Casinos mean jobs

January 29, 2010

Dear Sir,

The statistics are interesting as usual but there was an important consideration not stated. Understand that those polled came to Bermuda without the enticement of casinos. That is to say, these are tourists who have chosen a destination without gaming. I'd be curious to know how many of those tourists have, in the past, visited vacation destinations with casinos and would they visit again.

It's somewhat meaningless to ask a vegetarian if they would go to a restaurant if it served meat (along with veggies of course). If they go or not, they have already made the choice not to eat meat. Now, ask a carnivore if they would visit a vegetarian-only restaurant ... pointless.

If we are trying to see what the impact of casinos would be on the tourism numbers, let's go to Atlantic City or Vegas and ask the gamblers. Those after all at the consumers we are considering attracting. Let's see what the average casino dweller does aside from gamble. Golf perhaps?

Of course I am slanted to opening casinos here. In the small town that I grew up in, it was proposed some 20 years ago that they open a casino. I was entirely opposed. My God, what were they thinking? The corruption. The social evils. People loosing their houses, families destroyed; absolutely not in my town! You know what? they opened the casino and the city has thrived. What was once a one-pillar economy (petrochemical) now had a second viable leg to stand on. There was increased employment. New businesses. Derelict property was developed and the city was reborn. Obviously there were some problems; nothing is free, however, the net benefit to the community is undeniable.

For Bermuda, we need employment. The kind of employment that is somewhere between unskilled labour and accounting. We also need tax revenue to feed the beast. A casino could offer employment on so many different levels. Taxation on revenues would be a given. Keep it realistic and everyone will do well. Contract a professional firm to manage the casino to ensure things are being done properly. Understand that casinos and hotels are two different business models and hire appropriately to run each.

As we keep hearing, casinos will not solve everything. Agreed. They can however be a step in a new direction for the Bermuda economy. We cant rely on more of what we have now; it's just unrealistic. It's important that we look at and explore the new and unknown. Fear and ignorance should not be the deciding criteria.

Bermuda is in entering of some very uncertain times and any option that offers not only economic stability, but the potential for actual growth, must be fully explored.

CHRIS BUCHANAN

City of Hamilton

The challenge of retail

January 29, 2010

Dear Sir,

After I got the image of the self proclaimed "old man" wandering around Hamilton "Looking for Decent Boxer Shorts," out of my head, I decided to respond to his letter to the Editor of January 28.

I don't for a moment believe that Kristi Grayston is advocating that consumers demonstrate blind loyalty to Bermuda's retail sector without consideration to value and service. The writer no doubt thinks this as well; he's just frustrated. Those of us in retail are painfully aware of our own shortcomings when it comes to stock availability, selection and the dreaded subject of service.

Is there really nothing to buy in Bermuda? How often have I heard this sentiment by well meaning friends who never come to Hamilton to shop. Is it buyer's fatigue or are some Bermudians just unwilling to give local businesses a chance? Of course it's fun to have an adventure off the island and bring something home. But let me ask you this, have you ever noticed that Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus all sell pretty much the same lines? Take another look.

To be fair to Bermuda retailers, unlike our Stateside counterparts, just landing the goods in Bermuda can be a nightmare. With stringent security measures at most freight forwarding companies, God forbid your vendor has missed the delivery deadline. No exceptions. Retailers can often lose a week to ten days before their goods travel to Bermuda. The hard truth is that retail is difficult no matter where the venue. Just ask the big shots at Saks Fifth Avenue. We all get to eat humble pie.

Retail is not a perfect science. After the trade shows, the race to find that new undiscovered source, it is still, to pardon my vulgarity, a crap shoot. The average consumer I am certain, is unaware that most vendors require high opening orders from their retailers. At The Irish Linen Shop for example, there are many times when we are faced with whether to take on a new vendor who requires a minimum of thousands of dollars to open an account or pass and lose an opportunity to bring in something new.

