Why the prevarication?

June 1, 2005

Dear Sir,

It is remarkable that a Mr. Gift of the Bank of Bermuda (read HSBC, or the multi billion and closely government-connected Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation) should tell the fully taxed tour boat operators that they could learn something from the duty free and government subsidised . If they learn anything, if they survive, it will be that it is impossible to compete against tax exempt, Government-backed foreign competition.

There is the , tied up alongside the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, doubtless provided with free accommodation and free ticket selling facilities (is this some sort of mea culpa?) competing against local, Bermudian, tax paying businesses in a peak month of three of four when, if there happen to be a few tourists, a year?s expenses might be recouped. If not, while Ms Cox and Mr. Scott at the Finance Ministry fiddle and obfuscate and express ?surprise and disappointment? they talked to the media, and for yet another year while time and money slips away, they will all go bust. One wonders why the Finance Ministry prevaricates.

Could it be that the powerful voice, and dollars, of the foreign, super-wealthy and tax free community that few of us know or see beyond the cold, and some say offensive concrete and glass, is seeing to it that the happy free ride continues? Hard money, after all, however crudely, is what pulls the strings nowadays in our tiny, ethics-bereft island. A correspondent of yours today, E. Raben of Paget, says that the demise of the irreplaceable Triminghams is a national disaster. It is rumoured that their $4 or $5 million annual tax (against the bank?s reputed $1 million) prevented the irresistible pricing that once made Bermuda the famous place to shop; rather than a still famous, but expensive to maintain, overtaxed and over regulated relic of Bermuda?s better days.

Perhaps the tour boat business is less well known, but in its own way is an example of the tax burden local business bears so that operations like the Hong Kong Bank and the tax exempt companies can continue paying nothing beyond a few dollars in land, employment tax, and relative to their truly enormous profits, an irrelevant licence fee. In fact, once the pay of the employees of these foreign companies exceeds some trivial amount, the payroll tax is also exempted.

In other words, the richer they all get, the less tax they pay. When Bermudians will wake up to the fact that the ridiculous cost of living in Bermuda is directly as a result of the government overtaxing local consumer businesses so that these tax exempt foreign companies can make billions, is anyone?s guess.

Take the blinders off

June 1, 2005

Dear Sir,

In regard to the housing situation here in Bermuda, our government should take a look at other countries and how they are handling their housing crisis. For instance, take a tip from Santa Barbara, California. It is mandatory for any new housing project to incorporate low cost housing along with the more expensive units.

It should be mandatory here in Bermuda that when a contractor applies to build they be required to build a certain amount of units for low income families within the same project. It could be a two to one ratio, for every high end unit, one could be built and sold at a cost of approximately a third of that, making it a bit more affordable for those with a lower income.

With all of these new condo complexes being built around the Island soon there will be nowhere (except for the Dump) where low income families can live, and that?s no guarantee either. Once the Dump is looked at or deemed prime real estate, the prices will probably soar off the chart. I know that I am not saying anything new but ?the housing situation has gotten completely out of control? and it is time for the Government of Bermuda to do something. It is a sad day in Bermuda, when you have three or more families living under the same roof because the costs of housing it too high. As a Bermudian, my heart goes out to those who really want to own their own homes but have no hope or vision of it ever becoming a reality, especially with the continuing rise in the cost of real estate as it is today and possibly in the future. It is time to take the blinders off, there is homelessness here on our Island and it will only get worst if nothing is done.

The ten percent question

This was sent to Air Canada and copied to .

May 31, 2005

Dear Sir,

It has just come to my attention that effective July 2005, Air Canada will further stick its claws into my piggy bank in the most ludicrous way. Your airline plans to charge me ten percent of the airline fee to allow my three-month-old son to accompany me on any trip. For clarification, my son will sit on my lap, will be fed by me and will not receive any special life vest, or service for that matter. And yet you can charge me ten percent of my fare?

What?s next, will you charge pregnant women extra for their unborn baby or overweight people for the extra pounds that may spill over their seat? Maybe you?ll charge people who have longer hair or big noses! How you can get away with charging something for nothing is beyond me. On second thought, maybe you are offering a babysitting service on the flights and that is what the fee covers (do you change diapers and burp babies as well)? I regularly fly at least eight times a year and Air Canada will no longer be the airline I choose first. Disgustedly,

Laying down a challenge

May 30, 2005

Dear Sir,

Amid all the hubbub Ayo Johnson has caused by implying that Square One has a racist entry policy for its VIP Room, has turned a blind eye to its own contribution to this reporting debacle. In the initial article I was struck by the fact that you used the names of other people and allowed Mr. Johnson to openly question their integrity without having provided them an opportunity to present their view on the matter. Did your reporter even bother to check their facts or did they simply take Mr. Johnson?s word as gospel?

In the follow up article, an uninterrupted 12 inches of column space is given to reprint Mr. Johnson?s remarks on a local website clarifying his actions. Why is Mr. Johnson granted the privilege of using your newspaper as a forum for whatever views he feels the slightest urge to express? Surely he is receiving special treatment due to his status as a ?former staffer?. I hope that your newspaper takes a moment to reflect on this and seriously evaluates whether it is reaching the standards of journalistic ethics that Bermudians deserve from ?our? national paper.

BABA OGUNDOKUN AWOLALA

Ife Babalawo2003

How to boost tourism

June 2, 2005

Dear Sir,

Your editorial of today?s date, ?Set Tourism Free?, was admirable as far as it went. Government doesn?t understand ? and hasn?t understood since we first had a Tourism Ministry ? what the tourism business is all about. This can only be expected since tourism is a business, not a government service. Government isn?t about selling something, it is about providing the services that the people find they need and must, therefore, get together and pay for.

The civil service is entirely unqualified to understand the business of tourism. They have no background in it and are not trained to sell anything. The elected Government itself, now that it is no longer mainly composed of people who themselves are actively involved in tourism, is entirely unqualified to give direction to our almost defunct tourist business. Even Dr. Brown, who otherwise seems quite business-like and competent,at least compared to his fellow ministers, doesn?t really have a clue about what tourism is all about.

Rather like his civil servants, he thinks that what he likes to do when he goes away on holiday must therefore be what everyone wants to do when they come to Bermuda. Lots of people may like to do whatever it is that Dr. Brown wants to do on vacation, but they won?t pay our prices to do it. What Bermuda must provide is what is different and of top quality.

This doesn?t include yet another sleazy casino or one more tacky theme park. In our tourist heyday we had none of that. We provided great beauty, which survives more or less intact, tranquillity, which doesn?t, admirable friendly service, and quality. In addition there was golf, tennis, swimming, sailing, very sedate evening entertainment, and peace and quiet. Tourists came. The product was attractive and the price was right.

Now we provide violence and robbery, indifferent service, little friendliness, no peace or quiet and little chance of getting a tee-off time on a golf course. All this comes at an exorbitant price. The lines at Immigration and Customs, two separate departments that seem to have become both unattractively conflated and extremely slow and disagreeable are merely a foretaste of what is to come. Our product has deteriorated and our inept Government is entirely incapable of correcting the problems. Bermudians themselves increasingly dislike the island in which we now have to live. Law and order are things of the past.

The ?new? Bermuda of the PLP Government is made up of unending government scandals and the nearly total collapse of a peaceful and orderly society. The recent ludicrously titled ?Social Agenda? would have been better directed at social order and civility and the curbing of the rampant violence and lawlessness that pervades our society. Until government can come to grips with the problems for which it is responsible, it has no business wasting more of our money on a defunct tourism enterprise for which it should not be responsible. We no longer have a product to sell and if we did Government probably wouldn?t recognise it.