February 17, 2003

Dear Sir,

Please allow me to correct a few errors contained in Progressive Labour Party Senator Calvin Smith's recent letter, in which he attempts to justify racial insults he made in the Senate. When Senator Smith complained "You used to be black once!" he was speaking to myself and to Senator Neville Darrell, and not to Senator Leonard Santucci, as he says. If he is going to insult people, the least Senator Smith could do is try to remember who he is insulting.

These remarks were made during the Senate's debate on day when the PLP's GPS Taxi Bill was defeated, and not during last year's budget debate as he claims. It is hard to see how Bermuda benefits when Senator Smith uses racial slurs to apply some kind of PLP racial loyalty test to issues.

Senator Calvin Smith's attempt to justify his insult, by claiming he was supporting the poor and disadvantaged, is a fabrication and does not represent what transpired in the Senate on that day. He was, in fact, supporting a PLP bill which caused great concern within the taxi industry, and in fact sought to guarantee a few venture capitalists success of the backs of the struggling taxi driver.

This is an election year, so the political desperation of the PLP may make it expedient for their political marksmen to malign opponents in any way they can dream up.

The community, however, knows that they can count on Senator Neville Darrell, Senator Leonard Santucci and myself to fairly represent the needs of all segments of Bermuda society, to respect and honour their views, and to take their suggestions and criticisms seriously no matter what the colour of the skin or the political party they support.

That, I assume, is what the PLP Senator finds so threatening. I beg him, however, to make his political points without misrepresenting the proceedings of the Senate.

Senator Kim Swan

St. George's

February 13, 2003

Dear Sir,

I had reason to book an American Airline ticket for a visitor from New York coming to Bermuda from March 16 until April 8. My travel agent quoted me a price of $498.00. This was a higher price because lower fares were sold out, this was the lowest fare. Remembering that the travel time to Bermuda is 90 minutes I then researched on the Internet American Airlines' ticket prices for exactly the same dates from New York to other destinations.

Remember to compare the distances and journey times! Bermuda $498.00, Los Angeles $206.00 less, Nassau $116.00 less, London $140.00 less, Rome $80.00 (change airlines at Heathrow), Frankfurt $102.00 less, Moscow (13 hours) $83 more, Rio (11) hours $133.00 more.

Why cannot this airline tell the truth about exactly why they charge on this route what they do in comparison with other destinations? It seems to me that what we should do is to boycott one airline which would force them to review their fare policy given that all the business was going to other carriers.

(I must say that I was heartened to find that the prices quoted on the Internet site expedia.com were the same prices my Bermuda travel agent quoted me.)

Gotta Travel Bug

Hamilton