Bus terminal flawsMarch 20, 2006Dear Sir,<$>Some things I noticed about the new bus terminal. The canopies cover the buses better than they cover the people waiting. This is because the western side, where people stand, has no wall and a very high roof. If there is any wind from the south west, west, or north west, the rain blows all over everyone. Southwest, west, and north west are the prevailing wind directions in Bermuda.

Traffic on Church Street is worse. All the buses now have to exit onto Church Street. In the old terminal they exited onto both Church Street and Victoria Street. In addition, any buses bound for the terminal from Hamilton west must now drive past the terminal on Church Street, go down Cedar Avenue and then enter the terminal from Victoria Street.

In the old terminal they simply entered from Church Street. The block between the terminal and Cedar Avenue now has significantly more buses. So there are now more buses in one of Hamilton’s heaviest traffic zones.

The buses cannot safely exit the parking bays without assistance from three men with walkie-talkies. The buses are too big for the drivers to see what is behind them. So they must have spotters. But the spotters are not always there.

The new terminal requires what appear to be “bus traffic controllers”. They work from the large glassed in area that looks like an air traffic control tower. What do these people do? Building a new terminal is fine. But in my view, given the budget, these are very serious design flaws that should easily have been foreseen.

ANONYMOUS

SouthamptonAlternative therapiesMarch 19, 2006Dear Sir,I appreciate that the wellness fair held by Colonial Insurance last weekend was a good start to bringing together a wide list of alternative therapists on the Island, however, I think the list goes well and beyond the therapies that were mentioned and suggest in future, everyone be approached with an option to highlight their particular field of alternative therapy which offers the public options around their health plan.

This would broaden the list to the public and also open the door of curiosity around metaphysical therapists like myself and others on the Island who represent a worldwide community.

LYNN HUNT, DSEH

Pembroke<$>Inside The Royal Gazette24th March 2006Dear Sir,It was thought provoking to hear the Premier’s diatribe against The Royal Gazette <$>after you decided to publish the news on your front page that three Regiment soldiers had been arrested at the Airport for importation of drugs. It was followed the next morning by a lady of apparent West Indian origin lambaste you on the David Lopes show for NEVER having any positive stories about young black men, or young black women, or even young people, and for always running negative stories. The criticism was capped off by the next caller, “Howard”, in his usual brusque manner, bitterly complaining about your negative coverage of anything to do with the PLP Government and making the statement, and I quote, “Every picture on the PLP (featured in The Royal Gazette) is a “STUPID” picture!

Mr. Editor, you clearly stirred up a hornets nest so I decided to read that particular issue of The Royal Gazette, dated 23rd March, from cover to cover to see just how biased you really are against young black men and women, and the PLP Government.

The first thing that struck me was that although it was printed on the front page, the drug importation story was the smallest local article, and you included Lt. Col. Lamb’s comments that Regiment soldiers receive repeated drug warnings since they are searched twice in Jamaica, including with Police dogs, and once on their return to Bermuda. In other words — these men had been warned!

But what of the rest of the newspaper? Was it filled with negative stories about young people and the Government? Well, for what it is worth here were my findings. Your readers can check them out for themselves:

[bul] Front page — Beautiful colour photo of lovely and obviously very intelligent young student “Azhee” named national scholar in the US. (She happens to be black.)

[bul] Front page — Lead story “A Milestone for Tourism” with banner headlines about giant plans for the Wyndham Hotel including a quote from one of the developers that the Hon. Dr. Brown is “an incredible asset to the Island” , and the comment that, “Government is doing a great job encouraging capital investment in tourism”. Not sure how this could be classed as a negative story about Government when it sings the praises of the Minister of Tourism, the Premier and the whole Cabinet!

[bul] Page 2 — Half full page article with photo and blueprint plans of Bermuda Tourism entrepreneur’s “home grown proposals” for developing Morgan’s Point. Photo caption of Mr. Dendrick Taylor (who happens to be black) includes the heading “Bermudian Ingenuity”. A fascinating and positive article.

[bul] Page 3 — Excellent article about school students preparing for the Minister’s Debate Challenge at Berkeley Institute, complete with photo of Southampton Glebe head teacher (who happens to be black) and four of his students who will be taking part in the debating competition (all named, and all of whom happen to be black).

[bul] Page 4 — Full page coverage of Brother Derrick Burgess’s farewell speech (verbatim), together with a large photo of Brother Derrick and all his executive staff at the BIU across the top of the page along with a bold caption, “Improving the quality of life for all workers”. Just to make sure we know who the article refers to there is a second photo of Brother Derrick smiling while giving his address. (For those who don’t know — Brother Derrick happens to be black and a PLP MP).

[bul] Page 7 — Top of page article on “Bermuda — it’s the place to register ships and planes”. Article is accompanied by a photo of Junior Transport Minister, Senator Walter Roban, along with very positive comments from him about our local registry and reputation. (Senator Roban happens to be black.)

