Make positive change

August 17, 2008

Dear Sir,

I too would like to offer the Hill family my heartfelt condolences with respect to young Kellon. His and previous youths' untimely deaths have prompted me to write my first letter to the Editor and to really try to help our beautiful island home.

I would like to offer some suggestions to curb or at least slow the escalating youth violence and criminal activity in general. I have broken them down into two sections as follows:

Prevention (before criminal activity):

• Parents must hug their children, tell them they are loved and feed them positive messages (aunts, uncles, teachers or mentors must step in if necessary)

• Children need the good works of churches, youth organisations, government agencies and private sector agencies more then ever.

• Starting in primary school, field trips need to be organised between schools from different parts of the island three times per semester. Children need to be paired with a child that they do not know in a non-competitive environment so that they become friends/acquaintances, and are less likely to fight or join gangs later in life.

• Children with reading or maths challenges should not be passed to the next year, but should be helped and encouraged by mentors (grandparents/volunteers could go to schools to help with literacy)

• Parents who choose should be able to correct their kids with age-appropriate spanks without being criminalised (if a child shows up at school with outrageous bruises the Police should be called right away).

• Minors who cannot be controlled by bus drivers or who are extremely rude in public should be taken to juvenile court with their parent/s. The child should be given community service duties and the parent/s should be fined or given community service duties e.g. helping at an elderly persons residence or sorting clothes given to the Salvation Army.

• We the public that can and businesses that choose, should go to our area school and provide them with musical instruments so that all kids have the opportunity to read music and play an instrument. I mean guitars, trumpets, trombones, violins, etc … not just recorders and harmonicas (it is my intention to approach the school in my area).

• Children need to hear even more from reformed drug addicts, and other reformed criminals about the consequences of choosing the wrong lifestyle.

• Black kids in particular, but all kids in general, need to be taught that our history did not begin 400 years ago with slavery, but that Africa has contributed greatly to all humanity (this will give them a sense of pride and self awareness).

• Repeat sex offenders who prey on minors need to be chemically castrated and put into a register of offenders to be made public (abused children have many issues).

• Parents who come to school and threaten principals and teachers need to arrested and prosecuted as necessary (an orderly environment needs to come back in our schools!).

• Ten to 15 at-risk teenagers per year (funding from public, Government and businesses) need to be sent to Haiti or Ecuador etc. … to help build schools or homes. They should then come back and talk about their experiences in class (they will see that their plight is not so bad compared to most).

• We have to get our young men back in the trades (or white collar if they prefer).

• Cat or cane – both are very effective reform tools (this should not be done on Front Street, but at correctional facilities or the police station – don't want to upset the tourists).

• We must keep the Bermuda Regiment going. It brings together 18-year-olds from all backgrounds and instills discipline. If it is made voluntary no one would attend.

Correction (after criminal activity):

• Have discussions on the reintroduction of the death penalty – I realise that Britain will not allow this, but I personally know of many that support capital punishment.

• I understand that prison is no joke, but apparently it needs to be even more unpleasant. This can be done by introducing "reading days" once a week (more if warranted) i.e. no games, no talking to friends, no gym time, no television time, no visit from families or loved ones – only reading books in the cells.

• Any inmate caught with drugs or cell phones should get time added on (several months).

• Parents/families with minors who are incarcerated should pay a monthly fee above and beyond what the average taxpayer is contributing.

• Persons in prison should be doing bulk laundry, cooking and the cleaning of certain areas in the facility. In other words, they should have chores instead of being idle (where possible jobs should be given out in the community).

• It should be legislated that the Police can keep a register of gang members and have the power to search their homes, bikes, and cars as warranted. (to be clear, this does not mean that they could search all young black males, or guys that gather on a wall after work).

• It should be legislated that persons involved in multiple person attacks on one individual should receive more time in Westgate.

• Keep increasing the penalty for carrying bladed articles and illegal weapons until the message gets through.

• Increase random road block in various parts of the island at various times – the objective is to look for illegal weapons.

If these suggestions don't work, over the next two to three years, then we can get serious and ban BET and VH1 (some of the videos suggest sex and gratuitous violence – and I like hip hop and R&B), introduce youth curfews, and legislate that the Internet service providers must have blocking programs to prevent access to unwanted material, and many more I don't have time to mention.

