July 18, 2005

Dear Sir,

I would like to respond to the letter to the editor titled "Different music, please!"

I work on the ferry and can say that this article is very much exaggerated. Mornings we do have the radio station on for the news and listening pleasure. At times it is hard to hear the music as well as each other due to the large volume of passengers, as well from the rumble of the boat. Our music system is good but not that good to produce thumping bass! I understand that one or two people don't listen to our local radio station but that's it! We aim to please as we greet our passengers with smiles and warm greetings. No one has complained like this and most times when it comes to the TV we play movies for the kids. This passenger is someone that has obviously woken up on the wrong side of of the bed, and I'm sure they wouldn't drive their car work as the ferry ride is fast and soothing every day!

Remember one person cannot speak for all the passengers and the funny thing about it, the music was low I guess not a certain passengers station choice she said it was loud and once turned off she put on a walkman. Figure that out!

REPRESENTING MARINE & PORTS

Warwick

Dear Sir,

$22,700 for a parking space? What are they lined with ? gold? Come on, that can't be right. I knew construction in Bermuda was at its peak but that is ridiculous, Mr. Editor. This Government could care less about spending our money. When will people understand this and vote them out once and for all. I sincerely hope that all voters of the PLP Government are taking note of all of the unnecessary money they are spending.

While our seniors suffer, Works and Engineering are not taking care of the Government buildings and their workers, we can't even bring in water for our people because this Government has not kept the water catches in good repair, the Police barracks and buildings are in deplorable condition, our one and only hospital needs to be re-built and so on and so on, this Government continues to spend spend spend and only think of themselves. How about the people who have to work two and three jobs a day just to make ends meet? When are they going to help and think of the people first?

We need Independence all right, Independence from this shoddy PLP Government.

DISGUSTED, YET AGAIN

Dear Sir,

The Premier made fun at Louise Jackson saying her nose is growing. I think he should look in a mirror. His and Brown's noses should be touching his feet. Look what they did to Dame Jennifer Smith and spending $400,000 for trips this is why we have so many without homes. Why not make the Premier go to South Shore home this was purchase for them, made Clifton into homes for the working class people.

David Saul did not need or want anything but his own home at Devonshire Bay.

I think we should have a no confidence vote on this Government. If not we may be asking Haiti for help.

MARGARET

Devonshire

August 5, 2005

Dear Sir,

I am writing about the controversy regarding Jo-An Turman and the supposed terrible treatment she received at the airport. I realise there is an investigation going on, but we never seem to hear the final outcome in these things. Everyone seems to be bashing the officer involved (who as it turns out is a police ? not customs - officer), but I believe there are two sides to every story.

While a lot of what Mrs. Turman said seems credible, I believe there was a lot she left out. Why would this officer target her for this type of treatment? Mrs. Turman said that she was held and interrogated way longer than anyone else, and I can guess why. My clue came when she mentioned that her husband is a Hollywood celebrity (she is married to actor Glynn Turman, a relatively famous actor). The fact that she felt the need to mention this fact makes me wonder about her attitude towards the officer.

Did she co-operate with the officer, or did she immediately take offence at the fact that she ? the wife of a famous actor ? was pulled out of line like a common peasant and subjected to questioning. When asked certain things, did she readily answer or make the officer's job harder? If the officer felt like she was pulling teeth just to find out what she needed to know, then of course Mrs. Turman would have been detained longer.

Don't get me wrong, I am no big fan of being questioned by Police or Customs at the airport and treated like a common criminal when you are not one. But, I find it hard to believe that the officer detained this woman longer than everyone else and put her through this ordeal for no justifiable reason. I just have to wonder about the so-called victim's reaction during all of this and if she intentionally made the officer's job difficult. Before we are so quick to judge, we need to use some reasoning and look at both sides of the story.

JUST WONDERING

Hamilton Parish

Dear Sir,

Winston Churchill said, "Appeasement is feeding the crocodile so he eats you last".

When relating this quote to Bermuda we the public are the crocodile while the Government, Opposition and the countless other decision makers on this Island are appeasing us with inconsequential laws, mandates and "revelations" that merely cover an open wound with a pretty Sponge Bob band aid.

The new laws that Government is so proud of that will bring harsher punishments and mandatory sentences to those found with possession of drugs or bladed weapons are insignificant, trivial and do not begin to counter the violence and drugs in Bermuda. As we all know, even those of us without degrees in sociology, psychology etc. that jail time does not deter crime. What we need is to find out why our young men and women are choosing to become part of the drug trade. Is the allure of fast money so tempting or is there more to it?

There are very few who grow up thinking, I want to be a drug dealer or I want to be a drug mule. Why are young women, especially young mothers, so willing to lose their children and ruin their lives? I feel that one reason is because it is so difficult for the average working young mother to "get ahead" in Bermuda in 2005. The need and desperation to make ends meet is causing us to grasp the temptation of what seems like easy money.

Consider this example: A young mother with a three-year-old son sits at her desk 9 a.m. ? 5 p.m. Monday to Friday. At the end of the month she takes home approximately $2,400 (including the $400 in child support). Deduct $1,200 for rent, $659 for nursery fees, $350 for groceries and bills and $50 for the bus pass needed to get to and from work. This leaves her with a $150, throw in a couple of doctor's visits or school functions and at the end of the month she is left with nothing. Is it any wonder that the extra cash that she could possibly receive for changing up money or importing drugs is so unbelievably tempting.

Throwing these men and women into jail will do nothing, solve nothing and ultimately will not be beneficial to our community. The only thing that it will do is cause our prisons to be even more crowded and the taxpayer's pay check smaller because we will be paying for these men and women to be housed by the Government.

Housing, I have heard stories about the mobile homes travelling west on middle road. Another band aid, this one a particularly frivolous fallacy. I feel that the housing problem is so detrimental to the fabric of our lives but again, why does the Government think that trailers are the answer. Maybe we should figure out why people are allowed to sell condos for $800,000 and rent studios for $2,000 per month.

Once again, we have been given a dog and pony show, bright lights and loud music to pacify us into believing that those in power are actually doing their jobs.

The time will come when the public will demand real solutions; we will be tired of the quick and ill-thought solutions and answers that Government is feeding us. The solutions are out there, I don't have them, but I know that those that I voted for, the intelligent and educated members of the PLP can find them. $20,000 could be put to better use, send some of the experts, that the Government likes to employ, out into the street to find out why drugs and violence are ruing our streets. Make an active change rather than sitting around making laws that will send more of our brothers and sisters in Westgate and Co-Ed.

I predict that at the next election we will vote the UBP into power and hope and pray that they will do a good job. But until the powers that be stop telling the public what they think they want to hear, until the powers that be stop trying to make everything okay and pretty and educate and commit themselves to putting our community back together. Until they diligently and truthfully involve themselves with the problems of the people nothing in Bermuda will change. Our Island will still be pretty and we will still be polite, but our families will continue to erode until there is nothing left to preserve. We will continue to be the over fed crocodile until we finally get sick of it.

UNSIGNED

Dear Sir,

A friend recently visited Bermuda while I was abroad. She stayed in Somerset. When I asked on the telephone what she did in Bermuda, part of their reply was, "we took the ferry to Hamilton, you know, the town with all the beggars."

WATCHING

Paget