No-more rain dances

July 6, 2005

Dear Sir,

Priorities, Priorities, Priorities. Once again we face a severe water shortage, and once again the Government is promising to install a desalinisation plant but not until the year 2007! In the meantime millions are being poured into a new school, fast ferries have been purchased at great expense, and a new cruise ship dock is scheduled to be built at no doubt several million dollars. These are just a few of the major Government projects that are all very nice to have but are not essential to the people as we can survive without them. We cannot survive without water. I urge the Government to reassess their priorities and put a desalinisation plant at the top of the list for 2005 not 2007. The answer will be that they are not budgeted for such a project. Then like the business world has to do revisit your budget and find the money from projects that are not priorities. We have trillions of gallons of free water all around us waiting to be used. Act now before we reach a crisis situation. A rain dance will not work anymore.

A note of thanks

June 14, 2005

Dear Sir,

On behalf of our patients, their families, our staff and volunteers, as well as the Board of Friends of Hospice, I am extending greatest appreciation to Craig Mayor and General Atlantic Group Limited for your very kind and generous financial support of Agape House. As you might imagine, corporate support enables us to continue providing the best services and supplies for our patients. We are currently planning to renovate each room. Your $50,000 contribution will be put towards our next refurbishment. The quality of care at Agape House is without equal for hospice service in Bermuda.

Patients and relatives are unanimous in their praise of the work we do. Our skilled and dedicated staff, as well as our devoted volunteers, provide the very best palliative care to our residents. It means a great deal to those of us who assure Agape House runs so well, when members of the corporate community support our efforts. Not only does your financial assistance allow us to continue the excellent work we do here, it also makes a statement to other corporations. Financial support from the community is translated into very real help for non-profits working on behalf of others.

Once again, we thank you and General Atlantic Group Limited for donating so generously. Most sincerely,

Advice for shareholder

Dear Sir,

This should be addressed to your Paget correspondent WARY SHAREHOLDER who wrote of the trials and tribulations of dealing with the Bank of Butterfield. 1) Believe me when I tell you that the dividend reinvestment plan at BNTB might be convenient but it will never be a good investment for the shareholder. Take the dividend and buy the shares yourself.

2) Sending an e-mail ? or leaving a voice-mail message ? at the Bank of Butterfield is an invitation to frustration. That?s like sending a message into space! I tried both of these ideas out for some time ? even e-mailed Allan Thompson about the lack of response (he responded!) ? but the best way to get their attention is to ask for a direct telephone number, keep a record of these and stop wasting time trying to get customer service from e-mails/mails and voicemails. The shares of both banks are a very good investment ? as long as they have a monopoly in Bermuda.

The painful dialogue

July 5, 2005

Dear Sir,

Comments on race by the PLP are frequently embarrassing to members of any race currently living on the island. The idea that a vote for the party of John Swan would be vote to return blacks to plantations is bizarre. Most Bermudians hear this sort of thing and gaze toward heaven for release from the strange invective that comes from either side of the house. Dr. Brown?s comments may seem exclusionary and obstructive of debate. That they come from an almost completely black party would justify this impression.

And indeed I have heard that black people that are very polite to me actually hate white people and by association ? myself. And I have heard white and black people say things about the other race that would turn your stomach. We all have. Ever since I was a child the rumours of race conflict have hummed in the air. I used to get beaten up on my way home from Saltus by Berkley kids; their eyes full of hate. Their quick hands and feet were painful but did not teach me the horror of my crime ? being white. For that I would have had to remember my congenital guilt.

I would have had to read history to assume the guilt of my slave-owning great-great grandfathers. But I was too young to read Cyril Packwood, I was ten. I would have to rationalise my responsibility for what my racist grandfather said and did ? even though our relationship was utterly un-supportive, sour and created only misery for either of us. The spit on my face didn?t explain my crime of owning slaves because I had never owned one.

