October 23, 2008

Please allow me space for my opinion on the overlap between the PGA Grand Slam of Golf and Bermuda's first National Heroes' Day. Based on the events that took place, it appears that the public was given a holiday to watch Dr. Brown play golf. If so, I must say that I owe him an apology. As I never showed up. Or does he owe Bermuda an apology?

To have a preamble to the holiday without a follow-up to honour the honoree?

Doesn't sound right to me. Now I could be wrong but this is my opinion and thanks for the opportunity to express it.

Now to go one step further, the Premier's aide Mr. Commissiong recognised that there were only a few white people in attendance.

Now that does not surprise me knowing some people have different priorities in their life. But having said that, his own behaviour demonstrates where our Dr. Brown has his priorities. It was more important to do what he wanted to do as opposed to what he should have done.

If this holiday was to be the start of a new beginning for Bermuda, he could have easily deputised someone to play in his place to show true love for the honoree he spoke so highly of (bearing in mind this is my opinion). Dr. Brown had a great opportunity to show true leadership and blew it.

As far as I can see he has not learned what it takes to be a good leader, for he who thinks he is a great leader must set the example of leadership. But the old saying is that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks and this leader cannot be taught.

Unfortunately, he has an attitude like the young people. Give it to me or I will take it by any necessary means.

Bermuda really needs a leader who puts the people's interests first and not self-interest. A good leader always puts himself last.

Like a good host ¿ they will make sure their guest is comfortable first before they do for themselves. But there are leaders and then there are those that just walk in front not really knowing. .

A.E. WENDELL (SCOPSIE) HASSELL

Sandys Parish

P.S: Let us look at the word for a moment and from Colossians 2:8 which reads: "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit. According to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ."

The world of God is never wrong no matter what men say. I would like for the leader of this country be as the word in Proverbs that reads, "A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word spoken in due season. How good it is."

Now the cross-reference is Proverbs 25:11 "A word fitly spoken is like apples of god in settings of silver."

Not my words but His words.

Learn truth, Mr. Williams

October 28, 2008

I ALWAYS look forward to the Commentary by Alvin Williams in the Mid-Ocean News, and it is probably the main reason why I buy my weekly copy of your paper. Not that I usually agree with the views of Mr. Williams, indeed I usually profoundly disagree, but disagreement is not an issue.

Perfectly reasonable people disagree, and Mr Williams (although I don't know him) strikes me as being a perfectly reasonable man.

My enjoyment of his columns comes from trying to be clear about my own understanding of economics because Mr. Williams consistently writes such nonsensical statements contradicting the settled propositions of economics and what he considers economic facts, or a few of his statements are in substantial contravention of the truth or reality.

Let me just mention his most recent Commentary (Mid-Ocean News, October 24) entitled "The lasting legacy of Kwame Nkrumah" (the former President of Ghana). His hero worship of President Nkrumah (pictured) is slightly embarrassing, given that he bankrupted Ghana which until 1957, when it became Independent, was one of the wealthiest societies in Africa and one with great economic potential.

He pursued such economically mad policies that the Ghanaian people became impoverished, literally beggars in their own land. In 2002, President John Kufor of Ghana stated that "the average per capita income of my people is lower now than in the 1960s, four decades after Independence". This dreadful state of affairs, which included a lack of freedom and political instability, is primarily attributed to Nkrumah.

In a recent book entitled Africa Unchained by George Ayittey, the author states: "When Ghana gained its Independence of March 6, 1957, it stood at the same level of development as South Korea. Both countries had income per capita of $200. At Independence there was much hope for Ghana.

"The country's economic potential was enormous. It had rich endowments of minerals (gold, diamonds, bauxite, manganese), cash crops (cocoa, coffee, kola nuts), and timber. In addition, Ghana had a well-educated population with a relatively larger professional and educated class than many other African countries. But 40 years later, South Korea's income per capita is ten times that of Ghana: $4,400 versus $420."

I am more than happy to lend the above book to Mr. Williams in the hope that he might learn the real, and perhaps uncomfortable, facts about Ghana, and elsewhere. He might also find Equality, the Third World, and Economic Delusion by Peter Bauer, and The Elusive Quest for Growth ¿ Economist's Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics by William Easterly of considerable interest for the same purpose.

