It?s right to share

January 31, 2004

Dear Sir,

Please allow me to respond to a writer to your valuable editorial concerning a writer stating his wife and two other ladies were ripped off by a taxi driver charging three separate fares.

The fares were implemented in October, 2004 by TCD. Anywhere else in the world separate fares are charged, this is fair, because otherwise you will find passengers that are not together will ride free. This action is long overdue. The airport buses also charge individual fares.

To the taxi driver you were correct.

Story was misleading

February 1, 2005

Dear Sir,

As you are well aware, I and representatives of other prominent Bermuda charities have been very upset, even outraged by January 31, 2005 front page article ?Revealed: Charities failing to report finances?. It goes on to incorrectly name and shame charities who have never failed to file financial reports to The Registry General.

I am at least grateful to for today?s front page story expressing our collective anger at being singled out. But this article and even Mr. Cummings Zuill of the Centre of Philanthropy fail to note that PALS and others should never have been on the November 2002 report in the first place!

I can only pray that all those generous and kind supporters ranging from school children to local and international businesses, banks, clubs, organisations, churches and individuals will understand that a great mistake has been made and will not lose faith in the wonderful charities they support.

The real fault lies, I am very sorry to say, is with The Registry General itself who has failed for years to keep efficient records and thereby giving misleading and incorrect information to the Centre of Philanthropy (who I hope will wipe this inaccurate outdated list from their website immediately).

In the meantime, may I encourage the wonderful Bermuda charities to soldier on and keep focused on their goals. I pray that our loyal and generous donors will continue to support us in the future as they have in the past.

Without them, few if any of us would survive. For PALS part, the cancer patients of Bermuda would be denied the care, comfort and moral support they need and deserve.With the benefit of hindsight, should have checked with all of the charities named to confirm whether or not they had filed their finances. However, as Ms Smith Gordon notes, the main point was that at the time the study was conducted, it was not possible to ascertain from the available public records what the financial state of the charities was.

Setting record straight

February 2, 2005

Dear Sir,

I think Mr. Ottiwell Simmons?s memory must have begun to dim a little over the passage of the 40 years that have passed since the Belco violence in 1965. He is quoted in your newspaper today as painting a picture of riot police shooting tear gas between the legs of Belco picketers, and policemen hitting people on the picket line with iron pipes. That is not what happened.

I?ve never heard anyone say so in public before, but the truth is that the police riot squad did not arrive on the scene until after the incident was over, and after the picketers who had been involved had left for a hastily-called meeting at the Devonshire Recreation Club. The riot unit did fire tear gas, but they fired it at a group of people at the Rosemont Avenue end of the Belco property, who looked to me to be simply spectators. None of them, as far as I could see, had taken any part in the fighting, and there was no violent action of any kind in progress at the time.

I was covering the picketing for ZBM-News. I had a good vantage point from which to see how the whole thing started, co-located with a small number of Special Branch officers on a feature on the southern side of the road, opposite the easternmost Belco entrance. And I had a good view of the fighting, standing on the Belco driveway between the entrance, where it took place, and the office building.

The incident that set the whole business in motion took place on Belco property, behind the line of picketers on the sidewalk and below the wall that separates Belco from Serpentine Road. I could see people who I assumed were off-duty picketers moving cardboard boxes around in that area. One of the boxes, probably damp, came open. Out spilled a couple of police truncheons, which I was told had been stolen from the police during a brief, but violent incident in the area the day before.

The police decided they wanted to retrieve these weapons. An order was given to a small unit (about half a dozen, as I remember) to go through the picket line at the eastern entrance to get them back. This they tried to do, dressed only in their winter blues and armed only with truncheons, which were of the short (perhaps 16 inches) variety policemen used to carry in those days.

They were completely outnumbered by scores of picketers, who very quickly, armed themselves with the golf clubs and long pieces of pipe that, it became obvious, had also been concealed behind the wall. The ensuing melee was a very one-sided affair. The police were violently attacked with long weapons, and found it very difficult to fight back effectively with their short bits of stick.

There was one exception, a Bermudian policeman who, after a short time, picked up a piece of pipe (which, as I remember, was part of the after-hours traffic barrier across the entrance) and swung it around his head to keep the attacking picketers at bay. I didn?t see him hit anyone.

I think the pictures taken by photographers at the scene, including those taken by own reporter/photographer, will bear out what I say, in a general sense.

If Mr Simmons had accused the police of stupidity for ordering a small number of poorly-armed policemen to charge, quite suicidally, at a large number of angry picketers who were known to have weapons concealed nearby, I would have agreed with him. But to suggest they were being brutal to the picketers, or using force inappropriately, is just not accurate.

Loss of privilege

January 12, 2005

Dear Sir,

How long would Bermuda stay economically independent if it had to maintain embassies all over the world?

How long would Bermuda remain economically independent if we sustained a terrorist attack or were viewed with the covetous eyes by another power? Remember the riots where we had to send to Britain for a regiment to come and help?

Would Guilden M. Gilbert Jr. like to be arrested in some back street, say in Turkey, on a fake charge and thrown into jail? Who would he appeal to? And would they recognise and respect his Bermudian passport? They would probably laugh and throw away the key till he could come up with some substantial bribe money on perhaps never to be seen again.

This is a very dangerous world, now, one needs a good representative behind you for protection when travelling.

Wake up, Mr. Gilbert, and be thankful that we are financially independent because we are indeed politically stable and have sound legislation, but also, that we come under the stable and respected umbrella of Great Britain. Independence would deny us that privilege.