Help find dad's history

November 12, 2007

Dear Editor,

I hope that I am not troubling you but I am trying to put together a Memorial DVD for our Father Leslie John Holder who served in the Royal Navy at many sites including HMS Malabar from 12 December 1935 to 9 November 1937. I was hoping to find out the nature of his duties especially as Malabar has been in the public domain known in the 1930s as a 'Y' site. Till now I have got him a mention at www.ahoy.tk-jk.net as the Radio Operator on duty on board HMS Electra who received the SOS from the torpedoed TSS Athenia and would dearly like to find more information on his time in Bermuda. The SOS contents are displayed on that site.

We have a gold medal with the inscription "Presented to Bro. Leslie Holder initiated in the Royal Bermudian lodge No. 5006 on the 30 January 1936 with RAOB GLE on the green silk ribbon.

We also have his Bermuda 1937 Cycle Licence Number Plate 13586 with a note explaining that it was compulsory for Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm.

STEWART HENDERSON HOLDER

1 Sunninghill Close,

West Hallam,

ILKESTON, Derbyshire,

UNITED KINGDOM DE7 6LS.

Tel. (0) 115 930 2957

We need to know

November 5, 2007

Dear Sir,

I have been waiting with bated breath for five days now for more information to be printed about the BHC Scandal. The Privy Council did the right thing when they ruled in the media's favour, it is now time for the media to step up to the plate and do the right thing for the people of Bermuda. Now, more than ever, Bermudians need to be shown what the true natures of our current leaders are. Regardless of whether the scandal was five years ago, it still affects Bermuda today.

Bermudians have a right to know how much money was embezzled from their pockets, and where it has gone. They have a right to know how well our leaders have benefited from their unlawful acts. Now that a general election has been called, I call upon the freedom of the press to give Bermudians the information that they have been waiting for.

It doesn't matter the success of Tourism, the PGA Grand Slam, and the Music Festival. If our leaders are corrupt and unethical, they will only drag Bermuda's name through the international mud. We need to know the truth. And we rely on you to provide it to us. Now the election has finally been called, we have a chance to change the future of this island for the better. But we can only do that if we go to the polls as informed citizens. I pray that when December 18 comes, we will be able to call ourselves as such.

TRUTH SEEKER

Southampton

Will I be disenfranchised?

November 12, 2007

Dear Sir,

I am wondering how many voters have found themselves in the position I am presently in. Having been given a travel voucher, I decided this year to spend Christmas and the New Year with my daughter and her family, who are presently living in England. I am a retired widow, so I planned to spend a month away, leaving Bermuda on Saturday, December 8 and returning on Sunday, January 6. Imagine my distress when hearing the news of the upcoming Election, scheduled for December 18. As I understand it, early voting will take place one week before, i.e. on the 10th, when I shall already be away.

My ticket is already paid for and I know there would be a financial penalty if I tried to change it, plus the fact that my daughter can only come to the airport to pick me up on a Sunday, which would mean I would have to change the dates by a whole week. My daughter asked, "Can't you do a postal vote?" as they do in other countries, but it is my understanding that this is not possible in Bermuda. So, my question is: What provision has been made for voters who will be out of the country both on the Election date and on the early voting date one week before?

DISAPPOINTED VOTER

Flatts

A seething tirade

November 9, 2007

Dear Sir,

As I read Christian Dunleavy's Opinion piece of November 7, I could not but think that perspective is everything.

To begin with, as a black female who has faced one form of racism or another throughout most of my life against the fact that he is a white male who has probably never faced any form of discrimination, certainly not racism, I have to point out that the UBP does not have to make "a cynical appeal to racial solidarity" because white racism has ensured white solidarity without any such appeal.

That same racism which has resulted in blacks internalising that racism so that many of them give whites their support because they too believe that whites are morally and inherently superior. Thus our need to appeal, cynical or otherwise, for a racial solidarity, which no other group on the earth would need because no other group on the earth have had to deal with centuries of propaganda which insisted on their inherent and moral inferiority to, above all, Whites.

