America is freedom

September 22, 2002

Dear Sir,

My wife and I have thoroughly enjoyed our (all too brief) visit to Bermuda on the cruise ship QE2. The only disappointment was the letter to the Editor of September 21 by A. Sherwall of Warwick ("Anti-Americanisation").

Sherwall criticises Tony Blair's support of the US in holding Iraq to the numerously violated UN directives. She laments America's "insidious influences and sweeping materialism", and supports the terrorists as "freedom fighters in another language".

This type of thinking by Sherwell, and the actions of the terrorists has made America stronger, not weaker.

It is America's influence that offers the best chance for peace in the world. America wants nothing but peace, prosperity, and freedom in this world. For goodness sakes, if you do not like American influence or materialism, do not buy Coca Cola. Close down the Bermudian offshore tax haven, turn away the cruise ships, and shut the shops on Front Street.

As to the supposed "freedom fighters", 15 of the 19 of them were Saudi's, and most were from families of upper-middle or upper incomes. Further, they were financed by a multi-millionaire madman. In the last days before their "mission" they caroused in topless bars.

Perhaps, instead, they should have fought for the freedom of the women under the Taliban regime, who were not allowed to educate themselves or show their faces.

Thankfully, the feelings of Sherwell are in the minority in this world, but it is helpful for such people to crawl from under their rocks, occasionally, for the rest of us to see and hear them.

RUSSELL L. CROOK

Shrewsbury, New Jersey

Market madness

September 21, 2002

Dear Sir,

There is a segment of a newscast on one of the major networks that is called "The Fleecing of America". I hope one of the news mediums in Bermuda can start a similar feature.

I happen to like a breakfast cereal called "Wheaties", which has not been available for a while. Now back on the market, I was able to purchase a box at the Supermart, which contained 18 ounces and priced at $2.99. At the Garden Market on Serpentine Road, a 12 ounce box was priced at $4.90. Here you can get 50 percent more for almost $2 less per carton. It will be interesting to see which price goes up or down.

Are we being fleeced?

BILL NEARON

Pembroke West

They make us proud

September 24, 2002

Dear Sir,

Anyone who missed the most recent professional live concert performed by Heather Nova really lost out. Bermuda should be so very proud of professionals like Heather Nova (musician), Michael Sims (golfer), Shaun Goater (soccer), Peter Bromby (sailing), representing our small Island with exceptional talent.

You and many others representing Bermuda give us all something to be very proud of.

KEVIN PETTY

Devonshire

Waiting for answers

September 18, 2002

Dear Sir,

Since we live in a world of highly advanced technology, why is it so difficult for the Bermuda Cable and Wireless to trace the origin of four overseas telephone calls that were supposedly made from my telephone here in Bermuda to Nevada, the Cayman Islands, Pennsylvania and the Bahamas; telephone calls which I did not make nor allowed anyone else to make.

The total bill for these four calls which must have been very brief, only came to four dollars and thirty-five cents which is a very small sum, a sum which if I had paid would mean that I acknowledge having made these calls, and that I refuse to do. The reason why I am upset over this bill which I have been getting for the part few months, is that it could have been for much more.

Someone, somewhere, somehow was able to make these calls by using my telephone number without having access to my telephone and that is what bothers me. I am yet to receive a satisfactory answer from Bermuda Cable and Wireless in spite of all the enquiries in person and all the calls that I have made to them over this matter particularly since they are giants in the field of telecommunications.

LARRY A. ANDERSON

The core of the problem

September 23, 2002

Dear Sir,

Today, there is a hypothetical young man in the streets of Ramallah who is going to make Saddam Hussein look like Barney the Big Blue Dinosaur.

He's sensitive, intelligent and agile. He probably resembles anybody. He can think rationally because his parents were college educated. He hasn't been educated because his school has been bombed by Israelis.

It wouldn't be safe for him to go anyway. There are no police. They were bombed out as well. His parents had professional jobs but he has grown up poor because most of the time his parents were not allowed to get to their jobs, by edict of the Israelis and so they lost them.

His family history goes from an upper middle class existence to nothing. He eats garbage. He would be ashamed for his family but they are mostly dead. One day he is going to walk into Haifa with an atomic bomb strapped to his back and blow himself up. Next there will be a war of fantastic dimensions.

He won't do it for Islam. He won't do it to make some incomprehensible statement as Bin Laden did. He won't even do it because he hates Israel.

He'll do it for his dead Mum and Dad. We still wonder why Hitler did it. We don't wonder about King Leopold or Joseph Stalin. They were worse, but they are not as palpable to us. They killed people we don't care about. But they are just as much a conundrum as the rapists of Nanking.

This young man will do something we will all understand. It will make absolute sense. Our great-grandchildren not wonder about him. They will wonder about us. And we will have to say "George Bush said the problem was Saddam Hussein. Bush was a good deal stupider than most of us but we believed him." They will say "Who was Saddam Hussein?" You might say to me: "Yes, well your young man is, as you said, hypothetical." You're right. His lonesome being is imaginary. There are actually hundreds of him ready to go.

Its time to make Jerusalem an international city. It is time to correct the mistake of Israel by whatever means necessary. Israel is the central problem for the west in the Middle East. We made it. We have to fix it.

Iraq, Iran, radical Islam, and Syria are convenient distractions. An immediate and determined effort to change Israel into a wholly secular state, with rights for all including the refugees, is the only real objective that will bear the fruit of peace in the Middle East. If you say we can't do it, any Arabs will mutely point at Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, the Western Sahara, and Israel as examples of the West's ability to do exactly as it likes in the Middle East.

JOHN ZUILL

Pembroke