Misick resigns

February 14, 2009

Dear Sir,

Today The Royal Gazette had printed an article informing the public of the official resignation of the Premier of the Turks and Caicos, Michael Misick.

It's to take effect as of March 31, 2009. Also, he'll step down as party leader too, as of February 28, 2009.

Mr. Misick's financial dealings are the focus of a British investigative commission that concluded hearings this week as it probed a range of corruption allegations, including that "Misick and other" officials profited from the sales of Government-owned land. Mr. Misick was elected in 2003 and is serving his second term … he also is the Islands' Tourism Minister.

Didn't I hear recently this guy was either coming or came here to offer us advice?

RAYMOND RAY

St. George's

Slavery exists in Africa

February 13, 2009

Dear Sir,

I wonder if Dr. Hodgson is aware that slavery is still going on in Africa today in 2009. It might be helpful to the unfortunate victims if she spent her great knowledge on the subject of slavery to the dictators presently in power in Africa and elsewhere.

These websites portray the facts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_modern_Africa

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1357_slavery_today/page3.shtml

UNCOMMON SENSE

St. George's

Beauty and the beach

February 14, 2009

Dear Sir,

I was astonished and saddened to read E. Raben's letter in my Royal Gazette on Friday, February 13, as she usually writes such erudite and sensible letters.

I would have thought her very statement that the Warwick Long Bay Beach was often deserted speaks to the very reason that this beautiful, pristine untouched beach should be left to nature.

Also, if it is so deserted, then why would anyone want to set up a commercial project and risk losing their investment ?

Can we not convince Bermudians that untouched precious parks and land should be our legacy to the next generation, that should be our promise and responsibility and our gift to them. Let Warwick Long Bay Beach verify that.

DIANA WILLIAMS

Pembroke

Without a ticket home

February 15, 2009

Dear Sir,

Why is it not a law that (every) individual guest worker have (prior to starting work here in Bermuda) in their possession a ticket out of Bermuda to repatriate them with their country of origin?

To hear Col. Burch mention that there are some who've sent all their money back home and for that reason haven't funds or means of repatriating themselves with their homelands is just ludicrous…

DAH?

St. George's

Make them pay

February 14, 2009

Dear Sir,

You know what would be great?

If all those multi-millionaires who took obscene bonuses and salaries for leading their sick companies into abject failure would donate their ill-gotten gains to respected charities. In this way they could relieve the pain and suffering of so many of their victims who have lost their homes and jobs.

They might also then be comforted that they did something good for people other than their egotistical selves.

I still can't understand earning a bonus for failure.

A popular lady economist on TV suggested that so many "toxic" mortgages have been bundled and sold off several times over that it is not clear in the records who, or which bank or company now owns these mortgages. She suggested that a home owner, being threatened with foreclosure and eviction, should demand the certificate of ownership be put in evidence. She called this "Show the paper!"

Perhaps this would invalidate the eviction or at least hold it up for a very long time!

Why can't "the Feds" require/force the mortgage lenders to honour the original contract even if the home owner would need 40 years to pay off instead of, say, 20? After all, the US government used taxpayer money to bail out the corporations with the stroke of a pen. Why can't (or didn't) they incorporate such provisions?

The common citizen will have to wait for many, many years to recoup their losses on investments, caused by this financial mess, why shouldn't the perpetrators wait too?

SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE

St. George's

End the race divisiveness

February 14, 2009

Dear Sir,

The wonderful thing about the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the USA is that he was voted in by folks of every race. We know this because three-quarters of US voters are white while only one-eighth of US voters are Black. It cannot be known whether blacks voted for Obama on his merits or because of his race. What is certain is that more whites than blacks voted for Obama; they did so because of what they knew of him and regardless of his racial make-up. In this they followed the lead of Obama who never played the race card.

This is not new for Bermuda where blacks have long voted for White leaders and whites have voted for black leaders. But Bermudians are British and so have the benefit of a much better track record than the US when it comes to racism. This is not to say the the British were always so: Britain became the world's number one economy of the 18th Century on the backs of slaves, just as the USA in the 19th Century succeeded Britain as the world's number one economy on the backs of slaves.

Nor were Britain and the USA were alone. Every race (black, Oriental, white) enslaved its fellows and its opposites. All three major monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) actively supported slavery, perhaps due to the commonality of their Bible, namely the Old Testament which supports racism and slavery (Leviticus 25:44-46).

But slavery ended first in the British Empire, thanks to an uncommon alignment of the class structure, the Church of England, and the political establishment commencing in the 1770s. The Revolutionary War in America, and then in France, delayed progress but in 1807 the British, even though it was profitable to Great Britain, banned the carriage of slaves in British ships.

In 1833 the British Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act which freed all slaves in the British Empire. But in the USA it was not until 1863 that Abraham Lincoln (who had never been an abolitionist) issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which theoretically freed slaves held in the Confederate States. Throughout and beyond that 30 year gap, Britain was guided by the legacy of William Wilberforce (who died in 1833) and the "small band of Evangelical members of the established Church of England ... Sometimes called the Clapham Sect, sometimes the Saints, they were members of the (British) Establishment."

So one would think that Bermuda's political leaders would be leading the world in their stance on racism – but not so! The US electorate has grasped the opportunity to vote in Barack Obama and his non-racial stance while Bermuda's political leaders are still playing Party Politics and demonstrating that they are not Obamas.

It is not surprising that we Bermudians have not produced an Obama: the USA has nearly 5,000 times as many people as us. But this need not prevent our politicians from abandoning the rhetoric of Party Politics. We do not wish to be divided by hate, or to have past injustices reinforced, but the politicians apparently need that division. Both our political parties are defined by their position on race and they see no way of winning an election except by race.

It is not a coincidence that only our non-aligned (ie. independent) politicians, elected and unelected, do not play the race issue. But they have little power. We need the leading politicians of our main parties to break out of the rut, preferably by scrapping party politics altogether but at least by tearing up the race card.

But such leaders would need at least a little of the stature of Barack Obama or of William Wilberforce: we would then have the opportunity to put the disgusting episode of slavery to rest, instead of having it used as a political tool or as a crutch. Bermudians could then grasp the benefits of multi-culturalism. Many of us already have and are waiting for the politicians to catch up!

I. BACON

Warwick