Battle of Bostock Hill

July 25, 2002

Dear Sir,

I find it extremely discouraging that you would allow Bermuda's largest newspaper to be manipulated by a group of residents who obviously have a personal agenda to communicate.

We have all been made painfully aware of the Bostock Hill Project for the past two or three years. With everything which is happening both in Bermuda and in the world, I find it disturbing that you would allow your newspaper to become the 'Bermuda Enquirer'. If the few residents at Bostock Hill have nothing better to do than to harass someone who seems to be making their community a better place to live then please spare the rest of Bermuda's citizens the daily details of their complaints.

Mr. Eldridge and his group are not in the least bit concerned about preserving the arable space in Bermuda. I have had an opportunity to pass the property recently and, to be honest, it looks much better now than it did when all of this bickering by the residents started. If Mr. Eldridge, Mr. Butterfield and others were so concerned about the arable portion of the property why did they not get together and purchase the property from the previous owner?

This group of so-called "conscientious" objectors is making a mockery of the media. I am as much for freedom of speech as anyone else but this has become ridiculous.

If TheRoyal Gazette is going to print a story, please make sure you have all of the facts and that you are not allowing your newspaper to be used as a weapon to espouse someone's personal agenda. If you must continue to print every detail of the on going saga of the Bostock Hill project, at least be objective enough to give us both sides.

L. VIRGINIA BROWN

Hamilton Parish

It's hot out there

July 29, 2002

Dear Sir,

This should be our summer motto: 'If the heat don't kill you, the humidity will'.

LIVING IN HEAT

Pembroke

Why I would go for GPS

Dear Sir

I know the GPS issue has been left out in the cold for now but I needed to voice my opinion in this matter.

I left my mobile phone in the back of a taxi that I picked up from a Front Street taxi stand one evening a few weeks ago. The next morning I began to call all the listed taxi services in the yellow pages but nothing turned up. I reported the phone lost with the Police Services that same day. I continued to call the taxi services and Hamilton Police Station and today I am finally giving up. I am not pretending that it was someone else's fault that I left the phone on the backseat but had it been for GPS, would I have been able to track down the cab that brought me home that night - I knew the time, date and pickup and destination points!!

There is no way that a mobile phone in the back of taxi would go that unnoticed. Hopefully the taxi driver would have had the decency to hand it in or report it to Hamilton Police Station but as I obviously could not count on the honesty of that particular taxi driver, then perhaps he and his cab should be monitored with a positioning system such as was recommended by the Government earlier this year.

I am not a taxi driver and I am not aware of the internal politics of picking up passengers or how taxi drivers choose who and where to make collections but it seems that the organisation would be much better and therefore more expedient with a Global Positioning System. At present, cabs take calls when they are more than a far distance away, making the customer wait longer than they would have had to if a more suitably closer cab was taking that call. There seems to be so much dissatisfaction from locals with the speed and reliability of taxis on this island I would have thought that any measure to upgrade the service would have been pushed harder by the government.

To top it all off, there are indeed the incidences of violence and rudeness of cab drivers. I know of one incident where a cab driver got into an argument with his passengers and pulled a knife. The driver drove off, a police report was made but as the passengers did not catch the name or number, then GPS I assume would have provided for a record of which taxis were in that vicinity at the time. There is no excuse for threatened violence especially with a weapon and I assume the Police would probably benefit from being able to call upon records.

As far as I understand, a cab driver does not have to call into their dispatch to say that they are taking a passenger from a taxi stand so there would be no way of verifying a claim even if the passenger had taken the number of the taxi.

If taxi drivers were doing their job well, there would be no dissatisfaction among customers. If taxi drivers were doing their job there should be no reason why GPS would be an issue: I think taxi drivers do not like the idea of being more regulated because at present they can get away with taking specific fares and not taking calls as they come.

IMMOBILE

Warwick

Get into the deep end

July 25, 2002

Dear Sir,

What a high-minded, yet one-sided editorial on July 25, 2002 under your heading "Women priests".

Permit me to make a couple of points about it. First. What we do not want in Bermuda is a repetition to the English experience of individual parishes voting for or against, under measures which then provided for alternative Episcopal oversight. I would confidently expect the church in Bermuda to be more sensible than that. It means the promoters of ordination for women must be prepared to live together with other Christians who hold a different view, a view which they are entitled to hold (see the Eames Commision Report).

Your editorial ignores this and only serves to elevate the unhelpful "We are right and you are wrong" attitude. The next occurrence in England is the Commision in respect of the Episcopate itself.

Second. It is not about whether "women priests can perform as well as men". Service in the church is just that, service in all humility. To quote authority, 'ordination is neither the most worthy nor the highest way of serving God within the Church'. There are, I would hold, circumstances where women may perform better than men in both a practical and spiritual way. Consider those with the name Teresa to begin with!

We must look to the guidance of the Holy Spirit to find the way forward and avoid the former Archbishop Robert Runcie's comparison of the Church (of England) being like a swimming pool - all the splashing went on at the shallow end.

DAVID J. ADDINGTON

Somerset

Airline looked after me

July 19, 2002

Dear Sir,

Recently you published a letter from a person who expressed unhappiness with his contact with American Airlines.

I'd like to say that I had the opposite experience with that organisation in June. They not only ungrudgingly offered a special fare for me and my companion to go to Boston for medical treatment but within a couple of hours of making the reservation their Special Assistance Unit telephoned me to make wheelchair arrangements and to discover what, if anything, they could do to make my flight pleasant.

