No need for GPSAugust 10, 2006Dear Sir,Satellite navigation systems for Bermuda cabs? Is this some kind of joke!

On an island consisting of 22 square miles and only a handful of roads, they shouldn’t even need a road map, let alone a GPS system.

I lived in Bermuda for six years and found I couldn’t get lost even if I’d wanted to. I now live in London which consists and more than 600 square miles and 25,000 roads and guess what ... no satellite navigation in the city’s black cabs.

If Keith Darrell is prepared to go to prison, then good luck to him. But surely there’s someone with a modicum of common sense at the TCD who can let the matter drop.

COLIN ROBERTS

London, England

Good police workAugust 2, 2006Dear Sir,On July 13, my wife’s handbag was stolen at Horseshoe Bay. The same day, she notified the Bermuda Police, listing and valuing the contents, though without holding much hope for its recovery.

Last weekend I was contacted by Bermuda Police to advise me that the handbag had been recovered with most of the non-currency contents intact. It had been found in the bushes at Horseshoe Bay during an unrelated search of the area using police dogs.

I would like to congratulate the Bermuda Police on their excellent work in linking the handbag with the report a fortnight earlier. The officer I dealt with was professional and courteous. It is also worthwhile reminding members of the pubic to report all thefts to the police, no matter how hopeless the case may seem.

ROBIN RUSSELL

Pembroke<$>

No more foreign recruitsJuly 18, 2006Dear Sir,I am very disturbed about bringing anymore overseas recruits for the police force; at one time they would not recruit any one from Jamaica because they have a reputation of being too harsh and bad temperament, etc. So all of a sudden, what a chance!

Use more of the reserves. Some of them could be full time reserves and be paid like the police. Make it more attractive for Bermudians to join the force. The way some of the foreign police behave and treat the public, they need to be arrested and locked up, maybe a few locals too. Bermuda is a small place and we are being invaded from people coming to our small Bermuda, people from Islands come here on vacation and a vacation turns to long term stays and many are not on work permits.

Go around Middletown and Angle Street around the corner from Fish ‘N’ Things, who do you see? And you wonder why we have a housing problem and drugs, some of these local girls marry them and very seldom it’s for love and the Government is allowing them to do what they like.

We Bermudians must stand up and say enough is enough. This is our Island home where we have been born and raised and we are becoming the visitors, I pray many young Bermudians will join the Police Force so we won’t have to look overseas and we can send some of these foreigners home — the one’s who are just taking up space and causing problems. Pretty soon we will not have any space for anything even end up underwater. It’s just becoming too crowded.

And guess what? You can’t go to their country and do what’s going on here in Bermuda. The Immigration Department here is wishy washy.

A BORN BERMUDIAN

Paget<$>

Letter to my nieceAugust 1, 2006Dear Sir,I would like to share the following notes with The Royal Gazette <$>readers:

I am a Bermudian who presently lives in Washington, D.C., USA. I am in constant touch with what is transpiring in Bermuda. I read The Royal Gazette <$>every morning in Washington, D.C. In fact, one of my aspirations is to return to Bermuda. However, it was extremely sad to receive an e-mail from my niece, who lives in Bermuda, exhorting me not to return to Bermuda anytime soon. She was referring to the recent killing, in Bermuda, of Jason Lightbourne on July 23, 2006, which disturbed her greatly.

The following e-mail is the one I quickly sent to her. I have deleted her name and e-mail address because it is not for me to disclose her private information. However, the e-mail remains the same as I sent it to her.

My Notes To My Niece On Bermuda’s Dilemma:

I read The Royal Gazette <$>everyday. I am not surprised that Bermuda is experiencing violence.

When any country ignores the middle class and the indigent, an eruption is certain to evolve:

The economy is highly inflated;

Average persons are unable to secure a roof over their heads;

An average house is approximately one and a half million ($1,500,000) to two and a half million ($2, 500,000);

Even condos are extremely inflated: the lowest condo is approximately $650,000 and you have to pay a condo fee every month on top of paying your mortgage;

There are condos priced in the millions;

There are no incentives for young people to succeed;

Bermuda is wasting its greatest asset/resource which is the brains of Bermudians;

Too much emphases is placed on offshore businesses;

It is OK to rent to Guest workers, however, some of the success has to be shared with the young, indigent and middle class to help them succeed;

Bermuda has become an Island of greed;

Programs are needed to help young people develop self-reliance;

The sad reality is that when young people begin to feel hopeless, they strike out against each other;

However, each other is not where the problem exists;

The problem exists with a society that has written them off;

I can go on and on. The problem is not the gangs; the problem is Bermuda’s lack of societal programmes which would include all its people, not just folks with dollars.

AUNT MARLENE

Washington, DC

KeyTech need shake-upJuly 31, 2006Dear Sir,Interesting that Diem in today’s edition suggests that Cable & Wireless have lost their way, it looks more like KeyTech have lost their way to me:

[bul] Average annual increase in revenues over last 4 years = 2.5%

[bul] Average annual increase in profit over last 3 years = 4.5 percent (despite an increase this year of 16.15 percent achieved by one-off cut in overheads). Profits have actually gone down 22 percent over the last four years.

