We are not just guests

January 11, 2008

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you today about the situation of Permanent Resident Card (PRC) holders in Bermuda, who are denied the right to vote and thus, are denied the right to fully participate in society. A PRC entitles the holder to live and work in Bermuda without the need for a work permit, but does not give them the right to participate in parliamentary elections.

Obtaining a PRC is by no means an easy thing to achieve. The individual must have lived continuously on the island for at least 20 years and remained an upstanding member of the community. There are many countries where permanent residents, who are not citizens, have the right to vote; examples include Barbados, Jamaica, Grenada, Antigua & Barbuda, and the UK, New Zealand, Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Guyana, each with their own residence requirements.

Considering that the overwhelming majority of PRC holders would have arrived and continued to work in Bermuda under a work permit, which are only issued in the interests of strengthening the Bermudian economy, it can be deduced that PRC holders have made and continue to make a significant contribution to the community through their work, their involvement in community organisations, and overall, the contribution to the growth of the Bermudian economy. This contribution is by no means a fleeting one. They have spent over 20 years making Bermuda their home.

The current Government will argue that by giving PRC holders the right to vote, you would be opening the flood gates to more and more individuals being eligible for gaining this right, and this would somehow disadvantage Bermudians.

Firstly, given restrictions now in place on work permit lengths, it is unlikely that many individuals will have the slightest chance of staying in Bermuda for the requisite 20 years to obtain permanent residency. Secondly, PRC holders already have the right to live and work in Bermuda, therefore giving them the right to vote does not put any further pressure on the housing market or lend itself to any of the xenophobic rhetoric concerning foreigners 'taking away' jobs from Bermudians.

Therefore, the only significant impact would be that PRC holders would have the opportunity to participate in the democratic process. The current Government would argue that this would somehow dilute the voting right of Bermudians.

Yet, looking at the numbers, the number of PRC holders is about five percent of the voting population (2,000/42,000), which is just more than a fifth of the voting population who didn't participate in the past election of December 2007, (which roughly had a 76 percent participation rate).

PRC holders should have the right to hold the Government accountable. They are not simply guests on the islands; they have been contributing members of society for over 20 years! Wouldn't such individuals have effectively earned their right to vote and hold government accountable after such a period?

It is an absolute embarrassment that the Bermuda Government cannot afford these hardworking and well-deserving individuals one of the basic human rights of participation. Many of these individuals have made Bermuda their one and only home, and don't have a right to vote anywhere else in the world.

By failing to provide these individuals with the opportunity to participate in government elections, you are denying them one of the fundamental elements of any democracy. What is more, many of these PRC holders have children whom were born in Bermuda, whom after their 18th birthday received Bermudian status, affording them the right to vote. Giving PRC holders the right to vote is about giving them the respect and dignity that they deserve, to be able to actively participate in the democratic processes of these wonderful islands that they have helped to build, and that they have called home for more than twenty years.

I therefore ask you to take action in order to provide Bermuda PRC holders with the right to participate in parliamentary elections, so that they are no longer made to feel like second-class citizens.

JONATHAN SUTER

Southampton

Waiting for parity

January 14, 2008

Dear Sir,

The following is in reference to your Editorial published today. It is easy for me to understand why you, Tom Vesey and others find Barack Obama attractive as a candidate for the US Presidency, simply because to date he has made no reference to race. It is also easy for me to understand why both you and Tom Vesey would make an issue out of the fact that Dr. Brown did not send a congratulatory message to Hillary Clinton as he did to Barack Obama. I know that it is difficult for both you and Tom Vesey to understand that the reason the Premier sent a message to Obama and not Clinton or any of the Republican presidential candidates is because he has personally met Obama.

Editor's Note: The Cabinet Office has since stated that letters were sent to Sen. Clinton and Sen. McCain on winning the New Hampshire primaries.

In the fifth paragraph you write "¿ Dr. Brown is also the leader of this country and he should remember that it is important to have good relations with whatever administration is in the White House." I guess you conveniently forgot the agreement between the Bermuda Government and the United States Government which was signed in December 2007. As I recall Dr. Brown signed on behalf of the Bermuda Government and Mr. Gregory Slayton, US Consul General signed on behalf of the US Government. The "Bermuda Exchange for Mutual Understanding" was approved by the US State Department following talks between Premier Brown and US Secretary of State, Dr. Condoleezza Rice. In other words, Dr. Brown has already established good relations with the Republican Party and hopefully this will continue. Of course, we all know that the Progressive Labour Party long ago established good relations with the Democratic Party.

