Where?s housing plan?

July 18, 2006

Dear Sir,

Isn?t it about time the Government helped people find a place to live? Just how many months/years is it going to take? We have not received an answer from Government, or the Minister of Housing on this issue yet. I feel that this is the root of a lot of social ills, and the Government do not seem to be taking this seriously enough.

I have not seen a plan for housing. I have not seen a plan for the future generations, oh sure, a lot of talk but nothing concrete. Before you go off and say we have no land, what about Southside and the acreage down there? What are we waiting for? Surely some apartment buildings can be built quickly and affordable for these folks and their children who cannot find anywhere to rest their heads. But before we do this, please make sure the rents are low, like $500 per month for two bedrooms, and don?t put into place so many rules and regulations that people resist living there.

What?s happened to the old Holiday Inn in St. George?s? We heard months ago that there was someone interested in turning this place into a hotel again. Well, what?s going on there? I have said before that for now we could use this old hotel to house people who who are desperate. The guy sleeping in a dog kennel under a tent and all of his family is spread all over the island, is utterly disgusting. Premier Scott should have that newspaper clipping pinned up on is mirror so everyday he can see what his people have to endure, then sped dial Col. Burch daily for an update. It?s time to get started PLP. You?ve certainly had ample time to complete this task. But I guess you can?t do it. Well why don?t you step aside and let the UBP take over to get this thing done, I know they can do it and they already have a plan, so where?s yours? You are supposed to be an example; you are supposed to help those less fortunate than yourselves. But NOOOOO, you want the big bucks. This current Government is GREEDY and they need to be put out to pasture.

M.DUBOIS

Pembroke

Let?s have ?Courtesy Day?

July 9, 2006

Dear Sir,

Thank you for giving me the space to express my views on our current and ever increasing road traffic problem. I believe two words are at the root of all the problems ? ATTITUDE and COURTESY ? too much of the first and not enough of the second! I could relay many personal stories that would lend credence to the problems that every road user, in their capacity as a driver of a car, motor bike, pedal bike or as a pedestrian, experiences, but that is not the answer to the problem. The current government and the people of Bermuda must adopt a zero tolerance based solution. I propose two important steps: 1. Put in place a ?points against? system as they have in Canada. 2. Install radar cameras that record speed and are able to identify the car. The owner of the care is then given points against them plus a hefty fine.

We would very quickly get rid of the drivers who have no respect for other road users. I would also like to propose that we have a ?Courtesy Day?. This is where all traffic lights are switched off and you have your police person at the bottom of Reid Street extension only. Leave it up to those of us on the road to be courteous enough to let the traffic flow. It can be done with patience, a smile and thought for our fellow man. Bermuda is a rich country who can afford to invest in a plan that will save lives and bring back respect for each other. Let?s act NOW.

JUDY CANALE

P.S. I also believe it should be illegal to use a cell phone while driving.

A guide to utter confusion

July 15, 2006

Dear Sir,

Kudos to the compilers of the ?new look? TV guide ? selectTV.

Not only have they managed to mislead by continuing to refer to Thursday early morning (midnight to 8 a.m.) as Wednesday late night, they have now put the listings in non-chronological order. Wednesday Daytime (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) is now to be found AFTER Wednesday Prime Time (4 p.m. to midnight).

Putting together a decent TV guide must be a real puzzler. Maybe they need to contact the marketing team from British Leyland who, on hearing about the new Honda Applause, decided to name their next car the Austin Clap.

ANDREW R. DOBLE

Hamilton Parish

Successful moonwalk

July 17, 2006

Dear Sir,

The Sunshine League and Moonwalk Committee would like to thank all of the participants and sponsors of participants for a very successful Moonwalk on July 8 at Warwick Playground.

It was a beautiful moonlit night and we had over 100 walkers, bikers and in-line skaters and really appreciate everyone?s efforts in obtaining pledges to benefit the Sunshine League Children?s Home.

If anyone has late pledges or corporate matching that they need to hand in, please mail them to The Sunshine League, P.O. Box HM 1773 Hamilton HM HX, or drop them by the League at 27 King Street (corner of Dundonald and King) during office hours. We will be determining the winners of the ipods this year on July 26th so please get all your pledges in to us by that date. Again, thanks to everyone for another successful and fun Moonwalk. We sincerely appreciate everyone?s support.

