I have been contacted by a Christian Missionary, in French Central Africa, who is seeking donations of Bibles, for the people to whom he is ministering.

Knowing that Bermudians generally have been raised, for generations, in the Christian faith, I believe there may be many households where there are old bibles which have not been used for years, having been supplanted by newer editions or more modern translations.

I would like to appeal to your readers to check their bookshelves and consider making a donation of one of these old bibles, to be sent to this missionary in Africa.

Donations of used bibles will be gratefully received at Rehoboth, 148 South Road, Paget opposite Just Roses and Sizewise. Please kindly drop off to the office of BEC Ltd., under the buttery at Rehoboth. Please note, this is not an appeal for money, only for Bibles.

We hope to have a shipment ready to go by mid May, so please do not delay if you would like to assist in this project. Here is an opportunity to help our cousins in Africa with the knowledge of God's Word.

Thank you for your kindness, MARGARET FORSTER City of Hamilton Inspirational words April 23, 2001 Dear Sir, When things are not going well for you and times are not what they should be, just focus on the positive and think about what could be.

Acknowledge what has happened and don't lose sight of lessons past but don't allow the negative distracting thoughts to last. Take what you've learned and start from there, draw strength from your frustration and let this added sense of purpose be your new foundation.

It's hard to follow any plan to the letter, though life right now is difficult, things will in time get better! MAGNUM City of Hamilton Feng shui at XL April 19, 2001 Dear Sir, I am writing in reference to the article entitled "XL staff make the move'' printed in the Business section of The Royal Gazette on Wednesday, April 18.

Although I believe there are several inaccuracies in that article, I wish to confine my comments to the following sentence, printed on page 28. "The building was said to have the `wrong' feng shui, and to counter balance it they painted the walls of the basement in different colours''.

Speaking as the feng shui practitioner hired by XL to consult with them on their new corporate headquarters building, I categorically deny that the building ever had any "wrong'' feng shui. Indeed from a feng shui perpective, the plans produced by Entasis created a wonderfully balanced and harmonious building from the outset.

There are several reasons that the walls in the underground parking area were painted different colours. From a feng shui viewpoint, they will anchor the mission statement of the company through all areas of corporate life. From a purely practical standpoint, employees can easily locate their parking bays (e.g., purple, level one). And lastly, parking one's car in a cheerfully painted garage has had the added bonus of putting a little fun into the start of the day.

To my mind, beginning the day with a smile would certainly be considered very good feng shui.

BARBARA A. BLUCK InSight On Site City of Hamilton Coral Beach GM replies April 24, 2001 Dear Sir, In case any of your readers is in doubt, I wish once again to deny absolutely the allegation that the Coral Beach & Tennis Club and its staff were involved in acts of racism during the recent XL Capital Bermuda Open Tournament.

Coral Beach is a relatively small, busy place at the best of times. When hundreds of extra people are on the property, we have to make some changes to the way things operate, because otherwise, there would be chaos. Some of the important changes we make are these: The Clubhouse, including the main lounge, restrooms, bar and dining room, is reserved for the use of the sponsors of the event, to allow them to entertain their staff and clients. An elaborate buffet lunch is put on for two sittings every day. Tournament players are allowed to use a small section within the clubhouse.

Members of the Club who are not sponsors are allowed access only to the Beach Terrace Restaurant for their meals during the Tournament. They use the restrooms in that area.

The public, including lines persons, umpires and ball persons are not allowed in either of these two areas. Portable toilet facilities are set up in a number of areas on the property, as are public telephones. Signs are posted to ensure no one is in doubt.

The Food Chalet, a tented area near the tennis courts, is specially set up for the public, so that they have continuous access to food and drinks at breakfast time, at lunch and at dinner.

Obviously, vehicular traffic must be kept to a minimum. Within a No-Go Zone close to the clubhouse, the only vehicles that are allowed are taxis shuttling players and our resident guests back and forth, and vehicles making deliveries.

Parking is restricted to designated areas -- one for sponsors, one for Club members and volunteers, one for staff members and one for the general public.

A single vehicle parked in the wrong place can cause a major headache.

Those who assist us with security are told to be polite, but not shy.

These arrangements, difficult though they sometimes can be, must be put in place and must be adhered to fairly rigidly for reasons that must be obvious.

If there were none, or if we were lackadaisical about enforcing them, the staff of the Club would not be able to deal with the complex logistics of the event with anything approaching efficiency.

Coral Beach hosts the tournament not because it is a big money-maker for us, (which it is not) but because we are passionate about tennis. We have been involved with the game since the early 1930s and we want to do what we can to promote it in Bermuda, especially among younger players.

The tournament was designed from the start to be our contribution to sport in a general sense, and to tennis in Bermuda in particular.

In the circumstances, it is worth adding that we would consider it a complete waste of our efforts if young players of only one race were inspired by it.

However, it seems to us that there is ample evidence, after eight years, that all types of young players are appreciative of the opportunity to watch and participate.

We at Coral Beach work very hard to make it an impressive event in world terms -- something everyone in Bermuda can attend, can enjoy and be proud of. I should put great emphasis on the hard work it takes to stage this Tournament -- the staff at the Club and the volunteers who give of their time day and night, put in an absolutely massive amount of work to ensure its success.

The notion that we would go to all this trouble only to spoil the hard work by being discriminatory to some of our guests is, to us, just ludicrous.

