Southside is secure

May 17, 2002

Dear Sir,

This is a letter from a friend.

Some years ago, citing security fears in our tiny Island, you moved the offices of the Consulate from central Hamilton to a zoned residential area. Local businesses would not have received permission for such a move, but we are your friends and this was an amicable and very understandable arrangement. (It was a pity that you did not have the same concern for your Embassies in Nairobi or Dar which some should have seen as being a bit more exposed than Hamilton, but I digress).

Now it seems that you have felt it necessary in these difficult times to cut down the trees on your property in that residential area citing security fears, and will apparently be given permission by your friends, the Bermudian people, to erect a nine foot steel fence around the perimeter of your consulate.

I would like to make a suggestion. You need security and of that there is no doubt. Is it necessary though to ravage the residential area where you have many friends? If a secure location is needed, why not relocate to an area such as Southside where the security parameters can surely be met in a heartbeat. The building you now occupy can then be returned to its residential status and value.

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITIC

Hamilton

Airport delays a disgrace

May 27, 2002

Dear Sir,

The delays in processing arriving passengers at our airport are no longer just an inconvenience but represent a bureaucratic disgrace. Arriving home two weeks ago, a customs officer took over 30 minutes to clear 12 people in the residents line, but far, far worse was the “snake” of bewildered and exasperated visitors which reached nearly to the back of the hall. This situation was repeated on Thursday May 23 when visiting friends needed 90 minutes to clear immigration alone, before waiting again to pay duty.

The customs department seems to be in denial about the existence let alone seriousness of this problem. Today's comments from the Collector of Customs in The Royal Gazette were a case in point.

Firstly we have a denial that there is any “go slow” by customs officers, despite the many rumours of industrial unrest and the daily evidence that the process is actually glacial not just slow. Secondly, we are told that average processing time is 35 seconds: if it was, with nine desks a full 757 with 180 passengers could be cleared in just over 11 minutes, which is obviously not happening.

Finally, we are told that the problem is unavoidable as all flights arrive at once, which misses the point that incoming North American flights have arrived around the same time for years.

This nightmare needs to be fixed, and fast. At the same time, we should ask why Bermuda inflicts such an arduous immigration inspection on arriving visitors in the first place. We have our priorities wrong if it takes longer to get into Bermuda, a tourist destination, than it does to get into the US, Canada or the UK.

We seem to forget that our economy is totally dependent on air arrivals, who represent high spending tourists and international business visitors. The cost of flights alone for a vacationing family of four coming to Bermuda is between $2,000 and $3,000, and it is appalling that our response is to treat visitors like cattle and subject them to an immigration process worthy of the KGB. It is a sad reflection on the state of Bermuda's tourism product, as well as our self absorbed bureaucracy, when we can allow visitors to spend longer waiting in line to get their passport stamped than they needed to fly here.

Other family members will vacation in Bermuda next month. Perhaps I will ask a customs officer to look after their tired five and three year old children as mom and dad wait for two hours in the immigration line. As anyone with children knows, those will seem like two very long hours.

WAITING IN LINE

City of Hamilton

Queen was insulted

May 20, 2002

Dear Sir,

My wife and I would appreciate space in your newspaper being given to this letter which is written in response to an article in yesterday's Mail on Sunday here in the UK describing the reception accorded the wife of our Prime Minister whilst she was on a private, and doubtless extremely profitable, business trip to your Country.

If the report is correct then the attention lavished upon Mrs. Blair and, most particularly, the quote attributed to your Premier Jennifer Smith that Mrs. Blair is “the First Lady of the UK” is a disgraceful insult to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth who is, without doubt, the only person entitled to that title.

Mrs. Blair, in my personal opinion, does, by her reported interference in matters for which she is unelected, more than enough harm to the running of the government here where all she should receive is the normal courtesy accorded to the wife of the PM.

An apology is certainly due to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth from Premier Smith and the entire Bermuda cabinet but the Governor Sir John Vereker has surely earned dismissal from his post.

Had such an insult been suffered by the first Queen Elizabeth I am sure that retribution would have been swift.

BERNARD CHATTERLEY

Suffolk, England