Nothing short of lunacy

March 13, 2008

Dear Sir,

This is a letter to the driver of the metallic lime-green hatchback car, driving west on Kindley Field Road at about 7.45 this morning.

Dear Driver,

You overtook me and a couple of others on Kindley Field this morning – fine, nothing was coming that couldn't easily avoid you.

What was going through your head when you reached the Airport roundabout? Trying to overtake several cars by driving very fast down the Airport Lane so you can beat them onto the roundabout is nothing short of lunacy. I watched as you tried to swing onto the roundabout to go to Hamilton and almost wipe out a driver of a tricycle. Did you know that this is a tricycle for people who have to go around in wheelchairs? If you'd looked you would have seen this.

I, and I'm sure a few others, cheered when you had to go into the Airport entrance to avoid the trike. However, when you did a U-turn around the lane-end triangle, then tried to force your way back onto the roundabout into the lane of traffic heading for the Causeway, that was uncalled for. When you eventually forced your way in front of the red car, that was criminally dangerous.

I hope that whatever event you needed to get to in such a hurry was worth risking the lives of so many other people. I sincerely hope you had no children in the car, to teach them such appalling driving manners, as children learn a lot by observation.

FELLOW ROAD USER

St. George's

A brilliant mind

March 14, 2008

Dear Sir,

I would like to add my comments to the letters from Socrates in The Royal Gazette on March 1 and from Well Informed on March 4 regarding one of Bermuda's greatest citizens, Sir Henry Tucker.

My memories of Sir Henry Tucker very much mirror those of the other two writers, having worked as his secretary/personal assistant during the 1960s when so much was changing in Bermuda, both in the economy and in politics.

Sir Henry had a brilliant mind and was always five or six steps ahead in the thought process of everyone else in a room when important issues were being discussed. He listened to all opinions and found the time to seek out the thoughts of all strata of the population – there was never a time when he would refuse to see someone who came to his office (with or without an appointment) to seek his advice or help – this point aptly confirmed in the letter by 'Well Informed'.

Although he was large in stature and came from a wealthy background, he was a very down-to-earth person who frequently walked to work at the Bank of Bermuda from his home in Paget and along the way talked to all and sundry so that when he came up the stairs to his office he would often start dictating notes so that by the end of the day he had resolved or answered many of the issues presented to him on the way to work.

Sir Henry managed an enormous workload – as the general manager of the Bank of Bermuda, he led the initiative to establish the exempt insurance industry in Bermuda. This business has now become the main pillar in our economy and we can all thank Sir Henry for his foresight back in the early 1960s and for persuading Fred Reiss and others to move to Bermuda. During this same period party politics was emerging and when the PLP was formed, Sir Henry led a group of Parliamentarians in discussions on the future of Bermuda and they in turn formed the UBP. He was elected Government Leader in 1968 and did his very best to ensure the UBP would be all inclusive and colour blind to race and to this day the UBP are still a truly biracial political party.

In my years of working with him he never had a cross word for anyone, regardless of colour, and went out of his way to help those in need. Julian Hall's articles did a great disservice to an outstanding Bermudian. Julian is old enough to have known Sir Henry and the work he did in the 60s. Julian also had a brilliant mind but in his recent writings he seems to have forgotten or overlooked the many great things Sir Henry Tucker did for Bermuda and its people.

DIANNA DOE

Pembroke

A hard one to beat

March 14, 2008

Dear Sir,

Postal delays ... a hard one to beat! Friends mailed a package from New York on December 10, 2007, paid $28.80 to have it sent 'Priority mail international'; it was received by HM Customs Bermuda on December 14, 2007; I received notification that it was at our local Post Office on February 13, 2008!

DESPAIRING OF THE SYSTEM

Devonshire

More support for Robson

March 13, 2008

Dear Sir,

I wish to offer your Sports editor my full support. What a bunch of foolish acting MPs we have. Derrick Burgess' comments were sinister and disgraceful.

Have Derrick and the other characters who made buffoonish remarks ever bothered to read the Bermuda Constitution? There is a little article in there that mentions "freedom of expression". It is meant to protect all forms of speech, popular and unpopular. The Constitution is also supposed to apply to all residents. Yes Derrick, even those who don't get to vote for you, even though they help to pay your wages.

