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Rolfe Commissiong

938
Speeches
232,890
Words Spoken
99
Sittings Active
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
6 words
And this is Mr. Jeff Baron.
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
19 words
It was in the Royal Gazette. 706 24 November 2017 Official Hansard Report Bermuda House of Assembly [Inaudible interjections]
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
29 words
And this is why I want people to understand what I am saying here. I am going to call this as a reflection of the “Pat Boone sy ndrome.”
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
56 words
Pat Boone was a very popular white singer, a crooner, coming out of the 1950s in the US. He would take black music and he would record it and become wi ldly popular. He earned untold millions, but yet, the black writers and musicians who first mined that musical genre, many of them died in poverty.
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
4 words
And got no credit.
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
354 words
You see, if I would have said this, Mr. Speaker, many of their supporters [would say] , Well, here he goes, playing the race card again! Why can’t he stop trying to divide us? I heard that Member over two occasions over the last couple of years say, We need to have a real conversation. But he never specified what …
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
228 words
That was in 1998. And then, as I said, when you get to the final two percentiles, at the highest [income] level s, while the lowest paid 22.0 per cent, and then the second lowest [paid] 20.9 per cent. At the other end of the spectrum, you had those who were paying only 15.5 per cent. And at the highest …
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
78 words
Again, I am going to leave this for our friends over the other side of the aisle, these comments again by Kevin Comeau, in light of the recent election of the new Leader. You know, I heard her say, Mr. Speaker, that she wants to see a more diverse OBA. And I wonder, Mr. Speaker, when they had their party …
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
30 words
[There were] 294. I wonder how many of those people who voted and were there, outside of the Members here, were African Bermudians. I wonder how many. [Inaudible interjecti ons]
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
44 words
Okay. They say a lot. Mr. Speaker, Kevin Comeau writing just after the election in the 1Royal Gazette, said this, and I 1 23 August 2017 Bermuda House of Assembly have read this before and I want to read it again, with your indulgence.
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
144 words
“There were two seminal events during the OBA’s tenure that were bound to roil black Bermudians: the OBA’s appointment of Michael Dunkley as Premier and the Pathways to Status fiasco that followed. “While it is impossible for a white pers on fully to understand the myriad of ways black Bermudians think or feel about these racially explosive issues, I would …
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
77 words
“While the result may well differ for others, I can say that if my ancestors had been enslaved and subjected to racial segregation for 350 years by a group of 40 families that controlled the country, and if I, myself, had been subjected to a r acial glass ceiling for 25 years under a political party controlled by those same …
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
148 words
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. “I would ever vote for any political party that was controlled by members of those 40 families. “Further, if a new political party had gained my vote by promising an end to the United Bermuda Party and the rule of the 40 families, only to replace its leader after the election with a person who was …
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
3 words
Mr. Speaker —
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
100 words
—its elite, was how can we navigate through the winds of democratisation that were blowing and maintain our dominance? That is the world of Sir Henry Tucker. That is the world we are still living in. If I have to answer to universal suffrage and maintain that dominance, then I have to make sure I have a minority of black …
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
82 words
We need change. And I want to send the challenge out to Bermuda’s white community today, Break with the past! The same stuff you have been telling us. Stop with the monolithic voting patterns. Stop having these black Bermudians fronting for you and stand up on your own. And let’s have an honest conversation. That is the conversation that Mr. …
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
6 words
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. [Timer beeps]
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
5 words
Point of order, Mr. Speaker?
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
53 words
The Member is misleading the House. Either we are going to have an evidence - based conversation or not. Now, do you want to have an evidence- based conversation or not? Let’s not be misleading, because proportionately speaking—proportionately speaking— Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: I am not sure what the point of order is.
24 Nov 2017 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report
33 words
Proportionately speaking, we do not have a level of white poverty as you have in the black community. Black Bermudians are dispr oportionately represented under most all of these cat egories. [Inaudible interjections]