Able to keep abreast

July 28, 2003

Dear Sir,

I am a Bermudian who is currently living in the United States. This brief letter is to send my congratulations to a former teacher and principal of mine, Mr. Randy Horton on his recent victory during the General Election. I have only recently started to read the paper online and am not up to date on all of the politics going on in Bermuda, but I will continue to keep abreast now. Also, I wish to send by regrets to an old dear friend, Lt. Col. David Burch. I have been reading about his efforts in politics and my mind went back to when we were in the Bermuda Youth Parliament together. David was always passionate about the future of Bermuda and only wanted the best. I am glad to see that he has not stopped in this effort.

Be a good Samaritan

July 28, 2003

Dear Sir,

On Friday, July 25, relatives of mine arrived here for a vacation. They were delivered by taxi to the Coral Beach Club and their luggage was unloaded and placed outside the front door. Included in the luggage was a video camera and case. At some point, the video case and camera went missing. It is possible that it was either stolen or picked up by mistake but it is clearly not where it was left. The camera itself means nothing but,in the case, were tapes of children's birthdays, christening and other memorable events. I am appealing to whomever may have this case to return the tapes to me. Please call me at 238-0458 and leave a message to let me know where we can collect the tapes. If you can't reach me - just call the Front Desk at Coral Beach and let them know where the tapes are.

GREG BROWN

City of Hamilton

Cowardice, not courage

July 28, 2003

Dear Sir,

I am compelled to write and take issue with the events the last four days and how it bodes for Bermudian democracy.

To quote Dr. Brown: "We could not stand by one more day and privately critique and criticise the leadership for what we perceived to be irreparable shortcomings without criticising ourselves for a lack of courage and conviction and to do something about it."

Dr. Brown speaks eloquently of courage and conviction. But in light of the events of the last four days his actions have spoken louder than his words and in this case they say to Bermudians that cowardice and opportunism are principles to be justly rewarded.

Bedevilled by their own past impotence, 11 MP's decided that it was an opportune time to re-enact their favourite scene from Julius Caesar and take out their leader and our Premier using the Constitution to do so.

After 1,700 days of Jennifer Smith's Premiership it strikes me that the "rebel 11" had sufficient time to act in both word and deed against her leadership. Dr. Brown and his cohorts are completely without courage. Courage would have been to announce prior to the election (last November?) that as a Minister of the Crown he could no longer in good conscience serve in Cabinet because of his concerns of the Premier's leadership.

It is unconscionable for the "new" leadership of the PLP to put forward such duplicitous and deceptive statements. There is a time and venue for leadership reviews. Two days after a general election is neither the time nor the venue for such crass housecleaning. Is the desire to hold power so unquenchable within the PLP that they are moved to lie and deceive each and every Bermudian who cast a vote last Thursday?

In the future whenever we need to site examples of the apathy of our youth or the erosion of societal values all we have to do is look towards Parliament and shake our heads and remember that we deserve the governments that we elect.

Yes, paper is biased

July 29, 2003

Dear Sir,

As a Bermudian living abroad but keeping up with the news online, I have to tell you that is very disappointing. Your paper is very biased and in many ways showing reverse bigotry.

Reading today's issue there was little mention of what UBP constituents are feeling but several comments and opinions from PLP constituents.

I hope and pray you will not allow your paper to fall prey to an agenda that will ultimately ruin our beautiful island.

Please remember that there are many races that represent Bermudians and not just one. PR

Pembroke

A happy medium

July 27, 2003

Dear Sir,

This letter is in reply to Robert Henderson whose remarks I believe to be a clear case of someone crying wolf and attempting to terrify the sheep. Although, my voting decision had little to do with this immigration issue, I feel the need to share my thoughts.

You asked why I would risk incurring the wrath of important people by capping the work permits of their high-level staff? Before addressing this question, I would like to put out a few questions of my own for readers to keep in mind while I present my argument. How long do top staff generally spend on the Island? Do these individuals arrive with the expectation of gaining status? Is there any trend in the above answers across the Island's international business community? Are businesses capable of making arguments for extending work permits? Are there any principles that can be used as a basis in formulating these arguments? What about extensions for non-critical staff?

The simple answer is that I believe Government policy can be created such that a happy medium is found between the desires of Immigration and the needs of the business sector. I see no reason to assume that a government policy on this matter would be uncompromising to the point that valid arguments for permit extensions would be denied. What must be in place is a set of guidelines upon which we can decide what a valid argument looks like. Is this possible? Why not? The truth, however, is that work term caps do not address the correct issue, but at least their creation acknowledges that a problem exists.

Let's pretend for a minute that I created government policy and I believe that we need some legislation in place that caps work permit renewals. Answering the questions I posed above, I believe that most (not all) non-Bermudians who occupy high level management positions stay on the Island for less than six years and do not arrive with the expectation of receiving Bermudian status. I also believe that some (not all) arguments for permit extensions are for persons who possess skills or experience of a calibre not easily found amongst Bermuda's tiny talent pool.

Additionally, I believe that employers would rather produce arguments for keeping critical employees on the Island than pick up shop and move to Dublin. What we need is a method of determining which cases warrant permit extensions based on the best interests of an employer hoping to retain her staff and a governmental desire to protect the jobs and options of its citizens, without inconveniencing its guests. In this case, the government's primary allegiance is to its people, with its welcome guests running a healthy second.

This may be na?ve, but a standard survey of the business sector would be a good place to start a search for a set of rules on which we can judge individual cases. The business sector has much at stake here and should gladly produce a list of their human resources deemed "critical". Criticality is the issue here, not whether a position is filled by a Bermudian or non-Bermudian since turnover in some (not all) large companies is about as commonplace as replacing toner cartridges. Through analysis of the survey data and the reams of work permit renewal applications that immigration has received over the years, a consensus can be reached on what exactly makes a position critical and how often extensions are likely to be requested. Additionally, we get a grasp on the affects of introducing such legislation on the issues it was born to address or if it simply amounts to ineffectual government interference.

I believe large international companies have the breadth within their upper ranks to cope with a six-year cap quite easily since they have the world as their talent pool. Taking on a short term in Bermuda could be sold as a working sabbatical to chosen staff. I suspect this is already the case. The local companies might have a harder time finding replacements and in these cases, some divergence from the rules might be necessary. Better would be the inclusion of such exceptional circumstances in the policy which can collectively be agreed upon. As with any important policy, kinks can be ironed out through debate between government and the people more important than we normal folk. But at least they'll be talking and not shipping my job to Dublin. Although, it is far more likely that my job would go to India. To his credit, Scott Hunter arranged to meet with me before Election Day. Thank you Scott for the time you invested in doing so. Hopefully next time around my constituency will get more attention from your party.