Have respect for language

July 28, 2009

Dear Sir,

To the person who signed his/her letter "Microsoft Word Dependent", I have three things to say in reply:

First, if you had taken the trouble to read my letter properly, you would have realised that I did not "attack" anyone – it was merely a follow-up to Helle Patterson's excellent letter setting straight a few grammatical and spelling misunderstandings. Ms Patterson and I share a love and respect for the beauty and correct usage of the English language.

Second, to your somewhat laughable suggestion that I "get a hobby" – I would love to do so, but unfortunately my commitments to my proof-reading clients do not afford me such a luxury.

Finally, at least I have the courage and the courtesy to sign my name.

JEAN HANNANT

Pembroke

Making movies

July 20, 2009

Dear Sir,

Now that newspapers are moving into the movie business in order to keep afloat (hadn't you heard?), allow me to pitch this idea for a new film at you. I call it "Looking for Mr. Fubar".

It's about a schoolmarmish lady, Paula Sox: an otherwise respectable, buttoned up professional, who is in a position of trust, with serious responsibility. Unfortunately, she finds herself irresistably drawn to the seedier side of political life.

Throwing sense and sensibility to the winds, she gets wildly involved with ever-more-unsuitable male politicians. Of course, she really ought to know better. But apparently she doesn't. She and her reputation suffer horribly (and so do the rest of us).

For while Paula may be a lady, she's clearly no leading lady. The movie doesn't end well, I'm afraid. A bit too depressing, you think? Well, how about this one: it's called "The Big El" ...

No, forget it. Let's go bowling.

POPCORN

Paget

Time for green cars

July 20, 2009

Dear Sir,

Two months ago I towed my car to HWP because the engine seized. The following seven weeks were the typical poor service, delay ridden, finger pointing, and overpriced, experience that I've received many times from HWP. And to top it off, when I got the car back the a/c wasn't working anymore. Perfect timing!

While walking all over the Island during my carless weeks I had plenty of time to think about how to avoid HWP in the future. I did some research and found the other large car dealerships have similar customer satisfaction ratings to HWP, so that's not the answer.

Then I stumbled upon electric cars which have many pluses: you can charge them at home and they can easily go to work and back no matter where you live in Bermuda; their top speeds are just a little bit faster than our speed limits; they perform well in hot climates; they cost less to maintain; and best of all, they need less service!

However (and this really galls me) HWP and the other dealers don't want to sell electric cars. They make a good amount of money on servicing their gas cars and if they sold electric cars – cars that need less service – their profits would go down. So they don't, even though Bermuda is the perfect place for electric cars.

If Bermuda isn't willing to go Green to save the planet, can't we do it to avoid HWP and likes? I don't think it would take much: a temporary break on duty for electric cars parts like batteries, our Government leading by example, and a few investors willing to overhaul the industry. If Bermuda can pull it off, we'd look very progressive.

PWC

Warwick

The legacy of slavery

July 26, 2009

Dear Sir,

For those who believe that slavery was a thing of the past and we had best move on, Saturday night at the Bermuda College was not the place for them to be. For two hours Dr. Marcus Rideker, PhD, Professor & Chair in the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh, held his audience mesmerised with his presentation, "The Slave Ship".

Conservatively, 10 to 12 million Africans were torn from their homes and transported from the West Coast of Africa to the Americas in the Atlantic trade alone. An additional 9 to 10 million were sold into slavery from the East Coast of Africa to countries all around the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Additionally, it is estimated that an additional 10 million died en route to the slave ports or in the dungeons or ships they were held on before they even sailed. The numbers are hard to grasp, and what Dr. Ridekar did for those who came to see him was to humanise this worldwide tragedy. As a writer of people's history, social history, he shows how working people and their movements have, overtime, been active, creative and dynamic forces in the making of history.

He told the story of Olaudah Equiano, a member of the Igbo tribe sold into slavery as a child of 12, who later purchased his freedom and went on to work as a seaman, merchant and explorer. It was his autobiography depicting the horrors of slavery that influenced British lawmakers to abolish the slave trade through the Slave Trade Act of 1807.

We also learned about James Field Stanfield, an unrecognized hero of the movement to abolish the slave trade, who as an ordinary English seaman made a voyage from 1774-1776 from Liverpool to Benin on the West Coast of Africa. He was so horrified by his experience that he became a confirmed abolitionist who wrote graphically about the horror of the slave trade and his work increased public revulsion against the trade.

Dr. Rideker described how people were herded onto ships, having walked hundreds of miles to the slave ports, only to be kept in areas so dark and cramped that they could not even sit up.

Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary said in her recent presentation, kinship and relationships were fundamental to African society. Torn from their homes and kin, they were loaded on ships and purposely split up from their kin and tribe. He described their utter despair when the ship finally left port, and the desperation of many to kill themselves, as it was the African belief that if you died you went "home to your land". So many attempted to kill themselves so that they could 'go home,' that captains had to resort to putting up netting around the ships' sides to prevent them throwing themselves overboard. And then we listened to the horrors of the trip, the cruelty of the Captains, the "tools of the trade", the shackles, torture instruments, whips and instruments to force feed slaves. We learned that the mortality rate for ordinary seaman on board the ship were just as high as the slaves, due to illness, poor rations, and inhumane treatment, including whippings.

But then we also learned that people fought back whatever way they could and the records show there were many rebellions, uprisings, and hunger strikes and many chose to die rather than be enslaved. Despite not speaking the same language, the slaves created a language of kinship on these ships, to recreate the kinship that had been shattered. The woman lying next to you became your sister, and the man your brother. If they were older they became your aunties or uncles and if they were younger they became your cousins. Out of this holocaust came a unity of spirit and kinship which helped gird them for the unknown.

The slave trade was the first worldwide commercial trade and the money to be made was huge. The money generated led to the industrial revolution in the UK. Everybody living in port cities involved in the slave trade in various countries around the Atlantic benefited. Whether it was the barrel maker, the ship builder, the grocer, the ale houses, the tax collector or those who invested in shares in the ship… it permeated society and affected everyone. This trade was based on violence and terror. We talk today about the violence of terrorists, but we cannot seem to associate that with the violence and terror visited on an entire people for 400 years.

Dr. Rideker applauded those involved in the dialogue on race, as he said to talk about slavery is the greatest test of any society, as it is easy to talk about the achievements of a society, but not so easy to admit the shame and degradation of a society's past. He acknowledged it is difficult, it is painful, but there is no other way around it… we must talk, and we must have the moral courage to do it.

>He talked about the Legacy of Slavery and how scholars are only now seeing the Slave Trade in a new way; not as an unfortunate moment in history; not as an evil institution; but increasingly as a crime against humanity. A crime so massive and so important that it affected entire societies worldwide, and all subsequent generations to the present day. That's why we cannot let it be. Because this past, which all too clearly shows man's inhumanity to man, explains the continuity of discrimination and inequality in our world today.

LYNNE WINFIELD

City of Hamilton

T-shirt slogan?

July 28, 2009

Dear Sir,

400 years of history

3 years of shame

Yours printing t-shirts,

ANDREW W. DOBLE

Hamilton Parish