Careless SUV driver

August 28, 2008

Dear Sir,

Well done to the driver of the grey SUV that slammed into my right arm this morning as I walked to the bus stop just past Devonshire Bay Road, and who didn't even have the common courtesy to stop and check if I was all right. Or possibly to even apologise.

But, of course, silly me, the whole object of owning one of these ridiculous, over-sized monstrosities on Bermuda's narrow roads is to mow down as many unsuspecting pedestrians as possible (preferably whilst also talking on one's cell phone for maximum points).

ALYS DAVIES

Devonshire

Olympic TV coverage

August 27, 2008

Dear Sir,

What on earth is John Gibbons going on about? (23 August letter).

I venture there are countless people like me who are interested in everything around them, follow politics and world happenings via all types of media, cry at and care about global injustices etc., etc.

The subject of people's ire was the lack of expanded Olympic game coverage – not Musharref's resignation, the Russian Bear showing his might in Georgia or even the horrific Madrid plane crash which all occurred this past fortnight.

The Olympiad, in this case the Summer Games, is two weeks every four years where people can forget about wars and suffering, more so for Olympians who historically have found themselves competing against their government's "official" enemies!

I wonder what sphere Mr. Gibbons travels in, especially with his suggestion that viewers should spend more time with family and friends. In my case, following the Olympics is a family ritual and surely for other families too.

Moreover, everyone I spoke to, here and abroad, had a keen interest in one sport or the other. I sensed, too a heightened interest here in Bermuda with the phenomenal successes of Michael Phelps and Lighting Bolt.

Mr. Gibbons' rant would have had some credence if the fuss was about a poorly televised game, but if he and others of his ilk accept the fact that this country is about its people – I know no other event, sporting or otherwise, which embodies and celebrates hard work, dedication and determination, and national pride. An added bonus for TV viewers (especially those who don't seek extended media reports) are the athletes' profiles and human interest stories, the most heart-warming this year being about one of the Lost Boys of Sudan who was the American flag-bearer.

Ultimately, the Olympic Games is a welcome tonic to our daily hectic lives ... and yes, in this day and age of advanced technology and availability, we expect the best of coverage.

PAMELA H. WILLCOCKS

Smith's

Still some good people

August 28, 2008

Dear Sir,

I am writing this letter to thank a member of the community for his honesty and integrity. In a fast-paced world full of deceit and dishonesty one would not expect to find someone as nice as Donovan Livingston. Even in Bermuda where people are much friendlier than elsewhere in the world.

A Bermuda public transit driver proved to me that there are still some decent people in this world willing to help a stranger. On Friday, August 22, 2008 I was riding my bike down South Shore Road when a gust of wind blew and knocked over the grocery bags in my basket. These bags also contained my wallet. Not a bright idea I have in retrospect, realised. But, none the less, the wallet flew out without my knowledge.

Later that day when I couldn't find my wallet my mother called my cell phone and a man answered. The man said he was a bus driver and that I could come to pick it up anytime. When I arrived to get it a man named Donovan Livingston handed it to me. He told me to open it and make sure all contents were intact. They were. I tried to give Mr. Livingston a reward but he flat out refused. He said this was his good deed for the day and that it was his pleasure to give it back to me.

I just wanted to thank Mr. Livingston once again for his help. A lesser man would have kept the contents without hesitation. Donovan you have renewed my faith in people. Thank you.

TIFFANY M.

Smith's

Editor's Note: The Royal Gazette welcomes letters about acts of kindness. If you have experienced an act of kindness or been helped by a Good Samaritan, please send your letter to letters@royalgazette.bm

Why ban boat trips?

August 27, 2008

Dear Sir,

I want to express my confusion and extreme concern with regard to the Parks Department's approach to marine preserves and habitats.

For the past six years, I have operated a boat tour to the Coopers Island area, off St David's. I anchored the tour boat in six feet of water, 20 metres from shore. My crew laid anchor in a clear sandy bottom and offered the opportunity for more than 40,000 of our Island's visitors to swim up to the beautiful Long Bay Beach.

