Post Office follies

November 21, 2009

Dear Sir,

There was a time when the Post Office had a near monopoly on the carriage of small packages and communications to Bermuda. They ignored the needs of their customers and so now the Island is served with an excellent courier service at competitive rates. The Post Office has only a small part of the business now.

The Internet has introduced new challenges to the Island and while taxpayers and the merchant community have been working hard to adjust, our Post Office continues to stick its head in the sand and ignore its customers. When this little exercise of upsetting almost the entire Island with the unnecessary and unreasonable post box demands is completed, the Post Office will have driven most of their large customers such as the utilities, banks, and so forth to send out their statements and accept payment via the Internet.

I don't know if the Postmaster knows what this loss of revenue will mean to the postal service but I can hear the complaint now – "business has fallen off so we need to raise postal rates". I would have thought that a little political direction is needed at our Post Office.

W. ROGER DAVIDSON

Paget

Make financing public

November 20, 2009

Dear Sir,

This sensitive topic needs to be talked about. It is like a number of other topics which have been brought forward in the last decade for the public to hear of, discuss, then resolve and hopefully Bermuda is a better place from the discussions.

I'd say yes – I would like to know who funds the party over a certain amount per year, like $2,500, and also say yes to know where the Parliamentarians and the Ministers get their incomes from.

ROGER LAMBERT

Roger & out

City of Hamilton

No more excuses

November 19, 2009

Dear Sir,

I share a cautious joy with human rights advocates about Government's recent announcement through the Premier's Press Secretary that:

"The Human Rights Act will definitely be changed to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation."

However, I'm not holding my breath.

Back in 2004, the then Community Affairs Minister Mr. Dale Butler announced that the PLP Government would be amending the Human Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation, stating quite rightly, "The changes will take us out of the dark ages."

Nothing happened for three years. Then, in February of 2007, the Government announced that it planned to carry out a thorough review and overhaul of our country's human rights legislation. In its published request for submissions, the Government stated:

"The Government of Bermuda is committed to ensuring that Bermuda possesses a system of human rights protection that protects the interests of all Bermudians and will advance public understanding and respect for human rights."

The review included "an examination of the provisions in the Human Rights Act which enumerates prohibited grounds of discrimination to identify possible gaps in protection and to recommend appropriate changes."

If the review was meant to lead to positive change, it would have necessarily involved amending the Human Rights Act 1981 to expressly outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Yet no amendment followed. This was despite the Human Rights Commission openly declaring its support for that amendment at the time. I am proud that my colleagues in the Bermuda Bar Council have recently followed suit.

Again, back in 2007, Bermuda Government's published policy on Sustainable Development stated that Bermuda "must avoid the adoption of mutually irreconcilable objections" and must "be a society of social justice".

The policy invited us to:

"Imagine an island society where we celebrate Bermuda's diversity, promote social cohesion, provide equal rights for all, and care for the vulnerable who cannot care for themselves …

"Imagine an island … offering high quality employment, with internationally recognised labour rights and fair trade principles.

"Imagine an island society where through constructive dialogue … we have levelled the playing field from its current imbalance, and freed residents from their … prejudices."

Encouraged by all of these public announcements, I wrote to the powers-that-be in 2007 saying that if the Government was truly serious about following through on these policies, then it was time for Government to take heed of, and to follow, the example set by the rest of the civilised world in this area of human rights.

The Government had stated that its comprehensive review intended to take into account international developments. I therefore researched the issue and have written to Government noting that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has been banned in the following countries, states and territories:

Australia: Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia; Belgium; Canada: Federal Law and all provinces British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories & Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, Quebec; Cyprus; Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Macedonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Serbia, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland; United States: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa,Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington DC, Washington State, Wisconsin, Vermont; Venezuela

Many other institutions like Fortune 500 Companies and universities similarly have prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression.

Bermuda has much to learn from all of these jurisdictions. In none of these countries did the scaremongering arguments by the far right, or certain recalcitrant members of the governing Cabinet serve to defeat the rising tide of international recognition that human rights laws must protect the interests of all citizens without fail.

If the Government is serious about following through on its most recent announcement, then let's get on with it once and for all, now.