So my dear band of MPs: Derrick Burgess, Darius Tucker, Wayne Furbert, Glenn Blakeney and others, I advise you to take time out to read it. I would recommend that you do so while watching a cricket game between two average cricket teams. I guess you are all under pressure to justify the massive waste of the people's money on recreational activities.

Finally, Mr. Burgess and company it is possible for people to be "dedicated" and still not be that good. That is what I feel when I listen to House debates and political speeches. I don't mind too much anymore, because I figure that if I'm paying for it I might as well have a good laugh.

What would you would like to do to your fellow Bermudians who think that our cricket team's performance was an embarrassment? Would you like to fine or jail us? Would you like to ship me out?

Please read the Constitution before any of you bother to respond. To Mr. Robson, keep up the good work and if you need a job. Get in touch.

THE LIBERTARIAN

City of Hamilton

A note of thanks

March 12, 2008

Dear Sir,

The Bermuda Diabetes Association would like to express their sincere appreciation to the Lindos Group of companies for their continued support of the charity and especially for allowing us to be the representative charity of another very successful Annual Lindos to Lindos Charity Walk and Run.

With over 1,600 participants we are thankful to the sponsors of prizes for the event (BGA, Barritts Butterfield & Vallis, AC Brewer, Europa Imports Dunkleys, Portofinos, Sportseller), Peter Dunne and his Mid Atlantic Athletic Club team for organising the walk and run, ValidusRe for donating the T-shirts, the Bermuda Police for traffic control, Warwick Academy for parking, Department of Parks for event registration, St. John's Ambulance, the Lindo's Walking Team and all the volunteers who put in so many hours to make it a very successful event. Sarah Burrows, programme manager for the Bermuda Diabetes Association, and her team deserve accolades for their efforts in helping make it such an outstanding community event.

It is heartening to see increased numbers of people taking their health more seriously by participating in such events and Giorgio Zanol and the whole Lindo's family should be given much credit for consistently encouraging healthy living and supporting the community as they do.

Of course, it is the participants that ultimately make the event a success, so well done and thank you to everyone who was a part of this annual run/walk.

TREVOR MADEIROS

Chairman

Bermuda Diabetes Association

Not above the law

March 18, 2008

Dear Sir,

I believe that our Minister of Transport (aka the Premier), the Junior Minister of Transport, the Road Safety Council and anybody else who comes into contact with whichever Minister of Government drives GP9 to advise him/her that he/she is not above the law. As I was leaving the Town of St. George's just before 9 this evening I noticed GP9 parked outside the derelict Police Office with its headlights on full.

Imagine my surprise some minutes later when GP9 passed me at speed on the Causeway travelling east. Unfortunately, by the time I got to stone crusher corner the car was gone from sight and therefore I have no knowledge whether the vehicle continued right onto North Shore or left to go around Harrington Sound.

My concern is not only with the speed of this vehicle but more importantly with the example that is being set by the leaders of our government to the rest of the population. I was brought up to believe that everyone is equal under the law but these days it seems that the laws of the land only apply to some, not all. Certainly in this instance it was not a case of the action taken being unethical but not illegal!

STEVE KENDELL

Smith's

Ossified economic divisions

March 18, 2008

Dear Sir,

In the wake of the Second World War, Theodor Adorno published an essay entitled "The Meaning of Working Through the Past". It should be required reading for anyone concerned with race relations in Bermuda.

Although Adorno wrote specifically about overcoming the traumatic legacy of fascism in Germany, his argument remains applicable despite historical circumstance. Adorno speculated that there were two ways of "working through the past": one superficial and ultimately ineffectual, the other a path to deep and meaningful change.

Whenever we talk of "working through the past" we do just that. The ruse of conversation is something that gives the illusion of change being accomplished when, in fact, this method of grappling with history leads to facile engagement that ends when the words stop. If conversation, specifically the "big conversation" is to be meaningful, it needs to go beyond mere chatter. Talking is a good starting point but we never truly "work through the past" unless we alter the material conditions that precipitated the original dissatisfaction, i.e. we unabashedly confront and identify that which may have caused and enabled segregation in the first place. This method of approaching the past is frequently uncomfortable because it leads to the realisation the conditions that caused discrimination in the first place are still at work in our society today.