So what did I learn from being beaten up? I learned that from these black kids at least, I would receive no respect. Were I to socialise with whites I would be as normal as I could be and I would never experience this sharp and sudden rage. It was not these black kids? fists that taught, it was their words. I didn?t learn about their pain but about my pain; what suffering there would be to come, for me and for them.

What I learned is that humanity is divided into groups of loyalty. One group, your group (whatever it is) is good, beautiful and capable of real love. The others are not, they are bad, ugly and do not possess the proper moral equipment to embrace other human beings. Your group is kept pure by hatred of other groups. These black kids had learned this lesson the hard way. Now they were teaching me. We may have been in conflict but one thing united us ? we were all definitely Bermudians.

What a grim picture of humanity. Of course it is not true. And no one will admit to believing it. But there are times when everyone does. It is not a world view that provides the support for our social well-being. It is a floating anxiety that takes hold of the mind. In the Balkans it took hold of many people and made them capable of extraordinary violence. The Balkans could happen here. It is an absolute possibility. It could happen anywhere.

To Dr. Brown I can only say that I have nothing to be sorry for. I however do agree on one point. Our common history is an agony. And we don?t face it. He wasn?t the first to say it and he won?t be the last. I am not the only white person to say it. Michael Winfield said it a couple of weeks ago. White people don?t face it very well at all. The UBP is certainly not as bad as Dr. Brown says it is, but they have made a habit of ignoring the issue. Black people also ignore it because I expect it is a very painful subject. But when the subject is addressed sensibly, I would say it is usually black people bringing it up, and doing the hard work of getting a response from the community.

Whoever brings it up will suffer somehow for it. Addressing the issue goes directly against our common group consciences. To assume that the other group can discuss the issue implies the other group?s humanity, and very often that is abhorrent to the members of one?s own group. So in the end I would say that though I find Dr. Brown?s comments strange and sometimes alarming, they do not obfuscate or obstruct. I don?t agree with all he says by any means but this is the painful dialogue we must have. It may be in terms that are frightening and often insulting, but we don?t have to agree in order to talk to each other, we don?t even have to like each other. But race is the primary subject of importance and we must pursue it with vigilance.

What water crisis?

July 5, 2005

Dear Sir,

I wonder in amazement at how quickly we have entered a ?water crisis? as described by Minister Ashfield DeVent. If anyone would take the time to look at the rainfall graph on Page 24 of the July 5th edition of , it shows that the last four months (February through May) actual rainfall has exceeded the normal. A review of the monthly rainfall statistics for the last six months indicates that Bermuda has had 25.92 inches of rain which is just 0.65 inches below average. This is a crisis? I totally sympathise with Vanessa Seymour of St. David?s and her inability to get water. I find myself in the same predicament. I have just had some major tank repairs completed last weekend and was told by my water provider that I should call him on Monday (July 4th) to get on his list for water. On Monday, my water provider tells me ?sorry I am no longer taking names. I have too much of a backlog in deliveries?. So I am without water and can?t get any. Water truckers are either not answering their telephones or are not returning voice messages.

But it is amazing what I am being told by the water truckers that I talk to. They say that the Government has shut down the distribution points on a daily basis for truckers delivering water to residents, but water is still being trucked to the Southampton Princess on a 24 hour basis because their R/O plant has broken down and cruise ships are still getting water. Minister DeVent ? is this true? I would like this Government and Minister DeVent to explain to all of Bermuda?s residents that are in dire need of water why we are last on the list to get water and how a water crisis can come about in 30 days. I have to agree with Minister DeVent?s comments that ?what we really need now is a good, hard rain? because this government sure isn?t going to help us.

I guess I will join the health club at the Southampton Princess so that I can shower and shave and then head to the bar to get a drink. Or better yet why doesn?t everyone who cant get water and hasn?t showered head over to Minister DeVent?s house for showers and drinks. What a nice way to start Cup Match. I hope Minister DeVent has lots of water.