How to make friends

January 25, 2004

Dear Sir,

We are not shareholders of The Bank of Bermuda but read with fascination about the possibility of the worldwide bank HSBC purchase and what this news could mean for Bermuda in the near future.

We were fortunate to travel to Europe and the Med last year and were impressed with the HSBC name which appeared on many international airport 'portable gates', which eliminates exposure to the elements while boarding an aircraft.

As a senior member of HSBC will soon visit Bermuda, the question that arises: is this an opportunity for the banks, both the buyer and the seller, to create even more goodwill within the community, by importing one or more of the 'portable gates' as a generous gift to Bermuda?

This would obviously be seen as an extraordinary step forward in becoming good corporate citizens!

Setting record straight

January 23, 2004

Dear Sir,

Thank you for affording me the opportunity of setting the record, and history, straight with regard to the relationship between the Bermuda Housing Corporation and the Bermuda Housing Trust.

In your front page story about Ms Winifred Dodd, on Wednesday, January 21, 2004, you say "and applied for an apartment at Purvis Park, a seniors' residential property managed by the Bermuda Housing Trust, part of the Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC)." The Bermuda Housing Trust was never and is still not, as far as I know, a part of the Bermuda Housing Corporation. It was created through the efforts of Rev. Buchannan and others and run very efficiently by the private sector through the generosity of Mr. W.S. Purvis and the hard work of Mr. Roderick (Roddie) Ferguson.

There is a wealth of information on the Trust in the minute book which I trust is in safekeeping. The only contribution made by Government was to act as the facilitator for the lease of land on which the Trust's units were built. Not one penny of financial assistance has ever been contributed by Government. Hence my comments in a talk at the Rotary Club last year.

The Bermuda Housing Trust owns Purvis Park, Heydon and Elizabeth Hills and more recently, since I was kicked out of the Bermuda Housing Corporation, Ferguson Park in St. David's. The Trust was created long before the Bermuda Housing Corporation was formed and provided accommodation to seniors whose income was fixed and had minimal assets. Rents ranged from approximately $250 to $350 and were increased only as a result of increases in maintenance and not by market forces. When I was asked to resign as a Trustee, the Trust had some $2.0 million in cash and securities as well as the ownership of the units and was very actively pursuing the building of more units. All without assistance from Government, thank you very much!

My work with the Trust, as directed by the then Minister, was to help Mr. Ferguson by having the Housing Corporation act as a collector of rents and the keeper of accounts. At no time were funds commingled, which happened after my departure from BHC, and my time was my personal contribution to the Trust and not at the expense of BHC. Government has now taken over the Trust and its assets to use as public housing and it is impossible to obtain copies of financial statements from 1999 onward. You can tell that I am more than a little upset at what has taken place because this formerly, highly efficient and very necessary private sector organisation no longer exists as was intended.

Government should do the right thing and return this entity to the private sector and let it get on with the things that it has done so well in the past without political assistance.

Don't write people off

January 25, 2004

Dear Sir,

I'm writing you this letter to express my growing concern with the state of affairs on our beautiful Island. I'm a young black Bermudian male who has made more than a few bad choices so far in life and who is currently incarcerated, paying my last and worst one to date. Over the years I've accumulated quite a debt to society, and I would like to take this opportunity to start repaying it.

I believe that our Government and Bermuda as a whole can do far better for not only those in confinement, but for those that are on their way to confinement. Please don't get me wrong, I'm in no way, shape, or form trying to make excuses for my present situation, but incarceration without rehabilitation doesn't work. Westgate Correctional Facility is a prison system that calls itself "Corrections", but does little more than corrupt human souls. It's a system that breeds criminals, teaches bitterness and hones hatred. In our affluent society today, race, racism and class distinction still deprives some of the proper environment in which to grow, and when you live in a society that makes colour a badge of honour or a badge of shame, that makes national origin a badge of honour or a badge of shame, that makes religion a badge of honour or a badge of shame, you live in a society that has not developed humanly.

Where we are weak as a society is, we don't know how to mine out of the souls of human beings the rich deposits that Almighty God (Allah) has put in every human being. A lot of our churches are high on "inspiration" and low on "information". God (Allah) didn't create us to be subservient or dependent on anyone else, He created us to be subservient to Him and dependent on ourselves. But we have strayed so far away from the right path that He's simply left us to go astray. Crime and violence is at an all-time high, but every time the statistics are printed in the media, they report a decrease. The problems are not going to go away if we ignore them! Teenaged "thugs" are running our streets and the drug culture is choking the life out of our community.

What's Government doing to address these social ills? They're so far removed from everyday realities and human hardship that I'd bet they don't even have a clue as to what's feeling the upsurge in violence with our youth, but I do. Thugs are a product of unequal social relations. This generation that is coming of age (appropriately labelled the "echo boomers") has witnessed the injustices in our judicial system. They know they've been mis-educated and indoctrinated with false teachings. Gone are the days of taboos and censorship, somewhat. In this information age, they know more than we do, or so they think. They refuse to be intimidated and/or suppressed as so many generations before them have been. They have no respect for a system that doesn't, in their opinion, respect them. Their parents are getting second jobs when they should be retiring and Government's trying to come up with new ways to attract wealthy tourist to their Island.

What's it going to take for us to start taking their cries for help seriously? Ride-by-shootings or a teacher being slain up at CedarBridge Academy? I'm not saying that I condone or support their behaviour but I feel their pain and frustration. Come on Bermuda, please, let's not write off another generation.

Respect our pit bulls

January 23, 2004

Dear Sir,

Re: In defence of pit bulls

Dear Pit Bull Lover,

You seem to know an awful lot about Pit bull fighting?

Why don't you give the information to the Police so we can get this stopped. Pit bulls like any other dogs should be treated with respect instead of making them fight for a living. It's disgusting to treat any animal this way. Boxers do it because they want to, not because they are made to.