Deal with housing first

February 17, 2005

Dear Sir,

Please allow me space to express my thoughts and in part respond to Guilden M. Gilbert Jr. You say that you will only debate facts Mr. Gilbert. Well I would like to know what facts you could present that suggest that Bermuda would be better off as an independent nation. We are now the oldest British colony and arguably one of the most successful, there must be a positive correlation here.

The fact that the present government (we, if I should be so bold) do manage the economy is becoming an increasingly worrying quandary, how long will it be before the PLP have to hire one of their ?consultants? to balance the books for them? Our current government has provided irrefutable evidence that they have a problem with their internal controls. Maybe they should be subject to Sarbanes Oxley 404 testing!

Fraud protection could be what some hope to gain from our Independence. There have been many cases of gross mismanagement. You are supporting a group of individuals who cannot oversee the building of a school which, speaking very broadly and impractically, has just been plunged into further debt by the devaluation of the land that it sits on.

Britain may provide no tangible economic contributions to our nation they do however provide their name, ?brand? if you will. It gives both international business and tourists, who are the ?investors? in and lifeblood of Bermuda confidence in the overall quality that they can expect from our great nation. You speak of associate embassies. The current government seems to me to be struggling with its current workload and you appear to be suggesting that they could handle a complicated task involving international relations like this.

Well in that case I think our very own Dale Butler should handle this. Possibly meeting somewhere in the Eastern Bloc. The government needs every dollar that is given to them (as any government does) and you are suggesting that we should pay for this unnecessary venture. We have a housing crisis etc. that needs urgent attention, I think the money would be better spent to alleviate this suffering, not to mention the support they would receive from every walk of life through achieving some success in this area.

Almost every form of establishment is run like a business in this day of age from hospitals to the civil services. The way the business world is currently developing, regulation has come to the fore front. It is vital that investors (citizens in this case) have confidence in those they are entrusting with their livelihood.

Can anyone honestly say ignoring everything (and yes I include race in this) but their current performance they trust the current PLP Government to take this country into uncharted waters. Britain are our FSA/compliance body, completely independent with no control, as Mr. Gilbert has so aptly stated, which makes them perfect as a regulator. They are a source of enormous experience and ability for our government to call upon, thus the relationship should be nurtured and further developed not severed.

I am by no means 100 percent against the idea of independence. I believe in three values trust, honesty and respect none of which I feel the PLP or the UBP (to a slightly lesser extent) exude. I would welcome a televised public debate on this topic. I currently wear my Bermudian nationality on my sleeve wherever I am with an enormous amount of pride as I am sure 99 percent of us do. I want to see and help provide the best for Bermuda, Independence may be the way forward but not at this point in time with ever increasing economic and social volatility. Lets concentrate on the essential issues and not those that can wait. Regards,

If the raising of the Independence issue by the PLP has been a tactical one to distract the general public from their recent failures then I applaud them ? it has proven to be a masterstroke.

An illustration

February 9, 2005

Dear Sir,

Whenever black people complain of racism or discrimination today, they are told with some smugness that the ?playing field is now level?. What white people mean by this is that racial discrimination is now outlawed; black people no longer have to stand in the coloured line; that they can eat anywhere they please; that they can live anywhere if they can afford the price; and that they can apply freely for any job which is advertised if they have the requisite qualifications. On the surface, this may be true, but a detailed examination of the premise reveals a completely different picture. With respect to the job applications and the job market, the selection of the final candidate can always be justified. The fallacy of a level playing field can be clearly illustrated by the following story.

There was once a kingdom called Adumreb in which two main groups of people lived. One group had small ears and the other had extremely protruding earlobes. Over the years, it had developed that Large Ears was preferable to Small Ears. No one could really remember why this occurred but it was the way things were and it was accepted.

Once a year a great race was held for all the citizens in Adumreb. In this race all contestants with Big Ears were shackled and their arms tied behind their backs. The Small Ears contestants were allowed to run unhampered and in some cases were supplied with skates and other forms of transportation. The winners of the race were allowed a number of credits with which they could purchase shares in the kingdom. In spite of the handicap, a few Big Ears were successful in gaining some credits by dint of their extreme physical condition, but only a few! After several years there remained only very few shares in Adumreb. It was at this point that it was finally decided that there was something inherently wrong in shackling one group of citizens as this gave the other group an unfair advantage.

One Large Ears member, Ave Hodgepod had been fighting for years against the system. With great fanfare, it was announced by one Small Ears representative called Divad Welldod, that no longer would Big Ears be shackled in al future races, all were to be given an equal chance to win. The playing field was now level. However, it was discovered that the kingdom was now almost wholly owned by Small Ears as over the years they had won 99 percent of the kingdom and there was very few shares left to give out. But all rejoiced throughout the kingdom as the playing field was now level.

Reopen Casemates

February 10, 2005

Dear Sir,

I read with amusement in today?s in which Senator Horton announces that his Government will get tough on drugs and gangs. Give me a big break.... How can he expect to solve these problems when our correctional facility is one big farce? Mr. Editor, I have always known that with any business, the business works like one big wheel. If one part of the wheel does not work, then the whole wheel breaks down.

