April 21, 2003

Dear Sir,

We would be grateful if you would print the following appeal.

To: The Bermuda Government

For the Attention of The Finance Minister and all Members of Parliament

We fully support the Bermuda Feline Assistance Bureau's (BFAB) application towards the cost of its feral cat spay/neuter programme.

This is a volunteer organisation which dedicates numerous hours to controlling the Island's feral cat population. You are probably aware that a pair of breeding cats can produce 65 offspring per year. This can have a serious impact on our environment. To date, BFA has spayed and neutered approximately 8,000 cats since 1992.

Your crucial consideration of BFAB's request for annual funding is imperative to the continued success of their community spray and neuter programme.

We thank you for your immediate attention and approval for funding of this very important and necessary programme.

MIKE AND NORMA CROSS

May 2, 2003

Dear Sir,

There has been a lot of talk about our immigration lines at the Bermuda International Airport for the past couple of years. It has been interesting to listen to the comments voiced from both those in the line and those out of line. The comments from those out of line are quite frankly just that. Any experience in Miami airport or Gatwick airport or any airport does not justify similar treatment of our visitors based on these comparisons. The USA for example does not rely on tourism to balance its budget, albeit an important part of their economy. On the contrary, Bermuda relies very heavily on its tourism component and any comparison with an industrialised jurisdiction is absurd and unrealistic.

Bermuda has verbally attached or unattached itself to other jurisdictions at its convenience and in this case any comparison or treatment related to other immigration lines in the world is quite frankly so unbelievably typical of the mindset of most civil servants.

If you think that tourists will automatically return to Bermuda regardless of first impressions at the airport then I urge those in power to rethink the overall situation because it does make it difference. The loss of one return visitor is a loss that cannot be afforded.

HARD LINES

City of Hamilton

April 18, 2003

Dear Sir,

I personally see no objection to recycling Bermuda's buses in Cuba. For one thing, they're intended for the island's poor. Its not as though Dr. Brown was handing Fidel Castro the keys to a new ministerial Peugeot, is it? For another thing, it should be very interesting to see right-hand drive buses operating in a right-hand drive nation. Just how or where will passengers board and alight? Perhaps government could also send some of Bermuda's worst drivers to show its done up here.

FSP

Southampton

April 24, 2003

Dear Sir,

On behalf of the Bermuda SPCA Committee of Management and Shelter staff, I would like to thank the residents of Bermuda for generously supporting the Bermuda SPCA on their recent tag days in Hamilton on Friday, April 4 and in the Parishes on Saturday, April 5. The total amount of money raised was $9,000.

I would also like to give special mention to the kind volunteers and charitable organisations, in particular the Hamilton Lioness Club, Bermuda Red Cross, BAMZ , Good Dog 101, Beta Sigma Phi, Gladys MacIntyre and First Smith's Brownies, who all selflessly gave of their time to tag on our behalf and without whose support we would not be able to continue speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves.

DEBORAH J. RILEY

President

Bermuda SPCA

April 29, 2003

Dear Sir,

It is a while since I tore myself away from the ghostly environs of my eternal resting place in the catacombs of Rome but the buzz there was that I might be interested in the goings on in my favourite watering hole - Bermuda.

Well, apart from it being nice to be back and warm again, you can imagine my surprise and not a little shock at what I have been reading and hearing about the mighty affairs of Church and State. A worthy Canon of the Church threatened with arrest for trying to do his duty? A Minister of State telling the Church what to do? Incidentally the word from on High is that the Canon's story is correct but whatever next?

In my day, of course, we threw Christians to the lions. Perhaps sharks (land or sea-borne) would be more appropriate for Bermuda. One can scarcely imagine a modern ‘Gummint' Minister saying such a thing as did King Henry II about Thomas A' Becket. “Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?” Or can one?

Henry VIII tried it on with the Dissolution of the Monasteries and all that ultimately got him was a few more wives!

Down the centuries there have been many other examples of the State interfering in the works of the Church including the Spanish Inquisition, the persecution of Catholics in England and the Third (Hitler - as your Lord Bishop has rightly mentioned) to name but a few.

In spite of all this, Churches round the world survive and will continue to do so while Governments rise and fall. Perhaps over the centuries the churches have learned a thing or two about how to organise themselves and conduct their business for the good of their parishioners. Continuity and stability are, among other things, of prime importance and the affairs of the Church can in no way be likened to the operation of business where continuity and stability are measured very differently and relationship are, or should be, unemotional.

