Ad was distasteful

August 9, 2005

Dear Sir,

After reading today?s , I am horrified that you would accept an advertisement that is both offensive and distasteful to so many people in Bermuda. The advertisement, seemingly unaware of correct punctuation, was entitled, ?Wake up! Bermuda!? and was illustrated with photographs of terrified people, running from the Tsunami waves. Obviously, these photographs preceded by seconds their appalling deaths. That they were used to promote a religious organisation is an insult to the victims? memories and to any of their family members who survived. To make matters worse, the advertisement went on to suggest that the ?Marantha Ministry? would enable any reader to ?affect their destiny? following death by natural disaster. The advertisement then offers various reading material on Christ and Satan, seemingly oblivious that the great majority of victims of the Tsunami disaster were Buddhists and Muslims. Or maybe, that was the point they were trying to make. I would urge you to consider very carefully before you accept such copy from fundamentalists, whatever their religion. I do not believe that you would have considered photographs of slaughter in the West, such as pictures of maimed US soldiers or bomb victims in London to have been appropriate recruiting material for another religion.

Bermuda is home to many people who come from the countries affected by the Tsunami waves, some of whom have lost family members, and as a country, Bermuda should be justifiably proud of the efforts it made in fundraising to help restore the lives of those left behind by the waves so distastefully pictured in the advertisement. No doubt, there will follow several rambling responses predicting burning for all eternity, all of which I shall ignore. The advertisement will not be run again.

Look at root causes

August 11, 2005

Dear Sir,

Here are two simple facts that everyone knows and no one wants to talk about:

(1) The housing problem will continue to get worse as long as corporate money competes with private citizens in the residential market; and

(2) The root cause of the traffic congestion is the existence of the secondhand car market.

(1) Housing allowances and company provided housing afford the beneficiary an unfair and insurmountable advantage when competing for housing against regular Bermudians. Being over and above their already elevated salary, housing allowances are essentially uninhibited, free money and so more likely to be used to bid the prices up to win in a tight market. The market is only fair when there are consequences for all parties.

One way to get corporate money out of the residential market would be to tax the hell out of it, at 20 percent (the foreign purchase tax rate) or higher. Failing that, make it illegal to apply any compensation policy selectively. Faced with the choice of paying for all of everyone to have houses and cars and private school and free travel over and above our salaries or no one, I?m betting most would choose no one, which is really the best solution for the market.

Companies are spending millions on housing because they are saving billions on income taxes; pushing back a little won?t scare anyone away. Everything which is given free to non-Bermudians but not to Bermudians gives them more resources to compete against us with in the local marketplace. I am not proposing a protected market, merely a level playing field.

(2) Do away with the secondhand car market immediately to get a grip on the traffic problem. The secondhand market serves only to facilitate the rapid turnover of vehicles and so increase the earnings of the car companies. The less affluent purchasers of secondhand cars are merely financing tools for the wealthy who can turn over their car every five years for a bigger, faster, more fuel hungry model.

Instead of disallowing specific subsets of people from owning cars, we should be raising the barrier to entry for everyone and letting good sense prevail to steer them towards the excellent public transportation system we are already paying for. Single people and non-Bermudians, among others, would be less inclined to buy new cars if they had to pay the exorbitant showroom prices entirely out of their own pockets and then destroy the car when they had no further use for it.

Solutions become obvious when you look honestly for the root cause and stop getting distracted by the myriad of symptoms.

Beware of centralisation

August 10, 2005

Dear Sir,

I wonder if the underlying concerns registered in Bob Stewart?s critique of the ?Sustainable Development Project? are due to a distaste for ?Wholesale Social Engineering?? If so, I agree that ?wholesale? intervention by this Government, or any Government, is best avoided.

The good intentions of the supporters of the ?Sustainable Development Project? are not in doubt.

But, the potential for more bureaucratic Government intrusion into, and control of, the lives and actions of Bermudians is very real. It ought to be discouraged by Bermudians supporting sound, in-depth and carefully reasoned argument.

Centralisation of Government power can lead, as Gandhi said, to people becoming like sheep looking to the shepherd to take them to better pastures. But, the shepherd?s staff soon turns to iron, and the she shepherds turn into wolves.

A suggestion ... do not be too quick to dismiss Bob Stewart?s warnings.

How about tackling our Bermudian problems one-at-a-time, honesty and openly?

Missing Mr. Fray

August 7, 2005

Dear Sir,

I saw with sadness, in online, the news of the passing of Mr. Fray. My condolences to all his family. Whilst conducting research on the book ?Buses of Bermuda? with my friend and colleague Colin Pomeroy over the last couple of years, we found Mr. Fray to be not only a fount of knowledge regarding transport in Bermuda but a really nice gentleman who went out of his way to assist our research in any way he could. He will be sadly missed.

Radio confusion

August 8, 2005

Dear Sir,

I agree with ?Bermudian? except for two things:

1. We live on an Island where you can?t really sue (if you could, I doubt Thao would?ve even attempted that sick joke knowing the consequences of his actions).

2. With so many youngsters always calling in to Hott 107.5 saying they love Crystal (Miss Thang) I doubt they would ever shut down the station even though whenever Miss Thang comes on, she?ll sound like a marriage counselor one minute and the next, she?s talking about how she likes 50 Cent (a pimp)/Snoop Dogg (a rapper who calls women b****es). Kind of like an oxymoron without the oxy (no offence).

Yes, you?re probably right about we don?t need this station since they claim to play Hits yet, talk garbage a lot and play ?Welcome to the Island, Johnny Barnes? or that crazy Bootsie song instead of playing songs like Shady Girl, Visions, Hard/I don?t Wanna from Jagged Edge, Somebody, I?m Sorry, Get Loose, L.O.V.E.,and Miss You Like Crazy from Christina Milian, Her Love, Rude Boy/Missing You from Sanchez and switching to dancehall, Hey Ladies,Tell Me If You Still Care, Music?s Pumping, Weak, Galang Gal, Gal You Ah Lead and especially Footprints from T.O.K. (Bionce Fox should take note of that, instead of playing Bounty Killer and then play a slow jam afterwards).

Course on Power 95 there?s unfortunately that 11.30 a.m. MarketPlace nonsense whereas, Hott 107.5 has the Quiet Storm at night except Friday/I think Saturday as well (big toss up as to what you would like to listen to huh?).