Gambling no panacea

April 30, 2010

Dear Sir,

I read today's (and many previous) story about gambling, this one from the perspective of a hotelier. Having visited Bermuda, I have to disagree with the notion that gambling is a panacea for a nation's economic ills. It is not.

I live in Connecticut, where native American casinos have been built. You may have heard of them. Many of the jobs have gone to imported, generally Eastern, foreigners. The state has gotten some money from them, but I'd wager, the total cost to the state has so far exceeded that.

Bermudians need to decide what will, and should, be the basis for its economy going forward. As I've read in this newspaper, many (most?) of the high wage jobs due to the insurance industry coaxed to the Islands have gone to expats. The recent stories dealing with work permits and citizenship make clear that Bermudians are not keen on ceding their country to interlopers.

Growth is not a cure-all for any economic ill. Quite the contrary, especially for a food and water starved island. Limiting population, both from family planning and immigrant perspectives, is crucial. The resources of the Island are limited, and succumbing to "growth" industries will only make matters worse.

The key to long-lived prosperity, again especially for an island nation, is to recognise that national income must be equitably distributed, otherwise one ends up with anarchy. The last year or so have hinted at such coming to pass. Without an explicit governmental policy, the alternative is to prepare students for well paying jobs, which result from government policies which attract (foreign or domestic) companies that need highly skilled workers. Whether those jobs are necessarily computer related, as envisioned by the new curriculum, is for debate.

What is not for debate is the nature of jobs provided by gaming casinos: low wage service in the vast majority.

What Bermuda has to offer is a natural setting that is unique. Adding casinos and hotels (which increase the population) will only further stress the environment, and enrich a few operators. They are unlikely to attract visitors who would not otherwise visit. Casinos are a dime a dozen in the States, and easier to get to. Those who promote the casinos are not doing so out of nationalist altruism, but out of private greed. I live in a state which made the mistake.

ROBERT YOUNG

Connecticut

We're all to blame

April 28, 2010

Dear Sir,

I, as a seasoned person in the insurance business, at first glance can understand the plight of the BIU workforce as it pertains to the spiralling inflation within the healthcare industry. I also realise that Mr. Chris Furbert as president of the BIU has to look out for the interest of BIU members – in particular the hotel division. We must also bear in mind that hotel workers' wages have been frozen for nearly two years. An increase in health premium to these folks must seem unbearable.

But surely sir, Mr. Furbert must realise that the the cost of insurance is not derived by happenstance or at the whim of some insurance CEO or actuary. The cost of healthcare comes from many sources including the very members that the BIU represents. In fact, rising healthcare costs are driven by all of us, including the Government that recently pushed up the standard premium by 13.3 percent. It has been widely known that the Government Actuary has been trying to get the standard premium increased by way more than the Government has allowed in recent years.

This spiral has also been exacerbated by the hospital whose fees increase each year along with the Doctors and Dentists as well as all other providers like Pharmacists, Therapists, Psychologists and a myraid of other medical providers. You see sir, all of the above have increased their fees as well and, therefore, the question to be asked is: Why is Mr. Furbert singling out the Insurers? Are the insurers the only ones profiting from the Healthcare Industry? Actually in some years the insurers take a good thrashing. But no one cares when the Insurers take a loss – as long as their claim is paid.

We people of Bermuda always want and expect the best and Healthcare is no exception. We go to the most expensive hospitals and do not give a care about the resulting impact on the rest of us who are helping to pay for that treatment through our premium payments. We also do not want to be told how to live healthy thus who cares if the Hospital beds are 33 percent filled by smokers and an even greater percentage due to preventable deseases.

We also want cheaper premiums but do not want to give up any of the coverage as a method of lessening costs. Insurers face this challenge evryday with clients who are struggling to pay premiums but expect a decrease in premium without reducing benefits.

So I say Sir, Mr. Furbert's attack on Insurers is unfair and absurd as health insurance premiums escalate due to multitudinous reasons. Let's hope that the Bermda Health Council does it's job by reigning in some of the runaway medical costs in Bermuda. When that happens maybe we will see a slowdown in healthcare inflation.

ANONYMOUS

City of Hamilton

Being professional

April 28, 2010

Dear Sir,

Having been in the workforce for some 30 years, I am amazed regarding the lack of professional treatment that is received from some service providers, such as BTC, Butterfield and HSBC banks, guest houses, hotels and many other retail companies throughout the island.

Some of these folk are in supervisory positions, but they tend to drag their feet when answering a customer's request, give a haughty answer or simply give no answer at all.