I am not speaking of the discomfort that myriad experts have cautioned us that we will experience as a result of the 'Big Conversation'. This is a discomfort that comes from being called names and having to deal with inaccurate allegations. The true unease will come when we realise that segregation established a system of economic disparity that still persists today. The discrepancy between Bermuda having the world's highest GDP per capita and the repeat stories of those who have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet and cannot afford housing and food bear ample witness to this.

Adorno's most worrying proclamation was that using the first method of 'working through the past' tends to be a strategy for avoiding the second. That is, instances such as the 'Big Conversation' tend to be ways of inciting raw emotion by those in power because this kind of appeal deflects attention from what is really the issue.

This sounds outrageous. However, we have a labour government that has not attempted any meaningful redistribution of wealth; there has been no attempt at anything resembling progressive taxation. Economic divisions have ossified. For the 'Big Conversation' to have lasting meaning, we need a labour government that understands labour.

EDWARD RANCE

Cambridge, UK

Bitter pill to swallow

Dear Sir,

This letter was sent to Dr. Eva Hodgson and copied to The Royal Gazette.

I write in response to your letter of March 6, 2008, commenting on the Bermuda Cement Company conspiracy theory.

In 1984, WEDCo's motivation was the aesthetic value of the area. They wished for hotels, restaurants, marinas, tourist attractions, offices, and no industry, no container docks, no oil docks, no electricity generating plants, no construction sites, no boat works, and certainly no cement plants. The WEDCo visionaries said we should — cut the silos down to 50 feet (not realistic) or paint them a pretty colour (cost estimate was $500,000!) or take them away completely! The Minister of Works and Engineering, the Hon. Quinton Edness, had more business sense and said, "This is important for Bermuda -grant them a lease."

Eighteen years later, in December 2002, after m ore than sixteen months' struggle to secure a renewal for the lease terminating in 2005, another astute business man, the late the Hon. Eugene Cox, Minister of Finance, instructed WEDCo to expedite a 20 year lease renewal to the Bermuda Cement Company. But then suddenly responsibility for WEDCo is switched from Finance to Works & engineering, and the Hon. Ashfield DeVent, and our troubles start BIG TIME.

I believe the motivation had changed to greed, and future expectations. This time it was the Company and the shareholders blocking the way. The Hon. Derrick Burgess could maybe explain. He is quoted as saying in Parliament that, "The Butterfields have to go!" and "The plant should go to our people."

Eva, conspiracy? — Yes. Who is behind it? — I/we don't know.

Fact 1. A lease, that would have been a financial disaster for the Company and for the industry, was placed before the Company.

Fact 2. Dennis Correia, on a phone call, was confident enough to buy the Company, for a "fire-sale" price of $1,000,000.00 — one sixth of its value.

Is this empowerment? If so, for whom? for like minded people who are now in charge of government funds and government leases?

And, thank you Eva, Debbie and I, through sport, business, Bible Study, and volunteerism, have worked hard for a better Bermuda because, in the end, we enjoy doing it.

That's why this conspiracy is so bitter to swallow.

J. BUTTERFIELD

Pembroke

A national treasure

March 4, 2008

Dear Sir,

I recently made my first trip to your incredibly beautiful island and had the pleasure while there of visiting the Masterworks Foundation. The day I arrived I found the staff busy mounting a selection of the Foundation's collection in a new permanent gallery.

While I was able to see only a very small portion of the overall collection, I was completely bowled over by what had already been placed on the walls. Totally mind-boggling is the only term I can summon to describe what I saw, and I can only hope all Bermudians, as well as visitors to your shores, will take the opportunity to avail themselves of this national treasure when it officially opens.

A trip to the Masterworks Foundation is not to be missed. I hope to return as often as possible in the future to see what wonders I missed during my first visit.

DANIEL M. HAWKS

Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation

Williamsburg, Virginia

An alternative

March 17, 2008

Dear Sir,

Is it possible to have Mission Lane, Pembroke paved over and perhaps have cranes and bulldozers go over Bandroom Lane instead since that road's a lot wider?

PEMBROKE RESIDENT

Pembroke