Give horses shelter

August 9, 2005

Dear Sir,

I read with interest and I might add, sadness, at the comments made by owners of the carriage horses on Front Street in your paper last week, defending the use of carriage horses being used for a ten-hour working day and stating that they were bred for the job.

It was acceptable years ago, before the age of machinery and automobiles, for horses to work for hours on end in the hot sun and indeed, some horses were bred to cope with this labour. But surely, those days are long gone. We as humans have learnt compassion and caring for animals and to see a horse slogging through intense heat and pollution for ten hours a day is just not acceptable to a compassionate and caring person.

In the article, it was stated that their horses were bred to do this job. I don?t think that is strictly accurate. I don?t believe that any horse has been specifically bred to pull a working carriage for the past 70 or 80 years, unless you are talking about elite carriage driving sports horses.

There are horses that are bred to pull heavy loads, for instance Shires and Clydesdales, but these are ?cold? blooded, very heavy horses and could never stand to pull a carriage in the middle of Bermuda?s summer for ten hours a day comfortably. Some of the horses used on Front Street are Standardbred horses. These horses are bred to pull a vehicle, but the vehicle is a racing sulky and they are bred to race as fast as they can over a mile distance, although, I will say that of all the breeds of horses, the Standardbred is probably the most suitable for pulling carriages in Bermuda. There are some quarter horses on Front Street, they are bred to rope cattle, race and ranch work and certainly not to pull a carriage. There is also a Tennessee Walker on Front Street. He was certainly not bred to pull a carriage, he was highly bred to carry plantation overseers and owners comfortably around their estates.

The condition of the horses that are seen on Front Street is generally good, but they definitely to start looking very weary as the summer passes. I also agree that it is not unhealthy to see a horse foaming at the mouth, it actually shows that the horse is hydrated. The horses look to have plenty of water available and they have a shelter. I also think that as a tourist attraction, having them there is a good thing.

However, I strongly disagree that these poor animals are allowed by law to be on the road for ten hours a day and I think it abhorrent that they are allowed to be on the street during the hottest parts of the day. No animal should be subjected to that and no horse is bred for that. Surely, we as a human race, we have got beyond believing that this is acceptable. To the Minister of Transport and the Corporation of Hamilton: Please consider restricting the hours that carriage horses are allowed to work to a more humane number of hours and most importantly, restrict their presence on Front Street between the hours of 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.

To the people at the Corporation of St. George?s, you should be ashamed of yourself that you cannot provide a shelter for the horses working in your town. I only hope you can sleep a night, knowing that for the sake of a piece of tarpaulin and a few bits of steel, you could provide some respite from the heat for these living, breathing creatures. Think back a couple of weeks to when the power was off for a couple of days. Feel hot did you? Kept in the shade, did you? Well, triple or quadruple the discomfort that you had for a couple of days and make that ten hours a day, five days a week. Your lack of action in providing shelter for the horses, is nothing short of a disgrace.

New priorities for schools

August 10, 2005

Dear Sir,

Recently the Minister of Education wrote a stinging rebuke of Mr. Dunleavy?s opinion column of July 26, 2005.

The Minister was clearly incensed over the question posed by Mr. Dunleavy: ? Where?s the public inquiry into the intellectual power shortage in the public school system?? Later someone had the courage to draw attention to the fact the Minister of Education had sent his son to Warwick Academy (now private) and then on to an exclusive private school in the US.

When I attended Warwick Academy it was still part of the public school system, but even that long ago, and despite being public, Warwick Academy was well known for turning out graduates of high academic achievement. It certainly gave me the head start I needed to compete at an international university level.

Many years later, in the position of providing a private professional service to the community, naturally I accommodate day release students, and always employ summer students. The Minister should understand that even those who manage to graduate from the public school system are very frequently far behind an acceptable level of general education, which any employer in Bermuda has the right to expect. Even if we have no children in the public school system, our ever-increasing taxes are paying for these students, only half of which make it to the pitiful standards expected to graduate.

No, I do not blame the students irrespective of their sometimes- challenging home circumstances. Yes I do blame the respective school administrations and the Department of Education. Of course the responsibility for the whole disgraceful state of the public education system ultimately rests with the Ministry.

Before the Minister lashes out at a columnist who dares to address the dilemma, he may wish to survey the employers. I think it highly unlikely I am the only one who has had the experience of employing graduates who cannot, and I do mean cannot do basic simple mathematics without a calculator. I am not referring to multi-numeric problems, but problems, which relate to counting basic units or giving change: five times seven, for instance, or 23 from 50.

Then there is alphabetical filing. Am I demanding too much of an 18-year-old graduate of our newest and largest public school to be able to get the correct order of the letters in the alphabet? Private school students of 12 years of age have no problem with this.

I should like to know of the Minister, how he thinks a local employer can function paying quite a salary to a summer student, whose English is so poor, it is impossible to groom them quickly to start with basic tasks such as answering the phone or writing down messages? What in heaven?s name are we expected to do? Where possible, obviously give them the skills they will need!

But is this our job? We are not teachers. Yes, I believe it is our job to integrate young adults into the work force, but it is not our job to take in youngsters who have not even a rudimentary grasp of the three Rs, who have been failed by their teachers and their schools, and make of them university material? It cannot happen, unless the colleges and universities have intake standards of pre-school

It is not new buildings they need in this Government, but a completely new handbook and set of priorities. They could start by burying their immediate reaction to justified criticism, which in every instance is to crucify the messenger, by whatever means. Discrediting is by far the most favoured tool in this political club, and while particularly nasty in such a small community, as they well know likely to be effective.

August 10, 2005

Dear Sir,

Is that new law regarding that anyone whether they be male or female,driving with a cellphone must pay a $1,000 fine and be off the road for hopefully a year in effect?

If not,that's something that SHOULD be banned:Cellphone driving.Not single people who own cars. BAN CELLPHONE DRIVING

Pembroke