The February issue of the Bermudian on race is well worth reading.

It is probably a reflection of race relations in Bermuda that no mention was made of the experiences of the organisations which have race on their agenda e.g. The Diversity Institute.

Certainly the observations of the National Association for Reconciliation, the only non-Government organisation which has as its sole purpose the addressing of race relations, might have been enlightening.

As an interracial organisation which has been in existence for more than a decade, it has certainly gained insights and perspectives on race relations which go beyond the purely personal and therefore the inclusion on this type of experience in any future discussion might be of some value.

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR RECONCILIATION Hamilton Housing hype revisited February 7, 2001 Dear Sir, The Minister of Health, Family Services and Housing, the General Manager and the former Chairman of the Bermuda Housing Corporation have recently been doing a media blitz about housing.

It was great to hear from the manager of the Bermuda Housing Corporation that they are continuing, albeit too slowly, to follow the housing plan that was laid out for them under the United Bermuda Party.

Their plan and their work is not new. It is no different than the plan the UBP had -- they are even using the same language and following the same strategy with a few `tweeks' here and there! Only doing it more slowly and being more ineffective than we were.

We would already have completed building 100 homes in small clusters throughout the Island (financing had already been arranged). We would not have erected 20 percent of those new homes on one small plot of land at Texas Road, as is happening right now. Nor would we have reduced the programme from 100 to 68 homes as the Bermuda Housing Corporation has recently stated.

We would have continued to encourage Bermudians to "own a piece of the rock'' by selling to Bermudians the 54 renovated homes on Southside instead of reducing that group of renovated homes for sale to 26 homes as the PLP did under the Bermuda Housing Corporation. We would have continued to make home ownership a priority as we recognised that having equity in Bermuda such as owning your own home, is an issue that promotes security, self esteem and pride in one's accomplishments.

Ask any of those lucky few who bought one of the 26 homes at Southside and they'll tell you how good it feels.

This issue of "affordability and availability'' has been stated many times over in the past and is nothing new. It's just being stated by new people! The highlighting by the manager and the minister responsible for housing of the private sector rental programme which was started in the 80's under the UBP, is good and it may finally get this Government to move in a more timely manner to house those people in need.

The Vacant and Derelict housing programme is also something that was started years ago under the United Bermuda Party. Three hundred and seventy units were identified in 1988.

Although we recognised that this situation was fraught with a unique set of problems and would take some time to overcome, we would have continued to work with the owners of these properties to find resolution so that these homes could be renovated and put back on the market.

The Bermuda Housing Corporation now states that this derelict and vacant housing area is their main thrust to house people who are on the waiting list for houses. But people can't wait more years while the Government change laws and fight with lawyers and families to find more units.

The people who are in dire straits want solutions that provide them with housing now! Today! Under the United Bermuda Party we were working toward eliminating rent control. Removing rent control from these units at the lower end of the market could effectively put more units on the market to solve the housing cruise we face today.

The PLP have put more units under rent control. Putting more units under rent control forces tenants to live in substandard housing because the landlord can't charge enough rent to pay for the increased maintenance costs to keep his dwelling in good condition. The tenant becomes unhappy and leaves or withholds his rent and the landlord can't afford to fix up his unit to rent to a new tenant.

There are no incentives to renovate and fix up a place if tenants do not pay rent, trash the house and leave him or her in a situation where it becomes unfeasible to rent and so they close them up or take them off the market.

The PLP lambasted the former Government prior to the last election for not using the large apartment buildings on the Baselands for low cost housing. The former Government stated at the time that the buildings were not suitable for housing and they would be demolished because of the all the asbestos etc. We got hammered for it.

Now it seems the new Government and the BLDC have come to the same conclusion and are presently doing asbestos abatement and demolishing those very same buildings they thought could be used for housing. More people are waiting for adequate affordable housing under the PLP Government.

They don't want to hear all the playing around with numbers and excuses as to why there isn't affordable housing. They want their stressful situations to change.

Housing or lack thereof, must be one of the most urgent issues to face a lot of people. Stories of a person living in a garage which isn't really fit to house a car, split families and families living in overcrowded conditions where good parenting is impossible, should make the lack of available and affordable housing a priority.

The minister said that he was not going to do a "quick fix'' where housing is concerned, but it's 2 1/2 years later and there is still no "fix'' to the housing crisis in spite of all the type and promises.

KIM YOUNG J.P. M.P.

Paget Dunkley's divisive diatribe February 9, 2001 Dear Sir, I wish I could say that I am amused at United Bermuda Party MP Michael Dunkley's reply to my letter last week, but sadly I cannot.

What Mr. Dunkley continues to conveniently focus on is the Constitution itself, when in fact he should be focusing on the intent of the Constitution.

It is quite obvious that this section of the Constitution was written to ensure that Members of Parliament do not have conflicts of interest to the Crown.

Everyone understands that Dr. Brown was in violation of the Constitution, and Mr. Dunkley's repeated rants serve no purpose but the UBP's agenda of divide and conquer.

Acceptance and acknowledgement of the violation was shown by Dr. Brown himself when he denounced his US citizenship.

Is it not therefore obvious that Mr. Dunkley is on a pointless quest? But here is the sticking point where Mr. Dunkley's politicking and the needs of Bermudians diverge.

The ultimate purpose of that section of the Constitution should be to ensure that Government members do not have any conflicts of interest with other countries.

With that purpose in mind, the Constitution is grossly inadequate in addressing the greater issue.

As written, it does not address foreign-born and raised individuals who have obtained Bermudian status.

It also does not address conflicts arising from Bermudians obtaining British passports to work or live in any country in the European Union.

