Time to buy

September 22, 2008

Dear Sir,

Quick! Tell Belco management that oil spiked today to a high of $130 per barrel! That's right One Hundred and Thirty buckaroonies a barrel! This is the biggest one day price rise since oil started trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange in 1984! Now's the time for the genius planners at Belco to jump in again and buy oil for our Island's electricity needs at the top of the market! Woo Wee! Go Belco go!

BELCO BLONDE

Warwick

Two brave men

Dear Sir,

I am writing on behalf of all the physically challenged of Bermuda. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the two firemen for taking the Bermuda Fire Service to court for dismissing them due to their disability, and also to congratulate them for winning their case. You two gentlemen have set a trend for future cases to challenge other employers for wrong dismissal because of one's disability. A word of caution to the employer is to watch out for how you use the word perception. Do not perceive that one cannot do something. Ask the disabled person to prove it to you. Here is a case in point. There is an insurance company in the City of Hamilton that insures a friend of mine who rides a bike and has a physical disability. He went to insure his bike and they turned him down.

I went to the insurance company as the chairman of the BPHA to inquire as to why they were not insuring him and his bike. The response was they believe the rider was no longer capable of riding the bike. I asked, who did their board consist of? I heard a lawyer, an accountant, an insurance sales persona and a few others. I then asked who then was qualified to examine the rider to say he was not capable to ride; the response was there was no doctor on board. I then made a call to Major Kenneth Dill (at that time he was the director of Human Rights Commissions) and he informed the insurance company representative that the client has a valid license issued by TCD. Now that insurance company has a doctor on its board to help with situations or cases such as this. Thanks again to the two firemen for putting out the fire that the Bermuda Fire Service started at the courthouse.

The Bermuda Ambassadors: so-called taxi drivers; I feel that your business is hanging on by a string. I know that more taxi permits are up for sale. I have come to the conclusion that in Hamilton and in St. George's there are no visitors walking up and down the streets, yes I am saying that the streets are empty. I remember just a few years ago, my friend pushing me down the sidewalks that use to be full of visitors now you hardly see them around. Minister of Tourism, Dr. Brown and committee you do not have the answer to solve the problem at this time.

Dr. Brown I heard a BBC report about the Caribbean from their Minister of Tourism who is worried because their tourist product is dropping fast and dropping off by air and sea travel. Dr. Brown, you may be asking where are the tourists going? My answer is that they are being encouraged to stay home and see their own country. I am mostly talking about our American visitors. You have to agree that is going to take them a lifetime to see their own country and I know that they are starting late. The average visitor to Bermuda starts at the age of 40 years. They are the ones Bermuda wants to attract. In closing I want to remember two true taxi ambassadors the late Cyril Baxter and Oscar Samuels. They drove any and everybody; they would stop and ask you, where are you going? They would not leave you stranded anywhere.

Last but not least to the young people, stop the violence. I am a physically challenged person and I have a lot to live for. Go out and make it and stop just trying to take it.

WILLARD FOX

Smith's

What did they learn?

September 12, 2008

Dear Sir,

To Hon. K.H. Randolph Horton JP MP, I read your address to the House of Assembly today and I was totally annoyed as a parent of a West End Primary School student that you bypassed my child's school on your "first day of school visits." Also considering the fact that you and your siblings attended West End Primary, and you yourself bragged about getting your start there as a teacher in your previous speeches. I am highly insulted that you dared to drive right by West End Primary School in your new Toyota Camry, courtesy of my hard earned tax dollars might I add.

This is what you said and I quote — "I am happy to notify you, Mr. Speaker, that on Monday morning this week, I was up bright and early and joined Principal Evereth Richardson and her faculty at the Somerset Primary School, in welcoming the students and parents as they arrived for the start of the school day and school year. It was an invigorating sight to see the emotions of the principal, teachers, students and parents running so high with anticipation.

"After leaving Somerset Primary, I visited Sandys Secondary Middle School, Dalton E. Tucker Primary School, T.N. Tatem Middle School and Purvis School. At each site, I was able to address the students, parents and faculties and encourage them to remember that, 'They are what they teach'."

I guess you already knew that West End has no air-conditioned classrooms and that some rooms were as hot as 95 degrees. Did you drive from school to school with the air conditioner on? I am just a parent, PLP voter and tax paying citizen of Bermuda voicing my concern for our children. After all you said it best "they are what they teach". I wonder what lesson West End Primary School students got on the first day of school from the Hon. K. H. Randolph Horton JP MP, former West End alumnus.

WEST END PARENT, PLP VOTER– AND TAXPAYER

Sandys

Ps. Please, please don't say that the school did not invite you. Their doors are always open. It's ironic that your predecessor the Hon. Terry Lister used to do the same thing -ignore West End Primary. Nevertheless, we are still the BEST IN THE WEST and continue to produce first-class students and citizens for Bermuda.