Affairs, Justice, Telecommunications and E-Commerce. He was first elected to the House of Assembly for the United Bermuda Party in 1993.


History


Bermuda is a group of islands of about 20 square miles in the Atlantic Ocean with a population of approximately 65,000 people. The nearest land is around 635 miles away at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina on the eastern seaboard of the United States. Most


Bermudians now travel on a regular basis to avoid “rock fever”. However it wasn’t always this way. My children take great delight when I tell them that I never left Bermuda until I went to the University of London at the age of 18.


Bermuda had never been inhabited until 1609. The island is recorded as being spotted by Juan de Bermudez in 1505 but he did not embark from his ship. There is a spot known as “Spanish Rock”, where


sailors are believed to have come ashore from a shipwreck in 1543. That wreck is now believed to be a


a pinnace and sail away again. In 1609 an English ship called


the Sea Venture, in a fleet bound for the re-supply of Jamestown, was wrecked off the east coast of Bermuda. This mishap led to the colonisation of Bermuda by the English in 1612. A local Parliament was established in 1620 and Bermuda has been internally self- governing ever since.


It is interesting to note that in Mr Trevor Moniz, JP, MP


Portuguese ship and the monument is due to be renamed in 2009 as “Portuguese Rock”. The sailors remained only long enough to build


the 19th century, when many British possessions came under rule directly from Britain as Crown colonies, Bermuda remained self- governed along with Barbados and the Bahamas in the West Indies. Therefore, being a colony was never onerous given that the country was self-governed. Slavery in Bermuda ended in


The Parliamentarian | 2009: Issue One - Bermuda | 29


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