KATHLEEN FARIES

www.sunshineleague.bm

Holistically speaking ...

July 22, 2006

Dear Sir,

What has become of the word ?Holistic??

Earlier this year you couldn?t turn on the local News without hearing at least three MPs using it in their diatribes.

Recent replacements such as ?Testicular Fortitude?, ?Town Hall Meeting? and ?Independence? just don?t have the same ring.

At least, not to those of us who are neither holy nor sticky.

Yours at the thesaurus,

Andrew R. Doble

Hamilton Parish

Transparent problem

July 20, 2006

Dear Sir,

This Government prides itself on being transparent. I have a problem with this.

Where I come from being ?transparent? means you can be seen through and thus exposed for what you really are which is usually something you don?t want anyone to know about in the first place ... or am I missing something?

Wondering & Wandering In Southampton

All the wrong places

July 14, 2006

Dear Sir,

I read with interest and some degree of alarm that we are seeking to recruit policemen from Jamaica. Why that island, the murder capital of the Caribbean, and known around the world for exporting criminals to all the drug dealing hubs in the Western World?

The Jamaican police certainly have not done a good job containing crime in their own country and are well known for corruption and being gun happy. Why not try Brazil, where the police shoot street children or China, where they execute you and make your family pay for the bullet? And hey, don?t forget the LAPD!

CURIOUS

City of Hamilton

Airline competition

July 12, 2006

Dear Sir,

I am writing to express my thoughts about the current and long time issue over the British Airways? fares to Bermuda. On July 11, read the article in TheRoyal Gazette about the BA sale ending midnight the same day. Seems to me that BA succeeded to keep Mr. Brown happy so it looks like he has done a great deal of work about that. This sale wasn?t even advertised in Bermuda, so what?s the point of it?

The only one I see is to keep Government and the people of Bermuda quiet over the high fares problem. I was shopping for ticket for my mother on July 10 without knowing about the sale, departing from Vienna, Austria and got the same old high fares even for September, $1,100 and more.

One more thing bothers me too. I fly to the Island every year from Vienna, first paying sky high fare-overpriced, second in London at Heathrow have to collect my luggage that is sometimes 2x32kg, take and pay (!) for the bus to Gatwick which is about $30!

So what kind of service is that? For what are we paying $1,100 and more? The sad thing is that I can fly from Europe through USA the to Bermuda and it still works out few hundreds dollars less. Only problem is the visa restrictions in US.

What can Bermuda do about this? I think much more that it has been done so far. How about opening the airport for other European airlines? To get some competition for BA to make them go down on the fares and finally have a choice.

MAD TRAVELER

Smith?s Parish

Editor?s Note: The British Airways fare sale was announced several days before the story appeared in the newspaper.

All in the same boat

July 20, 2006

Dear Sir,

Kudos to Christian Dunleavy for his very pertinent ?Opinion? article in today?s Royal Gazette entitled ?Isn?t it time we returned to plain old ?Bermudian??

I don?t know if what he says about being singled out as either expat or tourist at Cup Match is the norm when white people attend the event. However, in recent years it has been my experience that whenever I go into a store for the first time taking with me my white cycle helmet (which is very similar to the rental helmets tourists use) I am greeted most politely by clerks, regardless of their race. I don?t know whether or not they mistake me for a tourist, and frankly, I don?t care because I always return pleasantness with pleasantness regardless of who the person is.

The point I am trying to make is we are all (Black, White, Portuguese, Born Bermudians, Status Bermudians) in this same boat called ?Bermuda?. If it sinks, for whatever reason, we all go under. And as far as the many nationalities who are resident here is concerned, aren?t they here because they are industrious and willing to do the jobs the rest of us won?t do or are not willing to qualify ourselves for?

It is way past time this racial animosity displayed by some factions of the population ceased. I am not a particularly religious person, but I DO believe in God, and try to live my life in a manner which is pleasing to Him. Why can?t everyone try to do this. We are surely one of the most blessed places in the world. But are we thankful for all that we have and His goodness towards us? I don?t think so, judging by the goings-on currently taking place. Hatred must stop. It?s cessation must begin with the Government setting the example. Unfortunately for all of us (again - in the boat) they are more interested in fomenting racial discord.