How in the world does this Government expect to solve the crime on gangs and drugs if we are then sending these people to prison where they then have the life of Riley? I will never understand the way our soft prison system is run. When you place a person in prison for breaking and entering, stealing, gang war, drug importation etc., aren?t they supposed to NOT like it? Not only do they like it I see they get the use of cell phones now... How can this happen? We must really look stupid to other parts of the world.

Mr. Editor, there are plumbers, electricians, masons, carpenters etc. all up at Westgate why not put them in bright orange/yellow outfits, padlock them together by the feet, and send them to repair and rebuild, if necessary, Casemates. Westgate is loaded to capacity and these crooks and running rampant in our community because there is no room at Westgate to hold them.

Seems to me that when we have to support these people who literally break into our homes, steal our hard earnings and personal items us, cause chaos within the our community and scare us to death, then they need to pay more than just sitting within prison receiving three square meals a day. Something is dead wrong.

This part of the wheel is broken and needs to be repaired. If this Government truly wants to get tough on crime, then I suggest they revamp the correctional institution immediately. The people up at Westgate who have these skills need to work for us now. It may be difficult, but not impossible, Mr. Editor.

Support for housing bill

February 14, 2005

Dear Sir,

Good for you, Randy Horton. There haven?t been many issues I?ve agreed on with the PLP, but the new housing regulations are just what Bermuda needs. Of course the realtors are up in arms over it. Poor things won?t be able to make six figures on every house they sell. The greedy buggers have their years but, unfortunately for them, all good things must come to an end. I?m a white Bermudian who has been looking to buy a house for three years. My husband and I make very decent salaries and yet we can?t find anything we can afford. I can only imagine how difficult a time people who make half of what we do are having ? there?s no hope for them. So I say to you, Mr. Horton, go for it! I support your decision and I?ll lobby against the real estate agents who are lobbying against you.

Do not dredge Sinky Bay

February 18, 2005

This was sent to Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield and copied to .

Dear Minister Butterfield,

I am writing in the hopes that we as Bermudians and you as our Government representative will not allow the irreversible destruction through dredging of Sinky Bay for the proposed Dolphin and Ray park. I am not a professional environmentalist, nor a biologist however I do not believe these are qualifications needed to see the negative ramifications this proposal holds for Bermuda. The most important part of this objection is that the dredging of a bay will take place; a natural resource, a part of our environment that we are willing to give up for the sake of someone else?s short term financial gain. There is nothing that will benefit Bermudians in this project. I cannot believe that we have worked so hard to try and conserve our open spaces, to get a handle on over-development and here we are going to destroy one of the only enclosed bays on South Shore. The impact that this may have on the environment outside the bay is unknown, and Sinky Bay itself will be destroyed.

The other aspect to this is that there is no need for further captive dolphins in Bermuda. There is no winning argument that can be put forward in defence of keeping these mammals in captivity. This proposal in particular is aiming to provide entertainment for visitors, whilst turning a tidy profit for both the company involved and the hotel. However Dolphin parks are not why people come to Bermuda. We are not in the themed Floridian market that many other cheaper destinations are steering towards, simply due to their lack of available natural attractions. It is the same argument that can be made for not having row upon row of franchised fast food outlets, they would homogenise our destination making us just a more expensive version of the ?same old same old?.

The final point is that the welfare of the mammals themselves. As I stated above I am not a biologist, however I do know that Dolphins live in complex social groups, and that they range freely in the ocean. These dolphinariums will see the Dolphins removed from their family groups and placed in confined areas, how can this be a good thing? The argument of them being bred in captivity and therefore not able to survive in the wild is redundant as whether they are or not, their public display for money creates a market for the continuation of captive breeding as well as wild capture. I sincerely hope that in a time when there is a great deal of talk about being responsible for our future as Bermudians, that we are mature enough as a people to do just that.

A step in the right direction

February 17, 2005

Dear Sir,

I see nowadays that one of the big focuses of letters written in, as well as stories written in your paper are about Government?s decision to forbid the selling of homes by Bermudians to non-Bermudians. Everyone seems to be in an uproar about how they are being held back and that their hard earned investments cannot fetch as a high a price as it would if it was sold to a non-Bermudian.

If I remember correctly, since around May of last year, perhaps earlier, one of the big issues people were talking about was that there was a lack of affordable housing on this island and that the prices of homes are getting way to high.

Now I am not an economics major, so I may be wrong on this, but isn?t it true that selling houses to non-Bermudians at higher prices is part of the cause of the skyrocketing housing costs here? When the average purchase price for a home was $1.2 million, was that not greatly affected by wealthy foreigners having the ability to just buy these houses and not think about, leading to fewer and fewer affordable houses available to Bermudians?

Again, if I?m wrong then correct me, but this seems like a tug-o-war, where the have-nots want a fair chance at owning a home, and the haves just want more! I don?t know what the government?s intentions exactly were when they made this decision (as we never do on any of their decisions) and their idea may need some tweaking, but the general premise sounds like a step in a good direction!!

PISCES

Paget