Blessed to be Christian

March 31, 2005

Dear Sir,

I am surprised that you would fill your precious editorial space with the long and idiotic letter from J. Starling! Could you not have found a more interesting letter to print? J. Starling: A word of advice, when you see a cross look away, when someone says God Bless close your ears!

The rest of us love to hear those words and our eyes are filled with joy when we see the cross displayed in the General Post Office. My friend, you sound like you need Jesus in your heart. The Bible instructs Christians to spread the word of God ? and that?s just what we will do! Don?t like it ? tough! Get a life and go to church!

To the Postmaster General ? my hat?s off to you! Keep the cross just where it is!

Fees for car washers

March 30, 2005

Dear Sir,

I?m a bit concerned as to Hamilton Corporation?s decision to ban car-washing within what is basically the city area, and I also think that the implementation thereof was much too quick.

The Corporation should have considered issuing permits (for a small fee) to prospective car-washers and only allowing them to operate in specific areas as defined on their individual permits, and they could be monitored by the City Rangers (not the Police: they have far too much to do already!) to ensure that everything is operating smoothly.

Should any ?licensed? car-washer be performing duties outside his/her designated area, or should any complaints of, for example, drunkenness, profanity or aggressiveness be made against any ?licensed? car-washer, that permit may be withdrawn.

While I realise that not all of Hamilton?s car-washers are 100 percent on the side of the angels, I do feel that the majority of them are making a genuine effort to support themselves in these times of financial need, and they should be encouraged to do so instead of being thwarted by officialdom. It?s the basic entrepreneurial spirit: they?ve identified a need of the community, and are fulfilling that need. The public gets a service they want, and the car-washers get the money they want. It?s a ?win-win? situation, isn?t it? Why screw it up?

Closure affects confidence

April 1, 2005

Dear Sir,

Today you published in the Business News a Research Innovations poll that showed an alarming plunge in people?s confidence in the direction of Bermuda?s economy.

This change in confidence is in such depth, and is so much more a reflection of what Bermudians think about their future than an analysis of dry economic details, that it should have been reported in a more widely read section. While in January an anyway meagre 40 percent felt positive on the future of their source of income, by March 21 this thin confidence had plummeted to 26.5 percent. To put it in perspective, in a population of 60,000, in only eight weeks some 8,000 more people soured on this, at the best, rather dim outlook.

Someone at the Bermuda College said he thought it was price inflation, but prices didn?t rise that much in just a few weeks. There was the claim that everyone suddenly anticipated inadequate pay raises to match January?s inflation figures. While perhaps logical, it would take a hard-pressed, personally impacted economics lecturer to sell that one.

Local and foreign writers of letters to you and to other media continue to express much clearer realities: to them it was the announced closing of Trimingham?s stores, just a week before the second poll, and how this had undermined their collective view of an increasingly fragile Bermudian scene as foreign interests took over.

This event, and the absence of any sensible effort at preservation by the various and often warned powers that be, obviously had an extraordinarily depressing effect on the Bermudian psyche.

Struggling to survive

March 28, 2005

Dear Sir,

I am a young mother of two (children ages 4 and 8). I find it very hard to survive. I struggle on a day-to-day basis working two or sometimes three jobs. I hardly have any time for my children. I am living in a three-bedroom house sharing with a family member who has two children of her own plus her father. I have to share a room with her children plus my children and myself. It hurts me as my eight-year-old often asks me: ?Mommy, I want to have my own room. I want to move. Why mommy?? ? Why we can?t have our own house?? I often get stressed trying to make things work so that my children are happy.

I often find myself looking in the paper and on the Internet for apartments. I find it very discouraging when you can just about afford a studio apartment. I have tried to apply for a studio. When they find out that I have two children they turn me down. One lady said she only rents to couples.

I have even gone to the Government for help. They ask me to fill out an application. I did. Then they interviewed me. Then they told me they would contact me when they find something for me. I have kept in contact with them. It is two years later and I am still in the same predicament. They had asked me to come and fill out another application. This is my Government (PLP) as they quote ?for the people?. This just frustrates me.

RJS

Smith?s Parish

Hypocritical position

April 1, 2005

Dear Sir,

It is truly amazing that Bermuda?s largest employer ? Government ? continues to exempt themselves from the provisions of the CURE Legislation. At the same time, the Premier takes out a half-page advertisement in your esteemed organ of today?s data to trumpet the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Bermuda! Unfortunately this is typical of Government?s attitude of ?Do what I say and not as I do!?

Whilst I was holding forth on the evident hypocrisy of this position, my wife laughingly told me to check the date on the paper ? it is April Fool?s Day. Is this somebody?s idea of a joke?

Presumed innocent

March 31, 2005

Dear Sir,

I was surprised to se in your Editor?s Note by way of response to a letter from Mr. Charles E. Williams of Somerset that ?It has been the tradition of for decades not to give honorifics to defendants in criminal trials?.

The reference was in respect to Mr. Julian Hall?s case now before the Courts. It was suggested by the writer that perhaps ?a little bit of racism was surfacing? on the part of your reporter.

The word ?honorific? as you will be aware means ?showing respect?.

Regardless of the outcome of that particular case, by not showing respect to a defendant in a criminal trial you are not showing respect for the most basic tenet of the criminal law itself, the presumption of innocence.

Perhaps you did not intend it to sound like that or, perhaps it is time to change this ?decades old? attitude.The previous Editor?s note simply made the point that Mr. Hall was not being singled out. More broadly,this policy has been a subject of some concern to the newspaper for some time and is under active review. The Editor welcomes the views of the public on the issue, including the degree to which the newspaper should remove honorifics at all, not only when they are on trial but in the event that they are found guilty and sentenced.