June 21, 2013Dear Sir,I am writing to express my total displeasure. Yes, I am an One Bermuda Alliance supporter. But I am also a fair critic. I am not pleased with the cut to student scholarships. I completely understand sacrifices must be made to dig us from the hole the mismanagement and lack of fiscal sensibility by the Progressive Labour Party; however, I feel this move was foolish. It’s hard enough to get scholarships. How do you expect to invest in Bermuda’s future via its young people when you’ve yanked the rug from under us even more. I’m currently in school struggling to afford to pay for things. I applied to many scholarships and was denied, even with a 4.0 GPA, being very involved, having the financial need for help. Now I am going to be heavily into debt with the banks in Bermuda as they offer no lower interests to students any more.It isn’t easy getting help, and OBA just made it harder. If you want to make cuts, here we go: Cut the prison budget! Why must we spend $80,000-plus per prisoner? It’s a prison! Not the Ritz Carlton Hotel. They’ve failed society, we youth are the future. Another cut you can make is a further cut to the salary of those in the House of Assembly. I am sorry, but let’s be realistic. Take a look around at Members of Parliament. How many own businesses, some own more than one? Look at the wealth many of them on both sides of the House possess. They can sit back and put their feet up while we middle/lower class citizens scrape along.If we succeed in breaking through the glass ceiling in Bermuda, then you all expect us to contribute back to the very upper society that looked down their noses upon us. You see, everyone talks about race issues in Bermuda. Personally, I agree there are some there, but it isn’t as bad as some make it to be. The real issue is social class. If you have money in Bermuda, you can be black, or white, or other. They call the shots, they get all the jobs, they get the scholarships. Sick and tired of Tucker’s Town children getting scholarships when their parents could afford to send four children to Yale and it just make a dent in their income. I am not trying to sound Marxist, but Bermudians of middle to lower class, we need to band together in solidarity. We are the ones suffering while the rich get richer and get into Government to secure their hold on us. We are the ones penalised when the upper society can’t balance a chequebook in Government. If they had to live pay cheque to pay cheque like we do, they’d manage their money a lot better I guarantee it!ROBERT DAVIES JR