I very much appreciated their attention and did not want the occasion to pass without saying so.

JEP STEWART

Pembroke

A very good job

July 26, 2002

Dear Sir,

From an economist's point of view, when it comes to big issues of time and money, 1,000 people for a party cosing $35,000 is equal to $35 per person.

The party place Clearwater Beach, summer time. Cost of renting? Zero and - priceless!

Taxpayers Money Oh no!!!! Never Hon. Dr. Brown,... One minute!!!

60,000 Bermudians paid $35,000 that's about 59 cents per person, party theme headlines: Thanks for taking care of Bermuda's people best reception area 24/7 365 days. Prize: Number One in North America.

Business in Bermuda; Doing better than other countries in the world.

Well, the economist will say that's a very good job they did for the people for 59 cents!!

From the politician's point of view, no idea?! You have to keep reading the newspaper.

Hon. Dr. Brown, thanks for being a wonderful and excellent C.E.O. who knows the true spirit of Bermuda!

DAVID GITHINJI

Hamilton Parish

Let's celebrate together

July 25, 2002

Dear Sir,

Sunday marked the anniversary of the Sea Venture shipwreck and thus the start of continuous human habitation of Bermuda. Thursday was the anniversary of the end of slavery in Bermuda. It was also the anniversary of the first meeting of our Parliament.

There were remembrances of Somers Day and Emancipation Day - separately. What I wish is that these events could be celebrated together, for they are both important to all of us. I'd like to point out that churches could celebrate them together, along with appropriate Bible readings - the ones that come particularly to mind are the story of St. Paul's shipwreck, which has so many parallels to the accounts of the Sea Venture, and the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt, which has for so long symbolised an escape from bondage.

Of course the Cup Match celebration, falling as it does on Somers Day and Emancipation Day, is an important patriotic holiday, but it would be even better for Bermuda if the two greatest events in our history were overtly remembered together so that we should never forget these primary moments of the past, these anniversaries which mark events which make us the Bermudians of today.

W. S. ZUILL

Smith's Parish

It's clear to me

July 27, 2002

Dear Sir,

Please allow me to respond to the Bank of Bermuda Ltd.'s general counsel Mr. Bruce Woolley's Letter to the Editor submitted Friday July 26, 2002, wherein he attempts to malign my character while responding to Dr. Grant Gibbons' the Opposition Leader and a former director of the Bank's, opinion column, published in your paper on July 18, 2002.

I find myself compelled to write a response, to stem the flow of subtle misinformation the bank continues to pass onto the public concerning my human rights complaint. My human rights complaint, lodged against Mr. Henry Smith, the bank's President and CEO and the bank's board of directors is about the contempt and oppressive business practices shown and used by the bank's directors towards black Bermudian businessmen which allowed them to discriminate against me, by refusing to intervene in my banking complaint, although being fully aware that it was not being handled in the normal manner as defined by the bank's own complaint policy. My case before the court concerns leaking my confidential banking information by officers of the bank to persons outside the bank. Although these are both oppressive and unfair practices, they are clearly different.

Communication with the directors concerning the bank's internal investigation into my complaint conducted by Mr. Alan Richardson, the bank's then Executive Vice President of Retail Clients, who determined that I had been wronged by bank officers, ended in July 2000; my human rights complaint was filed in October 2000, well within the six-month period required by the Human Rights Act.

I thought I would tell you exactly what the directors said in their letter to the HRC. After providing their reasons for not participating, reasons which the HRC rejected, the directors' lawyers stated: "Accordingly, our client we (sic) will not be replying to the allegations set out in the Statement of Particulars as requested by you."

Seems clear to me, how about you?

HAROLD J. DARRELL

President

Hardell Ltd.

A fabulous experience

July 24, 2002

Dear Sir,

Having only returned from Bermuda yesterday I take my pen in hand to write and tell you of our most fabulous experience. It is not that I write to you so quickly as I might forget, it is because of the appreciation I am feeling right now at this moment. I am quite sure your beautiful Island will forever have a place in my heart and be forever etched in my mind.

My husband, John Francis received this vacation as one of the Heroes of 911. He works for the Department of Sanitation in New York City. After the tragic event of 911 he worked at the site of Ground Zero for several weeks and did what had to be done. In being awarded this trip you have shown to us that this work was truly appreciated and honestly, an away from it all little break was needed.

I want to tell you a little about our terrific stay at the Newstead Hotel in Paget. This was the most charming hotel I have ever stayed in. The lush surroundings (the most beautiful arrangements of tropical flowers I have seen in my life), the view of overlooking the harbour, that local feel that you could not experience in a big hotel, the courteous and congenial staff who were always around if you needed them but never in the way, the great location, these will be our reasons for choosing the Newstead once again. Oh and the food - from the English breakfast to the tea right through to the beautifully presented and delicious dinner, the Newstead had it all. As we were in Bermuda on our anniversary, July 13, we didn't have to go far to experience one of the most pleasurable dinners the Island had to offer. As we sat and enjoyed the view and waited for our meal to come we noticed how quickly the dining room became crowded, some guests of the hotel and many others travelling to get there.

This was our second trip to your beautiful Island. We were young honeymooners in 1979 and were enchanted then. In fact I wanted to just pack myself up and live in one of the beautiful pink houses. We have waited far too long to come back and we thank you for the opportunity to return. We promise to speak highly of the Newstead Hotel and Bermuda in general to our friends and co-workers. We will certainly not wait as long to return this time. Thank you once again.

MARYELLEN & JOHN FRANCIS

Bardonia, New York