Celebrate humanity

October 3, 2009

Dear Sir,

It has been argued publicly that since there were no black persons aboard the Sea Venture, we should not be excited about celebrating the shipwreck How do we know there were no black persons (i.e. persons of African descent) on the vessel? Only by a process of elimination. Since none of the chroniclers mentions an African-descended crew member or passenger, that shows there were none.

Wrong.

All that shows is that we don't know. When I wrote my history book "The Story of Bermuda and her People", the noted historian Dr. Kenneth Robinson, on behalf of the Department of Education where he was Chief Education Officer, suggested there might have been black persons on board, so I included that possibility in the first edition. For the second edition, without Dr. Robinson's careful oversight and without information I gained later, I omitted the possibility. By the time I wrote the third edition, I had read a book about persons of African descent being in England at least by the time of Queen Elizabeth I.

They were known as Moors or Blackamores, and these became surnames indicating family origins. Black people were familiar to English playgoers, for in Shakespeare's plays we have Othello, a Moor who had won his spurs fighting for the Venetians, and a Prince of Morocco in 'The Merchant of Venice'. There are probably others.

In other words, it is quite possible that among the crew and/or passengers of the Sea Venture there were persons of African descent. It is wrong to assert that there were none. As far as our Bermuda population is concerned Captain John Smith's version of the shipwreck tells of two native American men who, he says, were on the ship. Only one sailed on to Virginia in 1610 for he had murdered the other one and buried his body. In other words, persons of native American (American Indian) descent in Bermuda can celebrate the Sea Venture wreck, knowing that there is reason to believe that native Americans were represented.

But really it is all nonsense. We are all human beings as opposed to being fish or birds or wild beasts and the shipwreck marks the beginning of our habitation of Bermuda. That fact is what we should be celebrating – and, I think, most of us are celebrating. By all means let us commemorate the return of the ship Edwin from down south with the first Indian and the first persons of African descent when the time comes in 2016, but don't drizzle on the 2009 parade of all the human beings!

WILLIAM S. ZUILL Sr.

Smith's

Conscript the criminals

October 5, 2009

Dear Sir,

With all these reports of sex scandal in the Bermuda Regiment along with arguments for and against the conscription of Bermudian males to the regiment; I have a suggestion. Another constant headline, it seems, is youth violence and gang related crime. Let's kill two birds with one stone. Instead of demanding all males upon turning 18 to register with the Bermuda Regiment for possibly being later conscripted, let's do something differently.

It was revealed a while back that it is the same people for the most part on this Island causing issues. So, instead of having all males register, what my suggestion is that go into the police database and all males (as they are the biggest source of crime) who have records with our Bermuda Police Force be conscripted.

Why must law abiding citizens be forced into Regiment? As far as I am concerned they already are doing their part to society be upholding the laws, and more than likely are already in some sort of service to the Island as it seems those more involved in good deeds are less involved in bad. This way those people who are causing problems yet are not in prison can be taught some discipline and respect and give back to their community at the same time after taking so much from it.

ROBERT DAVIES

Devonshire

Gambling is no panacea

October 4, 2009

Dear Sir,

Cabinet is considering a $300,000 independent report on the impact gaming would have in Bermuda. The report was conducted by New Orleans-based consultants Innovation Group, due to hoteliers lobbying the Premier to relax the Island's gaming laws. Having been to Las Vegas recently, the gambling capital of the world, I learned from the locals how bad the economy is there. I was told how bad the job and housing markets are, how more people are leaving than are coming to live there and how it is the Convention business more so than the casinos that are sustaining the hotel industry.

Allow me to try and save some of our tax paying dollars and keep the money here in Bermuda and avoid another expensive report collecting dust on a shelf. I will do the report for half, $150,000. After a couple of minutes of Internet research, here is my report:

"Las Vegas economy in free fall, the recession that started in October, 2007 shows no signs of letting up.:

Categories that recorded declines:

¦ Commercial building permits — down 57 percent.

¦ Commercial building permit values — down 72 percent.

¦ Passengers at McCarran International Airport — down 14 percent.

¦ Gross gaming revenue — down 18 percent.

¦ Visitor volume — down 10.9 percent.

¦ Convention attendance — down 4.9 percent.

Las Vegas — No matter how you add up the numbers, Las Vegas is showing no signs of breaking out of a slump in gaming and tourism that has lasted more than a year. The Independence Day holiday and discounted hotel rooms were not enough to lure gamblers back to casinos in July, as Nevada recorded its 19th straight month of declining gaming revenues. Statewide, casinos won less than $873 million in the first month of the new fiscal year, a drop of 12.5 percent from July 2008, according to the Gaming Control Board. The Las Vegas Strip reported an 11 percent decline from the same month last year.

So much for gambling being the answer to all our problems. Let me know where to drop off my report and collect my cheque.

SANDYS

Time to come clean

October 4, 2009

Dear Sir,

Dr. Dorothy Newman writing in her report Bermuda's Stride Toward the 21st Century (1994) had this to say about institutionalised racism:

"As seen in the body of this report, the presence and extent of institutional racism, and improvements, become apparent from analysing the data from these (Bermuda Census and Household Expenditure Surveys) sources. Some important institutions cannot be studied because records are not kept and statistically valid surveys made that could reflect progress in race relations, or the records kept and published require revision. It is, for instance, essential in a biracial society for data to be collected, analysed, and published by race. The fact that this is not the case in some Bermuda institutions is, in itself, institutional racism."