However, it is a sad fact of life in Bermuda today that there is no shortage of people who are prepared, on the slightest pretext and especially when their anonymity can be guaranteed, to play the race card. Coral Beach is a private member's club which counts a number of prominent and wealthy people, both black and white, among its members.

We are, of course, a prime target for those who want to stir up racial or social disquiet. The tournament is open to everyone, and I dare say it does not take a particularly skilled reporter to find the requisite sources. This is not the first time it has happened, and it will surely not be the last.

That does not make it any the less painful when it does occur, however. In the circumstances it seems to all of us at Coral Beach, members, volunteers and staff, a great injustice that you would give any publicity at all to the insubstantial and mistaken allegations of these two faceless people who seem so eager to criticise, but whose opinions seem so out of step with those of others present.

It adds insult to injury that these allegations were carried on your front page, yet comments from players who said, among other things, that the tournament was "one of the best Challenger events in the world...more like a Tour event and the higher end of the Tour events at that...'' were carried on the sports pages on Page 23.

GLENN F. SHORTO General manager Coral Beach & Tennis Club Langton Hill cleaning April 10, 2001 Dear Sir, We have here a peculiar ongoing situation and maybe someone out there can enlighten us. We have a road called Langton Hill and the bottom half from St.

John's Road to Juniper Hill Drive is swept and cleaned on a regular basis, every two weeks or so.

The top half, Juniper Hill Drive to Government House Drive, is seldom touched; in fact if it is cleaned once a year one can consider it a lucky day.

As this section of roadway is covered with huge overhanging trees the edges are constantly ankle deep in trash and dead leaves and again, if we are lucky we might get some heavy rain or high winds to push it all down to St. John's Road.

What I would like to know is why would only half a roadway be cleaned? Do we have some sort of boundary at the halfway point? And if so, why is the top half never cleaned? One would have thought that the approach to Government House would be kept spotless at all times.

SEEING IT AS IT IS Pembroke Christ was `brown' April 16, 2001 Dear Sir, I have recently been blessed with many thanks and compliments for the "black Christ'' in the window I designed for St. Anne's Church.

I am delighted and grateful that people feel they can relate to Him because of this, but I need to make something clear. He is not meant to be black. Jesus was a Jew, living in a sunny country mostly out of doors. I do not believe he was either African black or Nordic white. He was surely brown. Like nearly all of us here in Bermuda (particularly in the summer!).

Recently on a telephone poll I was asked what race I was. I gave a silly answer "Human''. I am tired of this division by skin colour, we are all shades of brown and so was Jesus. He belongs to us all and we belong to Him.

Wishing you a happy Easter Season.

VIVIENNE J. GARDNER Paget W&E codename: Emily April 19, 2001 Dear Sir, The W&E Minister's plan, code named Emily, is cleverly designed to achieve several national objectives simultaneously and will leave its mark on Bermuda for years. The Minister's aesthetic advisories, "If you don't want it butchered, do it yourself'', and playful admonitions, "Road gangs are cutting a hedge near you'', are solid motivational advice from a Government in the service of the people. The SLP would like to point out the blindingly obvious -- if there are no trees, they will not fall down. Stop being so wishy-washy! Cut 'em all down. Once the job is done, we propose putting the out-of-work road crews on roof-building duty instead. Or we will set them to demolishing the reefs, since they get in the way of the boats, and then cut channels across the island to let the hurricane wind and seas blow through and generate lots of electricity to power all the underground bunkers we will create.

We have long suspected that Works and Engineering's fantasy is to fill in Harrington Sound and straighten out Southampton and Sandys so that 40-foot container trucks would not have to go around any corners, but we did not suspect that the Minister could be steamrolled so easily by his own department. We are impressed.

The SLP thinks that reducing the number of MPs and broadening their responsibilities is a great idea, since those Ministers who continually overreach themselves can fill in for those who are ineffectual. Also, bureaucrats will be so much more efficient without Ministers loitering around continually pestering them with accountability. The blame will be that much easier to lay.

The SLP would like to congratulate the PLP on the distinction of having achieved finally, breathlessly, the same reputation for sensitivity and finesse that defined the UBP. It was a hard climb, but fairly done, in only two short years! Kudos.

SKINK AND LOBSTER PARTY (SLP) City of Hamilton Changing the rule book April 28, 2001 Dear Sir, Many of the recent letters concerning the Constitutional changes have focused on the participants at the meetings, particularly in one case the predominance of white people at Government House, who strongly, in some cases, put forward their points of view concerning a referendum.

Once again it becomes obvious that those who support the current tactics of the PLP, and use the colour issue to separate peoples viewpoints, are intent on deflecting people from the true impact of what is happening.

This really is not, or should not be, a colour issue.

The remarkable fact is that nobody, whatever their colour, voted expressly for constitutional changes during this government term, and the changes being proposed may well have the impact that only PLP candidates will be elected in future.

In simple terms the Government will change from democracy to dictatorship overnight, and 46 percent of the voters will be denied a say in the running of their country.

It is unconscionable that any government would change the whole rule book of how a country is governed without asking the very people who are to be governed by those rules, that is to say by means of a referendum.

But then, I also find it unconscionable that the FCO and the Governor, who are supposed to represent what is regarded by some as one of the major democracies in the world, can support the denial of a referendum to the people of Bermuda concerning the future of all Bermudians.

Every voter must ask themselves the question, why am I being denied a vote on this issue? It can only be that the government ministers are not interested in your opinion (David Burch has confirmed that repeatedly). The government ministers are in fact only interested in themselves.

PHIL CRACKNELL St. George's