Wrong colour flags

December 7, 2007

Dear Sir,

I was in total shock this morning Friday December 7, driving to work only to see PLP candidates, waving good bye to their supporters. They should have been waving white flags instead of green.

ROBERT HENDERSON

Smith's Parish

Spare a thought ...

December 5, 2007

Dear Sir,

At this Christmas season when we are thinking of home and families, I wonder if the Premier and Col. Burch ever give a thought for those "lucky' Lottery winners who wept and praised God when when they were told (several years ago now) that their suffering was over as their Government was giving then a home of their own that they could afford?

Do those gentlemen have any idea what it is like to be a widow who has raised two children alone and is paying $30,000 a year in RENT...dead money never to be seen again! Over three years that is $90,000!

We were so hopeful, for the first year, and even the second year and even when they 'broke ground' we dared to hope again! But here we are years later still waiting, still paying ridiculous rents. All we have right now is broken promises and empty pockets.

To those gentlemen......Have a Christ filled Christmas and enjoy gathering with your family in your own homes.

Wish we could!

ANASTASIS

St. George's

P.s. Can the UBP promise to fix the board walk near Fort St Catherine....so the PLP will rush to fix it like the Police Station in St. Georges.

Seeking representation

November 24, 2007

Dear Sir,

What excitement I felt in reading The Royal Gazette's profile of my MP, Mr. Glenn Blakeney. Here, I read, was Glenn Blakeney the "Team Player".

As one of his constituents I hoped that he would ask for a second chance with his constituents, who he has been paid to represent. I thought he was going to apologise to us for always standing with the Government; apologise for opposing us at every step of our long struggle to protect our neighbourhood. I thought that Mr. Blakeney was going to join our team, to hear us and to fight for us, even if it meant stepping out of his comfort zone with his "pals". After five years of our representative selling government plans to us rather than standing with us and conveying our concerns to the government.

But I should have known better. I suppose a leopard really cannot change his spots. After five years Mr. Blakeney must think — or perhaps he hopes — that we suffer from memory loss. It is a good thing that some of us actually took the trouble to keep a record of his many quotations.

This is the same "team player" who, in November, 2003 promised the Alexandra/Mary Victoria Road residents that no additional low-cost housing would be built in Prospect; however, less than a year later he admitted having "a change of heart" and supported the building of the emergency housing in our area. From that day forward, the residents of Prospect knew we were on our own.

Only though the endless hours of hard work of Mrs. Albertha Waite, her Housing Committee, and the wonderful team in Prospect that we were finally successful. This team had members from every area of Prospect supporting it. There were wonderful representatives from the Frog Lane Estate, Cedar Park, the Prospect Seniors Apartments, and the flat-top emergency houses, assisting and encouraging us. The one person that we really needed was Mr. Glenn Blakeney, but he only sought to sell us the Government's newest scheme.

Hopefully you will understand my disappointment that Mr. Blakeney took credit for all of the improvements inn the Prospect area in his profile. In reality, these improvements were the direct result of neighbours working together as a team: lights and road works were the fruits of neighbourhood pressure on BHC; the new CCTV was a promise made to our Neighbourhood Watch. The Prospect Housing Committee, under Mrs. Waite, has not stopped. There's much to be done including fixing leaky roofs, painting stripes on our speed bumps, painting our houses, security for our seniors, and increasing the police presence in the area.

Finally, the two biggest battles we still face are obtaining the free hold titles to our houses and being able to sell our houses for fair market value. If Mr. Blakeney continues as our representative it looks like, once again we will be on our own. In June 2006 Mr. Blakeney made it very clear that he supports the $290,000 cap on our homes, saying that our houses were not to be sold to "benefit real estate prospectors". So, again, it looks like we know which "team" our representative is on.

A PROSPECT VOTER

Devonshire

Anti-corruption laws

December 3, 2007

Dear Sir,

I've noticed that a few callers on radio talk shows recently have been attempting to deny that Dr. Brown is corrupt because he doesn't have stolen cedar beams in his house. While he may legitimately be able to deny these allegations, Dr. Brown does not deny being paid $2,500 per plate for a lunch attended by persons providing investment services to the Bermuda Pension Fund (the 'pay-for-play' scandal reported in the Mid-Ocean News).

The payments were ostensibly to fund Dr. Brown's election campaign — but this begs the question of what possible stake could a group of non-Bermudian investment service providers have in our elections, unless it secured the future of their business relationship if the PLP formed the next government?

If the payments were made to secure business relationships (and there seems to be no other logical conclusion) in my opinion they can only be characterised as corrupt. This corrupt practice has been effectively condoned by the PLP because Dr. Brown was not made to resign.

Unfortunately the law holds Cabinet ministers to lower standards then those demanded of trustees and company directors. If Dr. Brown had been a trustee of a trust and had accepted undisclosed payments from persons seeking to do business with the trust, this would be a breach his fiduciary duty. If Dr. Brown had been a director of a company and accepted payments from persons seeking to manage the company's pension fund, the company could sue Dr. Brown and recover the unlawful payments.

The lack of meaningful anti-corruption legislation represents a glaring gap in our laws and it costs taxpayers dearly. The pay-for-play scandal is only one example. The investment service providers were willing to take a $2,500 hit to their profits in order to potentially secure Pension Fund business going forward. The $2,500 payments should be forfeited to the Pension Fund (which would be consistent with company law). No Cabinet Minister or Government official should ever be allowed to keep such payments.

The UBP proposed anti-corruption legislation a few years ago but the PLP voted it down. Again the message is that the PLP condones corruption. Perhaps newcomers like Zane DeSilva and Jane Correia intend to change all of that and support anti-corruption legislation? Or am I dreaming?

