have taken an action which is convenient for Bermuda without bothering to consider the impact on our primary industry. We have a terrible habit of making it easy for ourselves and hard for our visitors.

The whole row over US dollar bills could have been avoided if we had stopped for a minute to remember why we give US visitors change in their own currency....they feel cheated and are made unhappy by being given as change what they see as "funny money''. But "someone'' has decided that it is necessary to force Bermudians to use the dollar coin when they favour dollar bills. This is, after all, Bermuda's second try at getting people to use a dollar coin and "someone'' is getting a bit desperate. To achieve the goal, someone yanked Bermuda dollar notes from the market and crafty Bermudians switched to US dollar notes. It was, of course, technically illegal for Bermudians to have US dollars. Not to be thwarted, someone decided that the solution was to yank US dollar bills as well. You see, Bermudians were being told that they will use that heavy dollar coin, like it or not. But someone forgot that visitors would see all this local shenanigan as a petty cash rip-off....it wasn't, but that does not matter. It is another example of just how cavalier we are about our visitors.

As Mr. Eldon Triminghan said on Monday, "We've got to give the tourists what they want, not what we think they should have.'' In order to do that, it does take a little thought and just a little preparation but that is extremely important in a Country which lives by tourism. Very often small things make a great deal of difference to visitors and it is important in a resort which already has a price problem not to do anything which seems like a rip-off.

Very often visitors have absolutely no understanding of these things, nor should they, but simply work on their emotions....and they don't like it when they can't get change in their own money.

In the fat years Bermuda developed some poor attitudes toward visitors, attitudes which said that visitors could take it or leave it because that was the way it was. We have to change those attitudes and begin to suit the visitors and not ourselves. It does not suit the visitor to be given Bermuda dollar coins as change for US dollars.

Bermuda Monetary Authority general manager Mr. Malcolm Williams said he did not think the order would upset visitors. On January 10 the BMA ordered banks to stop giving US dollar bills to retailers, bars, restaurants etc. who give them to visitors as change. Mr. Williams is quoted as saying, "I don't think we will be upsetting the tourists if they receive a Bermuda dollar coin or Bermuda two dollar bill as change instead of US money.'' We think it will upset visitors...at a very bad time.