June 16, 2004

Dear Sir,

It really is amazing. Calvin Smith says ?whites better get on board?, which in itself implies a threat of things to come if whites don?t. However he doesn?t say what he is talking about. So one brave white soul decides to put this question to the panel on Independence on Tuesday night and is immediately put down by for asking such a ?stupid question?. How dare he try to get on board! Further, it is clear coming out of that talk, that whites are not viewed as equal partners in the debate if that same person who asked Calvin Smith for a clarification was then threatened with expulsion for asking more questions! We are not ready to take the step to Independence if we cannot even discuss the matter without acting like petulant children.

The panel could not even keep the attendees on the subject at hand as the talk eventually got away from Independence. And does a talk on Independence, panelled by Eva Hodgson and Calvin Smith, among others, and held at the BIU offices, strike you as a fair and unbiased forum? Let me make a suggestion, when those panellists are ready to listen, objectively, to the opposing view without stacking the deck in their favour, let Bermuda invite an independent third party into the discussion to moderate the debate, which should be televised.

If we are going to play at having open discussions, let?s do it right. I am happy to entertain the notion of an independent Bermuda, at the right time. At present, however there are much more pressing issues we should concern ourselves with. Independence will not house the homeless and it will not feed the hungry. Decent jobs, quality education and a stable economy will and that, Sir, should be our primary focus. This Government is rife with biased business dealings, sloppy accounting practices, departmental budget overspending and ineffective law enforcement. We have a seat-belt law that was unenforceable. We have a serious hazardous waste problem at the Naval Annex, which still has not been cleaned up. We still have a housing ?crisis? after six years under PLP governance.

We have seen a scandal at BHC wherein the taxpayer was left footing a rather hefty bill, but no visible moves have been made to recover the losses and no one appears yet to be held accountable. We have the son of a sitting MP caught importing several pounds of narcotics strapped to his body and he receives a suspended sentence. This is a Labour party ? how many labour disputes have there been since 1998? We had a wildcat strike three days after the worst hurricane since 1963. That is unconscionable. Government could not even collect $600,000 in parking tickets. And, .....Bye, don?t get me started on Berkeley! I point these issues out, not to rant, but instead to put my next question into a relevant context. Sir, are we to believe Government can take the helm of an independent Bermuda and sail us into the sunshine of prosperity for all?

GREG BROWN

City of Hamilton

June 25, 2004

Dear Sir,

In Calvin Smith?s latest ?tirade? in your recent ?Opinion? column he refers to an article written by a person pen-named ?Observer? in an attempt to debunk a very well presented series of facts concerning the Caribbean islands. Calvin Smith states in his article, ?Observer notes that the annual per-capita income of Dominica is the meagre sum of US$3,304 while that for Bermuda is a princely sum of US$35,200?. He then adds ?Does Bermuda?s high level of per-capita income indicate that the purchasing power of Bermudians is ten times as great as that of Dominicans?? and further adds ?Yes, if Bermudians could work in Bermuda and live in Dominica.?

Not true. I have been to Dominica and I can assure you that Bermudians do have ten times the purchasing power of Dominicans, and that while they do work and live in Bermuda. The great majority of Bermudians have the power from income to save, invest in property, increase their wealth, travel, and generally prosper and move forward. Most Dominicans do not, they subsist, and indeed the year after I visited the government made all government employees take a three percent pay-cut. I would like to see Alex Scott try and spin his way through that one in Bermuda.

The general state of the island was ?poor? in comparison to Bermuda, despite the stunning beauty of the landscape, and Roseau the capital was ?scruffy?. Unemployment is a major problem for them. They do not have a tourist industry because the government has edited that they should remain a farming community and not encourage tourism. And yet the market for their main crop, bananas, had collapsed around the time I was there.

Calvin Smith?s headline ?Why our Caribbean neighbours are a positive role model for Independence? is a totally misguided interpretation of the truth, and if we were to follow the pattern of these ?positive role models? there would be a lot of very unhappy Bermudians shouting and banging on Alex Scott?s door. But then Calvin Smith may like to live in Dominica and earn a meagre $3,304 per year and see how far he gets.

PHIL CRACKNELL

June 24, 2004

Dear Sir,

Ms Eva Hodgson brought up the issue of ?movements? and party politics. She contends that party politics has frozen the natural flow; the labile and discursive quality of political movements in Bermuda. I agree. Jefferson (yes, a racist slave holder but also one of the great writers on movements) called them factions and very astutely commented on how they work in the production of good government. Democracy does not function well without these admittedly subversive groups of people who are joined by a common cause.

There was a time in Bermuda when factions were of one race or the other. That made sense because people?s racial lives were profoundly different and laws and social practice deliberately divided people into races. This political tendency among Bermudian citizens is still strong today. The habit of congregating in racial groups before dividing into groups based on opinion necessarily divides the power of any political cause according to race.

The two races develop distinct political vocabularies and by this division a governmental party effort can easily subvert the intent of any faction of ordinary citizens. Both parties rely on racial division to breakdown factions into easily manipulated parts. This was fundamental to UBP cynicism in the bad old days. Rather than be the united party they said they were, they tended to use the racial divide to sideline dissent in the party and humiliate criticism outside the party. Ironically, it was the pretence of racial harmony in the party that made this possible.

The opportunities that party had to address the racial issue directly were too numerous to mention and all were discreetly avoided; to the shame of us all. The political product of this shell game finally became so obviously bad that even the PLP could not lose against the UBP. The PLP took up the racial device in a whole new way. Being wholly black, it endorses racial division by its very nature and supports it in public statement. Yes I agree with the often unjustly maligned Ms Hodgson. Party politics in Bermuda has stultified the natural expression of political movements.

JOHN ZUILL

Pembroke

June 22, 2004

Dear Sir,

I enjoyed reading Gavin Shorto?s essay on the life and death of Yukio Mishima in The Royal Gazette. Not long after Mishima?s suicide in 1970, Ford and Margaret Baxter stocked all of Mishima?s works that they could obtain in their Burnaby Street bookstore. Certainly, Mishima?s violent death was a good career move: He had gone out of style in Japan. I bought copies of the books and loved them. I was reading, at that time, Hesse, Mann, Huxley, Orwell and Gide, all courtesy of the Baxters, bless ?em. There?s something about authors of note dying in their mid-40s. Perhaps Gavin Shorto could write about this some time, now that he has survived those years.

Yukio Mishima was not even the man?s real name. He?d adopted a pen-name (it means ?man who chronicles reason?) because he didn?t want his father to know he was a writer. His real name was Kimitaka Hiraoka, and I don?t know if that translates into anything. Of course, Mishima was wonderfully complex and as a part-time actor and poser he could indulge his narcissism, surround himself by attractive, younger men (he was gay as pink ink), and make a great exit.

It took about three chops to remove Mishima?s head, about the same number needed to render Mary, Queen of Scots topless. We remember Mary, for she made golf popular. We forget Yukio Mishima, for he only wrote brilliant stories. I?m sorry to say, I?d almost forgotten him too. Thank you, Mr. Shorto, for the reminder. I will look in the Bermuda National Library for Mishima?s books. Where are Ford and Margaret Baxter when you need them?

ROSS ELDRIDGE

Devonshire