hard and gets on well with just about everyone is a good public servant, then Calvin Ming is a superb example. The Executive Officer of the National Alcohol and Drug Agency, NADA, is flying out soon to the United States for advanced tests leading to a heart transplant. Cal Ming deserves every success he can have.

NADA has been supplanted in the public eye by the interim committee for a new drugs strategy team but Cal Ming has continued to serve. The truth is that NADA achieved a great deal more in the fight against drugs than has generally been recognised and most of that achievement was implemented and furthered by Cal Ming.

The major example in the public eye of his success is the successful Employee Assistance Programme which was coaxed along and brought to success by Cal Ming and a group of willing helpers. In many ways EAP was Cal's "baby'' from the beginning and it is to his everlasting credit that EAP thrives today.

Cal Ming was also the moving force behind any number of groups designed to help Bermuda's young people who were endangered by drugs. He worked closely and well with the young people and with the Lions who gave both personal and financial support and backing to these vital programmes. He also worked unstintingly with any number of individuals who wanted guidance on how to make a difference on drugs. It was Cal Ming's ability to convince people that the need was real and that action could produce successes which encouraged people to join him in what was a very real mission. He learned a great deal about drugs and how to deal with the drug problem by working closely on the first Archibald Report with Dr. David Archibald who became his good friend.

There is little doubt that some of his heart problems stem from his long hours of work and effort to make the aims of NADA succeed. Cal Ming quite literally "wore himself out'' doing public good. He was the man who could and would get things done with a tiny staff and an under-sized budget, often pushing himself 15 hours a day. He was the proverbial willing horse.

He was not only in demand in Bermuda. Through international meetings Cal Ming became well known and highly respected in the field of combating drugs. He was asked to advise overseas countries including Belize, Cayman and the British Virgin Islands. He gave them his time and effort too.

It is typical of Cal Ming, facing a heart transplant, that he would say, "I want to get back to Bermuda as quickly as possible and continue my work. There is so much I want to do to help solve the drugs problem.'' Bermuda is a better place for Cal Ming's efforts. He was often frustrated because Bermuda did not move faster against drugs. He was sometimes discouraged when his efforts met the blank walls so often thrown up by officialdom. But he was Cal Ming, so he carried on and worked harder.

Cal Ming is as fine a public servant as Bermuda has had. We can only hope that the marvels of modern medicine will return him to Bermuda to do what he wants to do - continue his work to help solve the drugs problem.