In your next paragraph you state that Senator Obama "represents a new generation of politicians who are more interested in uniting people than in the politics of division, racial or otherwise." You go on to state that Senator Obama's neglect of including the race issue has caused some unease among African Americans. I would agree with you that if Senator Obama did address the race issue in his campaign, he would go the way of Jesse Jackson. The fact of the matter remains, whether you agree or not, that America's record on handling race is abominable. If Senator Obama refuses to acknowledge this fact, that's on him. If Senator Obama does not think that the racial problems in America should be addressed by a presidential candidate, I personally question his sincerity.

I, like others, am waiting to see how successful Senator Obama will be in the southern states which were famous for lynching black men just for looking at white women. You should also remember that the noose is still used in America to send Black Americans a message. One very interesting point that you have made is that Senator Obama "is being subjected to closer scrutiny" which you describe as a "grueling experience".

I would say that you, and many other opinion writers in Bermuda, including Tim Hodgson, Tom Vesey, Stuart Hayward, certainly subjected Dr. Brown to closer scrutiny than Michael Dunkley. If the experience thus far has been grueling for Senator Obama, I'm certain that scrutiny that Dr. Brown suffered was grueling for him. However, you had no sympathy for Dr. Brown.

I think it also interesting that in your penultimate paragraph that you suggest that we the people remember that Senator Obama is "only human, and he will make mistakes". I look forward to the day when you caution the people of Bermuda that Premier Brown is "only human, and he will make mistakes". Then I will know that the racial divide in Bermuda has truly lessened.

LAVERNE FURBERT

Hamilton Parish

We can conserve energy

January 11, 2008

Dear Sir,

I note that finally the Government has acknowledged the need to conserve energy in order to reduce the skyrocketing cost of living in Bermuda.

Since 1990 my wife and I, under the flag of Bermuda Energy Conservation Ltd., have been trying to educate the residents of the island that the easiest way to conserve energy and thereby reduce the daily cost of living is to make use of solar water heating and compact fluorescent bulbs. This is of course also an environmental issue, but don't get me started on sustainable development!

Solar water heating systems use only the electricity it needs for a very small pump to lift water to the roof and circulate it thru the panel and back to the tank, the sun does all the heating, When the water in the tank is at the temperature you choose there are controls to stop the circulation and prevent dangerously high temperatures.

Our own experience proved that we could take 30 percent off our electricity bill year round. This calls for an investment of possibly $6-9,000, but these systems tend to last 20 years or more, so this is a safe investment based on a possible saving of $60 per month for 20 years. The more the kwhr rates increase, the greater your savings by letting the sun heat the water.

Additionally, compact fluorescent lamps use 25 percent of the energy used by incandescent lamps to generate the same amount of light, they cost a little more to purchase but they last 12 times as long and give excellent light output. If a home owner changed out all his electric light bulbs in one month, the difference on his electricity bill for the month following would probably be quite encouraging, depending how much he uses electric light.

Meanwhile, unplug all electric devices that are not actively in use, telephone chargers, cable boxes and TVs, radios, toasters etc. apparently trickle energy. Do not use closet heaters without timers ¿ three hours per day in a closed closet are sufficient to keep it dry, more than that will cause your Belco bill to skyrocket. Anything that uses electricity to heat or cool uses a lot of power. Ceiling fans are much cheaper to run than window A/C units.

The bottom line is that either the Government or the utility company ¿ ie Belco, need to offer subsidies to home owners to encourage use of solar thermal panels for water heating (reduced use of electricity) and make it easier for home owners to install either wind generators or photovoltaic panels on their homes to generate power which can be used on site, or fed into the "grid system".

Bearing in mind that photovoltaic energy is generated silently, whereas wind generators will usually make some noise. Before anyone considers installing a wind generator they should check with the manufacturer for viability. Homes in Bermuda are usually too close together, or not in clear enough air, to make wind generators practical.

Additionally, it is time for the Planning Department to make it mandatory for all new buildings to be constructed with energy efficient design, including modern insulation and heat resistant glass, to reduce the need for HVAC cooling.

It would not be difficult to simply adopt the new Florida building codes or the California building codes for energy efficiency models. Home owners in many states in USA received subsidies and rebates for energy efficiency. Bermuda's building codes are up to 20 years out of date, this is where the modernization needs to start. Conserving my energy in retirement now.

PETER FORSTER

energypete@gmail.com

Pembroke