January 1, 2004

Dear Sir,

As to Sunday opening and the equivalent of working seven days a week, there are times when the brain tells the body: "You go ahead. I'm taking a break."

The body insists and something and somebody gets broken. For non-stressful interchange within the workplace, there needs to be non-stressed bodies. Many may not agree, but man needs time for praise. Praise is a glorifying thing, as significantly proven recently all over the airwaves reducing time from those bent on being hurtful. Who will say? I need nothing else that glorifies. But, rather, that they are making money.

CECILE NORMA MUSSON SMITH

Devonshire

The evidence is before us

January 13, 2004

Dear Sir,

This letter is in response to a letter written by Dr. A.M. Ware-Cieters dated January 7, 2004.

Her opening statement reads: "Good scientists must remain honest to their field of specialisation." Good advice that she should follow.

First let me say that I am not a doctor or a know-it-all person or both. On the subject of wild pigeons, I can only say what I know and have seen myself. There are hundreds of pigeons feeding at Westover Farm at Daniels Head in Somerset and you are very right, they do stay nearby at Daniels Island and the shoreline towards Wreck Hill. They come in and out of holes and caves all along West Side. I do not know at this time if they are nesting or not. Maybe they work for the longtails and are some sort of guards.

May I ask that you with all your knowledge, could possibly take a boat along the shoreline and let us know what's going on here. If you could venture as far as High Point you will see quite a few pigeons in a large cave that used to be for longtails. Maybe the pigeons just hang out there as some sort of entertainment cave, watching the waves out at the Southwest Breaker.

In The Royal Gazette, dated January 5, there is an article on the front page "Is pigeon poop a problem? " A Mr. Steve Croucher said he lost 14,000 gallons of water due to pigeon poop on his roof and washing down into his tank. He said his water was tested by our Health Department and they told him not to drink it, as it was full of salmonella.

They also said bleaching the water would not be enough to cure the problem. Dr. Ware-Cieters, I would say that your theory about the white roof and UV light killing parasites, would only work on sunny, dry days and a newly painted white roof and yes, maybe as you say in less than a minute. What about pigeons on a roof during a cloudy day with light rain or just before dark or at night with early morning rain showers?

I say a 'just done poop' hit by a rain shower at the same time would take seconds to end up in your tank. Dr. Ware-Cieters, what about our Conservation Services Director, Mr. Jack Ward, who says, in the same article, that he knew of other households which had tanks of water destroyed by excrement from roosting pigeons?

Do we not accept the statements of our Health Department, our Conservation Director or our retired Government Conservationist?

POOPED OUT

Sandys Parish

In defence of pigeons

January 18, 2004

Dear Sir,

Please allow me space to respond to the critics, signed and anonymous in Friday's Royal Gazette.

No one would deny that the loss of biodiversity is caused by four major factors:

1) Loss of Habitat

2) Global warming

3) Pollution

4) Invasive species

However you would probably have to be either brain dead, or delusional to fail to appreciate that loss of habitat is the prime cause of loss of biodiversity in Bermuda. This is an urban Island. Studies comparing our small speck of 20 square miles-mid-Atlantic white-roofed real estate, with the Galapagos or Ascension Island are unscientific, wishful ramblings: The habitat is all but gone, pollution is in evidence everywhere including in the terrestrial amphibians and bird life, and as a result of global warming, half or more of Bermuda will be submerged by the end of the century.

Invasion of species began with the wild pigs that adorn our coins, and continues every time a ship discharges its ballast water (and marine life from far away) within the reefs. Cats and chickens are partly a legacy of the farming community we once were and partly a feature of human domesticity, and they have a function.

All useful science must be founded on sound data collection, and good scientific ethics. While not wishing to condemn the Bermuda Biodiversity Project in its entirety, it must be said, that its foundation is extremely questionable, because of the biased and unscientific selection of those working on the project. For example, not a single veterinary surgeon or veterinary practice was approached for data input. We are the one professional group, which is obliged by our oath to relieve all animal suffering. We are also the only group of professionals working with vertebrates (domestic, and wild), which is licensed to use prescription pharmaceuticals and anaesthetics, and to perform surgical and medical intervention.