Dividend payment of a whopping 61.8 percent of profits to achieve a yield to shareholders of a mere 4.4 percent. Where is scope for growth if all the profits are paid out as a dividend rather than being reinvested?

Employs capital assets costing $272 million, which at some point will need to be replaced out of post- dividend profits of $4.5 million (and that is in a good year).

Show me the money, Cable & Wireless!

OBSERVER

Warwick<$>

For equal rightsAugust 1, 2006Dear Sir,Why is it so difficult to provide “equal protection” under the law for all citizens?

More often than not, the same people that would deny equal protection to Gays and lesbians, would deny equal protection to women, or blacks, or Portuguese, or Arabs. We seem to always need someone to blame, rather than address our fear of those we perceive to be different.

SISTER MARY ELIZABETH, OSM

Hog Bay Flat, Somerset (1957-61)

Ignorance is blissAugust 7, 2006

Dear Sir,I am a listener, and lately, I have been listening very intently in particular, to a well-known PLP independence activist who seems to think that I have betrayed the black race by being one of the members of Bermudians for Referendum. Rest assured, I have not betrayed anyone! I do not have to go around beating on a bongo drum to know what my identity is, because if I did, not only would I be beating a bongo drum, I would have to smoke a peace pipe, do a rain dance; tame a Bengal tiger; make Portuguese doughnuts; learn how to count in Chinese, and last but not least, perfect Jamaican beef patties.

I know from whence I came, therefore I do not have to go soul searching. My soul is right where it belongs, and that is, right next to my heart. As for my roots, like many Bermudians, they are spread wide and far, therefore, making me expandable, and because of this expandability, my brain follows suit.

The shackles of slavery were removed from ankles some time ago, but unfortunately, some people are hell bent on transferring these same shackles to their minds. I try to deal with life and humanity on the highest level possible. I accept people on the basis of their character and not by their colour. Once we learn to accept people for that reason, I think we would all be better off. So if that PLP independence activist is bothered by my existence and what I stand for, then he has a problem, and whatever the problem, it is definitely not me. Mr. Editor, right is right — wrong is wrong — and ignorance is bliss! Do you realise how many blissfully ignorant people there are in our midst?PAT FERGUSON

Warwick

We need cell phone banJuly 29, 2006Dear Sir,

I agree with B. Marshall. When is this cell phone driving madness going to end? When someone dies?

Why is the Government allowing this to continue? Is it because they lack justice (that seems to be obvious nowadays)?

Also, based on what B. Marshall mentioned, the majority of the people who do this garbage happen to be women! I’m not saying some guys don’t do this as well. All I’m saying is that that woman B. Marshall mentioned could easily kill a child. And then what? Sorry? Sorry won’t bring back that child.

FOR A CELLPHONE DRIVING BAN

Pembroke<$>

Mail mysteryAugust 3, 2006Dear Sir,How is it that letters from Florida to an address in Bermuda take 20 days whereas a letter to an address in London only take eight days?

GEORGE GAIL

Pembroke<$>

Looking for Man of SteelAugust 1, 2006Dear Sir,Why Bermuda needs Superman: Lex Scott Luthor, Lex Brown Luthor , Colniel Lex Burch Luthor , Lex incompetent cops Luthor , lap dog Lex Larry Luthor , and last but not least .... Lex Dum-Dum gangsters Luthor.

MORALITY FIRST

DevonshireParents are failing childrenAugust 8, 2006

Dear Sir,<@$p>While it is no laughing matter, the reasons given by the "Young Black Males" that the residents of town are more "fast lane" than the country boys are tragic in this pocket handkerchief island. Some say the educational system has failed young black men but YBM have also failed the educational system. When you think of all the children who have succeeded in much poorer schools than those available in Bermuda, I feel that to blame the schools is unfair.

We have a wonderful educational tool in our midst, the television, but it is being flooded with stupid gyrating men with gold teeth and women waving their posteriors in a provocative manner. If the Ministry of Education would help kids with their homework on a special TV channel and provide programs which went towards credits for graduation, perhaps the standards might rise. Teaching people to speak properly and to love learning, enables them to progress. TV education would also expose children to really excellent teachers and innovative ways of learning. Look at what Sesame Street and the Electric company did for preschoolers.

While we always blame mothers for everything, no women should be expected to raise children alone. Much more self esteem needs to be taught to women. One does not keep a man by getting pregnant. It may entrap rather than enthrall him.

Male parents have failed their children abysmally. They are no role models for anyone to follow. Remote, not acknowledging their kids and supporting them only when forced to do so legally. They are the ones who bear the blunt of the blame. Bermuda, we need a few good men, as the Marine slogan goes.

MUSING

Pembroke