I ask this question of The Government ? when you have succeeded (if ever) in getting everything you can for yourselves and have accomplished your goal of complete black domination for Bermuda with the attendant increase in crime, then what happens? The exempt companies will have gone and you will be left with nothing but a Bermudian flag to wave. A sorry day indeed for Bermuda.

GERALD L. YOUNG

Paget

Bermuda, be not deceived

July 20, 2006

Dear Sir,

As I follow the Human Rights Amendment Bill, I see that Renee is still at it. It also appears from a recent Royal Gazette article, that she?ll gain greater political support on this occasion. God help us if those members fall into Apostasy and spinelessness.

As I think of Renee?s persistence, she reminds me of a devotion I was doing on (30/6) from the Epistle of Jude 18-20. Jude is a book that most distorters of the faith will find distasteful because of its warnings and uncompromising stance against defectors from the truth of Jesus Christ. But to those who approach the book with receptive hearts, Jude?s words speak as unmistakably and vigorously today as they did almost two thousand years ago.

Verses 1820 in the King James, states; (18) How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts (19) These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit (20) But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.

The Amplified Bible states; (18) They told you beforehand, in the last days (in the end time) there will be scoffers ? who seek to gratify their own unholy desires, following after their own ungodly passions (19) It is these who are (agitators) setting up distinctions and causing divisions; merely sensual (creatures), carnal, worldly minded people, devoid of the (Holy) Spirit and destitute of any spiritual life (20) But you, beloved, build yourselves up (founded) on your most holy faith, make progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher, praying in the Holy Spirit.

This is the 2nd and last Prophecy in Jude (18) being fulfilled. Jude is saying that nothing that has been observed about false teachers should have taken the believers by surprise.

The Apostles had given warning (17) that in the end time?s evil deceivers would come among them. One of the main tactics of these mockers is to gain credibility and to tear down godly leaders.

There is no doubt according to Jude, that these false teachers (mockers) are without the Spirit and he leaves no doubt as to their eternal destiny. But to believers, he says, to continue to demonstrate and to cultivate our LOVE for Christ and to do that, we are also to demonstrate LOVE for our neighbours (everybody).

Why am I saying all this reference to the Human Rights Amendment Bill?

Bermuda, Renee is very articulate but pretending to devote herself to people in order to gain influence and power. It is quite evident in (verse 19) that she separates herself from the true church and those who demand holy living, and she sets herself up under the pretence of superior wisdom and ideals.

Bermuda please do not be deceived by this personal agenda.

Bermuda as a very prosperous and blessed nation, I ask the question, ?What about the rights of God?. In the book of Isaiah 5:1-7, Isaiah?s poem about the vineyard is parabolic.

It is a picture of Israel as the Lord?s vineyard and it teaches us that God has a right to expect love, worship and obedience from those He blesses.

Like people in Isaiah?s day, many of us show little gratitude and we deliberately break His moral laws, and when we behave this way, watch out because God has a right to act in judgment.

But worst still, in our clamour for personal freedom as in the case of this Amendment Bill, we hear very little about the rights of God.

We should recognise that He is the ?Lord of the Vineyard? and He expects the blessed Island of Bermuda to produce the fruits of love and obedience instead of the wild grapes of ingratitude and wickedness.

Bermuda and especially Ministers of the gospel do not allow this Amendment to go unchallenged. And to you the electorate of Bermuda, flood the House of Assembly and monitor which of your politicians lack the courage to stand and challenge the Amendment.

Ministers of the Gospel, Dr. Vernon Lamb, Dr Goodwin Smith, and Rev. Eve, Pastor Ronnie and many others, you too flood the House once again. This is not about intimidation; this is about not being ashamed of the gospel.

This is about causing the people of Bermuda via the politicians who will debate this bill, to produce the fruits of righteousness.

Renee and her small remnant must be defeated yet again, because God has rights too.

I?ll be praying and supporting from afar.

REV. LARRY

Orlando, Florida

Something I must know

July 6, 2006

Dear Sir,

Whither the land crabs?

Yours itching to know,

ANDREW R. DOBLE

Hamilton Parish