So, were does that leave you? On the basis that it is the duty of any Minister of the Church to assist and/or fill in when a Parish does not have a permanent Minister, surely the type of stand-in operation such as that given by the worthy Canon, should not be the object of political interference. If your political masters cannot swallow that then a Parish does not have a permanent Minister, surely the type of stand-in operation such as that given by the worthy Canon, should not be the object of political interference. If your political masters cannot swallow that then, for the future, I would ensure that contracts would contain a clause stipulating such ability as part of the Minister's job - which it is anyway! but then, perhaps, that too would be politically unacceptable and the State will have taken an unwanted and unnecessary step towards control of the Church - or should I say churches?

Back to the lions.

ANTONINUS GAIUS

The Catacombs, Rome

Dear Sir,

I would like to bring to the attention of an incident involving one of our taxi service Co-op Taxi last Thursday night. I had a business dinner meeting at the Aqua restaurant at Arial Sands Hotel. I asked the front desk reception to call me a taxi. I waited a whole hour and ten minutes. No taxi. I finally asked the security guard if he knew how I can get a taxi as I already waited an hour.

The security guard was kind enough to get a cab in ten minutes of me asking. Thank you Mr. Security Officer for calling Radio Cabs. When the cab arrived the driver was friendly and was sorry I had to wait over an hour for a cab.

I explained to him what happened. He then told me Aerial Sands Hotel receptionist most of the time call Co-op Taxi Ltd. The driver stated Co-op Taxi only has approx. 40 cabs for the whole Island and he's had many complaints of passengers having to wait a long period of waiting time. I don't understand why some hotels call a taxi company with only a small fleet of cabs and not Radio Cabs - the largest fleet on the Island with over 400 taxis. The driver also stated to me if you call Co-op Taxi after 5 p.m. you can forget it. He also stated many passengers have missed golf tee times, dinner reservation and even late or missed flights through calling Co-op.

I personally feel no taxi company should operate with no less then 150 cars to some the general public. Again thank you Mr. Security Guard at Arial Sands and thanks Radio Cabs for sending me and my guest a cab in ten minutes. Now I know who to call.

TAX PASSENGER

Warwick

April 30, 2003

Dear Sir,

I have been concerned by the direction in which Bermuda and indeed the world seems to be heading and I offer the thoughts below for your inclusion in letters to the editor column.

In the battle between patriotism and profit, profit will ever prevail. Fuelled by the “American dream”, the whole world, for all intents and purposes is now a capitalist village. Russia imploded into capitalism! China converted to it! They and the rest of the world have embraced capitalism with unbridled enthusiasm.

The god of capitalism is profit and all now prostrate themselves at the foot of this false god.

Bermuda has long been infected with this virus and it, like the rest of the world has and will continue to pay the rice for such blasphemous behaviour.

The god profit has had many prophets over the course of history. In modern times the greatest adherents have been ‘Bush' and ‘Blair' notwithstanding the fact that Blair is a Labour Prime Minister.

In Bermuda we have had Dr. David Saul with his “Bermuda Inc.” and more recently Robert Stewart who is by far capitalism's most ardent suitor. His economic tome on the joys of capitalism is almost of a religious nature.

So what is this price that Bermuda is paying and will continue to pay for its blind faith in this new religion?

1. The land will continue to be gobbled up in developments to make a “profit” and sold to non-Bermudians as Bermudians will not be able to afford the prices.

2. There is and will be an ever increasing underclass of Bermudians variously called the homeless, beggars or whatever.

3. Bermudian children will continue to consume and demand more of the things they already have and this they will consider to be their “right”.

Murder and mayhem will reign supreme as there are no real consequences for unsocial behaviour.

Mediocrity will be the order of the day as those charged with education, both Government and Union, are themselves of a medocre caliber.

Lawlessness will thrive as envy and greed increasingly dictate an attitude of “get it by any means necessary”.

Foreign workers will continue to flood the country to hold the menial jobs abandoned by Bermudian workers who believe that they should have the “top” jobs.

Respect for all established institutions will crumble. Police, teacher, prison officers, in short, those who are charged with adhering to established principles such as “no strikes in essential industries” will continue to demonstrate to Bermudians that nothing is truly sacred about laws and principles.

In short, Bermuda will revert eventually to that little backwater Island which it was in the early 40's.

GOD HELP US ALL