October 18, 2004

Dear Sir,

This letter is in regard to Friday October 15, story about HIV ketchup scare. I think we should not take this as a big joke. We all know how people are today. I don?t think its ridiculous, lets stop and think hard on this. People have done this sort of thing for years in the US contaminating different foods. So its not impossible. All it takes is 3.2 seconds to put whatever in a ketchup dispenser in a fast food establishment, specially when it is quiet. So it is possible.

To me if someone thought of this, who says tampering with fast food toppings hasn?t been done before. Years ago if someone sent e-mail saying they were going to hijack a passenger plane and fly it into a building killing everyone, they would have said the same thing, ?that?s too ridiculous to take seriously.? But guess what it happened. Nothing in this world is impossible. It?s just like saying ?If its to good to be true, it probably isn?t.?

So what if I put it this way. ?If its to bad to be true it probably is.? I know its disgusting every time I think about it. So for now I will be using my own supply of ketchup at that particular fast food establishment. For now anyway.

GREG (SMOKEY) SIMONS

Sandy?s Parish

October 15, 2004

Dear Sir,

After reading a copy of your daily paper, outrage and disbelief had compelled me to write this letter. Your front page story dated, Friday, October 15, 2004, has set back the struggle of HIV/AIDS in this Island. Persons and professionals that deal with this struggle are responsible people. Living with this debilitating condition is not easy, people have to deal with stigmatising and ostracism daily by people such as your emailer.

The lack of education and sensitivity by this e-mail is tantamount to terrorism. One would think that responsible persons like the Editor of the only daily news paper along with the Happy Valley Nursery School would use wisdom before spreading such unfounded and outrageous sensationalism. Why would educated people encourage mindless chain letters.

FALLEN ANGEL

Devonshire

September 28, 2004

Dear Sir,

I like green tea and in particular the brand that Triminghams sells, Ahmad. It comes from England and it sells for $2.95 for 25 bags. Imagine my surprise on seeing the same thing in a store called ?Past Times? in the Departure Lounge Terminal 3 at Heathrow Air port selling for ?(approximately $14.40). Once again well done Triminghams for keeping the prices down!

CAROL CARVALHO

Southampton

October 14, 2004

Dear Sir,

It is a shame that ?My Cup Overfloweth? ?s letter didn?t pull out their Agreement with Bermuda Waterworks before writing to you. Item Five reads: ?The consumer shall be responsible for all water after it has passed through the metre and shall pay therefore under this agreement notwithstanding any loss by leakage, waste or misuse. I have found that Bermuda Waterworks Limited gives very good service. I called to have their water turned on in my new residence and they faxed me the application forms and the agreement which I sent back and the following day a gentleman was there by 11 a.m. and not only had me on their system but replaced an old master valve that was in need of repair. After last weekend?s weather I won?t be using your water for a while but thank you for the prompt service.

HALYARD

October 14, 2004

Dear Sir,

This letter is in response to a letter written to complain about our customer service, which you have now published twice in the past week. The letter opens by asking the question whatever happened to good customer service, and then proceeds to describe a situation involving water continually flowing into a water tank through our water metre. The letter writer asserts that we have been unresponsive. Good customer service is alive and well at Bermuda Waterworks. It is quite obvious to us who the letter writer is in this instance so we are able to reveal precisely the case history.

The letter writer has called our offices multiple times to question and complain about high monthly water bills. Our distribution service personnel have visited the location several times to check metre readings are correct and to investigate where the water is going. Our personnel have found that our shut-off value on our supply side of the water metre, and the water metre itself are functioning correctly. We have tested the system by shutting off our valve and disconnecting the metre outlet. Not a drop of water leaked past our closed valve. After reconnecting the service and opening our valve again, water was seen to flow though the metre.

Our staff proceeded to trace the customer?s pipe to the water tank and discovered the customer?s water pipe going into the tank was floating up in the water with a float valve attached to it. The float valve should stop flow when the water reaches a certain level. It is unable to work properly because it is rising up with the water level as the pipe floats up. The valve in the tank is not closing completely so water is leaking past it into the tank. This is why the water was flowing continuously and why the customer would have high monthly water bills. The fault lies with the customer?s property and is the customer?s responsibility to repair. We have tried to explain this to the customer but the customer does not accept the explanation.