If the issue is really now "just about the wording" of the amendment, then I and my fellow human rights lawyers publicly state that we are here and available to assist with the wording on a pro bono basis. This should take up only a few hours of our time. We certainly have enough overseas precedents to work with. Those precedents include statutory language that includes the transgender persons who have been mentioned as fearing exclusion. If the amendment contained the words "gender identity or sexual orientation", this would work just fine, as it does in other jurisdictions.

I say again that expressly outlawing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a necessary and vital step towards fulfilling Government's stated commitments and towards ensuring that we can pride ourselves on living in a civilized and non-hypocritical, just and humane society. There can be no further legitimate excuses for delay.

JULIANA SNELLING

Barrister & Attorney

City of Hamilton

Don't blame Governor

November 19, 2009

Dear Sir,

Has Dale Butler gone completely crazy? How in the world can he say the Governor should be recalled if crime continues to rise?

I have never heard of such nonsense in all of my life! Did shootings, muggings, murder, rapes, exploitation of the old, corruption, beatings, stabbings, and all of the other lawlessness start when the Governor arrived on these once happy shores?

When are people going to put the blame of what is happening in Bermuda where it belongs and that is with closed mouth politicians, the lack of visibility and input from former Police Commissioner Jackson, the lack or parenting, the lack of guidance, the total lack of respect, society, the judicial system, and some judges. Let's face it, in the last few years crime has gone sky high; could it be possible that this government has something to do with this? They seem, or I should say, the Premier seems to find money for glitz and glamour and other questionable asinine projects that waste millions of taxpayer money, why didn't he sit down and seriously help solve the problems confronting our youth, especially our young black men?

Never in the history of Bermuda have you heard of so many sitting members of Parliament having members of their families arrested on weapons charges, sexual violation charges and drug charges? And Dale Butler wants to recall the Governor if crime continues to rise? What or how was he thinking? I personally feel after that comment he, along with three quarters of the PLP sitting members, should be recalled because half of what has happened to Bermuda in these past few years is partly their fault. At one point Dale Butler had my respect, but I found the moment he became a Minister, he did a 180-degree turn. Sorry Mr. Butler, but you were not thinking when you made that outrageous statement.

The little good this Government has done does not come close to the good they could have done. They dropped the ball! This is not a case where the pros outweigh the cons – it is a case of the cons outweighing the pros by 2,000 percent – so instead of Dale Butler blaming the Governor, he should put the blame where it really belongs. They could have turned this island around and truly made it a paradise for everyone, but unfortunately big egos, greed and "do you know who I am" got in the way and now the natives are getting restless with this insane state of lawlessness that we are facing.

Enough is enough! If we could start a protest to recall some politicians, I would be the first in line.

PAT FERGUSON

Warwick

Needs to stop

November 19, 2009

Dear Sir,

Maybe I am just blind or deaf, but I really am not seeing or hearing much being done by this Island's Police and Government to stop this forever escalating violence. It seems all I do hear is when the actual incident occurs, but when the dust kicked up settles, there is nothing left to show for it until another related incident occurs not long after. This is what should have been top priority in the Throne Speech. This Island's tourist industry is failing and it is not going to get better if tourists who once thought of Bermuda as a safe paradise see it become a gangsters paradise (no pun intended).

I work in the tourist industry now and I see tourists who have been here every year for two decades and some are expressing that they are unsure if they want to come back. This latest shooting outside a theatre is the last straw. Something needs to be done. Wake up. Guns are not magically appearing here. Crack down on obvious HM Customs flaws and more Police presence is needed. Also, wake up and realise Police proceedings along with the DPP's office proceedings are at best juvenile. I can't even keep track of the obvious botched cases and proceedings I see filling the headlines every single month. I am sick of it. I think I speak for a vast amount of Bermudians, when I say we want Bermuda back. We want it back the way it was. Either give it to us, or get someone who can before this little slice of paradise becomes a waste of space in the Atlantic.

ROBERT DAVIES

Devonshire

Fix the situation

October 28, 2009

This was sent to Dan Simmons, Director of PTB and copied to The Royal Gazette.

