Time for a bridge

February 12, 2010

Dear Sir,

I would like to start off by apologising to my fellow Bermudians that reside in St. George's as they may not all like what I am about to say, but I am merely doing it to highlight a point. Given the recent inclement weather experienced by a typical winter storm, the Causeway had to be closed. Not many years go by here without either fierce winter storms or hurricanes coming too close for comfort and causing the Causeway to shut down.

After Fabian, the idea of finally building a proper bridge was put forward...well that was in 2003, it's now 2010. Since 2003 millions and millions of dollar have been spent, excuse me, over-spent on countless trivial things, as well as totally mismanaged by this Government. Don't they realise that having the Causeway shut down disrupts business and is a safety hazard because the medical centre in St. David's is not KEMH.

IF something drastic was to happen down there what would happen? STOP mishandling the millions of taxpayers money PLP and spend it on something that's actually practical! If this Government does succeed in swallowing up the two corporations then I hope they can at least belch us up a new bridge from all the indigestion from swallowing up more assets for them to just...well I won't get too descriptive on body functions and leave it at that.

ROBERT DAVIES

Devonshire

It's political cronyism

February 11, 2010

Dear sir,

What a joke our political system and appointments have become Mr. Editor. We have the Environment Minister appointing none other but his own sister to the Development Applications Board and stating that he sees no conflict of interests in his decision. That line alone shows how this current administration believes that Bermudians are stupid people that can't see the forest through the trees.

Well Mr. Minister, it appears that your sister is very well versed within the travel industry as you stated that she has more than 20 years experience in this field. Then exactly what qualifications does she possess that justifies her appointment to a Board designed to protect our environment, other than the fact she is related to you? It seems that Mrs. Samuels' skills would be utilised in the tourism department and we are all very much aware that this governmental department desperately needs all the help it can get in order to achieve this imaginary "Platinum Period" that we have been fed for so long.

Until Mr. Minister is able to display what skills or experience his sister has regarding the needs of the DAB then I stand by my claim that this is nothing but political cronyism. Or maybe it will save the Minister from having applications turned down and thus will not have to resort to utilising their beloved SDOs so much.

So going off of Mr. Minister's logic I guess that any Bermudian (as we are a bunch of travelling nomads) is readily eligible to serve on one of these governmental boards. Well Mr. Minister, I have travelled for over 20 years now and have seen much of the world and thus would like to apply for one of these positions.

Please e-mail me the application/nomination form when you get a chance, my email is: hopingtojointheplpfriendsandfamilynetwork@bermuda.bm or bbbbuttttttheubpdidit2@bermuda.bm.

JUSTIN SMITH

Hamilton Parish

The right move

February 11, 2010

Dear Sir,

It has taken us a couple of weeks to write, but in light of the recent stormy conditions, we wanted to bring to light the superb service of Fast Forward Freight. On Friday January 15, we had booked one of their competitors to carry out a house move as one of our son's friends had worked for them. The weather forecast was for extremely bad conditions for that afternoon and into the weekend and as the competitor wanted to charge us time and a half for a Saturday move, we chose to take a day off work and move on a Friday.

The booking (confirmed in writing) was for 9 a.m. - they never showed. I chased them by 9.30 a.m. and their manager said he had no booking for that day. Long story short, they could not put the service in place, but whilst they were trying, I called Fast Forward at 9.45 a.m. Coreen was incredibly helpful and confirmed that they could get two large trucks and four men to us by 11 a.m. Needless to say when you are trying to move house ahead of bad weather, we jumped at the chance. Brent Minors, Mike Madeiros, Nelson Pimental and Troy Burgess not only arrived on time, but were absolutely professional, fun and went above and beyond to help us. They had us moved in three hours (by 2 p.m.) and it started raining at 2.15 p.m. The bill was also two thirds of the normal rates quoted by their competitor.

Thank you to all of you for a fantastic job, and if you ever need to move – absolutely call Fast Forward Freight!

THE STROEDERS

Hamilton

Chalk and cheese

February 11, 2010

Dear Sir,

I see by today's Royal Gazette (Thursday, February 11, 2010) that Opposition Leader, Kim Swan, is concerned "that there is a disparity in the salary grades between his office assistant and the Premier's Personal Assistant". If that is the case, he must also be concerned that there is a disparity in the salaries of the Premier and the Opposition Leader.

I know that Mr. Swan sometimes has illusions of grandeur, but certainly even he must admit that the responsibilities of the Opposition Leader are miniscule to those of the Premier. Therefore it stands to reason that the duties of the Opposition Leader's Assistant are miniscule to those of the Premier's Personal Assistant. Certainly, the educational and professional requirements of the two posts must be as different as chalk to cheese. On more than one occasion it has been reported that former Senator Gina Spence Farmer had difficulty obtaining a GED. It has also been reported that Liana Hall is a lawyer.

LAVERNE FURBERT

Fiscal mismanagement

February 11, 2010

Dear Sir,

I would appreciate some space in your newspaper to ask Bermudians to focus their attention on a situation that I find most disturbing the state of Bermuda's finances.

The Minister of Finance has failed in performing her primary duty to ensure the prudent management of the public purse. As a result, the Premier has free reign to spend extravagantly and excessively in pursuit of his own personal celebrity and to fund initiatives that, to date, have been of questionable benefit to the taxpayer like "tourism" trips to China/India, festivals that seem to have a primary purpose of providing the Premier with photo opportunities with celebrities, his flashy BMW 7 Series, non-starting resort projects (Club Med/Park Hyatt, Ritz Carlton, Southlands) and, of course, sneaking the Uighurs into Bermuda and getting them jobs during a time when many Bermudians are out of work. A reasonable person would ask, "How does he get away with this?" The answer has been provided by the Premier himself because "this too shall pass".

Unfortunately, he is right. Bermuda is repeatedly distracted by the outrageous event of the week (say, a trip halfway around the world in an attempt to attract tourists from a country which, according to a 2007 Goldman Sachs report, "will remain a low-income country for several decades") which overshadows the previous week's nonsense (say, a Minister of Finance who claims to only be a "cog in the wheel" in relation to Bermuda's finances). The common theme is the lack of controls in the Ministry of Finance (as the Auditor General has pointed out). And what does a normal person or organisation do when spending is out of control? If you said, "live within their means", you are not the Minister of Finance. Of course, the correct answer is "borrow and raise taxes". I have learned through the media (not from the land valuation department as one might expect) that my land tax will go up over 30 percent in 2010. Of course, I'm only too happy to do my part to ensure the Premier doesn't have any embarrassing cash flow problems during his last eight months in office.

Once Dr. Brown sails into the sunset, the only logical successor appears to be a self-professed "cog in the wheel". Bermuda needs and deserves a better leader who is fiscally responsible and puts the country first. Even though the next general election is a long way away, Bermuda, don't be distracted by the week-to-week debacles that distract us from the bigger issue of fiscal mismanagement that has plunged this country into record levels of debt that will take many, many years to erase.

FRUSTRATED TAXPAYER

Devonshire