COMMUNITY ACTIVIST
Kristin White
3 Chosen as one of Bermuda’s
10 Most Fascinating People in
2016, the bookstore-owning,
tourism-consulting, public-speaking, writer, artist and
all-around social media superstar
Kristin White has been passionately promoting St. George over
the last few years. The former
director of Raleigh Bermuda is
focused on improving the connection young people have with
their community while advocating for cultural tourism, especially in her underused town of
St. George. The writer/director/
producer for the popular Haunted
History Tour can be found circling
the old town on her equally well-known pedal bike, Shoshanna,
when she isn’t guiding tourists
to her favourite hot spots from
her bookstore on Water Street.
JKristindotcom.com
NEWS EVENT OF THE YEAR
Pepper Spray at Protest
3 While these awards are
dedicated to celebrating the best,
December 2, 2016, will go down
as a day that brought out some of
the worst in Bermuda. Protesters
who opposed the airport redevelopment legislation gathered
outside the House of Assembly
to block MPs from debating it
that morning. The crowd swelled,
tempers flared and riot police
eventually marched in resulting in
several citizens, including some
seniors, being pepper sprayed in
an attempt to control the crowd.
The day’s events were carried
live on Bernews and Facebook
and widely shared across social
media platforms and cell phone
apps creating ongoing discussions from all sides. While we
appreciate that no one wins in
such a situation, we hope that
lessons are learned all around
and the discussions since—from
the police headquarters to your
family dinner table—result in positive changes for the betterment
of all Bermudians going forward.
POLITICAL BLUNDER
OBA’s Communication
Problems
3 During the course of our
judging process, several political
blunders were discussed but all
seemed to have the same thing
in common—problems with communication stemming from the
government. With lack of transparency being a main objection
from the opposition over several
recent issues—with Pathways to
Status and the airport redevelopment deal being the most
heated—our judges felt the OBA
could avoid further political blunders by improving their up-front
communication. Transparency,
after all, is not a four-letter word.
PIT BULL POLITICIAN
David Burt
3 Pit bulls are noted for their
strength, stamina and tenac-
ity—characteristics certainly
needed for successful politicians
and none more aptly described
as such than Opposition
Leader and Shadow Minister of
Finance, David Burt. Quick to
respond and forceful in his reply
to the latest government an-
nouncements or political events
of the day, Burt has proven to
be an aggressive, tenacious and
vocal leader of his party.
MOST EFFECTIVE POLITICIAN
Michael Fahy
3 He’s not always been popular,
having had a difficult time as
home affairs minister at the
time of the Pathways to Status
initiative, but the new minister of
tourism, transport and munici-palities has always “stuck to his
guns” according to our judges.
While being responsible for
transport will be an ongoing
challenge (see airport protest
above), he’s currently riding the
wave of steadily increasing tourism numbers. A trend we hope
continues under his watch.
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
BERMEMES
3 Lead by directors Déjon Simons and Qian Dickinson, some of
Bermuda’s best, brightest and most hilarious young talents make up
the team of contributors at BERMEMES, who have been steadily
growing the brand from silly life in Bermuda memes to culturally important
reviews of current affairs and interviews of those in the know. Many
will remember the uber-popular Not the Um Um guys, whose fall-on-the-floor funny skits would make fun of the idiosyncrasies of island life
(“The sound of St. Daaavid’s… dum de dum dum dum…”) from 1984
until their final show in 2009. Well, the “byes” at BERMEMES have
taken up the torch becoming the voice of Bermuda life in modern
times. While some may pass it off as just poking fun, there is an important
aspect of highlighting and continuing to be an ambassador of our
true island culture (or rather, “kulcha”) through our unique language
(“verds”) and unique perspective on everything from how we deal with
hurricanes (“vers de rum to, bye?”) to the annual Cup Match war of
words and the worst things about living in Bermuda (“having to choose a
beach to go to, sheesh”) that BERMEMES maintains. With their light-hearted and positive spin on life on these isles since their start in 2012
and a growing reach far beyond our shores (they claim an audience
of two million), the team at BERMEMES have risen to an important
role within our community and as one judge stated, “They built it from
nothing and now it resonates with everyone.” J www.bermemes.com
1 DÉJON SIMONS AND QIAN DICKINSON
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