An Open Letter to the members of the Bermuda Society of Arts - and all interested parties: I attended the AGM of the Bermuda Society of Arts last night. Yes, I was there last evening, and I missed you all. A pity really, you would have enjoyed it -- and it only lasted 15 minutes, so you could have spared the time.

A less democratic event could hardly be imagined. Just a small handful of people attended, and those were mostly former board members. The new chairman, two vice presidents, the secretary and seven board members were put in place -- I will not say elected because there was no vote, and only one candidate for each post. Now, I do not remember being asked to nominate members for the Board, and I do not recall being asked to submit a postal ballot to elect the new Board -- if I was, I must have blinked and missed it.

And I would have liked to have nominated you for a place on the Board. I admire your work and find you dynamic -- but you would not have got on, because there was not any vote. And who are those people anyway? Half of them did not even show up, and no-one introduced themselves.

We have a new Gallery manager, by the way. Do you know who she is? Where were you, the rest of our members, last night, those of us who paid a total of almost $30,000 in membership fees last year? Do we not we care about the way our Arts Society is run? Do we not care that the Society forgot to apply for its Government grant of $4,500 last year, and worse still, ended up with a net deficit of $36,000 for the year 2000, compared to a profit of $20,000 for 1999? Do we not we care that gallery sales dropped from $27,000 to $12,000, and that donations dropped from $9,233 to $2,224 and fundraising income fell from $13,726 to $9581? Do we not we want to know why these things happened? Where were all the island's artists last night? Do we not any of us care about the new regulations Government has introduced, requiring that Non-Bermudian full-time artists obtain work-permits in order to sell work on the island? Well, if you are a Bermudian artist, you will probably be chortling with glee at that little coup de grace, but do you not also care that those same regulations do not preclude non-Bermudian artists from selling prints of their work on the island? Where were all those artists who rented the gallery last year and this? Do we not we care that the new Board is planning to reduce the time available to us, and to use the gallery to compete on the same playing field as Burnaby, Windjammer, Masterworks and Heritage House? Planning to make the BSoA gallery a more "professional'' and "quality'' gallery? I imagine that means "more expensive'' and "more Bermudian''. Does that not that matter to you? It matters to me.

So I was there, intending to say what I feel the BSoA should be. As I did not get the chance, I will say it now. I see the BSoA as the "People's Gallery'' -- not yet another place for elite, well-established local Bermudian artists to have shows. It should continue to be a place for the wider community.

These publicly supported galleries are for leisure artists, local clubs and institutions, for young people just starting out, for holding workshops, for small, creative shows that won't find other locations and -- very importantly -- for showcasing affordable original art for tourists to buy.

You certainly will not find an original by a famous Bermudian artist on sale for $250 anywhere -- but many of the pieces in the BSoA are sold for such sums and find happy homes with visitors -- providing a much needed steady income for the gallery.

There are reasons why the gallery made a serious loss last year. Changing everything yet again might not be the best solution. Decision making by a small group of self-selected "experts'' might not be the way forward. It is just possible that someone out there might have the real answer -- or that the answer is under our noses. Communication between the gallery and its members must be at an all time low. I urge you all to wake up, BSoA members.

Get involved. Ask questions. Demand answers.

As it says in the old song, "You don't know what you've got till it's gone.'' A MEMBER Pembroke Inspirational words May 1, 2001 Dear Sir, "Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of Intemperate minds cannot be free.

Their passions forge their fetters.'' -- Edmund Burke BERMUDA CALLING Pembroke Kim Swan victimised May 2, 2001 Dear Sir, I am disgusted that Kim Swan has been victimised by the PLP. It is shocking to think that a man can lose his employment in such an unfair manner and have no-one speak up for him. If he had been a vocal PLP supporter, there would have been a protest march (or marches) for certain.

It is no wonder that blacks feel reluctant to publicly oppose this Government when they know the price they will have to pay. It looks like Ewart Brown's `evening scores' election statement was not an idle threat.

I hope somebody will offer Mr. Swan a meaningful and challenging position, where I am sure he will be successful, while the small minded people who did him in reap their just rewards.

OBSERVER Dr. Hodgson on jobs May 1, 2001 Dear Sir, As I have listened to the recent discussion on the contract for the Berkeley Institute, I have, inevitably, been reminded of your Editorial of April 2.

While the PLP have never pretended to have racial discrimination and the economic disparity between the black and white communities as a priority, it is fairly obvious that many black people voted for them because they hoped that they would address this very difficult and destructive issue.

It has been disturbing to a great many voters that Minister Webb is the only Minister that seems to have this issue on her agenda. After all even CURE was introduced by the former Government and was not an initiative of this Government. Some of us had hoped that Minister Alex Scott had joined her since he had a great deal to say about racism before the PLP victory.

Since that time we have read only of his conflict with the BIU the Workingmen's Union. That was disturbing since the PLP did profess to have the workingmen's concern as a priority, unlike their position on racial economic disparity.

The PLP Government clearly needs an honest and carefully thought out policy to address this problem. It needs a policy that every Minister will have a responsibility to implement in an obvious fashion in their Ministry. Mr.

Woolridge, a former Minister of Works, has expressed concern about the cost to taxpayers. The taxpayers paid an unnecessarily high price over very many decades to maintain three segregated school systems for blacks, whites and Portuguese.

It was very costly to the entire Country to oppress and ignore the talents and skills of blacks. To quote from the PLP Platform for the New Bermuda, "it is inefficient to exclude available resources.'' OF course it will be costly to the taxpayers to address this issue. Unfortunately, despite their platform, the PLP seems to have done a one hundred and eighty degree turn on this matter as it has done on so many other issues.

The comments about the disabled in today's News is just one more example of their being willing to exclude "available resources''. The number of very bright, talented and experienced blacks who have lost their job recently and who do not have the significant support that a white person could muster would be disturbing enough. But the PLP stated position that they are not concerned about the joblessness of the "individual'' and the ruthless comments of their supporters which states that this is a capitalist society and every one must sink or swim on their own, is very different from the professed concern for the working class which the PLP expressed before their victory.

Despite the fury which my ill advised comment that was a throw away remark made into a headline has aroused, it does seem to me that many supporters of the PLP no longer have an ideal of the kind of justice in our society which should prevail and are simply concerned to support the individual, or individuals, who may have fought and won battles in the past.

They seem to be blind to all of those other voters who were naive enough to believe that the PLP would improve the circumstances for the entire black community and working class and not just those who were friends and relatives of the decision makers.

These voters are far more concerned about their PRESENT circumstances and the FUTURE than they are about PAST victories, particularly since they were responsible in part for the most significant victory of November 1998, but no one in a decision making role seems to care.

One man, one vote of equal value will be quite meaningless if they see that the same people who were discriminated against under the last Government is being discriminated against under this Government despite their obvious talents and skills which could be a major resource to a Government which continues to import expatriates.

EVA A. HODGSON P.s. I would be very curious to know if there are any others, besides those that have actually spoken to me, who would agree with my concerns.