Dear Sir,

I am sending you this letter after listening to many complaints over the last few weeks, not only from passengers, but disgruntled bus drivers. You need to fix the situation. Over the last four years we have had over four hundred people move into Southside, and we certainly appreciated the addition of the beach bus, meaning that a bus left St. George's every half-hour, with one coming into St. David's on the main road and one coming into St. David's on Southside, and both buses leaving on the opposite side they came in. This schedule has worked well. I feel however, that both buses should serve the beach (it is only a two-minute drive down and a two-minute drive back — total four minutes). Have the drivers leaving St. George's wait for the #6 to come out of St. David's.

In the last couple of weeks you have cancelled seven out of 12 bus runs for the beach bus. The tourist are in an uproar, not to mention the locals. There is no transportation to the beach except at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Is this not ludicrous? We can get to White's supermarket but we now can't get back, except at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.

On Wednesday, October 14, the #6 bus leaving St. David's at 1.40 p.m. dropped off a dozen tourists from the cruise ship berthed in St. George's, at the junction of Pepper Hall Road and Tommy Fox Road, to walk over a mile or so to Clearwater Beach. There were two tourists running down the road from the beach, waving frantically to the bus driver. Dan Simmons, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. This is not the way to treat our tourists. You need to fix the situation. You have angered a lot of people, not only in Southside, but in old St. David's. You need to fix the situation. You haven't even bothered to advertise these cancellations, whether in the newspaper or any of the radio stations. I don't think the people of the St. David's route are interested in your feeble excuses about there being no money in the budget. If you didn't buy smaller buses without power steering, that were supposed to be used in St. David's, and all the keys mysteriously disappearing because the drivers refused to use them and the new purchase of loads of buses with a door in the centre of the bus, presumably for wheelchairs and having a much smaller seating capacity, and which are a nightmare to ride in, maybe you would have some money left in the budget. If maybe you didn't give the schoolchildren free rides 24/7, you might have some money left in the budget. I had to wait 65 years to get a free ride, and now it is hard to get a seat on the bus on a Saturday night because of all the schoolchildren going to town. I'm sure their parents don't even know where they are. It would be appreciated if you were to reinstate the cancelled bus runs and give us back our full schedule. You need to be moving forward not backwards. There are many other things you need to sort out concerning the St. David's route.

Apparently there are still drivers who are confused over the roads to use. Some drivers want to leave the theatre and the pizza house and use the bottom road to go to the beach when they should be using Tommy Fox Road. The #11 bus leaving Hamilton direct for St. David's at 5.25 p.m. and then on to St. George's (as written in the bus schedule) arrives St. David's at 6.10 p.m., coming in on the St. David's main road and some drivers leave via the St. David's main road and some leave via Southside.

The #3 bus leaving Hamilton direct for St. David's at 6.15 p.m. and then on to St. George's (as written in the bus schedule) arrives 7 p.m. coming in on the St. David's main road and again some drivers leave via the St. David's main road and some leave via Southside. I even had two bus drivers tell me that they finished their route when they arrived at Dennis' Hideaway and they did not have to pick up any passengers on their return trip to the St. George's terminal. Dan Simmons, is there no communication between you and the bus drives that work the St. David's route? I don't know which bus stop to wait at, and it is very frustrating. You need to fix the situation.

While I am at it, it would not hurt to put up another two bus shelters with seats at the #1 gate for there are sometimes fifty people waiting for buses either coming in or going out of St David's, shelters that do not leak when it is raining. It would also be appreciated if the bus drivers coming out of St. George's would wait for the #6 bus coming out of St. David's at night as we have to wait half an hour for the next Hamilton bus if we don't make the connection. Winter will be upon us soon with lots of rain. It would be nice to have your new Plexiglass bus shelters installed on Tommy Fox Road, Orange Hole Hill and for heavens sake, can't you do something about a shelter or two at Clearwater Beach. You don't even have a sign there to tell the tourists where to wait. Put up a bus schedule so the tourists can plan their day.

Southside is a fast growing community, now with their own supermarket, theatre, restaurants, police station, bowling alley, hospital, fire station, beaches, private plane airport, tennis courts, basketball courts, soccer and baseball fields and yes, even our own bus terminal when you get around to it, Mr. Simmons, what makes all this work is a good public transportation system. Kindly help us and start by giving us back our full bus schedule. You need to fix the situation. Thank you for your consideration.

RONALD PANCHAUD