This past summer the Government decided it was no longer environmentally safe to let boats anchor in the bay. The Parks Department have claimed the bay as a no anchor zone, contrary to "Her Majesty's Bottom Laws" which allow for anything under the high tide mark to be considered public domain. The Government ruined our signature tour claiming we disturb turtles, cahows and sea grass. Ironically it was our company that collected rubbish, defended the bay from high speed boaters and jet skis, and brought appreciation to thousands of our Island visitors who truly enjoyed seeing our marine turtles up close in their natural environment.

Why deny access to a tourism-focused operator who makes no impact at all on a bay that was all but forgotten by our Government for the past decade? When did it become ok for our Government to deny us access to local waters and "her Majesty's bottom"?

How is it that one tour boat with a crew of knowledgeable marine professionals can do more damage than the thousands of sun worshippers the Government is hoping to move out to that beach everyday? I hope somebody can assist me with an answer, because who knows when Paradise Lakes or Mangrove Bay may become the next focus of the Park's Department. Is what they are doing even legal?

For the record, I was offered access to Clearwater Beach as an alternative. It's a shame the bay is too shallow for most large boats to access. I was also offered Castle Roads, which can only be accessed via offshore passage since the bridges no longer operate on the Causeway. How about dropping some moorings at Long Bay as you have in every other protected area.

Have some compassion for one of the few operators who still thinks tourism is worthwhile. I can survive high fuel prices, I can survive falling air arrivals, but why bother trying to survive when it would seem the Government doesn't care if I do. Please prove me wrong.

I am terrified of the precedent being set here. What area will be denied to us next?

BEEZ EVANS

St. George's

How divisions appeared

August 25, 2008

Dear Sir,

This is not a comment on the recent specific tragedy.

However, I have been reading and listening to what others have had to say. Some feel the responsibility is an individual matter of individual parenting, others seem to believe that it is a community matter and responsibility. One thing is very clear, despite the many recent murders and tragedies, the death of Kellon Hill made an impact on the entire black community as nothing else has done.

It was against this background that I reflected on observations that I had made regarding the black community in the early 1980s, almost 30 years ago, when I first returned to Bermuda after having been abroad for a number of years.

The 1970s and 1980s were a period when the walls of overt segregation began to be eroded and a younger generation of blacks were able to enter high-paying Civil Service jobs and other white collar jobs. The salaries and social status which they acquired were beyond the imagination of that older, exploited and excluded generation.

That younger generation that was benefiting from the long struggle were deluded into believing that they were the beneficiaries of a generous white UBP. Thus, they turned their backs on that older generation and all of the values which had sustained us through years of oppression. Whites and their greater material wealth became their role models. They set themselves the impossible task of attempting to acquire the material wealth of whites rather than the social justice for all for which blacks had always fought. They showed their disrespect for the older generation and their values in overt and more subtle ways.

At that time I was most aware of those much younger people whom I had taught, but who were now calling me by my name without a title, as whites had always done. It had been a small cultural gesture within the black community which deliberately gave that respect to all older black people even if they were street sweepers, in response to the white practice of refusing to give a title to any black person to prove their inferiority. That was the reason that Dr. Gordon had taken the name of Mazumba. The more "sophisticated" among this younger generation of blacks who now saw themselves as "the elite" also became contemptuous of the conservatism and restrictions of the Christian churches and the Christian culture that had sustained us through centuries of oppression. Our social problems had not grown less with an "integration" that rejected our long-held traditional black values.

Perhaps blacks had always believed that "white ice was colder" but when black politicians and other mainstream blacks fought the same battle as those on the margins of the black community, those who were still the most disadvantaged as a result of centuries of segregation and exclusion, there was no obvious implication. But I perceived that it was now different.

Universal Franchise was supposed to bring "freedom" to the black community, but more than 'freedom' it had brought deep divisions within the black community. At one time when a black politician spoke he was speaking on behalf of the entire black community, including the most disadvantaged and those on the margins of the community. It was now no longer true. Some were now "integrated" and felt no responsibility to speak for those blacks on the margins of the society. Julian Hall has spoken of the alienation of young black males. This alienation and anger began 30 years ago when many blacks felt that they were no longer being represented.

