Are we all complicit?January 7, 2011Dear Sir,We opposed apartheid in South Africa because it was a disgracefully racist, unjust system. We managed to force industries, banks and businesses to stop doing business with South Africa. The dismantling of apartheid was accomplished by ordinary people and some amazingly extraordinary people. Around the same time, we managed to stop various tuna fisheries from slaughtering dolphins through the simple boycott mechanism we found out who the bad guys were and we didn’t buy their products. Then, we learned about battery hens chickens jammed into tiny cages in appallingly brutal conditions. We boycotted the companies running those chicken factories. A few remain in business but the majority have been forced by legislation to mend their ways.Much suffering has been alleviated throughout the world by the raising of public consciousness. Unfortunately, greed and corruption seem to lurk around every corner and no sooner is one issue dealt with than another appears. Today, I read an article by Jesse Moniz, in which JP Skinner, education officer at BIOS, raises a number of alarms regarding fishing stocks world wide. He spoke also about the shrimp farms in certain parts of Asia where entire mangrove swamps are being destroyed. These are low lying areas which will doubtless be underwater in the not too distant future, unless the mangroves are protected.The sea will encroach and the people living in those areas will be displaced. The governments of those countries know how valuable mangrove swamps are to the environment, but greed and corruption rule the day. There is money to be made in shrimp farming. We can all guess whose pockets will be lined and whose won’t. Which brings me to the subject of China and the so called ‘Third World countries’. These countries have become the factories of the world. In far too many of the factories, human beings are the battery hens jammed into tiny cubicles in unhealthy environments with little or no ventilation. They live in factory owned dormitories, miles away from their families, and are paid a pittance. Many of the governments have little or no legislation protecting the basic human rights of the workers in these factories.I read in the New York Times a story about little villages in remote parts of China where the residents are being systematically poisoned by “rare earth” mining. The local government says that the mining is “illegal” because it is being carried out by black market miners not those sanctioned by the government. The authorities appear to be unconcerned about the methods used in the mining and the poisoning of the villagers they are concerned about who makes the profits. The “rare earth” minerals are needed for the hugely expanding industries manufacturing items like BlackBerries and other electronic goods.Anyone who takes the time to read the labels on packets of light bulbs, small appliances, jeans, sweaters, underwear and socks, large appliances, components and parts for airconditioning, etc. etc. will see exactly where they are manufactured. Many of their trademarks are household names in the western world they are American, British, German etc. But the items are produced in countries like Bangladesh and China. Not only are the working conditions in the majority of these factories cruel and inhumane, the goods being produced are often not of the same quality check out how long a light bulb lasts these days. A well known brand name for small appliances now markets kettles which last a couple of months instead of fifteen years. They are expensive and used to be made in Europe three guesses where they are made today.One last point, if you’ll forgive a minor digression. The people who used to work in the factories of America, Britain and the rest of Europe the factories which have been moved to cheap labour destinations, with lax labour laws where do all those people work today and what has happened to their factory towns? Clearly, when we buy a product we need to look behind it and see if we can learn its history. Otherwise we are all complicit.KATHLEEN BELLPagetTime to ‘plant something’January 9, 2011Dear Sir,I left for Australia the day after Paula Cox was elected, and it was not until two weeks ago, on my return, that I heard that she had kept the Ministry of Finance. She is not that good, and, will have her hands full as Premier, but, the fault with her even being able to hold these positions lies with those that drew our Bermudian Constitution. Having a “political” Attorney General was/is madness; letting Dr Ewart Brown hold three “portfolios” I had hoped was an aberration by that charming “rogue”. Who gives counsel to Premier Cox? Does she take no responsibility for the billion dollar debt we have she was the Minister of Finance?And now, once again, the PLP is talking about Independence! I have talked at length with many black Bermudians who feel that they will only remove the “knee on their necks of colonial oppression” when they are Independent. The PLP act as if they were lemmings, intent on self destruction, but, they are pulling me with them, and I protest. They continue to limit work permits; limit the houses available to long term residents; flail around trying to build out tourist numbers, offering but a hollow promise. They build “affordable” housing for the poor, who do nothing to stop having children that not only they cannot afford, but, we, the community cannot afford how are we going to afford to paint our roofs?I will not accept criticism by black emotion for commenting on “out of wedlock” children, because, I