I have been waiting for some community comments about that ugly edifice that now sits at the corner of Reid and Burnaby Streets known as the LOM (Lines Owned Monstrosity) Building.

I am amazed that, to date, only one letter has appeared in The Royal Gazette , from `small time' Paget, and absolutely no editorials from The Editors of our newspapers, Stuart Hayward, Dale Butler or any other eco-conscious historians.

Can it be that people no longer care about the rape of this beautiful Island or do they just feel powerless to effect any change against big (bucks!) business? After months of extreme inconvenience to vehicular and pedestrian traffic during the construction process, we expected something magnificent to rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes of the delightful building that once graced the corner of Reid and Burnaby Streets.

What do we get? at street level, black granite and a steel portcullis door! This building would not look out of place in downtown New York or in the business districts of London or any other large city.

It is a depressing sight on Reid Street however, and a disgrace to the architects -- OBM; do they actually `live' here? Haven't they noticed that Bermuda is another world with its pastel painted houses and buildings set in sunshine and an azure sea? A disgrace to the Planning Department who allowed this to happen and to the City Fathers and the Bermuda National Trust who stood by and did nothing.

I seem to remember that the PartnerRe Building, `Overbay' at 106 Pitts Bay Road, was given an award for having re-developed their building in keeping with Bermudian history and architecture and that the Bank of Butterfield was also finally commended for having redeveloped their Front Street property in keeping with the above, after they had quickly and surreptitiously razed to the ground the Bermuda `cottage' that adjoined their main building.

Why are OBM allowed to produce something so `un-Bermudian'? My earnest wish would be that Donald Lines be invited to remove this blight on our shopping/recreation area by having that ugly black granite re-faced with a material more in keeping with the architecture, climate and psyche of Bermuda.

S. TROTT Devonshire A taxing situation December 18, 1999 Dear Sir, These "harmful tax jurisdictions'' are getting a lot of coverage. It looks like in England and America they are saying: "Look at all the business we are losing to these tax havens like Bermuda.

"Also, our tax-paying companies, the ones that have not already left, are losing out to those tax-exempt companies out there, so more of them are leaving us every day. This is harmful to us. We are losing tax. We are losing our employment. We must do something, but quick.'' Ahmed ElAmin reported from London that the international businesses are countering that Bermuda is not a tax haven at all. Where ever did anyone get that idea? This is because we do not have what they call `two-tier' taxes -- a big one to hit the locals, and a special light tax on the International Businesses, exempt companies, lawyers, accountants, etc. -- like the other tax havens.

Is this really the truth? Is this what they are telling these OECD people? Everybody around here knows the main Bermuda tax, the big one, is heavy duty on cars, food, TVs and the like, instead of the income tax or profit tax they have everywhere else in the world.

International business does not have to pay duty, or income or profit tax either, selling insurance, pensions, accounts, legal fees and the like. So, they avoid the big one that hits the locals.

Maybe they pay some of the small taxes, a special cut-rate employment tax, some land tax and one-time duty on building another office, but the ongoing big one that hits the locals every day -- they are exempt from paying.

Did you ever see an Exempt Company, or a lawyer, or an insurance agent lining down at Customs? No way, except maybe to pay duty on his golf clubs he has ordered on the Internet. Maybe they will claim that their people pay the same high prices as the locals are hit with, but when you are paid what they get paid, you would not even notice it.

With no tax to collect back selling their services, which is why it is `harmful' to the companies back home who are saddled with paying heavy company tax they have to add into their premiums, they are making out here like true bandits.

Do you think it is such a good idea for these international business people to go out and tell fibs, and try a smoke and mirrors hiding the big one? Will this OECD, whatever that is, when they find out that international business is pulling the wool over their eyes, hoping they won't notice the real facts, come down on us like tons of bricks with their black list? Maybe it would be best to say nothing than to try and fool these people? HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY St. George's Statistics and morality December 20, 1999 Dear Sir, I have never been able to understand the rationale behind support for capital punishment.

If premeditated murder is a heinous crime, how then can a government in the name of the law request and pay a man for committing the same crime? The hypocrisy of this particularly struck me in 1977 when Bermuda's last two hangings occurred. The hangman, flown in from abroad, was presumably given lots of time to prepare.

He must have measured and weighed the two victims and constructed this equipment accordingly. Cold blooded or what? Certainly premeditated. Would you have such a man to tea? Would you have him look after your children? What kind of human being says yes to such an occupation? And what kind of government asks him to? Even if capital punishment was a deterrent (which I don't believe it is), it is still an immoral, hypocritical act. So I am deeply thankful the vote for abolition has gone through. And I don't care if the majority of our population is in favour of capital punishment. Sixty thousand people can be ethically wrong.

As for Mr. Terry Lister's opinion reported in your paper that "executions in the US are the legalised murder of black men,'' Amnesty International's statistics tend to support it.

According to Amnesty, in the US a white man found guilty of first-degree murder is much less likely to be executed than a black or Hispanic found guilty of the same crime.

LIZ JONES Warwick P.S. It may be of interest to note that at the end of his life, Britain's last hangman was against capital punishment.

Still shut out at TCD December 15, 1999 Dear Sir, At 8.56 in the morning I was driving eastward on Harbour Road passing Longford Hill at 45 kph when GP08 passed me, almost certainly doing 52-55 kph. Was he late for work? I am admitting an offence -- speeding, but GP08 was going faster. I will plead guilty to the lesser offence.

Who is GP08? Why was he not at his desk at 8.56 a.m.? But further, why is his licence number GP08 and not GP008? In a three-year period (in about 1988), I had to change my truck licence plate from black with white letters (IN 65A) to white with black letters and then about two years later to IN 065A.

I was told that the computer had space for four digits -- of course, the staff at TCD could not be expected to punch in a zero before the 645! So in that I have seen GP cars in the triple digits, I want GP08 to become GP008 -- but I want the civil servant to order and collect the plates and stand (and stand) in line at TCD. Not until you stand in someone else's shoes...'' If, perhaps, GP08 is a member of Parliament perhaps he was at home writing his speech to present in the House on Friday and hence was late -- but he was speeding -- but I doubt any of them write down their banal commentary -- maybe they should.

Meanwhile, on the issue of the ferry service, there is an overwhelming logic to create a ferry stop at Spithead ---there is already a public dock, there is already considerable parking which could be easily expanded.

Generally a better service promotes better utilisation. Faster ferries are on the PLP's older list -- they also need to consider more stops and more ferries.

Alternative strategies like staggered work hours should be considered as well as demanding car-pooling which would be organised by the PTA groups in Mt. St.

Agnes, Saltus "Highschool'' and CedarBridge.

But, a Spithead ferry stop is a no-brainer! If Dr. Ewart Brown would give me an appointment I could discuss this with him! SANDERS FRITH-BROWN Warwick