The victory of the PLP was important to the black community for many reasons, but for those who were most disadvantaged, it seemed as if the victory was merely to enhance the status and benefit those who were elected and those who were high-profile rather than an opportunity to reach out to those blacks who were still the most disadvantaged. Many of the divisions within the black community were intensified. While some blacks were struggling to match the wealth of their "integrated" white colleagues, others were frustrated because they knew that material wealth was beyond their reach and would always be, yet that was all that seemed to matter.

At the same time there were those who were high-profile, those who had acquired social status who were the ones who set the standard and created the ethos of the black community. Those whose voices are always heard, those whose opinions are always sought, have a responsibility for the values within the black community whether they want it or not. Their lifestyle and the values that they are perceived to hold, not their rhetoric which may not match their actions, are the standard, particularly for those who are on the margins of the black community. Their worst mistakes become magnified when they are mimicked by those who lack their advantages and their material wealth.

There may be many causes and forces at work which have contributed to the disintegration and lack of cohesion within the black community. But the observations which I made 30 years ago were the result of individual choices and decisions and those who are well-paid to make policies and those others who are also well-paid to implement those policies must recognise that their lifestyle and their values are going to impact on all of those blacks who are made to feel that they are without significance and that they do not really matter. Some of those who are made to feel that they are without value or significance and who are alienated, angry and frustrated may also be parents.

Some of the solutions to the social problems of the black community might lie in the collective leadership of the black community. Obama's vice president believes that the solution for the American people lies in their leadership. Despite the rhetoric that tells Bermudians that "the Government cannot do it all", I have always believed that the lifestyle and perceived values of those in roles of leadership in the black community are the most important factors in determining the nature of the black community, in spite of all those other negative elements such as TV and/or drugs or whatever else.

It is not only what they do. In fact, it is less what they do than what they are. What they are is very evident to all of us irrespective of what they may say.

EVA HODGSON

Hamilton Parish

Low-cost airline risk

August 29, 2008

Dear Sir,

Re: Zoom Airlines. I am not the least bit surprised that the subject 'low-cost' carrier has made its final landing...there will be more such operators following suit!

I once asked the late Wing Commander E.M. Ware, then-Director of Civil Aviation, why Bermuda did not court low-cost airlines. He cautioned that Bermuda would be better served by the traditional, established carrier and that there was a real chance that an unestablished carrier could force one of our long serving airlines to fly elsewhere. Imagine our situation soon after Zoom began operations had BA declared that it could no longer serve Bermuda as the run was not profitable and promptly ceased operations from the UK. Do you think that Dr. Brown and crew would be able to coax them back?

Moe told me that the air transportation history was rife with low-cost/start-up fly-by-night operators who, too often, suddenly and without warning, stranded hundreds or more passengers when its operations were suddenly suspended. Ask those now stranded at the airport if BA flights are too expensive? You pays ya money and ya takes your chances!

Can we afford to attract a replacement fly-by-night operator on the European route? Can we afford to push BA off the route? I believe in competition, but on a level playing field. Clearly Zoom was not competitive at all and was, in fact, very unprofitable and there is no doubt that high oil is a contributing factor; as it is for BA. Thank you to BA for sticking with us.

CAPT. E.R. PITCHER

Air Transport Flight Operations Expert

Ontario, Canada

Visitor's view on Island

August 25, 2008

Dear Sir,

I think of myself as a friend of Bermuda. My family and I have been visiting here regularly for over 30 years. We recently invested in property here in fulfillment of our long-standing dream to own a bit of this paradise.

A stroll down Front Street last night tells us that Premier Brown is on the right track in terms of needing to increase Police presence in Bermuda. We saw three young people openly smoking pot, a taxi hawker trying to intimidate tips, and more than one time heard language that does not belong in a civil conversation.

As someone who loves your people and country and now a person with a vested interest here, I implore Bermudians to act against anti-social behavior immediately or risk becoming just another lost island. Why not start with a simple and constant Police foot patrol on Front Street every evening?

A FRIEND OF BDA

New York City