This is a sure bet

February 5, 2009

Dear Sir,

Let me see if I understand the most recent load of waffle on the current government's attempt to introduce casinos

• First, it is not gambling but rather Gaming that is being considered.

• Somebody is spending $300,000 for a study that is going to tell us gaming is not a good idea? Say what?

• A Task Force is appointed by the Government but will "operate absent of Government appointees or influence".

• The demographically correct Task Force has less than six weeks to seek advice from the Bermuda community; for whom no one has yet seen the study report.

Yup, seems transparent, open and inclusive to me! Perhaps the $300,000 would have been better spent giving the five percent of the population who want this $100 each in gaming chips to the opening night.

Frankly, I do not know why the Cabinet just did not decide it. Everything else as relates to the current state of the tourism industry has germinated there.

If I was a betting man, but that is illegal, I would bet that both the study and Task Force will find in favour of Gaming, What say you?

DAVID J. SULLIVAN

Paget

Give Dr. Hodgson her due

February 3, 2009

Dear Sir,

This is in response to RDK in Dublin, Ireland. If there was a medal for courage it would go to Dr. Hodgson for her unflinching exposure of racist practices in Bermuda and signing her name to every letter she writes to the newspaper.

Racism is the subject Dr. Hodgson has earned a PhD in and in my view it is appropriate for her to write about a subject she has devoted her life to studying and in a public forum.

She writes also about her own experience. There are some very uncomfortable things about racism that people, regardless of race, have difficulty hearing. The thing to remember is that the discomfort that is felt is not the fault of Dr. Hodgson. Look at why there is discomfort and not attack the messenger who has brought it to your awareness.

RDK in Dublin wrote that we would be still living in the Middle Ages if we dwelled on every atrocious event in our past. Specialists research every age and far into antiquity and will always do so but it does not keep us there when we speak and write of it. On the contrary it helps us to know more about our human condition and moves us forward. Human progress is slow. By now, with all that we know, there should not be any wars.

I have just completed reading a book for young adults called "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing" written by a white American man named M. T. Anderson. It is about an extraordinary "scientific" project carried out by early Massachusetts college professors to determine whether an "Africk" could rise to the intellectual level as the most educated and refined whites. The subjects were a beautiful African princess and her son who arrived in America in his mothers womb. They were never treated as slaves but as the royalty they were.

The book is a fictionalised account based on documented facts narrated by the son Octavian, and corroberated by actual archival letters and college records. Funding from a Lord in London dried up requiring a new source which demanded changing the thesis to proving the inferiority of Africans.

I won't say more about the book except that rather than send me backwards it deepened my understanding of how extreme and profoundly destructive were the methods of slave owners at the forefront of education such that the effects remain today. People who fear, resist or disapprove of discussing these things miss the opportunity of enlightening themselves. Should Mr. Anderson not bother writing about this obscure history? Can you think of any other topic we strain as hard to avoid?

I am of the view that we do not make the vestiges of this genocidal scheme go away by not speaking of it but instead by talking and talking and reading and reading. Would you not agree, RDK, that the wars we have today have their roots in unresolved resentments of the past? How different would it be if tools like discussion, reading, and reconciliation were available in the past to heal the damage from acts of dominance before they became the cause for bitterness and resentment.

If you and others would listen, even when it is uncomfortable, and allow yourselves to see through Dr. Hodgson's eyes as she tries to educate us that the crimes of yesterday have their result today perhaps she might retire from letter writing.

And please, be careful of making Obama the Messiah. Are those who ride the wave of hope engaged so that whatever hoped for becomes reality? Don't expect him to do the work alone.

FRANCES EDDY

Warwick

Thanks for the support

January 29, 2009

Dear Sir,

On behalf of the Members of the Bermuda War Veterans Association (Bermudians and Bermuda residents who served overseas in the Armed Forces), I would like to express our grateful thanks to the Bermuda public for their wonderful support of our fundraising for the year ending December 31, 2008.

The last receipts were deposited a few days ago, bringing our final total to just over $52,000 — the best return for the last five years. I would like to say a special thank you to those persons who have supported us for many years and this year increased their donations — and a special thank you to the late Mr. David Barber, who left us $15,000 in his Will. Prior to his death, Mr. Barber was a regular donor for many years.

Last year we assisted 21 veterans and their dependants, which cost approximately $220,000. To cover this $100,000 was taken from capital, $50,000 from donations and the balance from interest and dividends from investments. Eight more years at this rate should see us through to the end of our Association.

Once again, very many thanks to all of you who helped to make this possible.

J.R.H. LIGHTBOURN

Trustee

Bermuda War Veterans Association