I know that some suggestions are extreme, but if we don't arrest this situation now, we will be in big trouble in 20 years time. I am a black male concerned about our little country. We are isolated enough and small enough to make a positive change.

JUST TRYING TO HELP

Pembroke

Tourism troubles

August 19, 2008

Dear Sir,

Over the last four or five years Dr. Brown has made dramatic changes in The Department of Tourism, some of which I still find hard to understand. He closed the sales offices in Boston and New York yet in Monday's Royal Gazette I read that New York is our number one market, no surprise there, so why would you close the office in your number one market? He also employed a new company to handle our marketing and one would have to say it has not been a big success. Recently we had the announcement of all the job losses in the department overseas so we can hire some call centre employees to sell Bermuda because, "we need a new model". We have wasted millions of dollars in tourism promotion that has had little return.

The last four years have been a booming economy and our true tourism numbers have been on the slide, so what are the prospects for the next couple of years? My point is this. If Dr. Brown had involved all the people he should have involved, The Hotel Association and other people with experience in tourism back then instead of believing he had all the answers, perhaps we would now have a strategy in place that works. The recent Tourism Summit is a step in the right direction. It's just a shame that it took so long. We are selling our souls to the mass market cruise business, so large groups of boat people wandering around Hamilton or Dockyard looking for directions to Horseshoe Bay will be commonplace. I hope that is not the primary strategy for the future of tourism. Fast ferries have some advantages but half a dozen or more of them operating around the harbour and Great Sound will be an ecological disaster.

ALAN GAMBLE

City of Hamilton

Bring back discipline

August 20, 2008

Dear Sir,

Over the last year or so, there has been much talk about parents being made accountable for their children's wrongdoing and I totally agree. I am also a very strong believer that it was a huge mistake when discipline was removed from both the schools and homes.

I am a single parent with three boys with my oldest is in his 20s. Never once have I been called to school or the police station because of any of my children being in any sort of trouble. I have also never been approached by anyone who has come in direct contact with any of my children and tell me they have acted out of character. Quite honestly, I have had nothing but praises on how well mannered and behaved they are. It gives me great pleasure especially with my son in his 20s to know that he is not being a menace to society.

This law has made us as parents afraid of our children, afraid that if I do correct my child/children I run the risk of being dragged into court and charged with child abuse. I remember when this law was first passed, my oldest son was probably in his early teens, he said to me "now that the law has been passed, you can't hit me anymore", my comment to him was "as long as you live under my roof, you will abide by the regulations of this household and if you ever decide to run me in because I have corrected you, when we appear in court ensure that you have all of your personal belongings (those of which you have purchased out of your own money)".

I will NOT allow any of my children to dictate to me as to how I will correct them up. I will NOT be afraid of my children! Discipline needs to be put back into the schools and homes, if we want to save the next generation of our children coming up.

Then there are parents who are just as violent as their children. These children are subjected to violence at a very early stage and know of no other behaviour but violence. I feel we as parents (especially mothers) need to protect our children. We have mothers who are in abusive relationships and are afraid to leave because (i) they feel they can't survive without their significant other (especially with the high cost of living in Bermuda) (ii) it is a generational tread and that is all they know. Hence, we fail to see what we are doing to our children, more harm than enough.

Then you have those parents who are illiterate and lack parenting skills, ones who are so wrapped up in what they want (enjoying the pleasures of life) and leaving these children to the mercies of the land and walking around condoning this sort of behaviour, also so quick to say not my child. Those are the sorts of parent which should be made accountable for their children's actions.

My heart goes out to those parents who are suffering with a loss. Their babies have been snatched away from them and their lives have been taken away so prematurely. We need to get back to the basics. In the bible it states "my son keep your father's commands and do not forsake your mother's teaching. Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck. When you walk, they will guide you, when you sleep, they will watch over you, when you awake, they will speak to you. For these are a lamp, this teaching is a light and the corrections of discipline are the way of life." Proverbs 6:20-23.

