Deal with the heavy issuesJanuary 10, 2011Dear Sir,I see that (Transportation Minister) Terry Lister has decided that the burning issue of the day is the accidents caused by impaired drivers and that per your newspaper, members of both opposition parties are in favour of tougher laws in that respect. Well, isn't that sweet.Over 80 percent of accidents are caused by other things especially poor signaling speeding and general indifference to other people on the road. In fact the statistics for drunk drivers are probably impaired as according to a fairly senior police officer of my acquaintance, if police are called to an accident it is much easier to get a conviction against someone who is marginally over the limit than the idiot who swung left before turning right, or swung right before turning left usually without a signal until he/she is half way round the corner.Many people driving vehicles ten or 12 feet long seem to think their vehicle is a tractor-trailer. The other day a tiny ten foot long tan saloon turned right on Reid Street onto Parliament Street swinging two plus feet into the left lane and narrowly missing a girl on a bike. There was no signal. That is extreme but if you drive every day you see the same silly driving. Often you can tell when someone is stopped at a junction by the “body language” of the car. They hug the left sidewalk, do not signal and turn right. Stand at the junction of Burnaby and Church and watch them.Now Terry Lister and the gang on the hill know perfectly well that most serious accidents are caused by reckless young people and the problem has been with us for many, many years; of course it has got worse. There are too many vehicles on the road and they are much larger than they were 30 or 40 years ago. I hope Parliament start to deal with the heavy issues in the same spirit of cooperation such as dealing fairly with taxpayers money and gun crime.JOE WAKEFIELDSmith'sSell off the GP carsJanuary 8, 2011Dear Sir,With regards to parking tickets on GP cars, would it not better serve the public purse to sell off the fleet of Government cars, (except for GP 1 and 2 for official use), greatly saving the taxpayers for the annual running costs, license and insurance fees. The monies received should be put back into the public purse to help pay off its debt. In this way no parking tickets will be incurred.S. J. GAMBLEPagetWe can learn from TedJanuary 7, 2011Dear Sir,Now that Minister Patrice Minors has invited former homeless man Ted Williams to our island as a result of his appearance on the Today Show and praising Bermuda when he visited as a child in the 70s, it would be interesting to know how Mr. Williams extricated himself from his days of homelessness to his present position as a radio announcer. Perhaps he may have some insight to share with us as to how “we” or the Government can offer assistance to our local homeless population.WA BLACKPagetNot good enoughJanuary 6, 2011Dear Sir,I saw an article in your daily recently and felt the need to comment. As a life-long resident of St. George's. I must ask how long will it take to get a 24 hour police presence in the town? The police station was closed down for an extended period a few years ago. Its renovation and subsequent opening where interestingly timed to coincide with the last General Election. The station is said by police to be staffed between the hours of 8am to 10pm, but as I drove past today at 2pm it was already closed and locked up tight.Much effort is being expended to revive and revitalise the beleaguered old town but these efforts will prove fruitless if an issue as basic as security cannot be adequately addressed. I know this sounds absurd but does the town have to hire its own security? I thought that was one of the reasons we pay taxes! I personally have been in meetings where the public have begged and pleaded with senior members of the Police Service to open the station on an around the clock basis. Their response?Statistics were quoted that the overall rate of crime in St. George's is down, precious police resources are needed elsewhere and the St. David's Station is close enough. This is not good enough! Properties have been ransacked and vandalised less than 100ft from the station. Statistics do not help you to sleep at night, nor have they any meaning if you are the one unlucky enough to be the victim. The local police have said that they are interested in garnering the support and friendship of the St. George's people but how can this be accomplished if their pleas are ignored? I can remember the days when there were regular foot patrols at night, officers would check doors of businesses to ensure that the properties were secure.Does this still occur on the regular ie. a few times a night? I have not seen it. Is this just another sign of the times? It seems our tax burden increases while overall levels of service decline. I join with the Mayor, Kenneth Bascome in calling for a 24 hour police presence and a fully functioning police station for the Town of St. George.CLINTON J.A. PAYNTERSt. George'sSeeking informationJanuary 6, 2011Dear Sir,Happy New Year to all on the Rock! I write to seek assistance from your readers in reference to Arthur St. George Tucker MBE who was the founder and superintendent of