As Mr. Williams states: "Nkrumah pursued the economic development model (my comment ¿ the equivalent of our sustainable development commission) that the former Soviet Union had used during the course of its crash industrialisation programmes of the 1920s and 1930s."

What he neglected to mention was that his policies had exactly the same results as those of the Soviet Union, namely poverty, misery and the death of many thousands of people.

Whilst Nkrumah was not an evil monster like Stalin or Mao, he was responsible for the financial destruction of his country, grinding poverty, and for the deaths and stunted lives of too many Ghanaians.

It was Goebbels who stated: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." And it was Lenin who said: "A lie told often enough becomes truth."

Nkrumah had a lasting legacy, but not the one that Mr. Williams writes of. Perhaps he should learn the truth.

ROBERT STEWART

Do not disturb us . . .

October 20, 2008

YOUR columnist Mr. Alvin Williams believes (Mid-Ocean News, October 10) that a statue of Sally Bassett should replace that of Johnny Barnes. Perhaps. But Johnny Barnes certainly does represent black Bermudians of today, more than does Sally Bassett.

How many Bermudians does he know who are willing to take an extreme risk in the interest of the oppressed?

In my experience, most black Bermudians want to be left alone, they not only do not want to disrupt society they do not want their own lives to be disrupted. Certainly not in the cause of someone other than themselves. They want to be left alone unless they are going to be entertained.

That fact probably answers the question raised by the Editor of your sister paper. Why is Dame Lois the first national hero rather than someone such as, say, Roosevelt Brown who gave us Universal Franchise without which, the efforts of neither the Progressive Labour Parrty nor Dame Lois would amount to anything.

Dame Lois was always entertaining, even when challenging the power structure. Roosevelt Brown, whose contribution was more tangible and universal, gave his life working, often physically, for the oppressed throughout the world. I do not know any Bermudian today who would want to follow in his footsteps of working with the nobodies of the world.

When he challenged or confronted the power structures either here or elsewhere, he was not entertaining. His confrontations were more likely to disturb us.

Yes, give us a Sally Bassett statue, as large as you like, but let us not have any illusions. We are not Sally Bassetts, we are Johnny Barnes. Do not disturb us unless it is to entertain us.

EVA N. HODGSON

Crawl

@TIMES-18:A test case

October 29, 2008

Further to the Mid-Ocean News story in your October 24 edition regarding the proposed development on the BAA property, I feel it might be important for your readers to have the benefit of understanding the following extract from the Sustainable Development Strategy and Implementation Plan for Bermuda:

"Build high-rise, socially-mixed residential accommodation in Hamilton and other key areas of the Island. The need to make efficient use of land may bring forward building options that do not easily fit Bermudian perceptions of the type of dwelling they expect to live in. Yes, the need for higher- density, smaller accommodation is clear. Non-Bermudians on short-term work permits are more likely to be accustomed to 'urban'-style living in apartments, taking pressure off other types of housing. Yet increasing numbers of Bermudians are adopting apartment-style living by necessity. Higher population densities in Hamilton would help to limit increasing congestion, while creating high-density residences elsewhere would need to be linked with employment opportunities in the area to prevent increased congestion, particular (sic) vehicles entering Hamilton from the West-End. However, we first need to define what Bermuda considers high-rise and what suitable sites can be made available."

This extract is from Appendix F of the above-noted document, formulated after extensive public consultation in which I expect the National Trust was a committed and significant contributor to the debate. Additionally, the chair of BEST, Stuart Hayward, was a member of the Sustainable Development Roundtable.

Therefore, I would respectfully ask these two environmental groups if the BAA site is not ideally suited to help satisfy the above strategy, then what sites are?

It would also be useful to understand how they hope to advance the cause of sustainable development when they often adopt gratuitous reactionary positions towards these types of mid-rise residential proposals? Livable, walkable, residential cities are the solutions of planners worldwide when they contemplate how we should be living a sustainable future.

Clearly, a residential project such as that proposed for the BAA site should be embraced by environmental groups and local planners alike as a test case on how to develop the urban environment of Hamilton.

Simon Hodgson

City of Hamilton