A note of thanks

July 31, 2007

Dear Sir,

I would like to thank a few people for helping my son Scott and his friend/co-pilot Jason North after their accident during the Around the Island powerboat race on Sunday July 29.

"Thank you" to the people that helped Scott and Jason immediately after their accident and helped get them to the awaiting emergency personnel at the dock." "Thank you" to the St. John's ambulance crew and the fire services. Also to all of the people who helped get the boat out of water and secured all of their safety gear, to Uncle David and Tappy for getting the boat to the boat yard and for dealing with all of their personal belongings, to Craig Selley for dealing with Scott's boat and engine immediately, to the emergency and X-ray department staff and to all of the concerned people who called to check on Scott and Jason, I thank you very much.

If I have missed anyone "Thank you" as well.

DONNA L. BARNES

Spanish Point

More Crockwell debate

August 14

Dear Sir,

Please allow me to (hopefully) have the last word in the public debate between Shawn Crockwell and myself.

Fact 1 — I never said that Shawn Crockwell was paid by the United Bermuda to execute his duties as Chairman of that party, I said, and I stand by my statement, "Shawn Crockwell may be the UBP's paid poster boy".

Fact 2 — In many, if not all cases, housing, food and clothing cost almost as much as tuition fees for college students, hence my assertion that Shawn Crockwell's law degree was paid for in part by the taxpayers. It is my understanding that it cost the taxpayer almost $40,000.00 to house, feed and clothe each prisoner in our system.

Fact 3 — As I see it, the earliest opportunity Mr. Crockwell had to plead guilty to the criminal charges that he faced in 1995, was one minute after he placed the stolen drugs in the shopping bag that he used to take them out of the Supreme Court Building. Mr. Crockwell may forget that he did not plead guilty to the charges, but those of us who are familiar with the case know that at no time did he plead guilty. If he had pleaded guilty there would have been no need for a trial. As far as restitution is concerned, maybe Mr. Crockwell can let the Bermuda public know the worth of the stolen drugs and what his proceeds were after the sale of the drugs. Then we can figure out for ourselves whether restitution was indeed given to the Crown.

Fact 4 — On June 25, 2007 Premier Ewart Brown stated in response to the continued call by the Opposition Leader, Michael Dunkley and other members of the UBP for the public release of stolen confidential police files "The Opposition Party's Chairman also comes to mind — an ex-con who infamously stole $600,000 worth of drugs from the courts. Only about $100,000 of the stolen drugs was ever recovered, according to published reports. But the UBP Chairman served his time and as far as the community is concerned he repaid his debt. If someone conspired to sensationalise his 10-year-old Police files in the press, I would be eager to help him fight off the conspirators — even though much of what he took is still missing. This legal fight is not only about protecting the innocent, but the rehabilitated as well. It is about protecting the good names and good reputations of all citizens."

I too agree with Abraham Lincoln's statement "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt". I would suggest that Mr. Crockwell remain silent in the future, or at least remember what he's said each time he has opened his mouth.

LAVERNE FURBERT

Editor's note: In a Letter to the Editor published on August 14, 2007, Mr. Crockwell maintains that he "pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and voluntarily gave restitution to the Crown of all proceeds".

On February 16, 1996, The Royal Gazette reported Mr. Crockwell's sentencing and that he had "pleaded guilty at an earlier date".

Thanks to Fairmont staff

August 3, 2007

Dear Sir,

Many thanks go to the housekeeping staff at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess. When my husband and I returned to Reagan International Airport we realised our car keys were still in the hotel safe! The staff attending the Bay Room July 15-19 found the keys and through Lisa and Ms Fletcher, had them mailed to us.

Just an added note. My husband and I will be returning August 14-19 to celebrate our 35th Anniversary. This will be our 25th visit. Many thanks to all who have made our visits so pleasant at the Sonesta and now at Pompano Beach. Some may remember our son Jack who first came at the age four. Why do we keep coming ¿ the residents.

RITA KEENE

The UBP have changed

July 25, 2007

Dear Sir,

I am vexed at the comments of Maxwell Burgess in your paper today. I did not vote in the last election since I did not trust the PLP. In 1998 they promised change for the black people of this country. They lied. I am curious as to why Mr. Burgess now slates his own leader ¿ is it because he wanted to be leader and his plans were foiled? I think so.

I do not like politicians. I do not like their duplicity. I do not like parties that lie. But, Mr. Dunkley said he would fix a streetlight in my neighbourhood and he did it. I do not think he is a typical politician. I think the UBP has changed. Sour grapes from Mr. Burgess will not stop me from voting for the UBP.

