Dear Sir,

The East End town hall meeting was a missed opportunity for the OBA to bring hope to the East End residents.

Instead, we got lengthy presentations that were essentially old news, what appeared to be an OBA rent-a-crowd to cheer them on, a too brief question and answer period and, perhaps worst of all, virtual silence from MPs Kenny Bascome and Nandi Outerbridge.

Based on what I saw at that meeting, I’m even more convinced that the OBA doesn’t have the vision to take Bermuda where we need to go or they are just too old in age or in mentality.

For example, there was not one word of using technology or modern methodology/processes/materials to shepherd us into a new era of revenue generation and international ambition.

Let’s look at the CCC debacle!

The OBA says that AECON will give us a ‘value for money’ airport and to make sure of it, they are going to spend more money to hire a consultant to determine ‘value for money.’

We were given the names of three structures that this company has built.

My questions would be:

What was the budget for each?

What was the final amount?

Was it on time and on budget?

What was the maintenance budget compared to actual experience?

Are we going to talk to the people who actually maintain the structures?

Who is going to pay for the final renovations just before handover in 35 years time? Can we trust this third party company to maintain the structure adequately?

Minister Richards said that AECON will be able to take the financial plan out into the market and raise funds because the plan is sound, so why can’t we?

Instead of spending money on foreign companies and more consultants, why don’t we look at investing in ourselves and the potential of putting together a team that will raise funds, build our airport and then go build airports for others?

Let’s look at the Club Med deal.

Why haven’t we looked at the possibility of building our own hotel — cut out the developer — and start our own brand. We could be building hotels in other jurisdictions. If you can’t beat them, join them.

What is wrong with our society that the people who have prospered the most could not band together to build a hotel for the benefit of us all. Once we have several hotels established then we will be creating a direct career avenue for our youngsters to forge into.

Our hotel should be built using the latest in ‘green’ technology and self sustainable operation. So if this latest deal does not grow wings, maybe some of our other ‘well off’ citizens can assist with a bond issue to build the best hotel in the world.

St. George’s revitalisation:

A new sewage plant was mentioned. I would like to know what technology they are going to deploy. Their solution to the sewage balls washing ashore is to prevent grease from being disposed in the waste stream via fearful tactics, i.e. revoking the licence to operate.

They feel that spewing sewage into the water is a viable option although Minister Cannonier expressed wonderment that we still do it How are we disposing of the grease and other waste oil?

They mentioned supplying water throughout the Island via pipes. Here is a heads-up OBA. If you are not going to take over the distribution of electricity and telecom lines then do not waste our time. BELCO has said that it will cost $500 million to underground their lines. If they do not think that it is a viable option to run fibre optic cables along with their power lines, why should I believe that the OBA Government do any better?

If we do distribute water via pipes then what happens to the water trucking industry? Minister Cannonier posited that our water supply system is vulnerable to sabotage (from who?) and that our tank water quality is suspect.

We were talking about potable water when the Minister incorporated the fact that Wedco can process sewage into one million gallons of water — are we to assume that the residents of the West are being supplied with this water, or will it be supplied via the pipes?

I have been working on a possible solution to this ‘water quality/supply’ problem for a while now but the OBA seems to think that Bermudians cannot bring value hence any creative and innovative solutions brought to their attention is destined for the dustbin.

Recycling was mentioned briefly in that it seems that we are not sending enough material to be recycled. I do not understand this statement by Minister Cannonier. Do we make a product and there isn’t enough raw materials to keep the production line going? Can someone enlighten me to this mystery product? Maybe we should be making a product.

Instead of the plant being closed down, maybe the first thing that Minister Cannonier should have done was to approach CedarBridge and see if the students could figure out a way to make and market a product out of the aluminium/tin/metal that we collect.

The OBA’s forum was a missed opportunity for them to be honest, share ideas, build consensus and get the people of the East End excited about what is to come.

Instead we got canned presentations and no opportunity to hold either the OBA or their representatives of constituencies one and two accountable.

The problem with this Government and indeed all previous Governments, is that none of them have created an atmosphere that encourages people like me, who are on-the-fence (as far as political affiliation is concerned) and who have ideas/plans that have the potential to better our country, to come forward and share them with the Government without said ideas/plans becoming part of the ‘friends and family’ programme.

FUTURE BECKONS