August 2, 2005

Dear Sir,

I would like to respond to S.M. Simons of Sandys. This person's opinion of the music played on the fast ferries is totally biased and out of order. As a worker on the fast ferry there are pluses for playing music and watching movies.

1) Morning news and easy listening music.

2) Movies entertain the children, keeping them in order and the smooth comedies for the adults. The majority of our passengers have no problems with the music or movies as they go to work or come home. There is always someone that has their own selfish ways and wants to spoil it for everyone else. If you don't like the music we can start selling ear plugs and blindfolds! Then we would be like British Airways!

TAKING CARE OF OUR PASSENGERS

Devonshire

August 3, 2005

Dear Sir,

I was extremely disappointed to see read such a misinformed opinion piece by Robert Stewart in Monday's

First, his labelling of the sustainable development project as a centralised economic plan is ludicrous. At any public forum the held by the project they stressed that this is not a plan incorporating a centralised economic policy citing the failures of past policies.

Utopia is not being promised but a responsible and sustainable direction for our island is. Anyone who has researched sustainable development would know that any plan developed must be flexible enough to adapt and grow with future generations to maintain sustainability by incorporating both the needs of the people and new technologies.

Mr. Stewart's attack on the sustainable development committee is frankly insulting. The project is a preventative approach to the possible crises that can occur if we continue to live and treat our land as we do, this is for our children and their future, not for people to secure high paying jobs.

In addition, the project team would be the first to state that they are not omniscient and their exhaustive research, data collection and out reach efforts are an example of such. They are people who care about Bermuda's future and I think that should be commended rather than condemned.

Predominately it was those with money and power who dictated the future of our island, making decisions in their exclusive favour that impact us all. This is a chance for us all to have our say. Issues of great concern such as sustainable development must transcend political parties and affiliations and become island wide initiatives.

I would hope those suspicious or ignorant of the sustainable development project would take initiative to become involved with it to aid its success rather than doom it to failure. In the case of Mr. Stewart however, perhaps his former days at Shell have left him unable to comprehend environmental and social sustainability due to Shell's atrocious track record in these areas.

CONCERNED FOR OUR FUTURE

St. George's

August 5, 2005

Dear Sir,

Of course Mr. Robert Stewart's article in on August 1 is correct in most things, but I think the Government's initiative in launching an investigation of sustainable development for Bermuda was a good move.

I am influenced by Mr. Jared Diamond's book called 'Collapse' which tells how various cultural groups such as ours moved from relative affluence to penury through failure to understand the problems rising before them. He also relates how other groups staved off disaster by imposing rules to preserve, for instance, their renewable resources ? and life could continue.

I don't think the committee is digging into root causes, however, which dooms it to discussing peripheral difficulties without finding basic answers.

Population is at the root of our problems, I believe, and is a cause of a number of our difficulties such as crowding on the roads, questions of whether the hospital buildings are sufficient to carry us on into an even more overcrowded future, housing problems, and whether the ports need to be made larger to cater to larger cruise ships. Whether a dense population is the cause of gang warfare I don't know ? but Mr. Diamond points out that the "genocide" in Rwanda-Burundi occurred in a land of farmers where overcrowding had resulted in tiny farms. As there was considerable inter-marriage between the Hutu and the Tutsi and many of the murders did not discriminate between people of one group or the other, hatred between one "tribe" and another was a cause, but questionable as the root cause.

Why does our population continue to grow? It seems to me that our wealth, resulting in a good standard of living, is the answer. Our wealth means that many of us Bermudians do not try to emigrate to seek a living abroad, and Bermuda remains an attractive place for guest workers to come to work and to seek to settle permanently.

How does one trim back wealth? It is doubtful that any Government could achieve this, for they would soon be voted out of office, but there are actions our Government can take to reduce the constant increase in the nation's wealth. One step has already been taken by making it difficult for offshore companies to obtain and keep overseas staff. However, there is another step which could be taken ? the withdrawal of further tariff concessions for the building of hotels and guest houses.

I have no doubt that there are a good many others that a Government intent to reduce development could undertake and still remain in office. But, as Mr. Stewart indicates, the kind of answers the present method of investigation is likely to evoke will soon prove to be unworkable.