Despite the fact that these individuals possess the same (perhaps in some cases greater) conflicts of interest, Mr. Dunkley only makes war with Dr.

Brown for his act of taking an oath.

I'll state it again.

Here we have a Bermudian who took an oath from another country to advance himself, and here is Mr. Dunkley bashing him upside the head for returning to Bermuda with his experience.

If Mr. Dunkley is going to challenge this case, then he must cease his duplicity and bash others with the same conflicts of interests.

Amazingly Mr. Dunkley proposes that sitting on the Board of Governors at Howard University does not qualify as international experience.

To that, I would say that Mr Dunkley and his UBP are still in denial about how arrogance, ignorance and myopia have gotten them where they are today.

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE By E-mail Cell rates a hard sell February 6, 2001 Dear Sir, I would like to commend the Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb for doing a wonderful job in bringing down the cost of long distance phone rates. Now it is time to move on to the next stage of progress. I refer to cellular phone rates.

It seems quite ridiculous that it costs twice as much for a local cell phone call as it does for long distance. A local cell phone call costs 60 cents, (30 cents paid by the caller and 30 cents is paid by the person receiving the call). This seems to me to be a rip-off.

Perhaps we need more cellular providers competing for the local business.

My attention is also drawn to the fact that there is a constant battle over cellular towers. This problem, I am told, can be easily solved by using the Police radio towers also for cellular transmission. It happens in most other countries, so why not here? Even when one buys the best Max package (500 minutes for $110) it works out at 22 cents per minute or part thereof and when a person like myself who mostly calls others on cell phones, the cell phone company is actually being paid 44 cents per minute or part thereof, even when the receiver of the call is using a similar rate package.

What also concerns me is that if you call a cell phone from a cell phone and voicemail kicks in, the caller and the receiver are both still charged for a one-minute call. Why? I would urge any other cell phone users who are also incensed about the cost of the service, to write in Letters to the Editor, their area MP and/or write to the Telecommunications Minister.

Thank you Mr. Editor for this space.

RIPPED-OFF CELLULAR USER Hamilton Take two on stamps February 9, 2001 Dear Sir, I would like to accept your very kind offer to reprint my letter of February 3, 2001.

Over the past two days I have received so many telephone calls from friends and business associates asking me how I could have written such a poorly constructed letter, which did not even make sense. ..! As I proofread a publication on this Island, I feel I must ask you to clarify that the changes made by my original submission were done so by the Royal Gazette staff.

The sheer volume of calls and comments tells me how widely read the Letters to the Editor are by everyone. It is niggling at me that I was made to look like a bit of a literary nerd. It was a very simple, straight-forward letter.

Thank you for offering to rectify this. I await the original in print.

Editor's note, The original follows: February 3, 2001 Dear Sir, On Saturday, February 3, 2001 you published a letter from a Sri Lankan stamp collector. The writer, Sarath Munasinghe specifically asks you to publish his/her address so Bermudians would be able to send our lovely stamps. Did you omit the address on purpose, or did S.

Munasighe forget to include it in the published letter? Either way, not very helpful to your many readers who would be delighted to send our stamps! Please rectify to me directly at above address, as well as in your paper. Thank you so much. NAN BROWN Southampton Racist remnant remains February 13, 2001 Dear Sir, Why can't we as a Community get along? Blacks, whites, Jamaicans and whoever else makes up our population here on the Island.

If, when discussing race relations in Bermuda, I were to ask this, I might be supplying the answer within my question. Therefore, when a recent writer to you asked "Why can't we as a Community get along? Blacks, whites, Portuguese...'', part of the answer is within himself.

Your writer's unfortunate, programmed thinking on the question of race in Bermuda is revealed by a seemingly innocuous expression which he employed within a week of you yourself using it in one of your editorials.

I suppose the more talk there is about race relations in Bermuda the more we shall encounter the telltale, offensive expression "Black, White or Portuguese''.

The frequency and ease with which it is used in Bermuda is a bellwether of how prejudice against the Portuguese is so much part of our historical heritage and cultural psyche -- and the impunity with which it is used reveals that we haven't even begun to address it.

Therefore we perhaps need to remember that when discussing the Portuguese in the context of our long-term residents problem, we are discussing it in the context of an insidiously ingrained, national prejudice that might even be described as racism -- a prejudice and racist sentiment that we as a Country obviously do not feel too uncomfortable with.

Black, white & Portuguese. Perhaps I shouldn't be trying to eradicate this offensive expression from the Bermudian vocabulary. As long as we see it and hear it, we know that prejudice and racism comes in many forms, and in its many forms it is alive and lives well in Bermuda.

LARRY DENNIS Smith's Parish Thanks from Rotarians February 13, 2001 Dear Sir, On behalf of all involved with Pembroke Rotary Club, I would like to take this opportunity to offer our sincerest gratitude to all who made the Children's Fair such a tremendous success.

To all of the volunteers who donated their time and effort, we say thank you.

We are especially grateful to the individuals and companies who generously donated financially as well as to the many businesses who donated their services free of charge. We ask for your continued support.

For all those who attended on the day, I am sure you will agree a great time was had by all and the sunshine made the day extra special. The Children's Fair is Pembroke Rotary Club's annual event that many families look forward to.

In addition to a day of fun, the Fair raises money to help a variety of children's schools and charities. This year's beneficiaries are Paget Primary School, Gilbert Institute, West Pembroke Primary School, Victor Scott Primary School, Elliott Primary School, Northlands Primary School, Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Bermuda and The Foster Parents Association. We thank them all for their hard work.

Finally, our thanks to all the children who attended the Fair. This was your day and seeing your enjoyment made it special for us. See you next year.

ALAN PAILING Chair, Pembroke Rotary Club 2001 Children's Fair