The UBP, a party that governed for 30-plus years built on a foundation and infrastructure that is the bitterly racially divided Bermuda of today and of which Mr. Dunleavy reminds us every time he writes. MPs and Premiers do indeed come and go, but an entrenched legislated culture of racism and a belief in black moral and inherent inferiority driven by Governments of the past has put us on a footing of racial divide that has been, and continues to be, so destructive to so many in the black community.

Mr. Dunleavy's "seething tirade" against the Premier and his contentions about "complete and total submission" together with his "increasingly strident rhetoric" which perceives "an apparently unquestionable, unaccountable, infallible leader with a weak Parliamentary group being dragged along for the ride" matches word for word any of the Premier's rhetoric.

But his own evaluation of the "irrelevancy" of Ewart Brown seems to differ markedly from an international evaluation of him in view of the repeated recognition by the international world of one thing after another since Dr. Brown has been the Premier. I tremble to think of any black person who is prepared to give political power to any white person supported by Mr. Dunleavy. They are indeed willing to contribute to their own racial oppression.

EVA N. HODGSON

Hamilton Parish

St. George's needs CCTV

November 8, 2007

Dear Sir,

Another week has passed and another violent crime has occurred in the heart of St. George's, this time on the doorsteps of the victims' home. How many more of these violent crimes have to occur before St. Georges gets back its Police Station and the police presence it desperately needs?

The residents of St. Georges are tired of watching politicians, Mayors, senior Police officers and others play hot potato with crime. The residents are tired of hollow promises from politicians claiming they will address the problem. The residents are tired of useless statistics being thrown around to try and sway public opinion. The residents are tired of being too scared to walk around town after sunset. If we need CCTV, buy it. If the officers need more resources, invest in them. If the criminal laws need updating, change them.

Violent crime is on the increase and if you don't believe it ask the victims in St. George's: the person held at knifepoint in one of the parks; the woman almost raped on one of Bermuda's oldest streets; and the numerous individuals threatened and/or robbed on the fringes of the Town Square.

It is time this serious problem gets serious attention. Let's not wait until tourists become targets or someone gets killed before we stand up and admit there is a problem.

KENT SMITH

St. George's

Eerily similar techniques

November 5, 2007

Dear Sir,

In reading the speech by Dr. Brown at the PLP "gala," one cannot help but feel as though the political situation in Bermuda is extremely unstable at the moment. With the election nearing on December 18, one would assume Dr. Brown would be reassuring "HIS" government that what they are, and have been, doing politically are the necessary elements in leading the PLP to success.

Instead, the speech comes off as angry and defensive, traits that a leader of a country should not portray, especially publicly. Dr. Brown claims that he knows what a democracy is but it is a concept that seems to be lost upon him. Democracy is misunderstood and misused in a time when totalitarian regimes and military dictatorships alike have attempted to claim popular support by pinning democratic labels upon themselves.

In the dictionary definition, democracy "is a government by the people 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". In the words of Abraham Lincoln, democracy is a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people".

While I seem to be criticising the logic used by Dr. Brown here in his speech, at the same time I am not agreeing with the political campaign of the UBP. With the election nearing, can anyone say that they see a significant platform representation from either side? Dr. Brown states in his speech: "And if they ask how we will accomplish our third victory, tell them that we know hard work and we know God. Tell them that we have those magnificent PLP guardian angels watching more than us, guiding our steps and our discourse — that we will gather all of the pieces of our beloved Bermuda together to re-elect the Progressive Labour Party Government — black and white, young and old, poor and rich.

"Why will we win? Because we deserve to win. Because we have worked very hard and we have delivered very much. Because we are the party of the people of Bermuda. We do not represent the chosen few. We represent the many."

Is one supposed to then assume that the UBP has Satan on their side if God is fighting for the PLP? Or that the UBP doesn't have guardian angels because they are all with the PLP? Aside from the obvious questionable use of religion to win a campaign instead of sticking to hard evidence like education standards or unemployment rates, last checked, the previous election results were: The Progressive Labour Party 51.6 percent vote and 22 seats, and the United Bermuda Party won 48 percent vote and 14 seat. What makes Dr. Brown say "we deserve to win," and furthermore, who are "we?"

