At the breaking point

January 6, 2008

Dear Sir,

As a nation our idolisation has come for all to bear.

This one comes in the underlining form called fear.

It's here for all to see, some have succumbed and left families, friends to bear tears.

At a time when we struggle to lift our young men up, we now dodge, duck then proceed to keep our mouths shut

In their world the law is not adhered to, hellbent on doing what they want to do.

How do you put fear back into the fearless who took someone loving and dear?

What measures or message we need to send to reverse this trend, where justice is sought on walls and street corners instead of within our judicial halls.

What's wrong with our young minds? Town versus country, east versus west, by this time next year the hottest christmas item is going to be a bulletproof vest.

We see, hear and seek information, fact or fiction, if kept silent we cannot get any convictions.

Let's pray to be brave, strong, put weakness to sleep, take back control and regain our community and streets.

BROWNLOW ADDERLEY

Southampton

A united Bermuda

January 3, 2008

Dear Sir,

I am writing this letter partly in response to the outcome of the recent election and also partly in defence of the ideal virtues of government.

In articles published in The Royal Gazette and The Mid-Ocean News, Ms Renee Webb rightly identified that politics in Bermuda is all about race. However, she fails to highlight that this goes against the very principle of government.

Nature allows mankind to be inclined to differ on various issues, including the issue of race. However, to quote John Locke: "Civil Government is the proper remedy for the inconveniences of the state of nature." In other words, Government should be the haven where people can escape the tensions of society. Unfortunately, Bermuda's political climate has fed these tensions instead of relieved them.

As a young, black, female Bermudian in my last year of university in England I have been exposed to a plethora of different people, who have different skin tones and different cultural identities from myself.

However, I found this to be a refreshing and educating experience because I learned how to appreciate people in spite of our cultural and racial differences instead of depreciating them because of it. Yet, upon my return to Bermuda I was highly disappointed by the inability of my fellow country men to exercise this very same principle. I can't understand how the colour of one's skin can represent so much about a person despite the content of their character.

The results of December 18's General Election reflect the magnitude of the racial divisions in Bermuda. It reflects the extent to which Bermudians are willing to allow race to dictate the future of our country despite its irrelevance on governance. I understand that Bermuda is a country which has become bewildered and essentially crippled by racial inequalities in the past; however, I cannot fathom why we continue to allow these inequalities to dictate our future.

In the words of the political activist Thomas Paine: "Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one."

It is time for the people of Bermuda to take the necessity of government seriously; it is truly time for a reality check. However, when we objectively check the realities of Bermuda we will undoubtedly find that racial tensions have permeated into every sector of our society and have become a stumbling block to our stability as an island nation.

By holding on to the grievances of our past we are allowing those issues to live on and continue to have control over us and our decisions. It is time for Bermudians to understand that government is not about the past … it is only about the future.

Politics needs to be recognised for what it is. It is a platform for the concerns of the people to be articulated, not a racial battle field! If race falls among the concerns of the people then it should be addressed, however, it should not consume the objectives of any political movement. The only way to achieve true government in Bermuda is to stop attempting to turn the racial tables but to endeavour to balance them. I am hoping that between now and the next election the political leaders of this country will recognise and exercise this essential principle.

"It has been said that white leadership in Bermuda would take our people back to slavery; however we continue to remain enslaved by the mentality that we need to prove our racial equality. Based on civil principles Blacks and Whites are equal under the law … we are already free!

The next step is to exercise this freedom by realising and exercising the principles of equality. There is no superior race therefore it is fruitless to continue to make one race feel inferior to the other. Now that we have been emancipated from the shackles of slavery we must represent what this emancipation stood for.

A man who is truly free would not wish to enslave another neither would he feel superior to those who once enslaved him.

Former Premier, the late Sir John Sharpe, said that "we either live together as friends or die together as fools." I am appealing to my country to live together as friends.

This election marked my foray into the political arena as it was my first chance to vote. I have no political affiliations. I am neither PLP nor UBP. I simply support the progress of a united Bermuda. Over the next few years I hope to become more active in the political future of this country as we move forward together. Any one with similar interests who wishes to contact me may do so via e-mail – juanaecrockwell@hotmail.com.

JUANAE CROCKWELL

Southampton

Defend our reputation

December 31, 2007

Dear Sir,

Now let us hope that the clenched fist held high was just exuberance and not a forewarning of things to come. One can easily understand the PLP wanting to be re-elected, but hopefully the savvy among them will not be seduced by the sweet talkers and will throw out the bad apple in the barrel before it is too late and rots the rest.

Complacency and turning a blind eye to misdeeds can only double back to bite, as this would be interpreted as compliance.

Bermuda has a wonderful reputation all over the world, created by good decent men and women. For that alone, we must stand up and be prepared to fight to protect that reputation.

DIANA WILLIAMS

Pembroke

End the inequity

December 17, 2007

Dear Sir,

I felt compelled to respond to the letter written by Mr. David Doyle dated December 13, 2007.

In the letter Mr. Doyle quotes former Governor, Sir Peter Ramsbotham who wrote in a letter to the Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs dated 15 February, 1978 "... the attitudes which it is most important to change are those of the PLP's present leaders. They consider that, as their party draws support from the majority community here, they have a moral right to power..."

In responding to this I will not go so far as to quote any leader or Governor, but I merely draw reference to the Unabridged Oxford Dictionary which defines "democracy' as: "Government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system."