DEVONSHIRE MAN

Devonshire

Financial nonsense

August 14

Dear Sir,

I suspect that the attention of racial expert Dr. Robert Jensen, "or Bob as he prefers to be called", has been diverted from getting to grips with economics by his extensive studies of other things.

May I just point out, from one Bob to another, that Texas Bob does not understand the simple proposition that wealth is not distributed in Bermuda, or anywhere else for that matter, but is earned by those rendering valuable and voluntary services to others. People earn wealth. There is no Mister Big whose job it is to hand out big slices of the economic pie to whites, and crumbs to blacks. To say otherwise is to mislead. There is no point in objecting to being labelled a white supremacist by a Texas professor and his sidekick if only because that label properly belongs on the Department of (mis) Education, but I must draw the line at an economic ignoramus called Bob being given front page treatment in The Royal Gazette whilst peddling financial nonsense.

ROBERT (BOB) STEWART

The PLP are in trouble

July 28, 2007

Dear Sir,

I am not pleased with suggestion that the Milkman, aka Michael Dunkley will somehow lose his fight against Patrice Minors. This cannot be true. Ms Minors seems to be MIA compared to the Milkman. I've heard some people from the PLP say throw out the sour milk. I say Dunkley's milk is fresh and what the Milkman is delivering is fresh — fresh ideas, fresh perspectives and fresh everything. Dr. Brown is in trouble. Ms Minors is in trouble. The PLP is in trouble. I know what the Milkman can do — he serves and serves well. I will not be fooled by bigoted rhetoric and propaganda like in 1998 and 2003. I voted PLP last time — but not this time!

NOT FOOLED

Devonshire

What is going on?

Dear Sir,

Anyone reading the headline on the front page of your newspaper on Monday, August 13: "Expert: Island is still a "white supremacist society" " could only have concluded that Robert "Bob" Jensen, one of two leader of the Government's "Bermuda Race Relations Initiative" forums, had made the remark.

On page 6, we find that what he actually said was "Is Bermuda a white supremacist society? That's obviously a more complex question in a country with a black majority and a black led government, the distribution of wealth remains racialsed however. And the attitudes of at least some white Bermudians (emphasis added) reflect a commitment to white supremacy." The headline is completely misleading. The second comment is, in my view at least, true.

Anyone reading the headline "Premier wows PGA execs" could only have concluded that The Royal Gazette reporter had at least some unbiased evidence in the article that would lead a person to the same conclusion. In fact there is none. We read that "Premier Ewart Brown says that the international media are sitting up and taking notice... ". We read that "TNT Sports, the broadcast partner for the Grand Slam, presented footage of the Mid Ocean Club and surrounding area. Dr. Brown said "The room filled with 'oohs' and 'aahs'... " And it goes on and on, more self serving nonsense served up, no doubt, by the taxpayer funded Press Secretary, Glenn Jones.

What is going on? Has The Royal Gazette been so cowed by its totally biased, PLP loyalist critics that it has taken to slavishly hewing to the PLP/Brown Party line. Shame on you.

WONDERING IN WARWICK

What's the cost?

August 7, 2007

Dear Sir,

Why the Mirrors initiative when we already have Big Brother & Big Sisters, Youth Net and Boys Day Out Club? No wonder they are still looking for volunteers. Our population is only 65,000, not 650,000 or 6.5 million. Just another job for a PLP supporter in the same way one is a consultant on racism and another has been hired to look into the subject of British citizenship which everyone is led to believe BIC had exhaustively investigated.

They will spend the money one way or another. I didn't think government Ministries and Departments and not-for-profit entities which receive government grants could afford to sponsor radio and television programmes: The Office of the Tax Commissioner, The Cabinet Office, Ministry of Education, Teen Services to name a few. Since we, the taxpayers, are no doubt paying perhaps the Chief of Staff or the Press Secretary will tell us what is the monthly bill long before the next sitting of the House in November.

The UBP has a fine slate of candidates and I am impressed with the young talent and fine mentors who will bring them along. Every member is handling their various assignments with great zeal and enthusiasm and has demonstrated that they can, and will, fit in anywhere. When you talk about disrespect, Mrs. Jackson is the recipient of much because the truth doth offend and she strikes a raw nerve every time. Keep on talking, Mrs. Jackson; and everyone else, make some noise so we can know what's happening.

Bermuda has experienced both parties now and every right thinking Bermudian will honestly admit they have had more stress in the last nine years under the PLP than for thirty years under the UBP. We deserve and want better for ourselves, our children and grandchildren.

KEEN OBSERVER

Hamilton

How many more insults?

