Keep Bermuda heavenly

December 7, 2009

Dear Sir,

I am a Bermuda lover, since the moment my feet touched the pink sand just following Emily, the hurricane, in September of 1987, I yearned for a job in Mark Twain's quotable place, "You have to go through hell, to get to Heaven!" I have been travelling since I was a wee one, and this is Heaven! This summer I had a total knee replacement with a negligent physician. I almost died three times in the first week of September and once in early October. Then the day before Thanksgiving, when I was delivering poinsettias to religious people who had prayed for me, morning, noon and night, I was carjacked with a six-inch knife! I have been told that I have legions of angels around me. I now know that I do! Thank God! I came to my Bermuda with my mother, sister and two sons in 1991 when Desert Storm was going on. Now many wars are going on in the world. My heart broke when I read the headlines in the December 7, 2009 The Royal Gazette. This is your heaven, and mine too, Bermudians keep it a Heaven for me, please! Do not allow Evil into yours and my Heaven!

PATRICIA GESSNER MYERS

Fairmont Southampton Princess

Looking for ancestors

January 24, 2010

Dear Sir,

Do you have any suggestions on how to link my family heritage to Bermuda? I have a family history book that has the name Baisden(Basden?) from Warwick Parish circa 1690/1700, who married Elizabeth Lighborn who was born about December 4, 1689 in Warwrick Parish to a Joseph and Elizabeth Lightbourne. They had eight children of whom seven were born in Bermuda and one in Virginia, USA. The places of birth for the children were Sommers Island and Warrick Tribe, Bermuda. The era was from 1709 to 1732. Their names were Rebecca, Hugh, John, James, Robert, Joseph, Elizabeth and Martha Baisden. If there are any listings from graveyards or church records that I can trace Joseph and Elizabeth Lightbourne from, please let me know. I am not sure if they were descendants of a shipwreck, Europeans or what? Very curious to know my actual ties with your beautiful island. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

NORA SCHEF

nschef@comcast.net

Let down by CableVision

January 24, 2010

Dear Sir,

More misery from CableVision. The NFL is one of the top rated US television shows and yet we receive rubbish reception from CableVision.

If Channel 9 always has awful reception, at least (for the NFL) there is ESPN as an alternate. On Channel 10 the Fox coverage is usually OK but as observed last week by another reader, the NFL coverage is a pick up from Canada CTV and the picture is weak, fuzzy, and the ball is hard to follow. It's not a 5 out of 10 mark, but a 3 out of 10, if that. This is 2010 and this is the best they can do?

CableVision say they have made progress but when it comes to the big events they fall woefully short.

HAD ENOUGH

Appalled by plane plan

January 25, 2010

Dear Sir,

My only knowledge of it is the report that appeared in your pages, but the idea that Bermuda's taxpayers charter a plane from American Airlines at a cost of $60,000 to deliver emergency aid to the victims of the Haitian earthquake is preposterous.

Don't get me wrong; obviously the aid is needed, and the more, and the sooner, the better. But surely any available funds (the charter fee plus other any funds raised) should be provided as support from the people of Bermuda to those licensed organisations that are trained and equipped to supply the necessary services to the victims as efficiently as possible.

The concept (and I hope the Premier was misheard and therefore misreported) that seats on the aircraft be available for individuals to pop down to Haiti for three hours verges on insanity. Even the grossest and most egregious of self-publicists could not sink so low as to do this, could they? What would they do if they went there? Have their picture taken in front of collapsed buildings, or piles of corpses? Follow in the footsteps the shameful foreign politicians and newshounds who have descended on that benighted island, do no good for the victims, yet are determined to be photographed with them, and simply get in the way of the rescue effort? Then buy a T-shirt commemorating the visit?

Let us trust then that good sense will prevail and this idea will be squashed mercilessly, so that we will not be sickened by the sight of any Bermudian "catastrophe tourists", no matter how elevated in government, gawking at the misery of a helpless country.

By the way, if you read the weekend's financial press, you'll have noted that American Airlines badly needs the $60,000 too.

The whole "initiative" stinks!

AGHAST

Paget

A towering influence

January 25, 2010.

Dear Sir,

Last week one of Bermuda's most capable public servants passed away at the good age of 93. Graham Rosser was one of the key officials at the Department of Education for many years from the 1950s to the 1970s, when Bermuda public education was quite something. Together with DJ Williams and Dr. Kenneth Robinson, Mr Rosser was part of a team that produced a first rate system of education for everyone – rich and poor alike. Bermuda owes him a great debt of gratitude.

