A waste of time

October 4, 2010

Dear Sir,

Re Public Meeting Park Hyatt Development held at Penno's Wharf this evening. If the organisation of the meeting held this evening is the standard of the proposed project – then God help St George's. What a total waste of time. At least the turnout was excellent but ….it was a waste of time literally and in more senses than one.

TOWNSMAN

St. George's

Lost opportunities

October 5, 2010

Dear Sir,

I have two issues with your editorial concerning the new prosecution policy of caution versus court. First, surely the last person to go on the stop list is a victim of the law who would have been spared if the new DPP policy had come a little sooner. Since we have had all the relevant information to have implemented this policy ten years ago, think of all the lost opportunities for all those victims (a great many of them with both feet nailed to the bottom of the barrel, no hope, no aspirations, will never reach the first rung of the social ladder, for heavens sake don't let them near a gun) – Bermuda's loss.

Second, there is a very strong correlation between large and rising income gaps and rising crime, social problems and a whole battalion of negative outcomes affecting us all. Populations with larger income gaps: suffer more risky behaviour among youth, boys-police-courts-incarceration and girls-teenage pregnancy; have poorer health outcomes, obesity-diabetes-cardiovascular diseases-mental illness; experience more stress, more distrust and broken communities.

This huge and growing income gap as well as much more traffic on the roads and relatively fewer Police all combine to give more crime and apparent lawlessness on the roads. The crime wave is certainly not due to Police becoming a "service" rather than a "force" nor due to less heavy policing of minor crimes.

I hope it does not take another ten years to seriously address the income gap. If the PLP goes back to its core principles, like redistribution of wealth, as a long-term policy solution, then there is hope. The basic formula is two-thirds of government revenue going to the bottom third of the population and encourage our innovative financial sector to cap wages paid on island to $250,000 and pay the remaining million(s) offshore, (they are clever, surely they can come up with novel ways to narrow the gap without hurting themselves – they surely don't want to hurt the golden goose, Bermuda, any more than they inadvertently have already).

DELAEY ROBINSON JP

St. George's

A restaurateur responds

October 4, 2010

Dear Sir,

I write this letter in response to "Frequently Disappointed Frequent Diner" on September 24. I am certain I was one of the four restaurants you wrote about as I recognise the two dishes you talked about. First of all, the sea bass you mentioned, I agree it was too small. I will not make excuses, as you are absolutely right. The portion size was corrected before your letter was published. I take that responsibility. The wahoo dish you claimed you paid $45 for, shocked not just me, but all my staff. We have never charged that much for wahoo. We charge $28-$30 depending what it comes with.

When an order for fish of the day goes through to the kitchen, the price has to be put in manually in the system. This can be clearly seen on the kitchen food order check. It would be very unlikely that all the servers, chefs, manager, and I completely missed this pricing or even allowed a check for an order of wahoo to be charged at $45. I have painstakingly gone through piles of past receipts and cannot find a wahoo that was charged at $45. Perhaps I missed it, perhaps I'm mistaken, or perhaps you're mistaken.

Please drop by anytime and show me the receipt and I promise you I will reimburse you for what could and quite possibly be a big, poor and unacceptable mistake on our part. If it's our mistake, I take full responsibility. You mention that you are not a regular customer with us but had been a couple of times prior and enjoyed it. Because of the portion size and apparently high cost of wahoo, you will no longer patronise us and you are 'fed up with the service'. A very unfair conclusion indeed. If only you just mentioned to your server, the manager, or even me, that you were unhappy then we would have fixed it in a heart beat.

And yet, wow, who ever 'Example #3' is in your letter, whose crimes are "salty food", "not consistently good", "cut down on staff", "service is not what it was". I am intrigued as to what their redeeming qualities are and why you would continue to, "use them again". My restaurant has many consistent loyal and regular and happy customers and they each in turn give us "constructive" input. We even continue to make dishes, favourite dishes that customers have had on previous menus. If we have the ingredients we will try damned hard to produce and provide what the customers ask, no matter how busy we are. My team actually cares about our customers. Any one reading this must be thinking: why am I so upset, as my restaurant's name wasn't even mentioned. What's the big deal?

I will tell you; I have no silent partners, no big money behind me. I work hard, all of us at this restaurant, the whole team, work very hard, long hours. The staff are loyal, dedicated, committed people who devote their working lives to my business. I work alongside them every day. All of us spend more time with each other at work than we do with our friends and family. I hold them in high regard and respect each and every one of them.

My serving staff come to work day in day out with positive attitudes, eager and ready to please and to face a long day marching up and down the dining room. My chefs start their day early, and more often than not leave after 11 p.m. For that, my staff, my restaurant, deserves positive input from you "the customer", not negative jibes written in a newspaper. We value "suggestions" and we listen to constructive criticism from our customers, that's the only way we can grow, improve. Bottom line. Most importantly and be rest assured, my team and I will continue to produce simple, reasonably priced, unpretentious, honest food and equally, the best service we can.

A VERY SINCERE RESTAURANT OWNER

City of Hamilton

Judging the judges

October 2, 2010

Dear Sir,

The PLP is using Standard & Poor's optimism as proof that Bermuda's economy is in good shape ... the same Standard & Poor's that rated all those mortgage-backed securities AAA+ a couple of years back ... and rated Enron at investment grade four days before it went into bankruptcy ... need I say more?

CLINTON J.A. PAYNTER

St. George's