Corporal punishment also needs to be brought back and let these teens and young adults know we as a community are tired and will not tolerate this sort of behaviour anymore. I am fearful for the lives of my children.

SICK AND TIRED OF THE VIOLENCE

Pembroke

Dolding will be missed

August 20, 2008

Dear Sir,

Michael Dolding was instrumental in sorting out a host of issues, including amending the Corporation of Hamilton legislation regarding the docks and tariffs.

He came to the Corporation at a time when it needed on the ground management skills for host of challenges facing the Corporation on the Waterfront. Michael fixed the problems and then started to focus on the future by giving valuable advice and technical support on the new Waterfront redevelopment plans. He worked very closely with Alderman Dunkley and Sasaki Associates of Boston and Marine & Ports on the new Waterfront plans. He gave stellar advice and support to the Wharf Committee and the full Corporation on all matters concerning shipping the docks and Security.

He will be badly missed but true to his vision he made sure, working with Kelly Miller, the former Corporation Secretary, that the Corporation had a m management team in place for the Waterfront beyond his own tenure.

The remarkable aspect of this man was that he performed all these tasks while battling a serious illness. He carried on with poise and good humour right up until he left the Corporation for the last time. It's one thing to be good at your job but it is an extraordinary accomplishment to be an enlightened and successful person.

Bermuda gained many gifts from the Dolding family and Michael has been an important part of that treasure. Bermuda and its environment produce a special kindness and sensitivity for those that are open to her lessons Michael understood these gifts of family love and its many expressions and though going before he wanted, stayed behind in a simple gesture for Ellie and Tamsyn.

He picks up the pace on the runway, he plants the pole and swings those legs up and sails c cleanly over the bar. He was a good pole-vaulter at Saltus; he never stopped clearing the bar.

GRAEME OUTERBRIDGE

Former Councillor & Wharf– committee Member

For your information

August 12, 2008

Dear Sir,

It is heartening to read (in your edition of Monday August 11) that a former Bermuda based insurance company for oil tankers has donated its remaining assets to two Maritime Charities after going into liquidation. You report that Cristal Ltd. has agreed to donate $415,000.00 to the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) and the same amount to the Mission to Seafarers.

It may be of interest to your readers to know that the work of the Mission to Seafarers (an international missionary society of the Anglican Church) has since the early part of the last century been carried out in Bermuda through its affiliation with The Bermuda Sailors' Home Inc. of Richmond Road, Pembroke, which in earlier times was located in St. George's.

The Bermuda Sailors' Home, which plays an important role in Bermuda's maritime world, is one of Bermuda's oldest charities which provides excellent facilities for visiting seamen and, not infrequently, those in distress or in need of assistance. The Home is proud of its association with the Mission to Seafarers (from which it receives no funding) and very glad to know that in this way Bermuda has been able to benefit that Society's work and mission.

JUDITH BRANCO

For: David J. Addignton

Chaplain

The Bermuda sailors' Home and The Mission to Seafarers, Bermuda

The unmitigated gall

August 11, 2008

Dear Sir,

To the driver of one black Kia Sportage that whilst travelling east on Middle Road in Southampton on Sunday August 10, at approximately 10 a.m. did toss his bottle from his vehicle into the bushes just east of Barnes' Corner. How you have the unmitigated gall to do this in broad daylight with vehicles both in front and behind you i s mind boggling to say the least. That you would do this so brazenly suggests to me that you probably feel entitled to trash our island in whatever way you feel.

Unfortunately, there is very obviously no shortage of individuals who act like yourself as it has become obvious to all, including any tourists you might care to ask, that our island has, over the last 10 years or so, become one huge public trash heap.

One can only hope that one day the public will be able to fairly report activity like yours to the appropriate authority in a way that the Police don't have to be bothered, seeing that they already are swamped, but that's another letter. Maybe the KBB can work with the Government on this issue as the Police can't be everywhere at once and neither can the KBB. I hope that when you reached your destination, the Southampton Kingdom Hall, you took time to pray to Jehovah for a functioning brain AND a conscience that might one day help you realise that this is not your island to trash. I'd also hazard a guess that you're so proud of your 'country' that you're a big fan of independence too!

ENFORCE KBB NOW

Southampton