With the election pending, an obvious question is: would the UBP be any better if they win? I would expect them to pass meaningful anti-corruption legislation that holds MPs to standards similar to the legal standards for trustees or company directors and includes criminal penalties. If they failed to do this, I'd have no problem writing a similar letter to this one in five years time and voting for the PLP.

We should not be allowing corruption to be part of our status quo. All Bermudians expect and deserve a meritocracy in which their best efforts are rewarded — not a 'mateocracy' where you only get government contracts if you're the Minister's mate or you've paid the appropriate politician. It's time to put an end to corruption and for voters to demand anti-corruption legislation. the PLP have let us know where they stand on this and for that, I'm afraid, they have to go.

ANGUS LYNN

Spanish Point

China connection

December 1, 2007

Dear Sir,

It's estimated that 200,000 to 400,000 black African's in Darfur have been slaughtered by Arab militias since 2003.

Efforts by the UN to stop this genocide have been thwarted by China, who has a permanent seat on the Security Council, and close ties to the Sudanese government that is waging war on the African population there.

It's sickening to think that this has been able to go on for so long, while the world stands by and does virtually nothing.

Ewart Brown isn't standing around though. He's decided to open a Tourism Office in China!

Why on earth? Despite all his rhetoric on race, he sure looks like a man who cares more about political gain than other black people.

Even if we ignore the moral questions posed by the China decision, why on earth would Bermuda want a Tourism Office in China?

It takes more than 30 hours and $2,000 to fly to Bermuda from Beijing. And that's economy. There's a trip that's sure to test the limits of human endurance! Can you imagine?

With a per capita income of only $1,740 the average Chinese citizen would have to save for years just to cover the air fare. How many tourists does Brown seriously think he can "lure" to Bermuda's shores from China?

Meanwhile Bermuda decides to shut down its Tourism Office in Boston? Welcome to crazy town!

Even if wealthy white New Englanders are no longer the type of tourist Bermuda is looking to attract, you could surely appeal to more Chinese people by advertising in Asian communities in and around Boston, than by opening an office in Beijing.

Bermudians should be asking themselves how much each Chinese tourist is going to cost them next year. I'd bet it's a great deal more than the per capita income in China, or the cost of simply sending them a ticket and booking them a room.

I'm just guessing of course. But it seems like guessing is the best anyone can do these days.

If they can't provide accurate graduation statistics for Cedar Bridge there's no way they'll be able to figure out how much of your money they're wasting in China. And even if they can figure it out, they'll never tell you.

And as for the black folks being systematically slaughtered in Darfur?

I don't suppose you'll ever hear a word about them from Dr. Brown. He's already said he's going back to China.

BOSTON EXPAT

Make a difference

December 3, 2007

Dear Sir,

In a recent copy of the AARP (formerly, the American Association of Retired Persons, now just referred to as AARP) magazine, there was an interview with Morgan Freeman, the actor. In the article, there was an excerpt of an interview he had with Mike Wallace of the CBS programme 60 Minutes in 2005. Mike Wallace asked him, "How can we get rid of racism?" Freeman's reply was swift and blunt: "Stop talking about it. I'm going to stop calling you a white man, and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man."

Now, there's a thought! On the one hand, we can choose to form committees to discuss it, have dialogue, bring in consultants and "experts" in the subject, or we can realise that we all are, indeed, different from one another in lots of ways, including race.

If we start to think of each other and start treating each other as human beings, we might just start down the road of healing. If we continue to keep stirring the pot, keep playing the race card, keep brining our history to the forefront, we, as Bermudians, will not make the progress we hope to make towards becoming one society.

I realise that we can learn from our past, including the good parts and the bad parts. But for those who do stir the pot thinking that dredging up the evils of the past will cure the future, I feel very strongly that it just won't work. Since the beginning of time, there have been many forms of inequality, such as financial, religious, racial, ethnic and national origin, sex, etc. In most cases, the groups who were in the minority who wanted a better life, for themselves or their children, had to work harder, longer and smarter to overcome their barriers and move toward success. Not everyone succeeded, but many did. You might say: "That's not fair." Yup, you got that right. I think we all realise that life is not fair, but welcome to the real world and a cycle that will continue long into the future.

As you read this, because of your past, you are who you are and nothing you can do will change that. What you can change is to start, right now, to appreciate that your neighbours, your friends, your work associates, store employees, even strangers on the street also have their own long history of life's experiences. We are all human beings who can make a choice to try and be positive in our dealings as we interact with each other or we can choose to be negative. We cannot change the past, but we sure can make a difference in the future.

JACK DURNER

Pembroke

Get 'it' on the table

November 30, 2007

Dear Sir,

Some 20 years ago, I gave the PLP the moniker The 'St. Kitts Club'.

What right do these black West Indians of lowly born origins have to come up here, make a lot of money, and tell me what to do?

Now, I am sure I have the attention of the black community!

Ten years ago, my friend, Dr. Ewart Brown stood up in front of the Medical Society and said, and I quote: "What right do you white English doctors from lowly born origins, have to come out here, and make a lot of money and tell me what to do?"

This is on record and was reported by me to the Human Rights Commission, and to you your paper, The Royal Gazette. The chairman of the HRC was none other than the recently departed Dr. Goodwin Smith — he could not see the issue — or was it that he did not want to see the issue.

My, thoughts are still; what is good for the goose is good for the gander!

I must admit that Dr. Brown "speaks his mind". We would certainly improve our race relations if we all would — get "it" out on the table. Teach our inglorious past in the schools so that slavery, segregation, apartheid would get some closure.

The white community wants the black community to forget the past — they will never forget. How could white people even ask them to. But Dr. Brown still has quite the mouth.

SANDERS FRITH-BROWN

Warwick

A waste of money

December 2, 2007

Dear Sir,

GITV is a waste of taxpayer money.

KENT SMITH

St. George's