MASS destruction awaits us, if we don't deal with the threat posed by the kudzu weed. The alarming article told us last week that Bermuda has been infiltrated by the apparently belligerent and predatory, possibly mutated, Asian plant-life.

The kudzu can add to its list of capabilities, the uprooting of trees and telephone poles. Now is this in five days or more of a spectator sport lasting two hours?

It's unlikely that on our densely populated isle of concrete and golf courses any tree, pole or large upright structure would suffer the same fate unnoticed.

There is no mention of how this little act of possible Japanese vegetarian terrorism appeared in Bermuda. The Japanese are credited with infecting the US with kudzu by introducing it Trojan-horse-style in an exhibit to celebrate the 100th birthday of the US where it continues to wreak agricultural havoc.

So, obviously you can tell by the amount of sarcasm in the above that I fail to take this threat seriously. I am far more worried about the acceleration of senseless decisions being made by those we have elected to power here.

As a Bermudian abroad I was often questioned on the Bermuda Triangle and have always verified its existence as that area between United Bermuda Party and Progressive Labour Party headquarters and the House of Assembly where all morals and ethics seem to mysteriously disappear . . . and folks, it's alive and well, even transforming itself into an eddy of meconium waste.

One of the most egregious complaints I have about our society is that, for the most part, we all know when we are being snowballed, conned, etc. because I hear it everywhere ? the bars, banks, bureaucracies, yet who steps forward to complain? No one.

The sad fact is we live in a voter nation of apathy.

I believe no one has the right to complain without forwarding a solution or making an attempt to effect some sort of change.

This past week has been a doozy . . . I don't know about you all, but I don't elect people to tell me how to spend my money or conduct my leisure time.

This proposed outright ban on gambling I both heard and read about smacks of Big Brother (or should I say, Big Mother).

If I want to throw a few dollars into a slot machine (and more than likely lose them), I should have the right to demonstrate my lack of knowledge of probability theory.

Oh and gambling is probably the only vice not included on my list of sins so it's not a personal issue, but a practical one for me.

My understanding until this week was that there would be an in-depth and participatory discussion on the entire gambling question, casinos and all. The decisions made by our Government this week smack of Bible-belt mentality and not economic sense. Indeed, we have licensed betting shops and have had for decades ? why are those particular venues not included in the ban?

How will Government even word the legislation ? after all the current proposed bill is badly written to the point of being farcical.

How will Government compensate the current owners of machines for their loss of income, etc.? I can suggest some discounted NPV methodology, if any help is needed ? either way the Accountant General better get the cheque books out.

And I can't quite believe that I write once more about parking tickets but if we cannot enforce such a basic revenue raiser then I despair for our collective future.

Over half a million dollars will not be coming into Government coffers that could have. After reviewing the last Budget and seeing where the cutbacks were (senior citizens, drug rehabilitation and other areas of social importance), this is no less than appalling.

And how surprised I was today to read that not one Member of Parliament is to be charged in the Bermuda Housing Corporatopn scandal. I guess when one allows two years to pass between the breaking of the fraud to bringing those involved to justice, the hope is that we will all forget the original reports. So far, so good, folks.

Even, and I really am stretching things here, but even if there were no high level wrongdoing in political circles, the minimum "crime" would be one of gross negligence and incompetence and the honourable thing to do would be resign . . . Fall on your sword because it happened on your watch. But honour and politics rarely co-exist in this little paradise.

And we the taxpayers, the Bermudians short-changed on housing and all those upon whom the trickle-down effect will land will remain the doomed victims of this shoddy scandal that will never come closer to being explained than the Whitewater or Iran Contra affairs, or indeed, the Rape of Nanking.