Stuck in the middle

November 22, 2004

Dear Sir,

The lottery for the homes is a wonderful concept. There is one problem. My husband and I went to BHC and picked up an application. Then we found that our income exceeded that for the number of people in our household. So this means we cannot enter the lottery. The problem is we make too much for the lottery, but not enough for the market price homes. This is not the BHC?s fault, but what?s a person to do?

Re-route Paget traffic

November 19, 2004

Dear Sir,

Unless the Government re-routes traffic for South Shore Road up White Sands Road through the Railway Trail at certain times there will be continuing problems at the Paget Traffic lights.

With talk of improvements at the junction, if government does not buy the Paget Pharmacy property and the other adjoining properties for road widening then it would have to move over into Paget Marsh. Some years ago, I believe it was the Hon. Quinton Edness who encountered withering opposition on the Paget Marsh plan. The time has come now when something?s got to give.

I believe it applies here that he who stands in the way of progress gets run over.

Plight of the seniors

November 16, 2004

Dear Sir,

The Bermuda Housing Trust built these homes for low Income seniors and they do not belong to the BHC. Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Purvis had special rules and no one who owned a house would be able to rent their house and move to a BHT home.

We had special rules to follow and some of us waited years with our name on their list, but now it?s different ? it must be friends within.

The maintenance is high ? if it really is ? because the people who are supposed to ?fix it? make a very poor job and have to return over and over again. They are not the professional people that we used to have and if they say $305 a month a unit, well I am here all day and I never see them any time and you are lucky if they return your calls. Yes the gardeners do come twice a month, that is for the day or even half a day.

Now I would like to congratulate the seniors who came out on Friday, they were wonderful, with walkers, walking sticks and family members helping them climb all those steps with no hand rail.

I made it up on my own, but had to hold on to some one coming down. We did not see the Premier and we knew he was there. To say our families should look after us, when they all are having a hard time just to look out for their own is disgraceful. Then there was the suggestion that we should go cap in hand to beg for help from the Social Services, and the comment from Mr. Butler about seniors can come up here every Thursday. How nasty can you get? When the election comes around again, the seniors you want to be there will not vote for you and there are a lot of us.

If BHC wish to put it up a little, yes, but no more than $50 and some may pay $100 for those still working.

Stop the ignorance

November 17, 2004

Dear Sir,

According to Bishop Goodwin Smith, Homosexual = Paedophile.

By that logic, Man = Rapist (white ones = gun-toting Klan members, black ones = drug-peddling gangstas). Muslim = Terrorist. Italian = Mafia. Chinese = Dry Cleaner. Portuguese = Landscaper.

All of the above = Ignorance. Which is far easier to teach than wisdom. Here endeth the lesson.

An unfair description

November 1, 2004

Dear Sir,

I am an Egyptian who has been living in Bermuda since 1999, and am writing this letter in response to an article on the front page of the Mid-Ocean News on October 29, 2004, by Jonathan Kent.

The headline of this report was ?Suez campaigner Don finally gets his medal?, referring to Mr. Don Jolliffe, a 74-year-old gentleman who is a long-term Bermuda resident.

First of all, I want to congratulate Mr. Jolliffe for the ?Canal Zone General Service Medal?, for which he had to wait more than 50 years to receive from the British Government.

However, I was outraged as the article mentions that around 600 British service personnel died in Egypt due to the actions of ?terrorists?! In this day and age, terrorists are the types of people who hijack and blow up airlines, hold innocent people to ransom and then behead them, and they are people who kill their own countrymen with car bombs and suicide bombers.

How can those Egyptian soldiers, police officers and civilians who were ordered to ?harass? the occupying forces between 1951 and1954 therefore be labelled as ?terrorists?? Mr. Editor, Mr. Jolliffe cannot call a person who fought against you, while you were present in his country as a part of a foreign occupying force, a ?terrorist?. If you were to call them ?Freedom Fighters?, then yes, that I could understand.

For some additional historical background, the 1936 Anglo- Egyptian Treaty was signed by a government ruled by a corrupt Monarch who was highly influenced by a British envoy who, of course, served the interest of the occupation. Furthermore, the British interest in the Suez Canal was for trade and maintaining links to other colonies. As for the Egyptians, the Suez Canal was built with Egyptian as we lost more than 100,000 men and women who died while working like slaves, digging with their hands and receiving only meagre rations of food without any pay.

As for Mr. Jolliffe, I have no problem that he served his country and did as he was commanded. I do, however, object when someone is trying to create a hero at the expense of other honourable men and true freedom fighters by calling them ?terrorists?. These people and their ancestors were only interested in liberating their precious Canal, no more, no less.

There is always another side to any story. And your side doesn?t have to be the right one every time. May God forgive you for calling these people terrorists.

Al Salaam Aleykoum ? ?May peace be upon you? (As you can see by our greeting we, the true Arabs, wish to bestow only peace)

Make buses free

November 22, 2004

Dear Sir,

Your reporter, Matthew Taylor, has written an interesting series of articles on Bermuda?s traffic problems. A recurring comment from interviewees was that they would like to use a bus to get to work but they were slow, being held up in the traffic. This argument is self-resolving in that if even ten percent of car-users switched to buses there would be less traffic and everyone would get to work faster.

Another solution, used in cities worldwide, is bus lanes. If you make Front Street one way from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and have the left lane bus-only from the Foot of the Lane to the Birdcage, they would be able to cover the final mile into Hamilton considerably quicker. It might slow car traffic somewhat (although with no traffic coming out along Front Street there would be an uninterrupted flow up Spurling Hill) but that should just encourage people to switch to the bus. Allowing bikes in the bus lane might be a happy compromise.

A third way to speed up buses would be to make them free. At stops, riders can board without having to put coins or tickets in the hopper or wait for transfers to be written out and the bus can be on its way sooner.

Over time the fleet could be replaced with buses having exit doors in the middle, so people getting on don?t have to wait for those getting off. Then throw in a few more ?express? buses from the major population areas non-stop into Hamilton.

The full colour spectrum

November 22, 2004

Dear Sir,

Dear Mr. Scott

I woke up this morning feeling a little blue.

I looked in the mirror and went white.

I looked outside and was so envious I went green.

I stepped out into the sun and went brown.

I read the newspaper and saw red.

I was told by my horoscope that my future was black.

Do you think I can have a job in government?

Checks and balances

November 25, 2004

Dear Sir,

I was delighted to read the letter to yourself dated November 15 from Unforgetful which appeared in on the Wednesday, November 24. He or she very kindly recalled an interview which I gave to the Mid-Ocean News back in August on the need for reform of our Parliamentary system.

Unforgetful made a good point with which I agree. There have been screw-ups and slip-ups in the past, and while we might not necessarily agree in all respects, I (like Unforgetful) do not want Bermudians to forget what has happened in the past or what is happening at present. What we need is a better system of checks and balances which can minimise opportunities for screw-ups and slip-ups, if not prevent them.

I happen to think ? as do my current colleagues in the UBP ? that some changes in the way in which we conduct business in Parliament would be a step in the right direction.

By way of example: we would like to see the introduction of a more active committee system and the opening up of meetings of committees to the public and the press, particularly those of the Public Accounts Committee, as well as a designated Question Period in which Ministers may be questioned on issues of the day.

We think that these changes will strengthen and enhance transparency and accountability in our government and our Legislature, and we move forward steadfast in our belief that all of us have an interest in better government and better governance regardless of who is in power.