Don't blame the PLP

July 26, 2003

Dear Sir,

Why is it that every time someone has a problem with a government office they seem to say: "We don't want to have to suffer another five years".

As I sit and read the letter in today's Royal Gazette from "Furious Senior Citizen", I am amazed that at their utter ignorance. As a person who has been getting a passport since they were 30, they should know that the supervisor whom the clerk went to for answers, is not an elected member of government but a civil servant. That person can very well go the polls next month and vote UBP.

The Immigration Department has always been difficult. It did not suddenly change when the PLP was elected. Everyone wants to blame the PLP for all of the wrongs that have gone on over the past five years and that is very unfair. Sure they might not have done everything in the correct manner, but who does when they are new to a position?

The PLP cannot right all of the UBP's wrongs in five years. And I hope that the majority of my Bermudian People will realise that and vote PLP on July 24.

MISSY

Paget

Dangers of permit limits

June 26, 2003

Dear Sir,

Yesterday's story on the collected viewpoints of Bermuda's employers - as voiced by the executive director of the Bermuda Employers Council - confirmed some information I have been privy to through the business grapevine. There is not one recruitment firm that would dispute the fact that it is getting harder for Bermuda's exempted companies to attain and retain the expertise necessary to maintain their competitive edge in the world markets. This problem is exacerbated in my industry, reinsurance, where business historically has been relationship-driven with individuals rather than companies.

Today the Minister for Labour appeared to respond to yesterday's article but veered off early on into what amounted to a repetitive campaign speech that failed to address the central issue that domiciles far inferior to ours are beginning to benefit from our labour policies.

In fact the Minister's speech can be summed up with the pre-election sound bite that "Government will not apologise for protecting Bermudians" - well, what has this Government ever apologised for - certainly no amends were forthcoming to the companies that reported five and six month waits for their work permits to be processed. In fact, Mr Lister barely stopped short of denying these companies' claims.

The point that seems to have been missed altogether is that Government's stated priority of protecting the employment rights of Bermudians has the potential to significantly lower the quality of said rights and related opportunities. Protecting Bermudians is inextricably linked to meeting the essential operating needs of the employers of Bermudians. The employees of our financial services entities are the primary assets of their companies and the decisions made by them, their abilities to implement and control those decisions and nurture client relationships are critical to ongoing viability.

The logical conclusion being that if companies continue to face the highest frictional costs to deploy their essential assets in Bermuda, they will do what they must to reduce these costs. Pure logic - economic survival and optimisation - will outweigh any other factors and decisions from scaling back Bermuda operations to outright withdrawal will be high on our companies' agendas.

It wasn't until I left home to gain experience in London and now the US that I truly appreciated the level of employment security and quality Bermudians are afforded. In the US, employees have very few rights and can be terminated without cause. The unemployed include professionals with credentials that would be in great demand in Bermuda. The USA has state-administered unemployment schemes and enacted related laws which provide a necessary function given the absence of an employee's right to continued employment. So when I read that the Smith Government floated the trial balloon of unemployment insurance, I was astounded. Why do we need unemployment insurance on an island with over-employment and now, Lister-guaranteed rights? We have never needed an unemployment scheme under the UBP government.

What has this Government done to Bermuda's economy in the past four years that they are now predicting a need for unemployment benefits in the near future? Do we really need a programme that will increase the size of Government and related costs of administration and oversight, while simultaneously serving as a disincentive to gainful employment? Who is going to pay for it? The employers and other hard-working Bermudians and expatriates ... obviously. And why is the BIU in support of such a scheme - surely its members would not be eligible (after all, their payments of union dues are supposed to fulfil the role of unemployment benefits, as needed)?

Maybe this is in fact a pro-active measure of planning for the future by setting up an unemployment scheme to compensate us when, one by one, our exempted companies leave either a skeleton staff on the island or take off completely. Now there's a cunning plan ...

NICOLETTE J. REISS

New York City

Help to fund students

June 25, 2003

Dear Sir,

I read the article "Cash crisis forces student to quit education" in today's issue of The Royal Gazette with great interest and felt compelled to write this letter in support of the young student's concerns.

I would like to offer my congratulations to all those students who will receive scholarships and awards this year. Well done! But to those that will be overlooked (and the numbers are substantial) I offer my condolences. I am the mother of a child who attends a top school in the United States, who has made the Dean's List and is an honours student and who has over the years unsuccessfully applied for several scholarships. Thankfully, last year he was awarded a $7,500 Further Education Award from the Bermuda Government - it was a help, but we were still well short of the amount needed to get him through another year.

Ms Khaldun, what good is it to announce at your scholarship presentations that some young recipient of one of the Government Scholarships has achieved a 4.0 GPA at a school that is not even ranked, while the students that have been overlooked have respectable GPA's at schools that are top ranked and have very high standards and complex courses. You are encouraging people to get sub-standard educations - it comes as no surprise when we see pictures of to executives in the newspapers being promoted in International Businesses in Bermuda, they are almost always white foreigners - pictures of the ACE executive promotions in yesterday's edition of The Royal Gazette (June 24) are a glaring example! You are ensuring that Bermudians cannot even compete for top level positions - with the education awards you are handing out and the standard of schools you are encouraging young people to attend, the best that most young educated Bermudians can hope to achieve are mid-management positions!

And yes, I know there are the odd, Harvard, Yale or Brown University students receiving Bermuda Government Scholarships. But they are few and far between and are usually from families that can well afford to pay anyway - one recipient of a Government Scholarship at last year's awards presentation comes to mind - one parent a doctor and the other an MP. Oh yes, and let's not forget the son of one of the partners of a prominent law firm. Have you met any needy doctors or lawyers here in Bermuda? Why would they even apply? Perhaps that is the plan. Those that have, get more! Those that have little, get little (or maybe nothing)!

The Banks are the real winners - to educate my children to degree level at accredited universities, I have already borrowed over $200,000 from the Bank of Bermuda and, as I am already in my mid 50's, I anticipate being a very old lady before I get it repaid, even with the assistance I expect to receive from my children, once they complete their respective educations.

It is too late for my children but I hope that for those young people coming through, improvements can be made with regard to the Government Scholarships/Awards system.

to the young lady facing the cash crisis - good luck, I hope you continue with your education and that somebody comes to your rescue - it sounds like you deserve some sort of assistance.

IN DEBT

Paget

Give us a call

June 27, 2003

Dear Sir,

I appreciate the opportunity to respond to a concern of 'Computer User' published in The Royal Gazette, June 21 titled "Internet Disconnect".

We find that customers will experience unexpected disconnects from time to time which can be due to a variety of reasons. It is often something that our professional Customer Support team can help you to resolve.

I welcome the opportunity to discuss your concerns with you directly, and would be pleased to provide further insight and resolution, where possible. In addition, Logic is conducting focus groups over the summer, and I would like to personally invite you to participate in one of them. We appreciate and will utilise the valuable feedback from concerned consumers such as yourself.

I also encourage any Logic customer to call our Support line at 292-HELP when experiencing difficulties with their Internet connection as this helps us meet our goals of service excellence.

I look forward to hearing from you soon at 296-9600.

JEFF HAMILL

CEO, Logic Communications Ltd.