Regardless of my political affiliation, if 48 percent of the population has voted for the other party, then the PLP can in no way be representing all of the people of Bermuda, but simply the majority, which is what Dr. Brown should have said if he were truly attempting to lead a democracy.

Dr. Brown backs up many of his claims in the early segment of his speech by confirming that he is well educated. Well so am I and so are many of the other world leaders today, but this does not necessarily mean that they know anything about how to run a country.

Dr. Brown's speech is a defence mechanism and he uses vehicles such as religion and race to distract his followers from seeing what is really going on behind closed doors. These vehicles are eerily similar to techniques used by the likes of Hitler, Castro and Hussein. While I am not putting Dr. Brown on the same level as them, he has not been in power for very long and the longer he is in power the more time he will have to culminate his progressive ideals.

The current political situation of Bermuda begs to ask the question of how does a democratic community of about 60,000 people have so much turmoil? Maybe we should ask ourselves if we are still in fact a democracy or if we are in the thresholds of transferring to something else.

In "The Communist Manifesto" published in 1848, the communists declare that many problems in society are due to the unequal distribution of wealth. To bring about happiness and prosperity for all, the distinctions between the rich and poor of society must be eliminated. And since the rich will never give up their goods or status voluntarily, a rebellion of the poor – the working class – is necessary. Is this what is underlying Dr. Brown's argument?

To finish off this letter I would like to ask one more question; Dr. Brown said: "Oh, if I could advise the UBP on the people of Bermuda, and tell them what they are missing!"

Well, Mr. Premier, you can and are fully entitled to advise the UBP on Bermudians because I myself am one and I would really like to hear what I am missing.

MAX CONSTANTINE

Pembroke

Don't canvass in GP cars

November 10, 2007

Dear Sir,

I was sitting in my dining room today when GP13 pulled into my driveway. As I have had some construction work on my property I figured it might have something to do with that. Then I noticed it was my MP Wayne Perinchief. So while I waited to find out what Government business he wanted to talk about, as he was in a Government vehicle, I noticed a girl run from the car and drop something in my mailbox, then jumped back in the car and they drove off. So I went down to investigate and found a PLP/Wayne Perinchief pamphlet in my mailbox.

Well, I had a lot of questions before that I wanted to ask the candidates in my area, but now I have even more questions for Mr. Perinchief. Questions like aren't GP cars for Government business and isn't canvassing party business? As all my windows and doors were open and there was a child in the yard, why didn't you come to my door? As an ex-Policeman, is it your policy to go on property that has a clearly posted "No Trespassing" sign. If you had called me on the phone and made an appointment or called out from the end of my driveway, I would have invited you in. As I said, I have a lot of questions.

RICH SMITH

Constituency 17

UBP is different now

November 10, 2007

Dear Sir,

I think the voters who are sitting on the fence, unwilling to vote for the PLP who have disappointed them, and not wishing to vote for the UBP who failed to represent them in the past, should remember that a UBP voted in now, will be a very different party from the one voted out nine years ago. They have had nine years in which to learn from both the successes and the mistakes of the PLP.

The UBP will have to be far more aware of the needs and wants of the black community this time round – the debate on race has succeeded in that. The new UBP will have to ensure that they are accountable and transparent. The criticisms of corruption in the PLP now, and in the UBP in the past will no longer be tolerated by the supporters of any party! Having heard the public's objection to government money being spent on overseas "experts", they will be more inclined to listen to and use the expertise of our many competent Bermudians working right there and in the field. And having seen the failure of the PLP to improve education, deal with crime, and sort out the housing crisis, the new UBP will have to do better, or look like fools.

After 30 years in power, the old UBP was no doubt complacent, and set in its ways. I would hope that the new UBP will have greater incentive than ever to be of service to all Bermudians.

MRS. IRWIN

Bermudian abroad