In closing, may I recommend that project members and Mr. Stewart read 'Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive', published this year by Penguin Books Ltd. Mr. Jared Diamond, the author, is widely travelled as well as being a professor of Geography and Environmental Health Sciences at UCLA. He has won a Pulitzer Prize and two Science Book Prizes.

W. S. ZUILL SR.

Smith's Parish

July 22, 2005

Dear Sir,

Following Margaret Forster's letter on solar power I feel compelled to write and wholeheartedly agree with her sentiments. Bermuda has harnessed next to nothing in terms of this free, non-polluting and totally sustainable energy source. Greece and other Mediterranean countries which figure far lower in that so-called crucial yardstick of "per capita income" have successfully supplemented their energy needs in this clean and renewable way for decades. And to think this island is supposedly a "highly developed country"?

Why has there been no project to install panels on all new-build homes facing south? If the concern is that of tainting the cosmetic appeal of some dwellings then surely large panels could be incorporated on the countless new high-rise blocks of condos and commercial properties in recent and current construction in the city. One can then be assured nobody save super-humanly-sighted jet passengers might be visually-affronted!

Why was Bermuda Energy Conservation closed down in April? They spent years valiantly attempting to educate the Island populace. A project which has sadly, on reflection, failed dismally. In regards to our proven wasteful Bermudian lifestyle (higher per person, per year trash output than NYC inhabitants), I would have thought generating solar power as a back-up/additional source of energy requirements in domestic and commercial properties would be an extremely viable and useful project. Can't contractors follow that after the obvious initial expense for the panels, the long-term financial savings are significant. (I note financial savings because on this Island everything clearly comes down to greed and cash as opposed to something nebulous and irrelevant like whether we can sustain/protect the local environment).

I am angry that polluting energy such as electric (my windows look right onto the Belco burners where thick yellow and brown emissions from the towers are a 24/7, 365 days per year view ? apart from when belching clouds of black smoke emerge for hours from an accident in the plant, of course) is simply being increasingly beefed up as each year passes with no regard whatsoever either for curbing requirements through an informative (and if necessary, aggressive) general plan or alternatively for finding a cleaner way to supplement our energy needs. After all, according to statistics on energy consumption in Bermuda Belco will be maxed out and simply unable to cope with demand after 2015 anyway.

I just hope that people's attitudes and consumption ? crazy lifestyles ? will change and on a parting note, yes I have been here three years and no, I have not owned or driven a car or motorbike in all that time. I walk or use public transport. Everyone has to do what they can before it's too late.

SUN WORSHIPPER

Pembroke

August 3, 2005

Dear Dr. Brown,

Having read Mrs Jo-Anne Turman's letter to yourself, copied to the Royal Gazette, I fully empathise with her comments. We recently travelled to Canada for the first time and landed in Toronto on our way to Vancouver. We had an hour and a half between flights and when I heard that there was a bus transfer to the other terminal and that we had to collect our bags, put the bags through security, have them rechecked for the Vancouver flight and go through Customs and Immigration I said to my wife "We will never make it!" Wrong! We had nearly half an hour to spare before boarding time! All the airport personnel were remarkably helpful and friendly, Customs and Immigration gave us no hassle and were very pleasant.

Contrast this with arrival in Bermuda!

On our return home, the residents queue took up a good 30 minutes, the lady on the Immigration desk was pleasant and informed us that we need pay no duty on this trip.

The point that has always struck me, when a Bermudian returns home to Bermuda it takes five or six times as long to process him through the passport line than the same Bermudian visiting the USA, UK or Canada. What information does Bermuda need to collect that other countries do not, and why?

On reaching the baggage claim area there was not a personal luggage trolley in sight, only a line of Red Cap trolleys. The choice was to struggle with ones own four or five bags or pay a Red Cap to do what we should have been able to do for ourselves with a standard luggage trolley.

The attitude of the Red Cap was very abrupt, quite clearly not a graduate of any charm school.