Recently a vendor with whom we have done business since 2005, decided to "expand" his business further to include the folks across the street. He wouldn't be offering exclusivity on his products. He not only was not bothered that his line will saturate our small local market, but he was unfazed that our shop still has plenty of his stock. Our loyalty and promotion of his products have meant nothing. I can't decide if it's the humidity or the fact that I'm just about to pull my hair out which gives me my current "retail look". Is any of this the fault of the consumer? Absolutely not. But I do hope that before chewing up the retailer, that they consider why it is so challenging to have a retail business in Bermuda.

In the end, being a retailer in Bermuda is a bit like being the dutiful wife who hopes her husband wont be lured away by the younger, fitter and prettier version of herself. Many of us do offer US retail prices or pretty close to it, knowing full well that it will impact our profitability. This is after we have paid freight and landed duty. We do however, offer something that "Looking for Decent Boxer Shorts" hasn't considered. When you make a mistake with a purchase you can always return it very easily to your local Bermuda retail shop. Boxer shorts I'm afraid will have to be one of the exceptions. You'll need to keep those.

Here's what we're doing at our little shop around Heyl's Corner. We're trying harder. We are open every day from 10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., Monday through Saturday. During December we were open seven days a week with late night shopping on Friday evenings. We provided wine and light spirits along with holiday cookies. We wrapped gifts with beautiful paper purchased from Brown & Co. (Their wrapping papers are exquisite!) until we all had a good case of carpal tunnel syndrome. The wine helped. This summer, once again, rain or shine, we will be open every Harbour Night until 9 p.m. If the response is positive we'll open on Sunday afternoons during the summer months.

Each day everyone at The Irish Linen Shop puts their best foot forward to provide our clients with the best service. While it's easy to wax rhapsodic about shopping overseas, I would challenge anyone to find members of staff who know their products as well as the team at The Irish Linen Shop. Next time you're in Bloomingdale's, ask a sales member to direct you to a product your looking for. More often than not you'll either be greeted with shrugged shoulders or my personal favourite response, "it's over there". That's right, someone will merely point and it will be your job to figure out where you're going.

All of us in retail understand that it is incumbent upon us to raise the bar on our shops' appearances, the quality of our merchandise and the level of service we provide. Service is a very touchy subject and for good reason. We all need to do a better job. Period. But Kristi is right to remind Bermudians that whenever possible buying in Bermuda keeps Bermuda dollars here and people employed. Don't use your hard earned Bermuda dollars on U S sales taxes, Buy Bermuda!

ELAINE C. MURRAY

Director

The Irish Linen Shop

Separation of powers

January 28, 2010

Dear Sir,

I was very surprised to see a picture in yesterday's Royal Gazette of a choir singing in Bermuda's Senate Chamber with an audience of Cabinet Ministers sitting around the Senate Table. This would of course not be permitted in the Meeting Chambers of the United Kingdom's House of Lords and of the Australian and Canadian Senates – to name but a few. Bermuda is certainly another World in so many ways!

