Where?s the reception?

September 28, 2005

Dear Sir,

We have the return of a ?world champion boxer?. I look forward to the Government reception at City Hall, the Dinner, and the monetary donation to help her career, as I must have missed the welcome committee at the airport.

BUEI sets writer straight

September 24, 2005

Dear Sir,

With reference to the letter to the editor on Saturday, September 24, with the heading ?Get to the bottom of it?, I would like to clarify the inaccuracies in the letter, and at the same time write about the important environmental work that is being done in Bermuda, for our future and which involves many groups here and abroad.

The Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI) is collaborating with the Geological Survey of Canada on the Bermuda Sea Level Project. The objective of this project is to apply unique Canadian scientific and technical expertise and technology to investigate the history of the sea level rise of the Bermuda Seamount over the past 20,000 years. Correlating the geological history of the sea level rise with the predicted accelerated rise caused by climate change will provide a more reliable estimate of future sea level rise for Bermuda. A film documenting the project has been made between the BUEI and the New England Aquarium called ?Oceans in Motion?, not only has it been shown in Bermuda but also regularly in the USA and Europe and seen by approximately 13 million people annually and the Bermuda Department of Education has copies. BUEI is working with the Department of Works and Engineering, the Ministry of the Environment, the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo and has met with the Sustainable Development Project planners.

The specimens (bones) were scientifically retrieved so as not to be contaminated, thus enabling the specimens to be radiocarbon dated. The specimens after being examined by David Wingate, Wolfgang Sterrer of the Bermuda Natural History Museum and Jeremy Madeiros, have been sent to the Smithsonian Institution for identification and dating, and then will be returned to Bermuda for public display. One cedar stump was retrieved for radiocarbon dating and after hurricane Fabian all the cedar stumps in that location have now disappeared. For approximately 7,290 years the cedar stumps were in that location and within 24 hours they were washed away.

BUEI has a small exhibit on the sea level rise project and as more information is made available, the exhibit will be enlarged and enhanced. The BUEI Education Department has incorporated this project in our very successful Explorer?s Camps and we now offer an educational programme for all schools, so every child in Bermuda has the opportunity to learn about Bermuda?s history, heritage, and how to plan for, and protect our future. BUEI is in a good position to present this work on the sea level for all to see and learn from.

Sadly, we are seeing the impact that the sea can have on low lying areas, such as, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. This is an important issue for the world and now is not too soon to start working on a solution.

To the writer of Saturday?s letter, thank you for giving me the opportunity to write about this important project, bring it to everyone?s attention, and to thank everyone who has been involved in addressing one of the most important topics facing us today.

September 22, 2005

Dear Sir,

When Sir John Swan speaks everyone listens, even if everyone does not agree with him. Certainly he touched on every critical issue (in his recent speech).

I would like to comment on just one of them, the one that underlies (or overshadows or helps to create) many of the others. Sir John commented that the UBP has not changed and therefore has not been seen as a ?viable alternative?. Some have said that the UBP needs Maxwell Burgess as its leader (to broaden its appeal to blacks!) Sir John was not only black, he was personable and the most avid PLP supporters liked Sir John personally and he did not make the UBP a ?viable alternative?. Merely having a black leader will not do it. Only the white community, as a collective, can do that.

They have to begin by stop pretending that blacks are only concerned about what happened 400 years ago. We may be, but we are also concerned about a society in which blacks continue to experience a tremendous economic gap and many blacks already live in ?third world? conditions. It is not good enough to claim that some blacks are also racist. They may be but they were not blacks, as a community, which oppressed and excluded whites as a matter of policy. It is unenlightened to contend that there are some poor whites and some wealthy blacks. There are, but it did not happen as a result of centuries and decades of deliberate policy.

Sir John has to accept his legacy. As Premier he condemned those of us who attempted to address the issue and said that we were responsible for the divide, otherwise racism no longer existed! He did eventually, and belatedly, implement a proposal that I had made five years earlier and established a Ministry (the Human Affairs Ministry) to address the issue of race (through CURE). But he never made the difference that he might have both as a very popular Premier among blacks and (until he introduced McDonald?s and Independence) generally (even if not enthusiastically) accepted (or tolerated as much as could be expected) by whites. He could have built bridges between the communities by persuading the white community to accept their responsibility for our racial divide and thus convincing a few in the black community that some whites could be trusted.

But Sir John?s legacy in terms of race relations was to ensure that nothing really changed. He contributed to the institutionalising of racial barriers that party politics had reinforced. Bermuda?s racial dynamics have changed greatly since the 1950s but there has been an impasse in race relations since the introduction of party politics which have rationalised and justified the racial divide. The changes which did occur were the result of the collective pressure of the black community.

Only the white community, collectively, can make the UBP a ?viable alternative?. They can do so by at least being prepared to involve themselves in a dialogue on the issue rather than ignoring the black community as if it does not exist other than to criticise, usually with dripping contempt, the PLP. There are those in the PLP who are inept and incompetent and some who are still so intimidated by wealthy whites that they cannot think straight. There are those who are interested in power for their personal enhancement. and there are blacks who are as badly off, or worse, than under the UBP.

But as long as the UBP is not a viable alternative it does not matter, no matter how often some white person (or UBPer) screams ?corruption? or anything else. For most in the black community racial attitudes and the long term impact of racism ?trumps? everything else and the white community needs to begin to recognise this and act accordingly.

Don?t be led by the nose

September 27, 2005

Dear Sir,

Re: ?The Downhill Slide?

It is a while since my old friend Antoninus Gaius, from the dusty, decaying catacombs of Rome, has visited what he calls his favourite floral fairyland. Regrettably he has a nasty go of musty mausoleum measles and has, therefore asked me to come in his stead to gain first hand evidence of remarkable rumours that have reached the catacombs ? and stirred up a lot of dust, I can tell you!

Now that I am here ? nice to be warm after hundreds of years of decay, death and destruction in the crumbling/crumping caves of ancient (and modern) Rome ? I can only confirm what Antoninus has heard abut your ghastly Government involving corruption, conspiracy, constructive amorality, frightful falsehood and dreadful disregard and disrespect for democratic decency. Deception, not openness, is the name of the game, ?spin? (as in Tony Blair) the wily watchword of the machinations of your miserable ministers (both spiritual and temporal).

The fumbling failures of your freakish Government have been well documented and I have no intention of repeating them all here. However, in view of the latest ?falsehoods? (the Opposition leader?s word) about the UBP?s submission to the abominable BIC and out and out lies about countries that have gone to Independence without a referendum, it is about time the people of Bermuda woke up to what is happening.

In bygone days any self-respecting Government, that had signally failed to do most of what it set out to do and blatantly hid its failures behind a plethora of terminological inexactitude, would have thrown in the towel and sought the electorate?s views on the way forward.

Bermudians are too sensible to be led by the nose on the question of Independence; particularly if it is to be foisted upon you in a General Election, because that path will lead to third world status or becoming a satellite of the United States ? or both!

My mate with the mausoleum measles says (by ghostly e-mail) ?don?t be fooled by what will become dictatorial demagoguery; even the Civil Service is being muzzled. Show your Government that it is the will of the people that is important, not a half-baked Government that is supposed to listen to what you have to say but then do what they want anyway.?

I remain, Sir, your dusty devotee of democratic discipline.