April is Counselling month

April 15, 2008

Dear Sir,

The Bermuda Counsellors Association (BCA) has followed the lead of the American Counselling Association for recognising April as Counselling Awareness Month. From its early beginnings in 1995, the Association has taken the time each April to highlight the work of professional counsellors.

Our Members work in a wide variety of settings (e.g., private practice, schools, child development, addiction services, health care facilities and churches). They are highly trained and educated to help children and adults master the challenges of everyday living.

Additionally, since 2001 the Association's members have been lobbying the Ministry of Health to support efforts to enact legislation for Bermuda Professional Counsellors and Social Workers. The objective is to protect to protect the public from unethical and untrained persons working under the title of counsellors and social workers.

During Counselling Awareness month in April, the BCA salutes our members' contributions to positive mental health. We encourage your readers to consider how professional counselling can make a difference in their lives

CINDY SMITH, B.A, M.A

Chairperson

Bermuda Counsellors Association

We need to know

Dear Sir,

Recently Mrs. Jennifer Caines stated that she believes if the freedom of information becomes law it would bring about a more open system of Government and that it may make some of the individuals in these high-paid jobs be more accountable for the positions they hold. I would like to know how many civil servants have been dismissed for inefficiency since November 1998. Can civil servants be dismissed or are they secure in their jobs?

We need to know what are the legal steps to dismissing a civil servant who is efficient or inept. As it appears in the case regarding Mrs. Caines' long running dispute with the Department of Planning. Mrs. Caines having spent $20,000 needs to report her lawyers to the Bar Council for that much money and Mrs. Caines accusing the planning department of disregarding her objection to a driveway encroaching her property.

He did not allow Mrs. Caines to prove her case in our high court, after all no one is above the law.

RAYMOND RUSSELL

Pembroke

PLP outwitted UBP

Dear Sir,

I would like to state here and now, although I'm not a UBP supporter, I would like to at least give Mr. Michael Dunkley some credit for not suggesting that the electorate were stupid. Yet, I'm sorry to say, it would seem that Mr. Dunkley's ethics was not taken up by some of those within that UBP flock of which he was supposed to have been leading; well, what a shame.

I read with interest in your newspaper, Monday February 4, 2008, your interview with one Mark Pettingill, and based on that interview could not help thinking to myself; here we go again, another sore loser.

I guess Mr. Pettingill is one of those people in the UBP who believe that whatever the UBP spits out, must be seen by the electorate as some divine doctrine sent down from heaven above, and that they should now in turn allow themselves to be (indoctrinated) to use his words, and be sucked in by UBP propaganda; is that what he is now saying?

Well Mr. Pettingill, based on the above, do I now have the right to suggest that the people who elected you to Parliament are stupid? As to the fact that they did not vote for my party, or on the bases that I thought my parties platform was or was not the best, I do believe in the principles of democracy, thus, they voted their conscience; sadly to say, they voted for a sore loser.

Lets face it, the UBP was out witted by the PLP period, must I remind Mr. Pettingill and those of his ilk, that the UBP took the time to lay down a well concealed trap for the PLP but were stupid enough to fall into it themselves.

In addition, don't forget this one, the UBP party has hanging around their necks a legacy of more than 378 years of ugly history, which would only come to an end when the UBP evaporates from the scene, and something totally new takes its place, period!

E. M. STOVELL

Pembroke

Unfriendly Island

April 12, 2008

Dear Sir,

My wife and I have had numerous conversations recently with people who feel the Island has become more racially fragmented, expensive, lacking good educational standards, terrifying roadways, explosive increase in serious crimes and overwhelmed with foreign workers.

One visitor who has returned for over 30 years, said: "There is no room for people to wiggle anymore in your hustle and bustle island – and it would be on the bottom of the list as a place for many to return to, before they die."

So why the uneasiness in a place that Mark Twain said he would prefer over heaven?

Obviously there are reasons why some Bermudians feel the resplendent image of the past has given way to a feeling of apprehension in a place they call home. In fact in our inquisitive discussions with both blacks and whites, more Bermudians appear to have emigrated or plan to move to other places where they feel they won't encounter some of the negatives that we have already mentioned.

No doubt there will be some who will say, "good riddance", however we wonder if even more of the affluent and/or educated society will decide to leave. Power might be the idol of some but most would rather have security and peace. Will there be serious consequences in the long term for this small, perhaps soon to become independent, territory?

"Each moment is not only something new, but something unforeseeable" and that is what is bothering those who were previously determined to ride out an unchartered future!

And finally, it is the contention of some that Bermuda is not solving its problems, and the list of faults is growing. If these perplexing issues are not resolved fairly quickly then indeed others will consider resettling elsewhere.

TOPPY AND SAUNDRA COWEN

Southampton