Our water service agreement clearly states that all pipeline and equipment after the water metre is the customer?s responsibility. Everything before the metre is our responsibility. This means that every customer should look after their pipes and all apparatus attached to their pipes from the water metre onwards to wherever their pipes go on their property. We do not like to see water wasted so we have recently closed and locked our shut-off valve. There is no water flowing through the metre now. Our valve will remain locked in the closed position until the customer fixes the problem in the water tank. The customer obviously does not appreciate our action but there is only so much we can do. Our action will prevent further loss of water and will save the customer from more high water bills. It may be the cup will now have to run empty before the customer accepts personal responsibility to fix the problem.

BERMUDA WATERWORKS LIMITED

D A RANCE

October 15, 2005

Dear Sir,

I wonder if anyone realises why some of the many accidents on the roads with tourists on their bikes are caused by the design on the handle which thrusts the bike forward or brakes to stop and slow down. The design is seriously at fault and has been for many years, maybe forever. You would think that to put the handle forward you would proceed forward... just the opposite. To pull the handle back you would naturally think and feel that you would be putting on the brakes to slow down and stop.... just the opposite. This phenomena is a natural body reaction to danger to pull back and withdraw.

I have witnessed too many times and spoken to too many tourists to hear ?I just lost control, I pulled the handle back,? You see them speeding towards a wall or tree or even worse, another vehicle faster and faster. The bike instructors must make quite sure that the rider clearly understands this and practices many times before going on the road! even then, in a split second the national reaction is to pull back, by them it is sadly too late. The bike industry should change their design to conform to the obvious, otherwise we will see these tragic accidents continue.

DIANA WILLIAMS

P.s. My deepest condolences to Mr. Inman who lost his wife on Thursday.

October 17, 2004

Dear Sir,

This letter is to the government of Bermuda and in particular Dr. The Honourable Ewart Brown, MP JP, the Minister of Transportation and Tourism to urge him to provide a safer form of transport for our tourists. Dr. Brown is a minister who has displayed the energy and ability to get things done so I plead with him to help prevent the further deaths of tourist on our Bermuda roads by doing the following:

1. Make available the four wheel and three wheel forms of transportation as an alternative rental to tourist who are not competent to ride a two wheel cycle. There are a host of them on the market today, which the cycle liveries would be happy to import for rental to tourist and most all tourists are familiar with driving them.

2. Impose stricter conditions on the cycle liveries when renting a two wheel cycle to tourist. Any tourist who is not familiar with riding a two wheel motorised cycle should not be permitted to rent one, and there should be sever penalties for cycle liveries who break the rules in that regard. Surely we have learned it is not safe to rent a motorised cycle to a tourist who has had only a half hour of training around a cycle livery?s parking lot and has perhaps ridden only a pedal bike back home. All of us have watched tourists being trained and come onto the road as an accident about to happen.

It has got to stop. Each time there is a death on the road of a local or tourist we all feel great sorrow and compassion for the families. Often we feel it need not have happened. If only there had been more care and caution in the case of a local death perhaps it could have been avoided. If it is a tourist we often feel guilt because it may have been caused by a lack of care, but often because the person should not have been permitted on the road in the first place. The death of a young person in the prime of life is a terrible thing. What do you say to the husband or wife or children left behind. I?m sorry is not good enough, unless we have done everything possible as a country to ensure the safety of our visitors. In the Bahamas, Cayman and a host of other countries tourist can now rent four wheel vehicles such a mini-motes, golf carts and some of the newer four wheel vehicles that have recently come onto the market. Tourists are going to these places because they are promoted as safe jurisdictions.

I am afraid if the accidents and in particular deaths continue at the present rate Bermuda will be classified as an unsafe jurisdiction and American tourists will be advised not to come here. So Dr. Brown please do something urgently to make it safer for our tourist using our roads, and perhaps in the longer term you can find a way to make it safer for all people using our roads.

THE HONOURABLE QUINTON L. EDNESS CBE

October 15, 2004

Dear Sir,

Enough is enough. It is time we stopped talking about Independence. We have all the independence we need. For example if we were independent we would not have been able to order up a Hercules lane for the Royal Air Force to take the troops to Cayman. What would you do if you lost your Bermuda passport for example in Brazil? Now we can go to the British Embassy and they would help us. What do you think the Brazilians would do with a passport from an unknown little island? There is no guarantee that the exempt companies will stay here forever. Where are we going find the money to pay for an ambassador in Washington with housing and entertainment and chauffeurs etc.? A representative to the United Nations and a High Commissioner in London: All these things cost an enormous amount of money and at this stage we get all this for free.