Some even take on the task of being personal; making their own halfway decisions. If the President of these establishments only knows what goes on behind the scenes!

Furthermore, the low pay, lack of office space, absence of benefits, and so on indicates that the hiring institutions themselves do not do a good job. Some angry professionals suggest that the lack of professional regard on the part of hiring institutions justifies less-than-professional conduct and job performance. "If we are not paid as professionals, the logic goes, we should not feel obligated to act and work professionally. If they want professionals, these folk argue, they should pay us more." It is my opinion, that this logic does not make any sense.

What does it mean to be a professional, or to act professionally? Narrowly speaking, being a professional means earning a living in an occupation that requires education, like law, the ministry, teaching, international business or medicine. To even teach introductory-level courses in a college or university requires postgraduate education, often a doctorate.

Generally, however, when we talk about acting professionally, we are referring to how we handle ourselves in the workplace. Professionalism implies doing your job conscientiously. It means fulfilling the duties of your contract or job description to the best of your ability. It means showing up to work on time and maintaining a certain businesslike attitude and demeanor. And it means holding yourself to the highest possible standards of character and behavior proper to your field.

Any person or group who has ever faced discrimination will tell you that you have to maintain your self-esteem despite what the discriminators say or do.

You must not let them define you; you must define yourself regardless of their treatment of you. Professionals must continue to think of themselves as professionals despite contrary treatment because to do otherwise would play into the hands of the discriminators and exploiters. Keep your professional pride, integrity, and self-esteem, no matter how you are treated, and the ones who do not recognise it are foolish, for eventually it will come back to haunt you.

Besides, no good excuse exists for consistent failure to do your job. This is both an issue of professional ethics and personal integrity. Not fulfilling these duties – or at least not trying to the best of your ability to fulfill them – is unprofessional. And hiring entities have every right to fire people who do not do their jobs.

But they do not pay me enough for the job I do, you might say. Or you might argue, then you should walk away to what you may think as greener pastures. But, if a contract is signed that says we take full responsibility, we must do that job to the best of our ability. The moment a contract is signed, it no longer matters if we are, or are not, paid enough:

You signed the contract and you have obligated yourself to its conditions, including the low pay. Professionals live up to their contract expectations, both explicit and implicit. To do otherwise is a breach of contract and a breach in personal integrity.

I do not think there is anyone who appreciates working with people who are consistently unprofessional. Most of us have suffered through the inappropriate comments, the sloppy work, and slack attitudes of unprofessional people, a prolonged pattern of bad behavior or job performance could result in being fired, or at least not being rehired. Professionalism tends to reap rewards eventually, one way or another. Even if the rewards are slow in coming, the punishments for lacking it can be swift. Do not let a lack of professionalism wipe out all the other good things that you have done in your work.

SIMMONS

Devonshire

Beauty before money

April 28, 2010

Dear Sir,

I recall listening on Australian radio to an elderly African- American lady [one of the Ball clan in Carolina] speaking to a caucasian American of the same name about her early memories. "Time certainly bring on changes," she observed drily.

Change has always been a constant; but I must say the rate of change over the past 20 years since I last visited Bermuda, as in many places, seems huge. Like many others, while living and working there in the 1970s, I came to love Bermuda.

I value my time there as among the best times of my life. What I came to love about Bermuda, apart from its natural beauties,was its special quality and way of life. That it was laid- back, civilised , not frenetic etc. I liked the people and still try to keep contact with some of them. The children I taught there at Purvis school are grown up and many must be parents; some even grandparents.

I guess there are some who will argue that that way of life was to a degree based on some social unfairness and lack of equal opportunity and to a degree I concur in this. Though I tried to do my bit in teaching there. But it seems to me that in modern life everywhere "the millionaires have won".

There is a book, In Search of Crusoe's Island, in which the author catalogues and laments much of the change and development outcomes on many islands round the globe.

I have lived and worked in the South Pacific and seen the problems faced by small cash-strapped and resource-limited island states there and the pressures on them.

I believe most visitors and long-time Bermudaphiles – think the likes of the late writer Peter Benchley – would be appalled at the idea of Bermuda turning into another "Monaco- by-the-sea."

I fully realise the social problems, yea, even the survival problems, faced by Bermuda in today's world, but, in my opinion, it is a mistake to let the interests of rich developers drive a country's agenda and future course. Lord knows, we have enough problems here. The NSW government just handed commonland in NSW over to a coal mining company. If it is simply down to 'Money talks and Beauty is voiceless ', then something vital will be lost to Bermuda for ever. You know what I'm sayin'?

DAVID MORRIS

Byron Bay, NSW, Australia