Mr. Doyle needs to be reminded that that which existed up until 1998, and indeed up until 2001, was anything but a "free electoral system". It was not until 2001 that the PLP government began taking steps to amend the constitution in order to abolish the island's system of parish-based, dual-seat constituencies which favoured voters in parishes of small, predominantly white populations. The PLP did not feel they had a "moral right to power" but rather a democratic right to power that was undermined by virtue of an inequitable system that heavily favoured whites despite their minority status.

Sir Peter is also quoted as saying "... they (the PLP) also, much more dangerously, tend to regard any black who joins ... the UBP as a traitor to his race, and, conversely, the handful of PLP whites as honourary blacks."

Whilst I too deplore the fact that any black joining the UBP should be regarded as a "traitor", I find it interesting that Sir Peter failed to comment on how whites joining the PLP were ostracised by other whites. He also failed to recognise how many blacks joining the UBP were treated as tokens and given no real power.

In speaking about "moral right" it is also interesting that Sir Peter does not comment on how the white leaders of the day felt that they had a "moral right" to dictate to the rest of the country how business was to be conducted, how education was going to be fed to the youth and how our judicial system was going to be run so as to protect a certain few.

Sir Peter's comments are not surprising. They represent the arrogance and condescending views of many British of his kind who pined for the days when Britain ruled the waves. Even in the wake of the most infamous uprising in our history where racial tensions, brought about by years of segregation and racism, boiled over into violence and mayhem in the streets in 1977, Sir Peter clearly had the audacity to script such partisan, unenlightened and insensitive words.

Mr. Doyle's support for the UBP is not the issue. What is the issue is that in 2007, he would quote such archaic comments made by an out of touch, diplomatic relic to build a case for the UBP.

Lastly, Mr. Doyle paraphrases Sir Winston Churchill in saying "... if we (that is all the people of Bermuda) continue to permit the PLP to drag the past into the present, we shall find that we have lost our future."

Well let me do a bit of paraphrasing of my own. If we continue to perpetuate the inequitable actions of our past, where in 2007 less than 27 percent of the executives in top companies are black, where blacks continue to earn less than whites for doing the same job and where one of the most reputable law firms on the island has only two black partners, then we shall have no future.

ONION

London, Ontario

More research needed

January 4, 2008

Dear Sir,

Excellent letter published in today's edition from Clean Slate of Smith's in which the writer tries to understand and explain the recent election result in light of the corruption allegations surrounding the PLP and their totally inadequate response to those allegations. Clean Slate concludes:

"It would be a devastating blow against their (the black community's) struggle for self-worth to vote in a manner that admitted that a black government lacked the moral fibre to lead this Country and that the party founded by powerful white families that had condoned segregation and racial glass ceilings should replace them.

"It is not that the black community cannot forgive or forget. It's that they choose not to take a chance on powerful white families that have been instilled with a value system formed by parents who promoted or condoned racism."

This was a very well constructed argument and almost had me convinced. That is until I remembered that the black community kept the UBP in power for 30 years, even when no such damaging allegations of corruption surrounded the PLP. So I think that there needs to be a lot more debate as well as some in-depth research before the UBP accepts the recommendation to disband.

OBSERVER

Warwick

S&P's warning

January 3, 2008

Dear Sir,

I am sure that all of us are very pleased that the General Election is over but noting the S&P's downgrading of the outlook for Bermuda's financial position, I would urge our Premier, Dr. Brown, to hold off on giving his election gifts to avoid Bermuda going into greater deficit.

By now we all know that making promises to the electorate to get votes is the modus operandi of many politicians and the PLP now have an established reputation of misleading, so hopefully the people in need were not really expecting to receive these election gifts until just before the next General Election. (The idea of course is just to get re-elected, at any cost, not to actually keep election promises).

Believe me, now the PLP have won, Paula Cox will be pulling her hair out trying to minimise the eventual cost of these vote winning gifts and will put off giving until the last possible minute.

I look forward to reading how our new Government is to distribute their election gifts, but expect to see several strings and conditions of participation attached when they are finally presented. Somebody has to pay for it eventually and it won't be the Government, it will be all of us, PLP & UBP, black and white, local and exempted companies, or initially some foreign entity that will loan Government the money for our great-great grandchildren to pay off in the distant future.

When considering the amount of money that has been delivered into Government's coffers over the last nine years, I am somewhat surprised that we have to be in debt to anybody. If Bermuda is as wealthy as some say why cant we pay off our debts so that if our primary source of existing and new funds starts to dry up, at least we won't have to borrow money at ever increasing cost to pay off the interest on the money already borrowed.

My family lives by the creed of if you can't afford to pay for it, wait until you can. Can we expect Government to pay off its debts before it gives away more borrowed money to pay for its election gifts? I pray we can.

WORRIED FOR THE FUTURE

Pembroke

Generous contribution

January 6, 2008

Dear Sir,

The Sunshine League Children's Home extends a heartfelt "thank you" to all of those who assisted in any way with our annual tag days held on Friday, December 7 and Saturday, December 8.

We especially would like to thank the taggers for making time in their busy schedules to tag for us and the members of the public who responded to them so generously with contributions totalling $25,200.00.

Thank you to the managers and operators of the many businesses who permitted our taggers to use their premises and to the employers who allowed members of their staffs to tag, to those who provided refreshments. Special thanks to those school counsellors who organised students to tag.

May you all be blessed and prospered during the ensuing year.

BETTY HOWES

Sunshine League Tag Day Coordinator