the Nonsuch Training School for Boys.He was born on March 15, 1896 at Sackville, Nova Scotia; the third child of the Reverend (later Canon) Tucker and Elizabeth Christiana (Mathurs) Tucker, one of three sons. Notably all three received MBE Edmund Richard Harvey Tucker and Leonard Nigel (Dickie)Tucker.Arthur Tucker married Elsie Green of London. The couple moved to Nonsuch Island where they we put in charge of the quarantine station under the Health Department. Later two boys who were deemed too young to be sent to prison were placed in their care, and Mr Tucker conceived the idea of a training school for young delinquents run along such lines as would turn out good citizens.The Quarantine Station at Nonsuch became the headquarters of Dr Beebe and his bathysphere team about 1928 and Mr Tucker was skipper of the deep-sea tugboat Gladisfen that transported and lowered the doctor and the sphere to the mysterious would beneath the water .Mr Tucker petitioned for the creation of the reform school (Nonsuch Training School) with the support of the Department of Health (in particular Dr Henry Wilkinson) and Executive Council on Prisons.Mr and Mrs Tucker were at this famous and unique training school since they founded it on 1st January 1934 on Nonsuch Island at the Southern entrance to Castle Harbour, later relocating to Fort Cunningham on Paget Island in 1948. The Tuckers remained at the school until his retirement in 1958, aged 62 for health reasons. The school was then taken over by John Packer.During the this time, some 276 boys had passed through the school with over 80 percent not re-offending a record that clearly has lessons to teach us in the current day. Other “residents” included a Miss Ruth Bulcher, a Nazi spy transferred from the St. George Prisoner of War Camp in 1941 by special request of the Government. The boys attending the school were trained on the principles of naval routine and discipline. In addition to formal education, training was provided on cooking, bakery, seamanship, knots, sail making and repair and engine repair.I would be interested in hearing from anyone who knew my grandfather, father and family. I am particularly interested in those who passed through the school or were associated with it and their memories and recollections of their time there. The experiences gained, good and bad, to help maintain this record. It is the heartfelt wishes of the Tucker family to commit these experiences to print for the benefit of posterity and for the common interest of all “Onions”. Further details may be found at www.BermudaTuckers.com which is a non-commercial, no advertisement website to preserve and collect Tucker history. With all good wishes,ART TUCKERLondon, EnglandEditor's note: People with reminsicences may contact the Editor or send their recollections to letters[AT]royalgazette.bm and they will be forwarded on.Just an observation...January 7, 2011Dear Sir,When was the sidewalk outside Blue Waters Anglers Club designated a parking lot? Be nice if pedestrians didn't have to step into East Broadway to get around the white car that's parked there most every day.POLLYSouthamptonA great way to advertiseJanuary 9, 2011Dear Sir,As a way of advertising our country I have a suggestion that would be both attractive and inexpensive. We could arrange with our Postal Department and introduce some new postage stamps in two to three series of the mega cruise ships that visit our shores, stamps with bright colours of these mega cruise ships with the Dockyard area in the foreground. You could do the same with the airlines at our Airport and using the backdrop of St David's. Bright coloured stamps will sell well and advertise Bermuda worldwide. The cost of the stamps would be minimal to our finnancial department of Government, and it would be a win-win situation. There are several countries that advertise with photographs of cruisheships and aeroplanes that visit their countries, so why not do the same for our tiny islands of Bermuda?PETER BROMBY SRPagetA total wasteJanuary 10, 2011Dear Sir,Although I applaud the Premier's intention to cut down on wasteful spending, trimming one half of an hour from the Swing Bridge schedule will hardly put a drop in the bucket of wasteful government spending. To put it into perspective, the Swing Bridge has been closed for weeks (the black ball hanging means it is out of operation). Nonetheless, the Government pays the bridgekeepers to work all day (with overtime) to operate a bridge that doesn't open. Surely their manpower could be used at a more needed W&E project.COCONUTSSt George'sUnbelievable ratioJanuary7, 2011Dear Sir,So the BPSU are having a meeting to discuss their salaries. Does anybody remember when the Civil Service was a fraction of the size it is now and although we didn't expect everyone to perform to private industry standards of efficiency, that was okay because Civil Servants in the day were only paid a fraction of what the private sector received and their compensation was that they were just about guaranteed employment for life, no matter how poorly they performed, a high quality health insurance and many other benefits including an incredibly generous pension, all courtesy of the People? The Civil Service used to be acceptably effective and affordable.Today