[naviga:h2]Bermuda reflects on the end of a political era[/naviga:h2]

DAME LOIS– BROWNE EVANS

The leader of the Progressive Labour Party for much of the 1970s and 1980s and Bermuda's first female Attorney General, died early of a suspected stroke. She was 79.

Dame Lois was Bermuda's first female barrister, Bermuda's and the first woman to become Opposition Leader in a British Commonwealth country when she became leader of the PLP in 1968.

She served as leader until 1972 and again from 1976 to 1985.

A national day of mourning was declared for her on June 5 and thousands watched her funeral and the subsequent cortege in person on the streets of Hamilton and on television.

DISRUPTED GARBAGE COLLECTION

While May in Bermuda is usually known for the scent of sweet flowers, this month was stinkier than usual. A work to rule by waste collection staff at the end of May disrupted garbage collection across the Island.

Although a Government spokesmen promised it would soon be picked up, garbage was still littering the island, two weeks later. Some householders, including those in wealthy Tuckers Town, complained of an increase in rats.

SUICIDE CHALLENGE

Two brothers who set out in a tiny open fishing boat from the States to Bermuda to prove it could withstand high seas made it safely home. Ralph and Bob Brown arrived in New York Harbour three days after leaving St. George's in their 21 foot motor boat.

They were hoping to write themselves into the Guinness Book of World Records by voyaging from the Island to North Carolina on their tiny open-topped Intruder 21, a boat normally reserved for quiet, inshore waters.

THE PAPPAS CASE ENDS

Peter Dimitri Pappas, the American financier found hanging in a Bermuda guest apartment in 2005, committed suicide, a coroner ruled.

Two theories surrounding his death were raised at an inquest earlier in May that he was the victim of a sexual self-strangulation experiment that went fatally wrong, or that he committed suicide after the woman he loved spurned his marriage proposal.

His father, Jack Pappas, told the inquest he was certain the 35-year-old, would not have committed suicide. His ex-girlfriend Anya McHale, however, said he wanted to rekindle their relationship and spoke of killing himself if she would not marry him.

HOSPITAL RACISM PROBE

Relationships among medics at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital were widely perceived as "rife with discrimination", according to an ombudsman's report into alleged racism.

In early May, Arlene Brock was probing three complaints, thought to be from doctors, alleging racism involving medical professionals at the hospital. In early September, Ms Brock met health chiefs to discuss her recommendations.

In her report she said that race was a "major divisive force" at the hospital. She said that both black and white doctors feared being targeted amid a climate of rumour, innuendo and conjecture. Her findings also showed maladministration within the hospital's disciplinary process, which was "inadequate and poorly implemented".

WEIRD CRIME OF THE MONTH

People were being warned about stolen seafood which could pose a health risk and could appear on the market. A thief stole shrimps, scallops and tilapia fish from a freezer in a property on My Lord's Bay Road, Hamilton Parish. Officers warned that there was a problem with the freezer, meaning that the food was spoiled and not fit for consumption.

Statistics

The independent review into Bermuda's failing public education system cost almost a quarter of a million dollars, at $241,411.

Non-Bermudians make up 31 percent of Bermuda's workforce.

Government saw its payroll tax receipts soar to $78 million in the first quarter of this year, up almost 21 percent on the same period last year.

Bermuda's current account chalked up a surplus of $186 million in the first quarter of this year, an increase of $28m on the same period last year.

May 2007 Voices

"Last night our nation lost a piece of its soul. Dame Lois taught so many of us what it means to fight and win. She was a sister of the struggle and at times the struggle was violent. But like Martin Luther King, Dame Lois did not wage the struggle with her fists, she did it with words. She always honoured democracy and she always bowed to the law, even when Lady Justice seemed to betray her."

– Premier Dr. Ewart Brown speaking on the death of Dame Lois Browne Evans.

"You know, Mr. Premier, we seniors are old but we're not dumb. To tell old folks on the eve of an election that seniors who drive cars will get a $4.60-a-year exemption and seniors who don't drive will get nothing. What a con. It's not just not enough, it's nothing."

– Opposition shadow minister for health & seniors Louise Jackson speaking on Ewart Brown's plans to help senior citizens.

"But every time something is done it's 'I am a victim of racism'. Get over it. The time has come to be responsible for your own actions, not rely on Government to push them forward."

– Senior Progressive Labour Party MP Renee Webb speaking on the need for her party needs to "get over" the race issue as she denounced those who were annoyed the party was attracting new white members.

"It is no sense having a country where women can't sleep in their beds. There is no sense in having a better education system if parents are troubled and children can't sleep in their own beds at night."

– The mother of the teenager attacked by Tewolde Selassie urged other victims of sex assaults to speak out.

"I want it to be known in my Christian convictions, I don't support the homosexual lifestyle, but that does not give anyone cause to hate someone or treat someone differently. I don't think they (United by Faith) have represented the religious community well."

– Rev. Wilbur Lowe speaking of the cancelled gay cruise.

"The door was open. Chief Justice Ground chose not to walk through it. And so a family is left at a dead end on a long, agonising road to find justice for their murdered child. And a judicial system is left so tied in knots by legal technicalities that it can't reverse what it clearly recognises as its own grave errors, even in the face of public outcry both within and without its borders. It's a dark day for Bermudian justice."

– Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto, Canada writing of failed attempts to reopen the Rebecca Middleton murder trial.

Deaths

Eric Berkeley Jr., 20, of Hamilton Parish became the seventh road fatality when his motorcycle veered off the road near the junction of North Shore Road and East Point Lane.

Motorcycle racer Marvin Robinson, 34, died during a warm-up for a St. John Ambulance fundraiser race meet. Mr. Robinson's 600cc motorbike collided with a fence during training. He was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital by ambulance but medical staff could not save him.

Former business leader and keen sailor, Eldon H. Trimingham died at the age of 75 after a long illness. Mr. Trimingham, born on June 12, 1931, served in many leadership roles in a distinguished business career, including a stint as president of the Chamber of Commerce and president of the Bermuda Employers' Council, as well as being president of the former Front Street department store Trimingham's.

May 2007 Timeline

May 1: Government was urged to launch an Island-wide programme for underfed schoolchildren by a group of volunteers who provided breakfast and lunch for 30 hungry youngsters each weekday.

May 3: The Duchess of Gloucester, Colonel-in-Chief of the Bermuda Regiment, visited Regiment soldiers during their overseas camp in the Southeast of England.

May 4: The Education Review team made ten recommendations to fix the public school system. They were: dramatically improve the quality of teaching, create an executive board to implement the review, greater delegation, accountability and transparency, raise school leaving age and create a senior school federation, create a federation for each primary and middle school partnership, tweak the curriculum, address behavioural and learning difficulties, and make it a community effort.

Cabinet Minister David Burch lost the first round of his bid to replace Stanley Lowe as Progressive Labour Party election candidate in Southampton East, going down by nine votes to six.

May 7: More than $520 million in Government money was unaccounted for, according to the Auditor General Larry Dennis who raised the possibility of fraud in May. This information was revealed in the annual audit report from Mr. Dennis who showed that the unaccounted $523 million was the result of consistently late financial reporting from Government quangos and public funds.

The 20th annual End-to-End walk exceeded expectations with more than 2,500 walkers. On May 7, pledges were still being counted but already they topped the $215,000 raised in 2006.

May 8: Government web sites crashed on the very day it launched the Island's first TechWeek to improve Bermuda's understanding of the many ways residents could apply Information Technology to improve their lives.

Former Progressive Labour Party Senator Walter Roban (pictured) won again in a rerun of the branch vote to select a successor to Ottiwell Simmons to stand in Pembroke East.

May 14: Marilyn Darrell, a former employee at law firm, Cox Hallett Wilkinson, was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence for stealing hundreds of dollars from its lawyers. She took cheque books from the desks of Wendell Hollis and William Cox of and signed them, and exchanged them for cash and groceries at a supermarket.

A man who raped a teenager after breaking into her bedroom was jailed for 25 years. Tewolde Mathin Selassie, 29, was told by the judge: "This was in my opinion a vicious, heinous crime of the worst type, the sort one should not wish upon one's worst enemy."

May 15: Donald Iain MacDonald, who was accused of killing his best friend's girlfriend, Annett Farkas through dangerous driving had his name cleared by a jury. Ms Farkas, 24, a Canadian who worked as a bartender at the Robin Hood Pub, died from massive head injuries sustained in the collision on North Street, Pembroke, on September 5, 2005.

Kurron, the consultants who produced a damning report into Bermuda's hospitals were being drafted in as support for senior management, to help with several major projects including the rebuilding of the hospital. Several local doctors criticised the move, saying Government should have picked world-renowned Johns Hopkins Medicine International, another contender. They accused Premier Dr. Ewart Brown of cronyism.

May 16: Winners of a lottery for affordable housing expressed their disappointment at a lack of action by the Government two years on. Housing Minister David Burch was scheduled to meet with the winners of the Harbour View Villas project at a meeting closed to the public despite $10.5 million of public funds being used to subsidise the scheme. The Southside project at St. David's has been plagued with problems since its inception and was scaled down from 196 homes to just 108 units.

May 17: A salesman was hailed a hero after he managed to rein in a horse bolting through Hamilton pulling its carriage — unmanned. The horse bolted on Front Street, the second time in three weeks that horses ran loose on that road, before running up Bermudiana Road.

May 18: Ferry services were disrupted after Marine and Ports workers called industrial action leaving many workers and tourists stranded.

May 19: An act bringing in payroll tax breaks for businesses in North Hamilton was passed with all party support in a bid to spread wealth opportunities to those previously marginalised in the economy. Under the Act new businesses setting up in Bermuda's first economic empowerment zone will be able to enjoy the lowest rate of payroll tax available.

May 22: Speaking at a meeting with the Bermuda Senior Islanders group, Premier Dr. Ewart Brown pledged to make healthcare more comprehensive and affordable for the older generation. He also announced that seniors would no longer have to pay the annual TCD driver's license renewal fee.

May 23: Premier Dr. Ewart Brown announced that Bank of Bermuda CEO, Philip Butterfield, would mastermind the overhaul of the under-fire public education system. Mr. Butterfield was to be the chairman of the Interim Executive Board, which would oversee the recommendations outlined in the recent education review.