We're going to Disney Land

June 12, 2009

Dear Sir,

My family and I have enjoyed vacationing in Bermuda for many years. We feel you have a lovely home, great weather, and very hospitable citizens. We always feel welcome and safe while exploring paradise. We also feel a connection since my tenth great grandfather, Stephen Hopkins, was one of the passengers on the Sea Venture, 400 years ago.

Today we got home from our latest vacation to Bermuda, turned on the television and were shocked to hear you have accepted Islamic Terrorists to become members of your community. I guess we left just in time. What was your government thinking? I for one, would not feel safe knowing there are Islamic Terrorists roaming the streets of Hamilton, St. George's, or Horseshoe Bay. I also do not want to put my family into a situation where they may be harmed. To my friends in Bermuda, Good Luck and God Bless, perhaps we'll met again. Next year I'm going to Disney World!

BILL WARNER

Thompson, Connecticut

Really do some good

June 12, 2009

Dear Sir,

How can one man and his associates continue to do things that aren't for the good of Bermuda and the Bermudian people? His latest endeavours are just another step towards the end of the Bermuda I love! Something more than compassion for the future existence of these people has brought these foreign nationalists to our Island. The repercussions to this latest act have already started happening. We do not need to alienate the US or Great Britain! If this man and his associates wants to really do some good for Bermuda and be remembered, try solving Bermuda's lack of visitors, which is bankrupting the shops in Hamilton and throughout the Island and help the growing numbers of Bermudians out of work due to the recession! These are two major issues affecting Bermuda that need resolving quickly more than this recent so called act of compassion.

CONCERNED ABOUT BERMUDA

Smith's

Sleazy and underhand

June 12, 2009

Dear Sir,

How dare Premier Dr. Brown offer the opportunity to the four former Guantánamo Bay residents to move to Bermuda and reap the benefits associated with status. His quote "these men are landed in Bermuda in the short-term and provided with the opportunity to become naturalised citizens" is offensive and confrontational and his actions are sleazy and underhand.

My son was born in Bermuda in 2001 and is incredibly proud of his birth country, telling everyone he meets that he is a "Bermudian boy". We have always encouraged him to speak well of Bermuda and its people and it has always been our hope that we can return "home" with him. How sad, therefore, that he will never have the chance to reside in his homeland, nor have the opportunity to become a naturalised citizen. Why? Because his parents had the temerity to be white and born in England (yes, that miserable colonial dictatorship Dr. Brown obviously detests).

We were long-term Bermuda residents, dedicated to the island, established, working and highly involved in the local community. Yet we had to leave when our son was six months' old, because my work permit could not be renewed. Despite being an experienced businesswoman, with an Honours Degree in Law, I was not sufficiently credible in the view of the Immigration Department to be afforded the term "key employee". At that time (and I have no doubt the same applies today) the Department of Immigration was on a mission to kick out every young, white, English, professional person it could find an excuse for, via the "six-year work permit limit" rule. In a stunning turn of events – Dr. Brown is now quoted today as saying: "We have 10,000 guest workers. They come in quietly. I do not see any way their coming will impact the employment of Bermudians, housing of Bermudians or business of Bermudians."

What a load of tosh. Dr. Brown has railed against legal immigrants for years and yet in one swift move, he has thumbed his nose at integrity and due process by giving a permanent all-access pass to four individuals who probably have never heard of Bermuda and couldn't find it on a map even if given step by step instructions (written in Mandarin, no doubt, at the expense of the Island's taxpayers). Dr. Brown shouldn't be making self-serving statements about celebrating 400 years of friendship with the United States. He should be standing in front of my eight-year old son explaining why the Bermudian government will never provide him with the opportunity to become a naturalised citizen.

MARIA DALY

Connecticut

Britain betrayed Bermuda

June 12, 2009

Dear Sir,

I am an English lawyer who has lived and made a career in England until the age of 51, but who has had the privilege of also being a member of the Bermuda bar from 2008. I have no vote in Bermuda, but have been making my living here for two years and hope to do so for many years to come. It is my new home.

However I am free and happy to state that I hold no brief for the Bermudian Premier, Dr Brown, nor his deputy who is in charge of immigration, Sen. David Burch. Nonetheless I write to express my fulsome support of their decision to accept four Chinese Muslims from American captivity in Cuba to do the Obama administration in the USA a favour without reference to the wishes or desires of Her Majesty's UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Why? Because it is the supposed function of the FCO to protect the interests of Bermuda as a Dependent Territory. Yet these last months the FCO has been busy betraying Bermuda's interests without reference to Bermuda, so why should not Bermuda try and undo the damage done to her interests without reference to the FCO? There is no satisfactory answer to that question and I personally would not trust a single word the FCO now attempts to say on the subject.