we have a monster Civil Service who, from what can be seen, do no more than a fraction of their number managed to achieve a quarter century ago. In many cases they get paid more than the private sector for less commitment, they still have all their benefits and pensions and have acknowledged that no matter how incompetent, they still get to keep their jobs for life.The people are hurting due to the PLP Government's actions and inactions over the last five years and the BPSU members have been a party to the mess we are now all in. According to the Chamber of Commerce report of December 2010, almost one in every four people in the workforce is employed by Government, excluding consultants. So basically, every three people employed in the private sector are financially supporting one person who is employed by Government. Unbelievable. How many countries in the real world have that ratio! In addition, the private sector are also supporting those who have already lost their jobs in the private sector through public funded Government assistance. I hope that when the BPSU have their little chat about their salaries they think of the dwindling number of private sector workers who are available to maintain them in their lavish lifestyles. Perhaps they will agree to a ten percent reduction and share the pain the rest of us are suffering!NOT HOLDING MY BREATHPembroke‘Riddims' to work withJanuary 6, 2011Dear Sir,Bermuda's rap, reggae, R&B and dancehall artists should add these beats to their songs:1.Bank In A Pocket Riddim(Remember Stacious' Stop Mi Shine?)2.Medication Riddim(hot new beat)3.Ghetto Siren Riddim (hot new beat)4.My Life Riddim (Remember G Whizz's Nah Give Up?)5.Hot Grabber Riddim (Remember Capleton's Knock It?)6.Falmouth Town Riddim (this beat is not only sweet, it's hot)7.Boiling Blood Riddim(Probably the most hottest beat yet. You ought to hear Save Your Life by I-cient Warrior).These beats will add some flavor to some of you looking for something new to bring you up more.THESE BEATS R HOTDevonshireIs it any wonder?January 7, 2011Dear Sir,As someone who has completed his “allotted time” in the Bermuda Regiment, I completely agree with Walton Brown's opinion piece in the December 5 Royal Gazette. It was obvious to me during my service that far too much time was wasted forcing compliance with the rules and creating a cohesive force. If I had thought my service would have been beneficial to my future endeavours I would have been much more attentive instead of counting the days to completion. Better to have 100 well paid volunteers make a career of it than 300 conscripts. One would think that the new price point would be similar to the old. We could give the better quality soldier produced a much expanded role, one in keeping with the needs of Bermuda today. They would take pride in activities meaningful to the entire community ie. Coast Guard etc.My first two week camp served as a traumatic introduction to Regiment life. The cursing and berating by one's superiors seemed more befitting to a convicted criminal guilty of the most heinous crime, not young impressionable men fresh out of high school. I was defiant at first, as was a high percentage of my peers, but you quickly learn that there are punishments for those that choose to buck the system.After a while one becomes immune to the treatment, your fate is sealed and you learn acceptance. The goal of this treatment is to make you a man, right? I was told by the then Colonel that this ordeal was necessary to prepare us for the working world, when working on a job you have to follow the boss's orders, right? Yes and no. The major overriding difference is that I applied and choose to work at my job but I was forced against my will to serve in the Regiment. If I am abused by my boss there are options open to me, I can even get an different job. So you see this justification is absurd but one that i have found they use often.I sit here 13 years after service with a head full of useless information such as how to field strip and reassemble a rifle in the dark. As a matter of fact I would be so bold as to say that the Regiment actually helps to foster a love of guns in the youth that have passed through its ranks. I personally witnessed many of my peers develop this love, only to be informed on their completion of the required three years and two months that they can never legally handle said weaponry here again. Why encourage this behaviour in 18-year-old aggressive males in a supposed gun-free society? Makes you think doesn't it? Is it any wonder they feel the need to answer the call of the cold black steel in a Bermuda where being in the wrong place at the wrong time could quite possibly end your life? In other countries you can have this lust fulfilled by legally owning one and participating in recreational shooting at a range but not in the land of contradiction we call Bermuda.We must decide if the current configuration of the Bermuda Regiment is the way forward for 2011 and beyond. It is my personal belief that an unbiased review must be done and the results put to the people. We must decide if this is the way we should be treating our young men. There must be a better way, all we have to do is be willing to look.CLINTON J. A. PAYNTERSt. George's