September 23, 2011Dear Sir,It was interesting to note that our Postmaster General has been chosen to head the Post Office Union for the Caribbean area. Since the Bermuda postal system (I won’t call it a service) is probably the worst in the world, it makes you wonder if the situation down south is just as bad, but I doubt it.If I delivered mail here in Bermuda, I would be insulted that it is assumed that I am too stupid to deliver mail unless the postcode is on the envelope. These mail men and women have been delivering mail here for years with great success, and now the post office returns mail to sender for the slightest omission on the envelope. This is not only a huge inconvenience, especially to International Business, but it creates much more work and expense in returning mail to remote parts of the world.I recently feared that my cousin in Australia had passed away as I did not get her Christmas card this year; she does not have a computer and had changed her phone number. I have since heard that her card was returned to sender last March, with ‘address unknown’ on the envelope. She was thinking that I too must have kicked the bucket, and my house sold and the name changed.This appalling lack of reasonable service by the post office should be an embarrassment to any caring postal worker. To make the situation worse there is far less mail now than in the old days, with the frequent use of computers. At least with e-mail one can be sure of prompt delivery.Receiving mail through FedEx these days is not any easier either. I recently received a $10 magazine through FedEx, and the duty was four cents, but the Terminal Handling Fee was $10. What sort of a rip-off is this?With Christmas coming, I just hope and pray that the post office can come up with some sort of amnesty for the Christmas season. How are our friends in Kazakhstan, Allahabad and Timbuktu ever going to know our mysterious postcodes?E RABENPaget