Sir, I suspect, in fact I know, due to a recent data-gathering exercise, that some of these same "important institutions" still, some 15 years later, do not collect data by race. Thus, by Dr. Newman's analysis, they have continued to perpetuate institutional racism. And what would institutional racism look like? One indicator could be wide disparities in income by race.

Now it should be noted, that Dr. Newman's writings pre-dated the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality's data (CURE). CURE took on the role of collecting such data to fill a void because institutions would not do so voluntarily – I suspect because they had no interest in dealing with racial inequalities. Now representatives from these same organisations are crying foul over CURE's data, going to great lengths to try and discredit it. Surely, this must be the first recorded case of the teeth calling the milk white! All joking aside, we know what the data says, it has been saying the same thing for 400 years. And we know why it says what it says. Rather than try to play the majority of this population for a fool, now is the time to come clean, be honest and take the right steps, however belated, to correct the situation. If what is common sense becomes common practice, all of Bermuda will benefit. If not, well Quo Fata Ferunt!

CORDELL W. RILEY

Pembroke

P.s. The Newman Report is available online at gov.bm.

Missing WHDH

October 1, 2009

Dear Sir,

I have been away and so I may have missed Cablevision's explanation for this nonsense. Channel 6, formerly WHDH Boston, has become the African Music station. Given the close historical ties between Bermuda and the New England area, including tourism, education, medical, sporting etc, I am at a loss to understand this peculiar change. Surely it cannot be permanent? If so, you may wish to amend your daily TV listings and I will cancel Cablevision and use my satellite dish.

ST GEORGE'S

Not everyone can wait

September 23, 2009

Dear Sir,

With apologies to Camelot "Do you remember"? Others and myself worked the streets of Hamilton with a Petition that begged Government not to close the Medical Clinic at the Hospital, mostly for the elderly and people who found it difficult to afford the price of health insurance.

We got hundreds of names because it offered first class professional care and filled a vital need in the community. It cost whatever the patient could afford, it provided every service under one roof, X-rays, lab work, counselling, physical therapy and medications at the pharmacy, even a cup of tea and a kindly nurse to give you comfort and assurance, and if you were very lucky, even a ride home with a friend. How do I know all these things about the Medical Clinic? because I am a nurse and I worked at the hospital and I would hear the praise and satisfaction the patients would relate to me, I knew some of the nurses, and what a wonderful team they were.

So what do we have now? Confusion! A promise of something called Future Care, future care? Not everyone can wait. You can have Future Care if you belonged to HIP prior to this new plan, not everyone was told this! So everyone got excited as they heard what a wonderful benefit this would be and they were right, the service HIP offered, was excellent, and now to graduate to an even better service called FUTURE CARE, to some, who were not on HIP transferred when they heard of the benefits. They should have been told that they would not be able to be enrolled in Future Care if they were not on HIP before, and that they would have to wait until Government would phase them in at a future date, and perhaps they should also have been told not to give up their other insurance till they received notification from the Government that they had been accepted into Future Care, and could now draw on the service.

There is no question that we are being looked after extremely well now. The price of this care has increased considerably. HIP used to be $186.96 a month, and then it increased to $201.50 a month, and then the transfer to Future Care from HIP went up to $260. This very increase is much cheaper than any insurance that can be obtained, but even then, this could be too much for some seniors who are living well under the poverty level, which I believe is somewhere in the region of the upper twenties or more a year.

So what are they to do? Government must have a plan for the Seniors who are in difficulty now and so we come full circle Dr. Brown.

The Medical Clinic should never have been closed before you had HIP and Future Care up and running successfully. Thar horse that keeps finding itself behind the cart, proves how irresponsible you are with people's lives and welfare. It should be possible to open up a facility, temporarily, for patients that need help now, while they await the coverage that Future Care will give them in time.

DIANA WILLIAMS

When did things change?

October 5, 2009

Dear Sir,

The defenders of the racial salary gap should tell us exactly when race, racism and white privilege became insignificant. Surely even they know that from 1834 segregation, exploitation and exclusion of blacks was the very foundation of our society. We all know that in 1959 public places were desegregated and that senior posts in the Civil Service began to be substantially filled by blacks in the late 1970s and early 80s.

However in 1980 when I returned to Bermuda with a string of Academic degrees and qualifications (from Columbia University, no less, not some unknown black College!) and a very varied professional experience acquired while abroad, the only job that I could get when I returned was the one that I had before I had acquired any of that. My education and very wide experience meant nothing. Meanwhile I watched while much younger whites, foreign and local, with much less experience, or none, and often fewer qualifications were promptly placed in highly paid administrative roles as soon as they set foot on the Island. So exactly when did this major shift take place where race, racism and white privilege ceased to be a significant factor?

EVA N. HODGSON

Hamilton Parish

What did we pay for?

October 1, 2009

Dear Sir,

Please allow me to comment on the flooding situation on Woodlands Road, outside of the Butterfield & Vallis loading docks. This particular stretch of road was reduced to one lane for months while W&E attempted to fix the flooding that occurs every time we get more than a quarter of an inch of rain. After watching the activity on this site for months, we all assumed the problem was solved. However, after a sudden squall this afternoon at approximately 4.20 I couldn't help but notice that the canal had flooded the road by 4.25. What was resolved during all those months? What did the taxpayers pay for? It appears the problem is no closer to being resolved than before we were inconvenienced with one-lane traffic for all those months.

K. SMITH

St. George's

P.s. Perhaps someone from W&E could look into the guard rails that have not been installed since the job was (apparently) finished several months ago.