About time on permits

August 19, 2010

Dear Sir,

In reading today's Royal Gazette (August 19, 2010), specifically the article concerning the recent moratorium on work permits and the construction industry. I would like to say IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!. Too long have I seen foreigners on construction sites, most of which can't speak a lick of English. I have had many of my friends who work in this industry come to me and complain about the Bermudian firms bringing in the foreigners. I say this to all my fellow Bermudians, get off your butts and go get these jobs. If you see an infraction, report it to the Ministry immediately. We need to take our country back before it is too late.

It always amazes me how fast the UBP is ready to protect the foreigner first or just bad mouth the Minister and unfortunately it seems their clone the BDA is falling into the same way of spouting senseless rhetoric. To whom do your loyalties lie?

ALWAYS WATCHING

Smith's

Not third world

August 18, 2010

Dear Sir,

You recently refused to print a portion of a letter to the editor that I had written, stating that "it was not factual". Readers should therefore assume that all letters to the Editor of The Royal Gazette are factual. If this is true, we all must agree with Penny Hill's letter published on July 31, 2010. In her opening paragraph Ms. Hill writes "Bermuda has sunk, beyond rescuing, to a Third World country disturbingly similar to the Turks and Caicos".

According to Wikipedia the term "third world" is used colloquially to describe the poorest countries in the world. I therefore must question why Ms. Hill, and others who think like her, continue to reside in one of the poorest countries in the world. Admittedly, there are some similarities between Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos, both being British Overseas Territories where the "belongers" have not yet had the courage and will to become independent from the "Mother Country" from which Ms. Hill emigrated several years ago. The fact of the matter is that any country which is presently considered "third world", a term I abhor, is poor because it was raped and pillaged by the "Mother Country", Great Britain, and other countries like Spain and Portugal. However to describe either Bermuda or the Turks and Caicos as "third world countries" is disingenuous at best.

For Ms. Hill's information, "third world countries" would not allow "non-belongers", even those with "belonger status" to criticise its government and its people as Ms. Hill has in her letter. Certainly if Ms. Hill was living in a "third world" country, her description of its leader as being "the most duplicitous of men" would never have been printed in the only daily newspaper. In "third world" countries the media is controlled by the government and that is definitely not the case in the place Ms. Hill now calls home. In fact if Ms. Hill was indeed living in a "third world" country, she would be behind bars, maybe even on death row for making such allegations.

Ms. Hill should know that "Third World" countries do not hand out retirement benefits to ex-civil servants which allow them to live in luxury condominium developments. "Third world" countries do not sign tax information exchange agreements with first world governments. She should know that "third world" countries do not have excellent reviews from credit rating agencies such as Moodys, Standard and Poors, this in spite of a PLP Government. Ms. Hill must be intelligent enough to know that there is no middle class in "third world countries".

Ms. Hill states, and it must be factual, because its printed in The Royal Gazette, that "...responsible middle class families and couples.....are quietly moving to the US, Canada, UK, Australia" to get away from the "gun-wielding gang culture". Last I heard, all of those countries listed have their own "gun-wielding gang culture", even though they're supposed to be first world countries.

Maybe Ms. Hill can tell us in another letter to the editor why she continues to live in a third world country where she is terrified by its gangs and its government. At least one of the countries that she has listed must be willing to accept a disillusioned resident of this "third world" country.

LAVERNE FURBERT

Hamilton Parish

Another example was set

August 18, 2010

Dear Sir,

May I use remarks by "Care about the children" (Royal Gazette August 17) to make a point. I agree with most that she says but she expresses a point of view which is so frequently expressed in a variety of ways that it really needs a response and I hope that will be possible despite the length of this letter.

She writes, "I believe the anger emotionally and politically expressed through the blacks on this Island is not going to help progression or decrease the anti-social behaviour in the youth". "Don't use the past as an excuse, to stay poor and uneducated". "We must still set an example, for them to excel in their personal lives".

The fact that the black community is currently in the throes of violence and crime should not let us forget that another example has already been set. All of us, every one of us with African blood in our veins, came out of slavery. Look around you. There are professionals, entrepreneurs, hard working tradesmen and craftsmen, many owning their own homes and all of this has been achieved in the face of obstacles and racism every step of the way. It did not happen without hard work, sacrifice, determination and a great deal of study on the part of this generation and those before us. It is not because an example has not already been set, and set by those who faced even more overt racism than exists today.

