Cris Valdes-Dapena: `Everything is fine' April 23, 2000 YOUR article on Bermuda's real estate market collapsing was timely and accurate ( Mid-Ocean News , April 14).

I should know. For 40 years, I have sold Bermuda real estate to locals and non-Bermudians alike. It was always the industry's view that what sold Bermuda properties, even more than location, was the stability of the country, particularly for overseas buyers making a sizeable investment in a foreign land.

I was, therefore, surprised to read about Chamber of Commerce president Cris Valdes-Dapena telling your sister daily newspaper that everything in Bermuda real estate is fine. It is not. Her job is to boost Bermuda, but should she just cover up the truth in doing so? No.

This Government is visiting an economic catastrophe on the very people who elected it. Sticking our heads in the sand, what the psychologists call "denial'', will not undo the damage. Think about it. These socialist policies were established in the early 1960s. We didn't want them then, and we can't afford them now.

Will the whole country have to go the way of Ghana or Zimbabwe before more than one or two realtors have the courage to stand up and tell the truth? Tell it like it is, Mr. Editor. Someone has to, or this country which is our home will just be another uninhabited hilly bunch of rocks stamped "For sale. No reasonable offer refused. Seller desperate.'' THE WHOLE TRUTH City of Hamilton Alarm is justified May 10, 2000 THE alarm sounded by your correspondent who is "waiting patiently'' for cancer is not only justified but well overdue ( Mid-Ocean News , May 5).

When my sister's water tank was cleaned for the second time in four years a hole measuring over two feet in width was found. Although no report had been made of any damage during the first cleaning, she was informed this time that the hole had been gradually growing over the last ten years.

Needless to say, Bermudian roofs that collect water also collect any other debris that may happen to be in the atmosphere and these toxins end up in water tanks. And cesspits seep their poisonous content through very porous rock -- and into breached tanks.

Six months after the repair of the tank, she was diagnosed in the US as having a grossly abnormal level of mercury in her body. A treatment plan was in place and could have been instigated immediately if Bermudian doctors had not debated for a further year before re-testing her -- by which time the level of lead toxicity had risen.

Lead can reach the brain. It binds to bone over time and can be present in tissue throughout the body including the liver and kidney. Lead may be passed through the placenta of a developing foetus and children with lead poisoning may suffer from behavioural disorders as well as fatigue, depression, anaemia, anorexia, headaches, insomnia and kidney problems. Blindness caused by a developed sensitivity to sunlight can occur in both adults and children.

By the time the treatment plan (a therapy which promotes excretion of heavy metal poison) was put into effect, my sister's immune system was so compromised that the normally "safe'' treatment agent produced an acute allergic reaction.

I live in a so-called "developing country''. Our drinking water is purified and comes through a separate tap from that used in the sink for other purposes. Even in "underdeveloped'' countries, giving the population safe drinking water is a priority. Perhaps those under-employed Bermudian civil servants might be trained to collect samples from every household for reputable, reliable and independent testing by Bermuda's "New'' Government.

ANU HARRUI Fiji A waste of money May 6, 2000 THANK you for printing my last letter ( Mid-Ocean News , May 5).

However, you left out "NOT'' in "I am not referring to the descendants'' in the third paragraph, thus changing the meaning of the letter which was that about seven per cent -- perhaps even ten per cent -- of the population of the United Kingdom who seem to be white are, in fact, genetically non-white. So about up to five million of the population who think they are white are, in fact, not.

With the new chromosome testing (I think the Y chromosome) this can be pretty accurately determined for those who are interested in doing so.

Just recently a group of black Africans who claimed to be Jewish but were not acknowledged to be were tested and proven beyond any reasonable doubt to be direct descendants of one of the original Biblical tribes.

I use this information to back up Sanders Frith Brown's claim to be non-white.

He seems to be on solid ground. How this affects the Commission for Unity & Racial Equiality regulations is most interesting. Legally, I do not know how they will ever be accepted.

Personally, I think the whole thing is a waste of time and money.

LIBRA Paget Insult to the people May 8, 2000 WHEN even Alvin Williams understands that no Government can continue if it fails to communicate with the people, then surely the Premier should listen.

The people have a right to know. Does no one in the Progressive Labour Party understand basic democracy? To ignore the media is to insult the people. In the end the PLP must answer to those very same people.

Yes, hard-core labour supporters will stick with the PLP but the winning votes come from middle-class, sensible, hard-working Bermudians who after some 30 years decided to give the PLP a chance. Those people are now disillusioned by the PLP, but not yet angry. That may well come later. What is the problem? As I see it, after 30 Turn to Page 8, Col. 4 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Continued from page 4 years to get ready the PLP still had no plan, few ideas and little moral strength. What has the PLP done to us? Tourism, doom again; travel, endless and extravagant; hotels, the situation gets worse; international companies, worried and making other plans; larger cars for politicians, a slap in the face to the rest of us; the Chief Handbag Carrier, a highly-paid joke; low-cost housing, still promised after 500 days; ferries, a deliberate and gratuitous insult to Paget residents; Bermuda College, what is happening is a great shame to all Bermuda; the future, bleak.

Still the PLP does not talk to the people. Why? I think it is scared to because there may be another mess like the one the Premier created over St.

George's Primary Classes, and, she says she's a journalist! Mr. Editor, you are a bright and brave man. You may be the last brave man left in Bermuda and you demonstrate that fact every week in your Opinion .

Just look at the local stock market and you will know that the rest of Bermuda is so busy getting its money out of here that it has no time to rebuild the United Bermuda Party.

WATCHING Paget Not big enough May 9, 2000 QUITE honestly, sir, I do not think the new larger Peugeots are anywhere near large enough to contain built-in minibars, much less ice-makers and champagne buckets.

Why not stretch-limos? Hollywood style? Then we really can respect our Government leaders.

SMART VOTER WITH A TEENY, WEENIE HANGOVER Faster units May 9, 2000 IT is indeed of concern to hear there is a continuing housing shortage for the lower-income families in the "New Bermuda''.

Can't PLP MP Mr. Arthur Pitcher build those units faster? HARD WORKING ST. DAVID'S HOME OWNER The Party Party May 8, 2000 ONE cannot help but wonder about the Progressive Labour Party.

Minister Hodgson is trying to set the clock back to a time of ignorance.

Minister Lister now proposes to help greedy landlords evict tenants. Minister Cox keeps raising taxes. The other Minister Cox keeps kicking international business. The Attorney General brings political pressure to bear on the judiciary. Not very progressive behaviour, is it? Then ask the dockworkers how much this Government supports labour.

Now, if we remove the words Progressive and Labour, what's left? Party! And that, Mr. Editor, is the one thing this bunch of greedy, self-important incompetents has proven themselves exceptionally good at.

Minister Allen is always off somewhere spending our money, partying. The Premier, we're told, will only drink champagne. And now Minister Lister is taking more than 30 people to his homeland for another party at the taxpayer's expense.

The Progressive Labour Party? Hardly. The Party Party, more like.

PARTY ON Hamilton Parish More passengers May 9, 2000 COULD someone please inform the Minister of Transport and the Minister of Tourism, now the latter is back from "Cadeez'', that just bringing TWA to Bermuda is not enough.

It also has to carry more than 38 passengers and certainly fewer gombeys.

500 DAYS OF DISAPPOINTMENT