care little the state of ‘wedlock’ of the mothers. Notice I do not say ‘parents’ ... parents must parent, and there are seldom two “parents”, and this is the cause of the social problems here in Bermuda. As I have written to you before, for twelve years, my wife and I sent three successive black, out of wedlock, children to Warwick Academy. This is responsibility, and I owe this to the black community for the way my ancestors treated people of colour. I went to the Turks Islands some twenty years ago. When I asked where all the trees were, the taxi driver stated that the Bermudians had cut them down. I looked at my wife, and then asked the driver, ‘when’?. His answer was “300 years ago”! When was he going to plant some trees and stop blaming? So Premier Cox, when are you going to ‘plant something” and give up the Ministry of Finance?SANDERS FRITH-BROWNWarwickMixed messageJanuary 7, 2011Dear Sir,What sense does it make saying these cars are allowed to do whatever they feel like doing on the roads? Why should everyone have to pay a fine on the road for doing wrong but let a Ministerial individual do the same thing, and they don’t have to pay (by the way, it’s nice that Sen. Kim Wilson paid the fine in the end but,why the controversy over $50?) Why would you start up controversy over $50 without anyone of the public getting informed as to what you guys claim is okay for you?CONFUSEDDevonshireExacerbating the issueJanuary 11, 2011Dear Sir,The lead article (“Job Losses Could Top 3,000”) in today’s newspaper laments local job losses, attributing them to world economic issues and ignoring the primary cause: The Bermuda Government and its policies, which are spawned by the insular, protectionist attitudes of its local electorate. Consider the following:The article notes that the construction industry is the source of the most local job losses. However, it is the actions of Bermuda’s Government that have dramatically reduced local construction! For example:(1) Bermuda’s laws now preclude locals from selling their real estate to foreigners. Thus, locals have no incentive to improve their property (to gain the profits that foreigners historically paid). As a result, local-improvement-jobs are reduced to barest minimums or abandoned totally, effectively cancelling thousands of construction jobs annually and, over time, reducing the value of all Bermuda real estate.(2) Foreigners are precluded from building homes here either on raw land or by remodelling a local’s home to enlarge it to comply with the size requirements of foreigners’ homes; this law surely prevents dozens of large construction jobs every year.(3) Then, too, the Governments 25 percent tax, on the purchase of all homes by foreigners (likely the world’s highest purchase-tax) reduces the turnover of foreign homes and the usual construction improvements that follow those purchases; this, too, reduces construction substantially every year, and it leads inexorably to a lower and lower level of housing. Not only would a ten to 15 percent purchase tax result in more revenue to the Government (via more home sales), but it would lead to more construction jobs, and more affluent locals who would spend more in Bermuda stores, pay ever more in import duties, household staff, services of maintenance firms of all stripes, and produce more real estate taxes to boot.Bermuda’s outdated work permit rules (and the rules that make it difficult or impossible to fire non-performing Bermudian) drive countless new businesses to the Cayman’s, Bahamas, Ireland, Switzerland, and even India. Regardless, Bermuda’s Government, ever enslaved by myopic voters, ignores the real causes of its malaise and fatuously seeks to squeeze more and more juice from an ever smaller orange complaining all the while about “the bad economy”. New businesses (and desirable tourists) can’t be tricked into coming to Bermuda by disingenuous ads (e.g., “Feel the Love”), especially when they are snubbed at Airport Immigration and later by retail clerks; businesses need economic enticements, and tourists need attractions, and both need “TLC” to move to or visit our Island.Government seems blind to the causes of prosperity; it systematically walls out the intelligence, creativity and wealth of newcomers (nor will it even salt its schools, judiciary, or government posts with the different perspectives and skills that foreigners’ can offer, importantly sharing the “open” attitudes that foster growth worldwide). The Government does these things in a vain attempt to protect and further insulate Bermuda’s confessed, woefully educated electorate from the real world’s competitive forces, creating an inexorable spiral into an economic abyss of inexplicable depths.The economy suffers, as well, from the tourists’ chronic complaint: “There’s nothing to do in Bermuda.” The Bermuda Government exacerbates these issues, too, by rejecting all manner of change. For example, gambling proliferates in 95 percent of the resorts on the planet, but not here. Then, too, there is no nightlife. The days of entertainment bastions (e.g., The Forty Thieves’ Restaurant), with their abundant, great imported talent, were brought largely to an end by impossible Government regulations. This, coupled with unharnessed street crime, has slaughtered Bermuda’s golden Entertainment Goose. These days, it is the insurance, money-management and other business “gooses” that are being turned away, and, of course, retailers and service firms increasingly feel the pain. “If it’s broke,” to be trite, “fix it!” It’s “broke”.THIRTY-YEAR RESIDENTWarwicK