Please allow me space in your letters section to comment on the editorial in today's edition concerning the post-secondary education choices of Bermudians.

It seems that The Royal Gazette , at least in today's edition, has returned to its old habits of prejudiced opinion making, coupled with schizoid, contradictory reportage.

I am referring to the comment you made in which you asserted that far too many of our young people attend poor quality universities and colleges in the United States. Sir, your prejudice is blatant, and cannot be left unchallenged. (Evidence of just how wrong you were could be found in the very same edition in your "Living'' section where the academic achievements of two US-educated health care/medical professionals were highlighted!) First of all, are there no poor quality universities attended by Bermudians in Canada, the UK, Europe, or even Australia, for that matter? Of course there are. I won't even discuss the quality of education at the Bermuda College, The Royal Gazette 's pet institution of higher learning. I really should not be surprised that The Gazette should express such sentiment, after all The Gazette has long been a source of snobbish, prejudiced opinion in Bermuda.

Secondly, academic excellence was not the primary factor forging the establishment of the "educational trails'' to Canada and the UK cut by early Bermudian students. Many chose those countries' universities due to lower cost, ease of entry, family origin, political ties, cultural insecurity, and elitist snobbism, as well as academics, and then simply insisted that Canadian and British universities outranked their US counterparts upon their return to the island. Later, as black Bermudians began to join their white cousins, in those same schools, they too adopted the baseless claim of superiority over US-educated Bermudians. Where is the proof of any Anglo-Canadian educational superiority over the United States? I can provide much factual evidence to the contrary.

Many of Bermuda's political leaders, civil servants, and educators who have led this country since 1960 were educated in Canada and the UK. Is it any wonder then that our public education system and civil service reeks of British and Canadian-style nepotism, and racism and lacks standards and accountability? But back to the facts... Where was the Internet developed? In the US universities, as was the new Internet driven economy! Any British or Canadian copy cats? Plenty, as imitation is the greatest compliment you can pay someone. Who developed the MBA programme? Who else, the US business schools did, and the British and Canadians copied them almost a decade later, spending the first few years criticising the very need for such a programme. The Europeans laughed at the very concept of business school, never mind an MBA, but now all over Europe during the last 10 years, unknown and unaccredited business schools touting MBA programmes have popped up like mushrooms on a dung heap! Many of these schools blatantly copy the Harvard Business School case method approach others vainly attempt to model themselves after University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. I wonder how many are trying to model themselves after "BC'', "U of T'', or "Dal''? How many try to model themselves after New Castle, Southampton, or U of London? (Other than the Bermuda College that is!!) They all want to be like NYU, Columbia, or Stanford... but never will.

Why? Because like America itself, the American Universities are wellheads of personal freedom and liberty, a concept the Brits, Canadians, and Europeans are only now recognising as just as important as a balanced budget in supporting economic growth! Universities all across the US graduate thousands of students every year who hail from the most diverse population pool on the face of the earth. They are white, black, Hispanic, native Amerindian, Asian, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, foreign born, male, and female, and each one of them has a department or faculty within a major academic school or college named after their group, where rigorous study designed to bridge the gaps between the various groups is carried out. Go to any good university in the US, and there are many such universities, a great achievement in and of itself, and you will find this diversity, this freedom, this self actualising spirit of "YES''.

Hopefully your comments are not a veiled attack on the "Historically Black Universities and Colleges'' of the US as these universities, despite their smaller size and, often, lower per student budgets, continue to produce students who go on to great success in every facet of American society, and continue to receive Phds from the most prestigious schools of study such as Johns Hopkins, and Harvard.

Sir, you may not like the look and feel of the United States, preferring instead the more staid, homogeneous, racial and ethnic composition of Europe and Canada. That is your choice, but do not be so subjective as to overlook the truth... that the greatest university system in the world is in the United States. And Bermuda is all the better for it. Remember Ace, Exel, Centre Re and many other companies here were envisioned and started by Wall Street pros, graduates of the American Universities. Remember sir, that like the National Institute of Health, or Los Alamos, Wall Street is essentially a laboratory where American theories of wealth and success are experimented with by the graduates of the great schools of the United States! UNIVERSITY.COM Hamilton Parish We must pull together July 19, 2000 Dear Sir, The end of July and the beginning of August mark several historic days in Bermuda history -- major occurrences which have helped to mould the Bermuda we know today.

These are: The wreck of the Sea Venture on July 28, 1609, leading to the beginning of human habitation of Bermuda.

The first meeting of the House of Assembly on August 1, 1620, marking the start of representative institutions in Bermuda.

Emancipation Day on August 1, 1834, when slavery ended, and all became equal before the law.

Cup Match, which is now generally recognised as the successor to the early annual celebrations of emancipation.

I think all of these occurrences should be celebrated together, as a means of counter-balancing efforts to pull us apart. It is apparent from what is happening in many parts of the world, ranging from Ireland to Indonesia, from Quebec to Rwanda and Burundi, from Yugoslavia to Israel, that we humans have an inclination to cling together in small groups which are often aggressive towards other groups -- a tendency which can develop into unhappiness and tragedy, bombings and murders. Therefore it is important that we also find means of pulling together, and I suggest that the remembrance of these historic occasions which are of importance to everyone could help this process.

The Christian churches could well give a lead by building services around these occasions. The shipwreck of the Sea Venture has an interesting parallel to the marvellous tale of St. Paul's shipwreck, as described in the Acts of the Apostles, and the escape of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery is a wonderful link with the end of slavery in Bermuda and the rest of the British Empire. This year the closest Sunday is July 30.

I know that a service commemorating Somers Day is planned for St. Peter's Church, St. George's, I hope this may include a celebration of Emancipation Day as well.

People sometimes declare that "we should put the past behind us'', but really we remember all of the past, good and bad, and learn from it. I look forward to the future of Bermuda based on the building stones laid down by those who have gone before.

W.S. ZUILL Smith's Parish Food author responds July 18, 2000 Dear Sir, First of all let me say how delighted I am that one of your readers was so quick to pick up and comment on the new issue of Dining Out in Bermuda! ( Royal Gazette , July 18) The guide is full of wonderful information on where to go for a meal, an excellent reference guide for Bermudians and visitors.

For the first time it also includes an introduction on the nature of Bermudian cuisine and an article on the varieties of fish diners might expect to find on local menus. I was the author of these two pieces.

Lamentably, we Bermudians tend to search for the negative and while your reader has identified an area that is contentious it is not quite as straightforward as he seems to suggest. Pot fishing, in so far as fish are concerned, has been banned in Bermuda for licensed pot fishermen who used their pots for the capture of lobster. In my article I refer to lobsters as a local delicacy and while we all know that these crustaceans are not fish, well, pots in local waters catch them and we eat them.

I do apologise for misleading your reader but trust all the other readers of Dining Out in Bermuda understand what I am saying, and will find the information useful, as it was intended.

JOE GIBBONS Warwick Forgetting culture June 19, 2000 Dear Sir, In Bermuda, the African culture we would have needed to create an ideology base was taken away from our ancestors in order to make us better slaves.

Therefore succeeding generations, not having the African culture to remember and build on, were increasingly turned into white skinned Bermudians. Losing our own African culture has even reinforced the concept that blacks are inferior.

If we do not know the facts behind the loss of our African culture there is a subliminal impression that perhaps our African culture is not worth remembering or preserving, since our forefathers were inculcated with white values which were passed down from generation to generation. Black Bermudians have values that are very white-oriented. Therefore black Bermudians are really white people with black skin because they do not know how to be anything else.

RAYMOND RUSSELL SR.

Pembroke