JOHN GILBERT

Paget

Darwin in Brazil

December 10, 2009

"On August 19th we finally left the shore of Brazil. I thank God, I shall never visit a slave country. To this day if I hear a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings, when passing a house near Pernambuco, I heard the most pitiable moans, and could not but suspect that some poor slave was being tortured, yet knew that I was as powerless as a child even to remonstrate. I suspected that these moans were from a tortured slave, for I was told that this was the case in another instance. Near Rio de Janeiro I lived opposite to an old lady, who kept screws to crush the fingers of her female slaves. I have stayed in a house where a young household mulatto, daily and hourly, was reviled, beaten, and persecuted enough to break the spirit of the lowest animal. I have seen a little boy, six or seven years old, struck thrice with a horsewhip (before I could interfere) on his naked head, for having handed me a glass of water not quite clean; — I saw his father tremble at a mere glance from his master's eye. These latter cruelties were witnessed by me in a Spanish colony, in which it has always been said, that slaves are better threated than by the Portuguese, English, or other European nations. I have seen at Rio de Janeiro a powerful negro afraid to ward off a blow directed, as he thought, at his face. I was present when a kind-hearted man was on the point of separating forever the men, women, and little children of a large number of families who had long lived together. I will not even allude to the many heart-sickening atrocities which I authentically heard of:- nor would I have mentioned the above revolting details, had I not met with several people, so blinded by the constitutional gaiety of the negro as to speak of slavery as a tolerable evil. Such people have generally visited a the houses of the upper classes, where the domestic slaves are usually well treated; and they have not, like myself, lived among the lower classes. Such inquires will ask slaves about their condition; they forget that the slave must indeed be dull, who does not calculate on the chance of his answer reaching his master's ears.

"It is argued that self-interest will prevent excessive cruelty, as if self-interest protected our domestic animals, which are far less likely than degraded slaves to stir up the rage of their slave masters. It is an argument long since protested against with noble feeling, and strikingly exemplified by the ever illustrious Humboldt. It is often attempted to palliate slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our poorer countrymen: if the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin; but how this bears on slavery, I cannot see; as well might the use of the thumbscrew be defended in one land, by showing that men in another land suffered from some dreadful disease. Those who look tenderly a the slave owner, and with a cold heart at the slave, never seem to put themselves into the position of the latter; what a cheerless prospect, with not even a hope of change! Picture to yourself the chance, ever hanging over you, of your wife and your little children — those objects which nature urges even the slave to call his own — being torn from you and sold like beasts to the first bidder! And these deeds are done and palliated by men, who profess to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that His will be done on earth! It makes one's blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and or American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty; but it is a consolation to reflect, that we at least have made a greater sacrifice, than ever made by any nation to expiate our sin."

From: 'The Voyage of the Beagle' by Charles Darwin.

Mmmmm? Oh hello! I was just catching up on a spot of reading about that hideous fiend, Charles Darwin. You know, the guy who according to Jock Stewart and Ben Stein, (the commentator of the documentary 'Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed') was the source of atheism, leading on to racism, Nazis, drug addiction, homosexuality, bed-wetting, and the Bermuda postal service. I was so appalled that I immediately went straight online to Wikpedia to read the wonderful, glowing reviews of Mr. Stein's film, then went straight to Expelled Exposexd.com to read the heaping praises laid on by some of America's/Europe's most prominent intellectuals, including warm praise from Richard Dawkins, who was seen shortly after wearing a hair-shirt, wending his barefoot way on a pilgrimage to the holy land. One touching example always brings a tear to my eye; knowing that Mr. Stein suffers from a terrible medical condition (Latin: Fleecius Gullibilus) whenever he finds himself holding a quote from Darwin in one hand, and a pair of scissors in the other, some kind-hearted soul reprinted the quotes with all the missing pieces put back in. Ben was so overwhelmed that to this day he's never been able to express his gratitude in any intelligible manner.

Well, must dash. I've got to read up on the amazing experiment by Dr. Thomas Hunt Morgan who unsuccessfully tried to prove Evolution in the lab by turning an irradiated fruit fly into a chicken, but ended up with a variety of turkey (Latin: Glennus Beckius) which just goes to show that even if Evolution is possible, it certainly isn't progressive.

(Although it's fun to chase your dog around the lawn, before too long you end up winded, but if you manipulate the little sucker juuuuuust right, you can sit back, relax, and laugh your head off watching him end up chasing his own tail...)

GLEN LIMA

Paget

Required reading:

'From So Simple a Beginning': The Four Great Books of Charles Darwin. (Introduction by Edward O. Wilson)

'Freethinkers': A History of American Secularism. (By Susan Jacoby)

Wikipedia: Evolution (I love the tiny hind-limb bones in the back of the whale skeleton, don't you?)