Danger on the tracks

March 8, 2010

Dear Sir,

Sunday March 7 was a beautiful day, and like many folk, I planned an outing with my kids and their friends. What was supposed to be an enjoyable afternoon of walking, cycling and picking loquats on the Railway Trail from Lantana to Sound View Road, Somerset, turned into a frightening and unnerving afternoon for all of us. This was due to the recklessness of the driver of a beautiful, stylish, teal blue/green convertible (licence plate was given to the authorities), travelling west at high speed through the railway trail, west of Woodsies/Heydon Trust. I thank God we were preoccupied with the chickens in the bushes, because at that point, we were all on the shoulder of the road, and not actually on the asphalt. Had we been ten feet further along on our journey, this car would have met us on the narrow corner, and there would have been no place for us to go to escape an inevitable disaster!

This car passed us in excess of 40 mph! In fact, the gentleman behind us estimated it was travelling in excess of 50 mph! Another couple ahead of us at Woodsies was so frightened they could barely speak. This car was driven by a young man, about 25 years old, of average build, dark skinned, close hair cut and no facial hair. It appeared the four to five passengers were also in their early to mid 20s and they were having a great time, as indicated by the shrieks of laughter and arms wailing in the air. As they flew past us, I was reminded of how my kids act on a roller-coaster ride. The driver and his passengers were totally oblivious to the dangers they put everyone on the Railway Trail in. We encountered at least 25 people on the trail, many of whom were children. But for the grace of God and sending the chickens to distract us, we were safe.

To the young ladies who were his passengers, "You could have met your death yesterday." Had the car collided with anyone or anything along the bends of the trail, at that speed, you would have been ejected from the car. To the driver/owner (?) of the car: "What were you thinking at 5.12 p. m.?" Your idea of "fun" could have been deadly for your passengers, and also for the innocent families enjoying the implied safety of the railway trail, which is prohibited to motor vehicles!

After calming the kids' frazzled nerves, our afternoon was prolonged by following the instructions of the authorities and driving to the Somerset Police Station to formalise my complaint. Well, that's another story ... I hope the authorities find and reprimand this individual for his reckless disregard for the law.

VALLEY GIRL

Sandys

Corporation falls short

March 9, 2010

Dear Sir.

I had to smile the other day, when the Mayor of Hamilton was patting himself along with the elected members of the city on the back for the stellar job they have been doing. And going on about the great things that have gone on in the city through the years. I certainly beg to differ on the performance of this Mayor and many of his predecessors.

The city is celebrating the 50 anniversary of City Hall. Completed in 1960. What has the city built or preserved since the City Hall was completed? Not very much. The Victoria Bandstand was refurbished after 120 plus years only because of Bermuda's 400th anniversary. They have built the Bulls Head car park. Whoopee. Helped to erect what has to be the dumbest Bus Terminal in the entire world. Where you get wet when it rains.

Hamilton used to be filled with lovely theatres and opera houses. Like the Rosebank, Island Theatres and the Colonial Opera house. The only ones left is their obsolete theatre, BMDS, The Little Theatre and the BIU's Liberty. Which I must add after the Rosebank was demolished was the only movie theatre in the city. Before the Little Theatre was reopened. Those union byes leading from the front again as usual.

When you go to New York you see the Jacob Javits convention centre. When you go to Sydney Australia you see the iconic Opera house. Where is Hamilton's convention centre or opera house? Nowhere to be found. And none in the works I may add.

On Church Street where City Hall stands, there are only 11 or so buildings left that predate it. And half of them are Government buildings or churches. The city has virtually no soul any more.

I was not living in Bermuda in the 70s when they used to have the battle of the groups on the Rosebank stage and other stages around Bermuda. Bermuda was a better and peaceful place when they used battle on the stages instead of the streets.

Maybe with a little help from the City and the old Town of St. George's, we can try to put some soul back into the towns and Bermuda in general.

Let's go, Bermuda! Let's be a part of the solution and stop blaming the Government for not doing anything. Let's be honest, Mr. Mayor, let's get it done.

LESLIE JAMES SMITH

Sandys

Gambling will do harm

March 11, 2010

Dear Sir,

Re: Green Paper on Gaming

I have perused this paper with interest.