Personally, I owe him a huge debt. When I left school in Scotland at 15, I had no educational qualifications. At the ripe old age of 24 I acquired my first GCE and this was due to the help of Graham who encouraged me to continue with my studies when most of my contemporaries were out partying. I was not the only one, and I can only guess at the huge number of Bermudians whose future education and subsequent careers he shaped for the better.

He was a quiet man, spoke French fluently, a Second World War veteran, enthusiastic golfer, but most of all a dedicated education professional. He needs no epitaph other than many people, like myself, who owe him a huge debt for his wise counsel and untiring help.

ROBERT STEWART

Smith's

Money well spent?

January 25, 2009

Dear Sir,

Like many fellow tax-paying Bermudians I am dismayed by Government's announcement of an $800,000 review of Bermuda's two Corporations. Given all of the problems we are facing (including Government overspending) is this really a priority? Of course $800,000 is only the money being paid to the consultants; how much is being spent by Government itself and the Corporations trying to protect themselves? I am sure this will be $1,000,000-plus well spent.

Does Government believe they are the benchmark for efficiency? Government's expenditures are in excess of $1 billion (2009-2010 expenditures projected to be $1.12 billion). We could commission an $800,000 report to determine if that money has been well spent. Such a report would touch on recent events like the cost/time overruns on the new court house, the cruise ship terminal in Dockyard, rented offices sitting empty in Washington, DC and the number of consultants hired by Government.

I am also stunned that the process is being touted as "open and transparent" yet the public may not be able to review the final report. This is our $800,000; we have every right to review the contents of a report we paid for. While we are at it, we are also entitled to review the contents of the $300,000 study into the feasibility of gambling in Bermuda.

KENT SMITH

St. George's

Praise for Dale Butler

January 26, 2010

Dear Sir,

I am responding to the criticism in recent weeks of Dale Butler for his stance on the Human Rights Act. It would be very unfortunate if the law were to change, and yet there was no conviction or leadership behind the change in law, no advocacy from those in a position to shape society. Dale Butler is to be applauded for his principled courage on the issue, because leadership is what we demand of our politicians, not the holding up of a mirror to prejudice.

The other point to make is about a certain lack of awareness. Dale Butler's critics tell us that Bermuda is a conservative and religious society. Do they forget that in the past the white community used Bermuda's "conservatism" to resist calls for equality for blacks? And as for religion, do they forget that slavery's defenders argued for the righteousness of slavery based on a selective reading of scripture?

Yet remarkably, the same critics are the loudest voices for a 'race conversation'. They like to make human rights into a sectional issue, as if one part of the community alone is entitled to a political agenda based on rights. This is hypocrisy of a high order. Human rights are indivisible. Either people are equally entitled to our respect regardless of race, colour, creed, nationality and sexuality, or they are not. It is unthinkable that in the United Kingdom or the United States a politician would be publicly criticised, or have his suitability for high office publicly questioned, because of his commitment to "gay rights". We Bermudians stand to lose out if Bermuda continues to lag behind the rest of the world.

HERMES

Sandys

Another orphanage

January 28, 2010

Dear Sir,

I agree with Government's proposed anti-gang and anti-gun legislation to a degree and commend them for trying to pull out all the stops, albeit way too late. However, the proposal to fine parents for negligence is simply not going to work. If you fine them and then they can't pay and you lock up the parents as a result, then who is going to be minding the child that caused the fine to begin with?

We seem to throw our money at solutions geared to helping people when they have already reached an age of almost no return. To my knowledge there is only the Sunshine League Home and the Brangman Home that offers a safe haven for children living in abusive or neglectful situations. Both facilities only have space for a limited number of children and I think the Sunshine League houses just boys. Yet we have 100s and 100s of children living in socially unacceptable dysfunctional conditions, exposed to incest, sexual exploitation of mother's boyfriends, substance abuse, witnessing or experiencing domestic violence, being neglected and living on the edge of despair.

Early intervention agencies such as PRIDE, the Family Learning Centre and Youth Counseling Services are available and integral, but not enough.

It would be in the best interest of our society if Government would spend the $800,000 proposed on a study of the Hamilton and St. George's municipalities (near-nationalisation of near-private enterprise) and redirected it to purchase a facility for the purpose of establishing an additional orphanage for children at risk.

CHERYL POOLEY

Smith's