It is not Stuart Smith or ... or even current and returned Government conservationists or for that matter the Government vet., who are regularly called out by members of the public to deal with stranded, sick or injured wildlife. It is most often the practising vet. As such we have an enormous amount of information and knowledge with respect to species of migrating and local injured wildlife, the types of health problems encountered, and survival rates. None of us was approached or served on that study. This was not by accident. It was intentional.

An essential source of data has been eliminated, and although some of the published work is worthy of note, in particular the work with marine turtles, some of the conclusion relating to terrestrial wildlife are flawed. The "rent-a-scientist" pool of ambitious undergraduates and initialled graduates, prepared to put spin on data in order to support the hypotheses of those whose interests are at stake, is not a modern phenomenon.

I make no apologies for being realistic as well as deeply concerned about the environment, and I find it difficult to have to publicly defend my own record, however, when Stuart M. Smith, levels criticism that my "continued concerns for the protection of feral animals could seriously affect the biodiversity of animals in Bermuda", he needs to be given the metaphorical 'boot up the....'

My husband and I have surgically sterilised literally thousands of those feral animals, often without any remuneration. If he understood population science, he would appreciate just how significant our contribution (and that of BFAB and other veterinary colleagues) has been. We spend countless hours educating owners to allow the neutering their companion animals. My husband and I have also put all our savings where our ideals lie, and purchased land that would otherwise be developed by those whose interests are being protected by this pseudo-scientific smoke screen. Indeed not just the wildlife but generations of future Bermudians may benefit from our modest contribution, as long as Ministers of the Environment do not continue to bow down to the wishes of developers and overturn last wills and testaments.

I think perhaps we should call all of you immediately every time we admit and care for sick and injured wildlife during unsociable hours.

DR. A.M. WARE-CIETERS

Pembroke

Reverse discrimination

January 13, 2004

Dear Sir,

Dr. Amenemhet Tamerry (the former Dr. Clark Godwin to the uninitiated in Bermuda folklore) makes a strange comment in his letter regarding the appointment of Richard Ground as Bermuda's Chief Justice, stating that "I am again outraged as should every Bermudian be, because the British Government is openly and actively discriminating against every Bermudian".

I am puzzled by this statement as the British Government has given Dr. Tamerry (provided he is Bermudian) the right to apply for a full British passport which he will find is a far more recognised and acceptable document to travel with than a Bermudian passport in most jurisdictions. With that British passport he also is given the right to live and work in Britain, and the European Community, unencumbered after making the proper application, unlike Bermuda.

Dr. Tamerry may not wish to have anything to do with Britain but it seems to me that "the Bermuda Government is openly and actively discriminating against every non-Bermudian" who wishes to live and work in Bermuda, and this is a government that Dr. Tamerry openly supports.

But then, Dr. Tamerry may be grinding a different axe and prefers a judicial system that seems to take forever to bring wrongdoers to account for their actions, and often acquits them on the flimsiest of excuses. Heaven forbid that we get someone into Bermuda that makes our legal system more efficient and effective.

PHIL CRACKNELL

St. George's

Ready for Independence

January 10, 2004

Dear Sir,

One of the reasons the late Fredrick Wade urged the PLP to refrain from voting in the referendum on Independence was that the governing UBP under the Hon. Sir John Swan was not with Sir John for Independence. In disagreement with Mr. Aitchison, whom I admire for all the interesting sports and Second World War writings he has done, Bermuda was ready for Independence then and is more ready now. I have been of the opinion that Britain wanted us to go to that status since 1966 during Lord Martonmere's tenure as Governor. In guessing the situation now, the majority of us for various reasons still are against it.

With the appointment of the new Chief Justice I believe Britain is pushing us harder to go. So those of us in favour of going will have to put up with whomever is sent.

With reference to Mr. Bobby Richards' statement about the Scotland Yard coming to investigate the Bermuda Government for the first time I am old enough to have seen another time when they should have come to investigate the Bermuda Government; when Dr. Gordon at his own expense took his White Paper to the UK describing conditions here. The Governor at that time denied there was anything to complain about.

I say it was Admiral Leatham in office at that time and he called Dr. Gordon an immigrant from Trinidad to which Dr. Gordon replied that he was an itinerant from the UK!

ROSS TUZO

Warwick