1. It provides an extensive rationale for introducing legalised gaming in Bermuda.

2. In doing so it purports to examine both the positive and negative impacts of gaming on the local community.

3. In particular, it cites as a major objective of government the desire to reinvent/improve the tourism product.

4. What it does not do is clarify or enunciate the overall purpose of government.

5. In my opinion, that purpose is to facilitate/promote the general welfare of the population and, in so doing, to avoid as far as possible doing any harm to individuals within the population.

6. The Green Paper makes it very clear that it is anticipated that gaming will do harm to some members in the community.

a. The paper further suggests that that harm may be mitigated by providing additional services to the individuals affected and to the community as a whole.

7. Those services, in terms of fighting fraud, are likely to be futile

a. Fraud is acknowledged as a major concern in large metropolitan countries with their extensive resources and multiple levels of government to address this concern. Our resources are minuscule in comparison. We are experiencing major difficulties in managing drug importation and we used to think that our relative isolation would help us in that.

8. The beneficiaries of gaming, as described in the Green Paper, are likely to be large corporations or relatively wealthy people.

9. The victims are likely to be those who are just scraping by and are lured by the prospect of large, easily obtained fortunes.

10. The net effect on the population would be an increase in alienated and disaffected young people.

11. I am unalterably opposed to this proposal.

12. Let those who so desire arrange functions in their private households. I understand that that is not illegal so long as there is no "house" managing the game and siphoning off excess profits.

J.T. CHRISTOPHER

Warwick

BDA continues to grow

March 9, 2010

Dear Sir,

In The Royal Gazette of March 9, Mr. Rolfe Commissiong roundly criticises Mr. Duane S. Dill and the BDA. Yet Mr. Commissiong honestly admits in earlier times he "viewed the formation of the BDA as a positive step for Bermuda politically".

While he may have changed his mind, the BDA continues to grow in strength.

OWEN H. DARRELL

Pembroke

Nasty and unnecessary

March 9, 2010

Dear Sir,

I began to read Rolfe Commissiong's column in The Royal Gazette dated March 8 as I had followed the reports on his discussions with Mr. Dill with interest. After the first two paragraphs I put down the article with dismay and disgust at the attitude that he displayed in his response to Mr. Dill.

"Obviously Mr. Dill's stature dwarfs the long tales …", "It is clear that Mr. Dill has now come out of the closet politically...", are nasty, unprofessional and totally unnecessary comments that cannot in any way be construed as productive or constructive in any discussion or effort to improve relations with anybody; black, white or green for that matter.

Do I believe Mr. Dill's assertions regarding the discussion with Mr. Commissiong at the Olympic Club? After reading only the first two paragraphs of Mr. Commissiong's response I certainly do, and I despair that the PLP uses my taxes to pay this gentleman to improve race relations.

FOX

St. George's

Put gambling to a vote

March 10, 2010

Dear Sir,

If the proponents of a casino in Bermuda are so confident that the public is in favour then why not have a referendum on the issue? Let's cut out all the fluff (most of it paid for by the taxpayers) and get down to a simple "yes" or "no" question. Sir John Swan made this suggestion in November, 2003 and six years (and a lot of money and resources) have been wasted since.

I also question why we are ignoring the opinion of the primary stakeholder, the tourists. In a poll released in November 2008, 41 percent of departing tourists said they would definitely not go and 24 percent responded they would probably not go; that is 65 percent who are not in favour of a casino.

We need to fix the tourism product, but personally I think a casino would just add one more social issue we would have to overcome (because we don't have enough already, apparently). Surely there are more original solutions and ways to differentiate ourselves from the dozens of other destinations that already offer casinos?

KENT SMITH

St. George's

Gambling not the answer

March 9, 2010

Dear Sir,

There seem to be quite a few people in Bermuda who think that the introduction and legalisation of casino gambling in Bermuda will be the goose that lays the golden egg, to compensate for the lame duck that the Bermuda tourist industry is purported to have become in recent years. Now, I understand that the Premier cum Tourism Minister cum whatever is not a veterinary doctor, but there are plenty of other people in Bermuda who have long experience in and a good understanding of tourism who could, potentially, attend to that duck's leg and fix it up properly so that the duck can walk again.