What is at the heart of this is Gordon Brown's unthinking betrayal of Bermuda at the G20 meeting on 2 April when, presumably advised by the FCO, he considered the interests of Bermuda were expendable to curry favour with the USA's then position on hostility to "tax havens". The bar was suddenly set (without reference to Bermuda and with the ludicrous exceptionalism of Macau and Hong Kong) at 12 tax information exchange treaties, otherwise countries were on the "grey list". That bar was set because G. Brown was advised by the FCO that the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man would not feature on this list. Too bad if Bermuda did. Too bad that until 2005 the FCO had prevented Bermuda negotiating any Tax Information Treaties for itself, but had insisted the brilliant and caring FCO did it for them, but actually had done nothing whatsoever. Too bad that Bermuda, having been hobbled by the FCO to start with, had raced to catch up and were due to complete the 12 Tax Information Exchange treaties by June 2009.

Gordon Brown, on behalf of the UK government in general, having exhibited a total disregard for Bermuda's interests, could hardly have been expected to do anything about another very serious threat to Bermuda from the US in the form of the draft legislation before Congress that would undermine the advantages to the US itself of being able to do business with captive and other reinsurance companies in Bermuda. The legislation, based on ignorance and prejudice, would seriously damage Bermuda's US orientated insurance and reinsurance business.

It is Dr Brown's duty as Premier to do everything he legitimately can to make certain this ill considered piece of legislation does not become law in the US. So how can he possibly be criticised for doing a very significant favour for Mr Obama in relation to ex-Guantanamo Bay captives (who have been cleared of wrong doing by the US legal system), which costs Bermuda nothing, but potentially gives very significant leverage to Bermuda to help prevent the passage in the US of legislation which would significantly harm Bermuda's interests.

In the circumstances, it is obvious that Dr Brown could not possibly trust the duplicitous FCO to negotiate anything in Bermuda's interests, and on this, possibly unique, occasion I salute him for putting the interests of his people first. I hope he tells the pompous, treacherous FCO, headed by the feeble banana-boy Miliband, exactly where to get off. They have shown that they cannot be trusted to protect the interests of Bermuda, so it is only right that the elected Government of Bermuda, which has had its own independent and expense-free parliament since the 17th century, should decide to take matters into its own hands and act in its people's interests to win the favour of the USA, which is, after all, supposed to be the UK's greatest ally but is currently a serious threat to the well-being of Bermuda.

VICTOR LYON Q.C

City of Hamilton

A puppet on a string

June 11, 2009

Dear Sir,

I had to read it twice to believe my eyes ... status ... to four Chinese Uighurs who have never stepped foot in Bermuda? Reuters reports the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Qin Gang, as saying "China opposes any third country accepting these suspects". So, barring any deal struck with the US, what would prompt Ewart Brown and David Burch to take on a mighty country like China and to be so kind and mightily generous offering these four men a home, a job, and security in tiny 21 square mile Bermuda where we can't even give status to our own? Is Bermuda now a puppet on the string of a nation who can't accept even one of these immigrants for their own? How much money were you offered, Uncle Ewart?

This should be disclosed to the public. Palau was offered $117 million for 17 detainees. Does this mean you get to pocket $28 million for 4? Or was this a deal of "you scratch my back, I'll leave your international businesses alone"? I am disgusted and sick to my stomach with what Bermuda has become. I have lived in Bermuda for 25 years, I was born here and I have been fighting for over 13 years (spending my savings in legal fees) just trying to get some justice out of the government only to hear they are now giving away what belongs to others! How dare you not have considered the ramifications of this offer and understood the plight of your own people first! You speak of "unjust international human rights!" If, as you claim, "it is the right thing to do" Ewart... please look at the plight of your own people!

VEXED BEYOND WORDS

Southampton

Will Bermuda be safer?

June 11, 2009

Dear Sir,

Wake up and smell "fish chowder" Bermuda. The Premier has allowed four Muslim detainees from Cuba to enter Bermuda! The US Attorney General, in the same Royal Gazette article states: "By helping accomplish the President's (Obama's) objective of closing Guantánamo, the transfer of these detainees will make America safer". The Premier should be asked if this is true, what will it make Bermuda ... safer? The Premier also states ..."the three detainees are innocent". So what we have here is a Global downturn in tourism, Bermuda gang wars and random shootings and now four "Gitmo" detainees who can't go anyplace else! Is the Premier incompetent as well as "power hungry"? I'm so happy that my wife and I will visit the St. George's Club in two weeks. This will be the eighth year. I think I'll look into selling.

MHP

New York City

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