What passport does Dr. Brown use?April 24, 2006Dear Sir,I was interested to read in today’s paper that Dr. Ewart Brown is currently in South Africa. Having just returned from a holiday in South Africa with my family, where upon arrival, we were held in detention for over two hours as the South Africa Immigration authorities refused to admit us because our three teenagers, although full British citizens and even born in London, were travelling on Government of Bermuda-issued passports and these do not apparently allow unhindered admittance into South Africa.

I would be very interested to learn whether the good Dr. Brown has re-applied for the American passport that he reportedly gave up in order to become a member of Her Majesty’s Government in Bermuda or whether he has availed himself of that privilege that he and the rest of the PLP Government are so keen to take away from Bermudians — namely the full British passport.

My children will never forget the experience of being potentially denied the holiday that we had all been looking forward to for so long; of the thought of being put back on a flight to London, having just disembarked from that same flight; of being held next to deportees in handcuffs whilst our fates were being decided and over which we were powerless in terms of ability to intervene or influence the outcome.

Since returning home we have heard of two other recent instances where people travelling on Bermuda passports have been denied entry: one a youngster on a school trip to Poland (which is a member of the EU) who was sent back at the border and had to make her way back to London without the rest of the school party and another family group travelling to New Zealand who got as far as Los Angeles but then were not allowed to board the flight to Auckland and had to wait over the weekend until the NZ consulate opened in order to expeditiously acquire visas. We know from our own experience how quickly a holiday can become marred; something long awaited becomes a disaster in the making.

I do hope that Alex Scott, Ewart Brown and their ilk have had their fill of travelling (and why not when it is at someone else’s expense?) as once they’ve taken us independent, we’ll all be stuck here with nowhere to go.

Never mind, those of us who can still afford holidays after we’ve paid the true cost of Independence, will be able to spend our dollars in our own hotels — that will help Dr. Brown’s occupancy figures. Perhaps that is part of their plan?

All joking aside, I cannot believe that anybody can under estimate the value of “the protection of her Britannic Majesty” when away from our shores.

Everywhere we went in Africa, no one had even heard of Bermuda and the chances are they wouldn’t find it on anything other then a very large scale map. Why do we think we can ‘go it along’ on the world stage?

Please Mr. Scott and Dr. Brown, put emotion aside and consider the real implications of what you are trying to force upon us. We have so much to lose and no one has yet been able to tell me what we stand to gain.

ELSPETH A. BREWIN (MRS.)

Hamilton ParishStop the bulldozersApril 28, 2006Dear Sir,To my three year old son Jude:

You are such a lucky little boy to be born in Bermuda! I can’t wait to show you all the amazing places where I had fun as a child.

When you’re 4, I’m going to take you tumbling down the grassy hills of the Belmont Golf Club and we’ll land next to the old swing set. You can slide down the slide onto the grass and run up the hill again and tumble down, again and again. We can do that for hours!

<$t2>Oh, sorry honey, we can’t do that. There are hundreds of concrete condos there now, and towers of nets to get tangled in. No grass left, no swing set, no place for fun. Mind the stream of cars and the hectic entrance across from the ferry stop. Be careful!

Never mind, when you’re 5, I’m going to teach you to ride your bike in the Paget trails and we’ll peek through the brush at a beautiful old manor house called “Loughlands” with a huge grass lawn, we can pretend to play croquet there!

<$>Oh, sorry, I forgot, there’s 91 condos there now and traffic backed up for miles before the dangerous Paget lights junction, look out! Look five ways!

Never mind, if we keep going along the trail, I’ll show you some pretty oleanders and palm trees in front of the pink Harmony Hall Club with the big grass lawn.

<$>Oh, sorry, all we can see is a big concrete wall there and condos spilling onto Middle Road. Get back on the trail I said!