[bul] Page 16 — Article about Hiscox Bermuda’s new chief executive who just set up in business here, saying he just recruited his first Bermudian, discussing the quality of candidates, and describing his intention to hire about a dozen Bermuda employees.

[bul] Page 18 — Half page article on the new look for a St. George’s institution — Robertson’s Drug Store — after undergoing renovations. Non-political and does not feature young people, but a very positive article nonetheless.

[bul] Page 19 — What can I say! Four great articles as follows:

1. Large photo of group of enthusiastic young students at XL Capital HQ attending the Global Arts Foundation Youth Conference with the theme “Making the World a Better Place”. (The group happens to be both black and white.)

2. Fabulous article, together with photo of Shanae Outerbridge, one of the Principal’s List Students at Clearwater Middle School presenting flowers to former Head Girl and Guest Speaker, Christina Schweizer, who also went on to become Head Girl of Berkeley Institute. (Both of these bright young ladies happen to be black.)

3. Wonderful article with photo about 11 year old Azhanae (Azhee) Oliver being named national scholar in the US because of her “academic excellence, maturity, and strong leadership potential”. This is the same young lady featured in your colour photo on the front page (yes, she happens to be black). Wow. A role model at that tender age!

4. Article entitled “Making a Positive Impact” reporting on the Teen Service Awards and listing all of the recipients who are “achieving great things in Bermuda”.

[bul] Page 21 — Huge article, complete with colour photo and the largest headline I can recall in The Royal Gazette <$>for months, “Destination FAME” featuring Cedarbridge Academy student Zawidtu Maryam who’s play has been selected for the “Famous for Fifteen Minutes” competition being organised by BMDS, The extensive article quotes her passion for life in the theatre. Go for it Zawidtu (who happens to be black).

[bul] Page 29 — Half page article with accompanying colour photo with banner headline “Kyme and Stout triumph in Marathon” following their win in squash doubles competition at the Commonwealth Games. (These two happen to be white.)

Mr. Editor, your coverage of the Commonwealth Games has been absolutely outstanding from start to finish, with superb colour photos and well written articles keeping us all up to date on the progress of our athletes who have done us proud. Your photos of Katura in Saturday’s paper were magnificent. Does anyone ever say thank you?

[bul] Page 31 — Great story about FA Cup semi-final being a family affair between the Burgess and Jennings clans. You even went to the trouble of finding a photo of Captain Kevin Jennings raising the cup when North Village won the Cup Final in 2003. (Kevin happens to be black.)

[bul] Page 31 — excellent article on National coach Kyle Lightbourne finally being able to select from a full squad for the Digicel Cup being held in the Dominican Republic in September. Article is accompanied by photo of Kyle, and another of our own super star, Shaun Goater, in action. (Both Kyle and Shaun happen to be black.)

Mr. Editor, the articles appearing regularly in your newspaper written by Shaun are always insightful and a pleasure to read.

[bul] Page 32 — Half page article and great action photo of one of our greatest cricket players, Glenn Blakeney possibly taking over from Treadwell Gibbons Sr. as Somerset Bridge coach. (Glenn happens to be black).

[bul] Page 32 — Brief article on Swan’s Running Club’s stalwart Mark Albouy heading to Boston this weekend to compete in a major indoor running meet.

Mr. Editor, please excuse this letter being so long. I did try hard to briefly summarise the above positive articles that appeared in your newspaper in a single day. I would also ask your readers to excuse the fact that in many cases, usually when the article was accompanied by a photograph, I have mentioned whether the person or persons featured were black or white.

This should really be totally irrelevant, but I thought it necessary because the lady quoted at the beginning of this letter accused you publicly of NEVER publishing positive things about young black men or women. All the above examples were taken from the very newspaper she was referring to on the morning she called David Lopes. And I also have to wonder what Howard thought about the two photos of Senator Roban and The Hon Derrick Burgess, and the praise of The Hon. Doctor Ewart Brown. Perhaps he simply failed to see them?

Yes, The Royal Gazette does bring us bad news on a daily basis, whether it’s crime, fatal accidents, allegations of corruption, scandals, or politicians constantly bickering at each other, and much could be labelled negative, but that is because it is NEWS and we have a right to know what is going on in our country.

It’s rather like the US Administration complaining about the media always focusing on deaths in Iraq instead of the “good things” that are happening over there! The American public have a right to know when their soldiers are being killed, and we have a right to know when our soldiers are accused of importing drugs and disgracing their uniform.

Please continue to bring us the facts, even when they are difficult to swallow.

FOR AN OPEN AND FREE PRESS

Smith’s Parish

P.s. <$>From a quick check on The Royal Gazette <$>website I counted at least ten positive articles about the Bermuda Regiment in the past three months, including several with large photographs, with headlines such as “Regiment welcomes 150+ Recruits” (great picture), “The Thrill of Drill”, “You represent the best of the Island”, “Regiment comes to rescue”, “Premier impressed with soldiers in Jamaica” and the superb article headed “Leaving the Parade Ground” about the retirement of Bermuda Regiment Director of Music, Major Barrett Dill.