There are many facets of tourism that could be developed in Bermuda without going down the gambling route to "enhance Bermuda's hospitality product", as one commentator said recently: ecotourism on both land and water (guided tours of nature trails and reserves, gardens, underwater, etc.), heritage tourism, business conventions, winter sports (tennis and golf) to regenerate tourism in the off-season (which was originally the prime season for Bermuda tourism), homestay tourism (visitors stay with Bermuda families), health and spa tourism, and proper music and arts festivals, to name a few possibilities off the top of my head without hardly ruffling a hair on it.

If the tourist industry in Bermuda has become a dowdy dowager duchess, gambling on a face mask won't make her any prettier; for that she needs a complete makeover, a facelift and, possibly, full reconstruction surgery. Concentrate on getting the industry as it is to work better. Actively promote tourism as a career choice for young Bermudians to take pride in their home country. Offer scholarships to train people abroad. Build a "Bermuda village" style resort at Morgan's Point, integrated with a regular dedicated ferry service to and from town. Invest in the existing "brownfield" sites of vacant hotel properties to create a range of different kinds of resorts. Establish an "Excellence in tourism" programme to encourage high quality service at existing hotels, restaurants and other tourist facilities. And, not least, invest properly in dynamic, consistent and regular marketing campaigns in North America and Europe to stimulate Bermuda's image as a diversified and high quality tourist destination, as it once was. (I haven't seen a Bermuda tourism marketing initiative in the quality media here in the United Kingdom for many years.)

As for that other mirage dreamed up by Bermuda's genius "Tourism Minister" (planeloads of Indians and Chinese flying halfway around the world to visit Bermuda), all I can say is, dream on! Within a few hours flying time on Bermuda's side of the Atlantic, and seven to ten hours on the European side, there are, respectively, markets of 300 million and 350 million or so affluent people that have been Bermuda's bread-and-butter tourism catchment areas for many decades. There is little if any logic in trying to attract tourists to Bermuda from India and China, even with their 1 billion plus populations, when (a) only a minuscule proportion of those people has spending power enabling them to travel half way around the world to visit Bermuda as tourists, even if they wanted to (factoring in, that is, the many other equally desirable destinations for them to choose from), and (b) there is an existing pool of hundreds of millions of much wealthier people practically on Bermuda's doorstep, who are, moreover, already very familiar with Bermuda as a tourist destination.

The other question is whether casino gambling in Bermuda is intended to revive the tourist industry's flagging fortunes, or whether it is intended to bolster the Treasury's coffers (or both). And even if gambling generates a few hundred million dollars of revenue for the government, there is no guarantee that the government will invest the money wisely for the benefit of the people of Bermuda, in education, health care and other social services. On the contrary: the Government's track record on spending in recent years hardly gives rise for optimism on that score (although their record of overspending and financial mismanagement is, indeed, pretty impressive).

Most other countries would give their eye-teeth to have as many tourist attractions as Bermuda. And, more to the point, those attractions – including its people – make Bermuda what it is: an oasis of uniqueness in a world of more and greater standardised sameness. Casinos, like fast-food chains, would dilute that "brand Bermuda" uniqueness as "another world" that is Bermuda's most valuable tourist asset. Whatever is wrong with the Bermuda tourism industry will not be cured by the panacea of starting up a few legalised crap-shoots in Hamilton, or St George's or Dockyard or anywhere else on the Island. As a first priority, a basic principle, fix what's wrong with the industry Bermuda already has and it will work very well.

GRAHAM FAIELLA

London, UK

Lay jury system to rest

March 9, 2010

Dear Sir,

I read with interest the comments of former Assistant Commissioner Wayne Perinchief in Monday's Royal Gazette (March 8), and think that they justify my view expressed in these pages last century(!) that the jury system is now obsolete, especially in an Island of only 22 square miles where most of the inhabitants seem to be directly or indirectly related.

I respectfully submit that nowadays, in this age of instant media coverage, it's well nigh impossible to get 12 completely unbiased jurors for any case, never mind a high-profile one that has probably occupied the front page of the papers.

Magistrates' Court cases should be tried by one judge, Supreme Court cases should be tried by three judges, and Appeal Court cases should be tried by five judges, and the jury system should be honourably laid to rest sooner rather than later.

DAVIE KERR

Lochaber, Scotland