The politicians are spending all this time on discussions and talks and all their energy is going towards the Independence talk. Stay home, Mr. Scott, and deal with our problems. The housing, the crime, the drugs and youth and all the other problems we have. Try and put a plan in place for the coming years. The Government seems to just work from day to day with no specific plan. None of those problems are going to go away just because we get independence Use all your energy on the home front. Do not go all over the place and give speeches and stay in expensive hotels/holes. It is our money you are using. Put it to better use.

Why are the politicians wasting all their energy and time on talks of Independence? Leave it alone till we get our own house in order. Independence is not going to solve all these problems. This government does not seem to realise that they have been elected to sort out our problems and not creating them. The independence debate causes nothing but divisions in the community. I thought the Government was meant to try and get us all together instead of apart. Leave the Independence debate alone for the time being. We are perfectly fine the way we are. We have to best of both worlds.

L.L.

Pembroke

October 8, 2004

Dear Sir,

Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Bermuda wishes to extend their heartfelt thanks to the many volunteers, ?taggers?, and members of the community-at-large for the overwhelming support and success of our Annual Tag Day event, held on September 24 and 25, and our seventh Annual ?Big For A Day? activity, held on October 2. Funds received from our Tag Day event assist with our operational costs and also support the various programmes and events for our many Bigs and Littles. Hence we are very grateful indeed. We welcomed the level of interest and the applications received from our Big For A Day event.

The new recruits will make a wonderful, timely contribution to our programme. We especially want to thank Senator Neville Tyrrell for his welcoming remarks and participation, and the Bermuda Regiment for their skilled planning and organisation of the day?s activities, the highlight of which was a very challenging yet stimulating obstacle course. In addition, the Regiment chefs gained top marks again, by providing us with a ?sumptuous? hot lunch, which we all thoroughly enjoyed.

The objective of our Big For A Day is to increase the number of volunteer applicants to our programme, which in turn, as they are ?matched?, will reduce the number of boys and girls (Littles) on our ?unmatched? waiting list. Although this event has passed, please note that this is an ongoing process, it is never too late to enquire or sign-up to become a Big Volunteer. Call our office for an application or for further information (292-2802). In recent weeks there has been much media attention on ?child abuse?. Let me take this opportunity to reassure the public-at-large that every precaution is taken to ensure the safety and well-being of the Littles in our programme.

Note that an adult applicant is required to submit the names of three references and must agree to a Police check before becoming a Big Brother or Big Sister in our programme. Following the receipt of these documents, the volunteer then undergoes a detailed screening/orientation process with a case manager. The final approval is thereafter made by the executive director.

With this in mind, to eradicate the fears of parents and guardians, I?d like to clarify that the defendant in the most recent child abuse case was not a Big Brother, nor has he ever been affiliated with our organisation. Again, we extend our sincere thanks to all members of the community for their continuous support and commitment to our organisation.

ESME WILLIAMS

Executive Director

Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Bermuda

October 19, 2004

Dear Sir,

I have seen many references to Independence and referendums over the last year or so. However, a clear difference between deciding about whether to go Independent by way of a general election or by way of a referendum has not been made. In this letter I am going to try to show some of these differences. The Oxford Dictionary defines referendum as ?referring to certain political questions or of such questions under certain circumstances to the electorate for direct decisions by a general vote on the single question?. This is different from a general election in that a general election deals with many questions or topics and all at the same time. Things like taxes, crime, housing, seniors and tourism come to mind.

In addition, the general election choice deals with promises made by politicians, whereas the referendum deals only with one single democratic question, which has nothing to do with politicians promises. Finally, if a general election is used to decide the Independence question, does one know after the election, if people voted to go Independent or did they vote for better housing for example? (Which will need attention whether we are Independent or not.) So the three differences that I can find are that a general election deals with many questions or tops whilst a referendum deals with one question or topic. A general election deals with promises made by politicians and a referendum does not. A general election deals with choices made by voters which may have nothing to do with Independence.

LONG TAIL

Smith?s Parish