July 27, 2007

Dear Sir,

Not very long ago you published the findings of one of the polls, which revealed that a little more than one percent of whites vote for the PLP. This means that ninety-eight percent plus of whites vote for the UBP. It is then safe to say that the white community in Bermuda votes for, and supports the UBP, which is the white party in Bermuda.

Mr. Editor, I can understand the rationale behind this. You see: the white people in Bermuda know something and have been demonstrating it over the years. As a black person, I can say that our grand-parents and great grand-parents knew what this white community knows and even the birds know all about it; that "Birds of a feather flock together." Only this present generation of blacks is all screwed up.

Now Mr. Editor, if the white people in Bermuda vote for the white Party, it stands to reason that the white people vote by race, and this we should understand to be a natural thing seeing that birds of a feather flock together. My question therefore is this: If it is natural and acceptable and is right for whites as they have practiced for thirty-plus years to vote by race; how come it is wrong for the black people of Bermuda to vote by race?

The folks in the UBP keep throwing it at us blacks from time to time that we shouldn't vote by race, when they know full well that they have the solid backing of the white community. This is a wicked practice by the UBP to try and split the black community so that they can get black votes to win an election. This stunt is called "Divide and Conquer." I am therefore calling on the black community to stand in solidarity come this next election, and let us vote like our white peers. When we get in the polling booth, let us remember that "Birds of a Feather Flock Together".

Some years ago I drove with my headlights on for a day. Glen Fubler and others rallied Bermuda to join in solidarity with the black in South Africa, when Nelson Mandela was in prison. We did it here in Bermuda for the folks in South Africa. Let us do it now for ourselves.

The United Bermuda Party pays only lip service to blacks. Let me remind you of the case with Jamahl Simmons, Gwyneth Rawlins and David Dunkley, who said that they encountered racism in the UBP. I said before, and say again that it was a classic case for an investigation. The Party swept the issue under the carpet. Mr. Furbert took the route of calling the blacks liars in order to cover up for whites. I hope the people of Hamilton West will let him know who the liars are in the next election. Mr. Michael Dunkley made his contribution with "Race has nothing to do with it," the equivalent to "America is wining the war in Iraq."

It was an insult to the black people of Bermuda. Mr. Dunkley said that he would "deliver" should he become the Premier. Well, we know already just what he would "deliver": "Racial prejudice." That was Strike one.

Strike two was his national disgrace for not showing up at Dame Lois Brown-Evans' funeral. His "no show" in my opinion amounted to him walking into City Hall on the day of viewing and slapped the Dame in her face with words like "Good riddance." In slapping the Dame, he also slapped her family and slapped the black community. The Dame was a veteran parliamentarian and commonsense should have dictated to the Leader of the UBP that even if he hates her guts; he should have been there. Could it be a boycott? I am just wondering out loudly.

When the white girls marched to the House of Assembly recently; Mr. Dunkley was there and right up front at that, but he was nowhere to be found when a sea of black people gathered at the Cathedral and on Church Street for the Dame's funeral. After all of this Mr. Dunkley has the nerves to be asking the same black people whom he has slapped over and over to vote for him. Somebody seems to be crazy.

Strike three. Mr. Dunkley wants to pick a fight, and whom did he choose to pick a fight with? A woman — and a black woman at that — Patrice Minors. The story of The Three Little Pigs and the Wolf comes to mind. Mr. Dunkley huffed and puffed and blew Devonshire South in. Now he thinks he can huff and puff and blow Smith's North in and blow Patrice Minors out of the House.

I presume that we all heard of Don Imus, the high profile radio personality in the US who was fired by CBS for insulting women and blacks. How much more insults are we as blacks going to accept from Mr. Dunkley? Now is the time to do something about it. Smith's North you have the key. We are with you. Send Mr. Dunkley back to Devonshire. He will be coming at you now like a wolf, probably daily, but remember that the three little pigs survived.

RENDOL JAMES

Sandys

God help our children

Dear Sir,

I am bemused by the antics of the Russians, Canadians and Danes, who are all rushing to the Arctic to claim the potential riches of that ocean when all the ice melts. Isn't it fossil fuels that are causing the oceans to melt? What are we going to with the Arctic fuel? Melt the ice in the Antarctic and increase the flooding of island nations and low lands all over the world? Bermuda and most of the Eastern Seaboard are at risk.

What about the Kyoto Treaty? What about environmental issues? What about the polar bears. Are we going to ship them to Antarctica? I realise that Russia doesn't have a good environmental record but I am surprised at the other two countries. God help our children and their children. We "naked" apes are living up to our name.

JOY WILLIAMS

Hamilton