Then we got to the Customs Hall, we greeted the female Customs Officer with a courteous "good afternoon" but she apparently assumed that because we were white we must be visitors and demanded rudely "Where are you staying?" To which we replied courteously that we live here ? the question was repeated with anger, "Where are you staying?" We quietly explained yet again that we are Bermudians, we live here and told her the street name and the Parish. Her whole manner was aggressive and unfriendly. One has to hope that this was the same Customs Officer who so upset Mrs Turman, I would hate to think that you have more than one such unpleasant person greeting our guests into Bermuda. Why would a customs officer need to enquire where arriving Bermudians live? Even the Red Cap gentleman was clearly put out by her manner and made every effort to ensure that we got a taxi with no delays

In recent years I feel that returning to Bermuda spoils any trip, because the last thing you want after a lengthy journey is a long delay to get back into your own country and being met by aggressive and unfriendly officials. I do not care what awards Bermuda has allegedly won for its Airport, in terms of friendly and efficient reception it compares very unfavourably with anywhere else I have visited!

It was not always like this, in days gone by the processing was faster, the personnel were smiling and friendly, even when they opened your bags! One can only surmise that the staff are all unhappy in their work and are demonstrating this by their attitude to the arriving travellers.Either that or Hitler is alive and well and running a charm school for the staff in the Arrival Hall.

It also seems incongruous that the Minister of Tourism is spending all sorts of time and money attracting tourists and the staff of the Minister of Transport is doing its best to drive them away.

PETER G. FORSTER

Hamilton

August 2, 2005

Dear Sir,

Our daughter accepted an Internship to represent The Bermuda Department of Tourism and work in a Marketing/Advertising/Media agency in New York City. Today she sent this e-mail I would like to share. They live in New York and she feels removed from the NYC situation because her home is Bermuda a safe, secure, peaceful country, a much safer place in the world. To now have to live and work in a place with terrorism and fear is overwhelming. I hope we all appreciate just how fortunate we are living in such a wonderful place as Bermuda. I would also like to mention that their experience in NYC has been truly fantastic and they would do it again in a heart beat, they love New York City and being ambassadors for Bermuda!

Nina wrote:

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

So every morning I have to take the PATH train to the World Trade Centre site and ever since the attacks on London, that for me has been a scary daily occurrence. I'm not used to being around so much paranoia, and it's completely and utterly justified. Most every morning I emerge from underground, greeted by dozens of police officers dressed in riot gear, with their semi-automatics strapped in their hands. This is scary! I've never even seen that type of gun before.

We had two bomb scares last Friday, one in the store across the street, and one in the train station where I take the path. I kept brushing it off like it was no big deal, while everyone around me was panicking. I kept thinking to myself, am I so far removed from this that I don't feel fear when I should be? They told us to move away from one side of the building, and to stay away from the windows, which would my side of the building of course. And then I found out that our windows are bullet proof. W? I know why, but God, that's scary.

After the attacks in London, they are now doing random searches on people before they board any form of public transport. They were at my station last night going through peoples bags. I kept watching the police officers, and they didn't once waver their stare from the people coming down the stairs into the station. They do a magnificent job if you ask me, and a very, very hard one at that.

This is scary, I mean, I'm not scared per-say, but to live in an environment that is in constant fear and/or paranoia is scary. It is the saddest thing to have to walk through the site every morning to work. I can't help but think that I'm walking over 2,000 people's graves. It always brings tears to my eyes, and a shiver down my spine.

L-V. DURHAM-THOMPSON

August 4, 2005

Dear Sir,

I'm very enthusiastic when it comes to our public transport system. It is always entertaining. Transport Minister, Dr Ewart Brown called me, some time ago, to say he supports having the new City Hall bus station "smoke free". I'd brought up the point in . Let's hope. But, enough of that.

Today, from my seat on the Number Three bus headed west, I looked out near that big satellite dish in Devonshire, which is in its safety position at the moment, ready for anything Harvey could throw at us. I like to look at it, it makes me think, briefly, that we are a smart and civilised tribe here in Bermuda.

The turn-off to the dish, joining Middle Road, has a sign that reads "New Creation Worship Centre" and, next to it in large letters is the sign "Teleport".

I'd like to say: "Beam me up!"

We're so darn smart and civilised we could teach the gods something. Enough said.

ROSS ELDRIDGE

St. George's