Be good stewards

Dear Sir,

Having spent a week in July with my wife on your beautiful Island, I hope you print my humble reflections.

On the whole, the people of Bermuda are polite and hospitable. One exception is the restaurant employee who apparently took offence when I indicated I was not being charged for my à la carte toast for breakfast. Honesty still is to be preferred over dishonesty anywhere and everywhere. Regarding polite residents, I was touched when observing a younger boy and older man giving up their bus seats for a grandmother and two grandchildren. Also, thank you to those who stopped their vehicles at crosswalks so my wife and could cross. I think your method of tipping as part of the check is a more civilised method then relying upon the customer's judgement, as is done in the USA.

I applaud your lower decibel bus horns that reduce noise pollution. The adult admission fee of $20 for entrance to the Crystal Caves is overpriced — unless you're using the funds to reduce a national debt. Thank you to the elderly gift shop manager at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity in Hamilton, the manager of the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, and Elbow Beach resort for their hospitality. My wife was amused by the chickens and roosters roaming the Island and wondered who got the eggs? The giant clamshell used as a baptismal font by Peace Lutheran Church is a delight. In closing, I loved your aqua coloured ocean water and beautiful coves and vistas. May you always be grateful to the Creator for his gifts of nature and good stewards of them.

GORDON STRUNK

Baden, USA

Astounding revelation

August 23, 2010

Dear Sir,

Health insurance premiums based on income? Really? After reading the front page on August 21 I was astounded it's even a consideration by any health-based professional or body. For the sake of reality I refer to "health care" as "sickcare". Let's think about this logically, is the current system designed to increase our health, or is it designed to assuage our sickness? Would anyone agree the "health care" system works well and the upward spirally premiums are tolerable and will be affordable at this rate in the years to come? Maybe we need to change paradigms.

I'd like to offer another perspective, one that rewards the person who chooses a healthy lifestyle and levies the person who doesn't. Isn't this how we base motor insurance and life insurance? Humans are now the sickest species on the planet because we're choosing "suicide by lifestyle". Most of us in affluent countries have a pretty good idea what it takes to get and stay healthy, just as we know if we choose to drive recklessly we're likely to injure ourselves (and others) and increase our motor insurance premiums. Sure we're living 14.3 years longer than in 1950, but the question is, what about the quality? Let's get the statistics on how we're living those 14.3 years! Are we doped up on five prescriptions meds at an average cost of $400 a month slouched over in the recliner or the retirement home, or are we actually waking up and passionately looking forward to that day's adventure sans remote control.

I am pressed to believe that by a 64 percent (2006) obesity and overweight epidemic, the former may be true. The leading causes of death (as stated in the report) are chronic non-communicable diseases, in other words, "chronically poor (yet totally avoidable) lifestyle choices". Why don't we have a "healthy lifestyle" discount or "low claims" discount akin to the safe driver discount; the more years with nominal/low claims the further your premium is discounted. Now those of you shaking your head right now under the belief that genes cause disease (and we have no control over our health) please read up on epigenetics, (Dr. Bruce Lipton is a great start) before you blame your parents on an unpromising life ahead. After all, your health is the genetic expression of your lifestyle choices.

We are a small, affluent country capable of making significant changes to benefit the residents. Tobacco and alcohol are being taxed more and more, hopefully due to the societal expenses associated with choosing the detrimental behaviour. Why don't we give incentives by taxing the food you tell your kids not to feed to your dog? If we fed soda or junk food to any other animal species in the world would it get sicker or healthier? Ah yes, everything in moderation right? Great, let's love our family and community moderately, and be, well; moderately healthy, moderately wealthy, moderately happy, and have moderately high health premiums. How about use this "junk food tax" to subsidise fresh fruits and vegetables? Force the "low income" population to at least eat well. What do we have to lose? Oh yeah, 64 percent (2006) of our unhealthy weight. This is not a new concept, but it's a model that doesn't manage to come to fruition in Bermuda! A great introductory article titled "The Real Cost of Cheap Food," was published in Time Magazine August 2009.

If all else fails at least offer a low cost "catastrophic" premium. I would appreciate the option of a "sick" care package that has a large deductible (say $2,000 to $15,000) per annum yet still gives all the major medical benefits should I need advanced care or care not offered on the Island. If I lived in the USA, I could pay as little as $87 a month for a $10,000 annual deductible and be covered up to $1 million! To date, my experience with the BHeC has been one of respect, integrity, and genuine interest in guiding Bermuda towards attainable and equitable "sickcare". Taxing those who can afford higher premiums does nothing to incentivise better health choices. It is my sincere hope they do not perpetuate the punishment of those making healthy choices that subsidise those choosing suicide by lifestyle. You can do it MoH and BHeC, I continue to have confidence in you!

WELL DOC

Hamilton

What Bermuda needs

August 19, 2010.

Dear Sir,

Implicit in leadership qualities are honesty, transparency, fairness, bright-mindedness, vision, toughness, and the ability and fortitude to "stand alone" when all others are against you, particularly so when standing alone on principle and justice is unpopular among your colleagues.

Being 'politically-neutered', signing 'gag letters' of silence, being a 'cog in the wheel' when you are in fact the wheel itself and ought to be 'the break in the hub' of that wheel are not characteristics symptomatic of and consistent with strong leadership. Let's fact it; Paula is sweet, conservative, demure, honest, bright, and not prone to 'make waves' or bold acts, and frankly, just too plain soft to withstand life's sustained pressures. These qualities unfortunately do not a leader make. Definitely, these qualities are not the qualities Bermuda needs in these tough criminal and economic times. Particularly hard economic times that Paula unfortunately made even worse with her mismanagement of or stewardship (or lack thereof) over the 'public purse' during her entire tenure as the Minister of Finance!

One should not remain a member of a team ducking one's head down when confronted with tough issues in circumstances where the driver of a bus is heading for certain disaster by driving that bus and all of its passengers over a cliff. The rest of the 'passenger team' (and their wider family members) would favourably view. I'm sure, that member or passenger who rushed forward, pushed aside the errant driver and applied the 'brake' that saved the bus and its passengers from going over the cliff. That passenger is the real team player, and the real hero or heroine in this scenario, and not the one who considers herself the 'cog in the wheel' and elects not to stop the bus speeding towards certain disaster — financial or otherwise. Left to that passenger, all wold have been lost i.e., the entire bus and its precious team.

What Bermuda needs today is a tough, fair, measured, no-nonsense visionary who will immediately arrest our 'journey into financial ruination', stabilise our economy, and firmly put us back on to a planned track of step-by-step progress and eventual success. Terry Lister and his administration, containing the best and the brightest that the PLP and Bermuda can offer, is that way to success.

THE SHADOW KNOWS

Smith's parish