Opposition in denial

April 15, 2003

Dear Sir,

In his letter of April 7, 2003, 'Big John' declares that my motivation for the comment that the UBP opposition in the Senate "used to be black" was that I think that "any black man who joined the UBP might be black on the outside, but was really white inside".

Whoever Big John is he certainly does not know me. Those who know me know that I would defend to the death the right of all people to have a different political view point. However, I do not accept that one's political beliefs should be an excuse for tolerating injustice in any form. Yet too many of the black members of the UBP have been in public denial of racial injustice through most of the history of that party.

I say most of the party's history because there was a period in which some of the UBP MPs formed a Black Caucus within the UBP because they felt that they as black members of the UBP were not getting a fair deal. Yet, outside of a quest to pursue their own narrow goals, blacks in the UBP have given the impression that inequity based on race was not a vital issue in the wider community.

For this reason, most students of politics have noticed with great amusement, that on the eve of an election and following the open criticism of Mr. Wasi about the failure of the UBP to improve the economic opportunity of its black members, the UBP has placed black empowerment front and centre on its election platform.

However, thanks to the advent of the PLP to power and its positive intervention in the economy, it is the growing view that all Bermudians must take a more substantial role in the ownership, management and staffing of our tourism, business services and international finance sectors.

The PLP has always been aware that vigorous pursuit of this strategy will not only increase economic opportunity for all Bermudians, it will also ensure our economic survival in a stable social and political environment. In this way Bermuda will enhance its status as a positive model for the entire world to emulate.

SENATOR CALVIN SMITH

Warwick

Electoral confusion

April 13, 2003

Dear Sir,

We all recently received a card in the mail informing us of the name and number of our electoral constituency. Helpful? Maybe not?

What about the people who are registered in an area they no longer live, because they haven't updated their details? Didn't the Registrar just confuse a whole lot of people by telling them their constituency is 'X', while in fact they are registered in 'Y'.

On election day where do they vote. Or can they vote at all?

How hard could it really have been to mail to all registered voters - by name, in their registered address, advising of their officially registered constituency. All other homes currently without a registered voter could have the To The Occupier letter?

The likely thousands of letters "Returned to Sender" by the Post Office would be the people who no longer lived at their registered address! There, job done for the Registrar - debate over. Or would that mean they'd have to actually deal with the issue.

I thought Bush-Gore 2000 and the butterfly ballots was a disaster. Maybe we need a United Nations observer to supervise this approaching fiasco.

CONFUSED

Warwick