Let me begin with some specifics. Remembering the past has not prevented "excellence" in personal lives as against "staying poor and uneducated". Bermudians do not like to be used as examples. But public figures are "grist for the mill". Let me begin with an obvious example, knowing full well some of the reactions.

The parents of Dr. Ewart Brown belong to my generation, so I know the segregated society in which they were reared and the kind of rejection and denial they often met. His father, Mr. D.A. Brown, was associated with the Tourist Industry and often said that he knew the exact moment that the power structure began to import foreign workers in the hotels in order to displace black Bermudians. They knew all about racism and talked about it, but that did not prevent them from trying one thing after another to ensure that their son "Ewart" understood the importance of education (he was no angel!) Clearly he eventually got the message. Whatever else one thinks about him he has not let racism prevent him from exercising sufficient discipline and determination to get himself educated (and in medicine!) and finding personal success. Whatever else he has done about racism, and no matter how much he may have resented it, he has not let himself "stay poor and uneducated" !!!!

Let me use another personal example whose permission I have!! It is not because I and my family are exceptional, it is because we are typical. My father had six children. No picnic!! Unlike his siblings who never worked for white people, he did and suffered all of the indignities and insults which black folks suffered at the time. They had strong Christian principles among them was the refusal to accept racism as right. "Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands" was my uncle's favourite scripture. They knew racism and talked about it. But they also knew the importance of education and they made all kinds of sacrifices to ensure that we got a secondary education at a time when it had to be paid for in "blood sweat and tears".

I have challenged racism and segregation since I was a teenager. I also knew the importance that my family attached to education, so discipline, determination and all night vigils were par for the course at exam time. I did not receive a variety of scholarships because I used race as "an excuse", even while I was challenging it! I was told to my face that I was not going to be hired at a retail shop because they did not hire "coloured" people. I did not use that as an excuse to prevent me from obtaining a string of academic degrees. The fact that I have never been hired or paid in accordance with those degrees has not prevented me from making the sacrifices necessary to put a roof over my own head and to pay for it. I was brought up on the evils of racism, both past and present, but that has not made me stay "poor and uneducated". Those who have, have not followed the example of those who went before them.

Do not tell us that what we say about the evils of racism, both past and present, and our demand for affirmative action has an influence on this lost generation while the example of what we actually have done has not had an influence!

I could give a simplistic reason for this lost generation. It is because our leaders and role models have forgotten what we once knew. That is, in the face of the ongoing evil of racism, our primary goal must be to struggle for justice for all, and particularly for those who still, today, suffer most from the long term impact of racism. Too many have escaped themselves and have become indifferent to those who still feel its long term impact. But more of that at some other time!

EVA N. HODGSON

Hamilton Parish

Hiring 'the best'

August 18, 2010

Dear Sir,

I have followed with great interest the Tucker's Point Club/Davis Ralston story and perhaps the problem lies deeper than one thinks.

The facts are that the holding company of TPC invested an incredible amount of money to create the place and the jobs to go along with it to support it. Being myself in the high end luxury hotel market, I am fully aware of the demands of those clients in the physical plant and most important the service provided by the staff on all levels. Having followed on trip advisor.com the Tucker's Point Club and reading the comments of their guests it indicates very clearly that the hotel plant and rooms are great but the service provided is mediocre at best. Being number 15 out 30 hotels in Bermuda does not speak so well with the high investment made. The Bermuda Immigration Department should give the TPC "carte blanche" to hire and bring the best people in the world to Tucker's Point Club to service the guests and train local people for the future.

This is a new direction and a new customer for Bermuda and this customer is expecting the ultimate in service and with the high prices demanded can choose any place in the world, from Switzerland to the Caribbean. And just to quote one of many comments on trip advisor.com "sometimes there is coffee in the lobby..sometimes there is not". Only the best is good enough in the high end luxury hotel market.

Tucker's Point Club deserves a chance to hire the "best" and if it is not available locally, well then you have to look outside the Island and then train local staff or lower the standards. However, few high end hotel chains (like The Ritz, Four Seasons or St. Regis for example) will settle for that. Something to think about.

WILHELM SACK

The Horned Dorset Primavera Hotel