Never mind, when you’re 7, I’m going to teach you how to swing a golf club and learn to carry your bag over 18 holes of the prettiest par 3 golf course in the whole world. The Southampton Princess Golf Club. My parents took us kids there for years when we couldn’t afford other courses. The best Bermuda junior golf programme grew up out of that course. There are fun lakes where we can search for golf ball treasures, we can run through the sprinklers in the sunset, we can smell that smell of the dew on the new grass, we can aim for the lighthouse from the top of the highest green hill, we can just be proud we can play 18 holes of golf at the age of 7.

<$>Oh, sorry, there’s another 91 condos and all that traffic there too. We’re not allowed to use the course any more it’s too crowded. There’s only 10 holes now. Anyway, it’s boring playing the same course twice. See the lighthouse over those roofs?

Never mind, when you’re 10, I’ll take you to the waterfront in town for an ice cream, we can sit in Albuoy’s Point Park and watch the sailboats and feel the breeze.

<$>Oh, sorry, we can’t see or get near the water. It’s a really big construction site for the next 20 years. But don’t worry, phase 1 will be done in 10 years. Wow, you’ll be in college when the dust settles! Oh well, maybe we’ll have that ice cream with your children one day. What’s that? Yes, despite all that work, the docks are still there, with the beep-beep fumy trucks and their angry drivers backed up onto the road. Don’t cross there — get in the car!

Never mind, when you’re good at swimming, we’ll sneak down to the ocean lap pool at the beautiful Ariel Sands Beach Club and enjoy the pretty green hills over-looking the sea. The entrance is so pretty with a old brown pickety fence extending up the grassy hill.

<$>Oh sorry, there are big concrete towers there all over the hill, with strange shaped tops on them. Yes, like from your Curious George goes to Space book. I don’t know why they were put there and why they look like that. I have no idea why the owners did that. No, they didn’t need the money either. The same thing happened at Flatts Village some years ago. Ruined that spot too.

Hey, never mind, why don’t we try Stonington beach where they used to have a really cool thatched beach shack on the water?

<$>Oh sorry, there’s two huge towers there now which block the view. It’s all you can see. They call them the Twin Towers. Named after something terrible that happened in New York a long time ago.

Hey buddy, what do you say we forget I started this conversation? I’m only 39. I didn’t see it changing this fast.

Hey, I know what! I’ll show you all these places in my photo album and we’ll pretend we had so much fun there.

Hey Jude, better yet, let’s get on a really fast airplane and go somewhere else. Somewhere where we can do all these things and breathe and roll around in the grass and be happy together.

I love you. I’m sorry I didn’t do more.

MOM

City of HamiltonFerry website rubbishApril 25, 2006Dear Sir, I wonder if one of your readers can help me regarding fares on Bermuda’s ferries. I wish to know whether or not a 14-zone ticket can be used on the Orange Route from Dockyard to St. George’s.

The Sea Express web site provides a lot of information on fares; much of it contradictory. For example, the main table starts with “Cash no longer accepted” and ends with “Exact change only”.

For the Blue, Green and Pink (but not the Orange) routes the table includes the cost of booklets of 15 tickets. Scroll down to the Information section below, however, and one is informed, under Adult Fares, that “Tickets...are honoured on buses only” and under Ferry Service that “Tickets...are not honoured on the ferries”.

Luckily, there is a Contact Sea Express button, enabling me to quickly send them an e-mail, which will surely result in a speedy and informative response. Unluckily, after 72 hours of silence I get a “Failed to deliver to ‘info[AT]seaexpress.bm’<$>” message.

Luckily, there is a Contact Portal Administrator button, enabling me to quickly point out this problem, ensuring that they don’t miss out on exciting messages from other prospective customers. Unluckily, clicking on this gives you “The page cannot be found” message.

Obviously a case of “who cares if the information is rubbish and half the site doesn’t work, at least we have a web site!”

So if anyone out there knows if a 14-zone ticket can be used on the ferry from Dockyard to St. George’s, please tell me, and please tell Sea Express too.

Yours not getting ticketed,

ANDREW R. DOBLE

Hamilton Parish