A disastrous decisionSeptember 1, 2006

Dear Sir,I am horrified but not surprised to learn of the proposed plan to build the new hospital on part of the existing Botanical Gardens. The President of the National Trust has already spoken out against the proposal. I find myself in complete agreement with him. I also agree with his statement concerning the mockery that this makes of sustainable development. We have to accept the need to build a new Hospital and soon. I agree with the decision not to build on the current site. That for a variety of reasons this is not a good idea, and I concur with that. Having said that let me now identify myself, by providing credentials to support the statements that I am about to make.

1. I am a Bermudian by Status (early 1960's).

2. I arrived in Bermuda from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to take up the position as Reforestation Officer, Department of Agriculture in 1956. I served some 15 years with the Department. During that time I became the first Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens when the name was changed from the Public Gardens Ag. Station.

During my period of service, a valuable part of the Gardens was taken to construct the current hospital. In fairness to the current Government, I must state that the UBP were the Government then. When Government purchased the Camden Estate, which was a sound move, I was responsible to the Director for planning and supervising the merger. If this current proposal becomes fact, it will have a very severe impact on the present Botanical Gardens facility and operation. It must be understood that a priceless part of our heritage will be lost and make its definition as Bermuda's Botanical site ridiculous.

The promise of returning the current hospital site to the Botanical Gardens is in my humble opinion nothing more than an attempt to placate the critics of this proposal. The loss of land together with the current buildings and other facilities on an already restricted site, linked with having to reconstruct them for both Exhibition and Ministry of the Environment administrative use will severely impact on the holding of future Agricultural Exhibitions and the accommodation and development of Plant Collections. Great credit must be given to the staff, past and present, who have fine tuned and made maximum use of the current site to develop the Gardens. We must also be mindful of the financial outlay needed to achieve this.

Now I ask the question, why here? I suspect that the answer that will be given can be contained in one word. "Cost". But then this begs me to ask the question, but what about environmental cost? We are being told that other sites were considered and then they were rejected, but very little else. I firmly believe that the intention to build on the Botanical Gardens was the aim from the outset. It is an easy solution but in my view a disastrous one. May I suggest that if another site had been chosen, then the current Hospital site could have become a valuable asset to assist in filling some of our acute Housing needs. As the author of the recently published, "Bermuda Flora from the Roadside", I comment that in the future that this might be the only place where visitors and locals alike will be able to view our rich botanical legacy, or maybe they will build on that also? In total disgust,REVD. DON MOORE

PembrokeA modern day RomeSeptember 2, 2006

Dear Sir,This country is devoid of moral and ethical leadership and it doesn't begin and end with the present government. It has saturated every nook and cranny in this over populated, money worshipping and morally decrepit society. An argument can be made that his quagmire that we struggle to lift our legs through on a daily basis is a by-product of the churches and their attempts to build their way to heaven to political figures furthering the financial well being of themselves and their friends and family to sports executives treating our young children like pawns in their, see the world at your expense, chess game. Bermuda is the modern day Rome and like all selfish and morally bereft nations we are doomed to follow their path to destruction. It is as though leaders have no sense of history and its uncanny habit of repeating itself.

It was no accident that we have become dependent on foreign business. the lawyers and accountants of past decades had vision, albeit self-serving. It didn't take advance courses in common sense for those captains of industry to determine that the future was not tourism but rather reinsurance. They didn't care what negative such as massive switch in economic tactics would cause the average person. Being astute professionals and politicians they correctly surmised that if sufficient Bermudians reaped the associated benefits, the masses could be kept in check. This tactic is not new, foreign companies have long perfected the art of give 'em something that they can't give back. The roll out their front men to remind us of the perils associated with non-compliance. We are consistently reminded of how easy it is for these generous millionaires to move to greener pasture.

Ireland has been replaced by the new threat Cuba. Just you wait Pluto will be next (well, maybe not, now that it is no longer a planet). These economic hit-man are infamous for taking over countries without the use of guns, however they never take that option off the table. Noriega attempted to hand over the canal to the Japanese and voile, he's playing cards in Federal Prison.

We are between a rock and a very hard place. We are so dependent, and scared silly that even our so called labour government has it's goals and objectives established by Bda Re. Sustainable development is but a pipe dream. The monied folk that escape on their jets each weekend or to their semi gated communities don't feel the average Joe's pain; as such they don't get what all the fuss is about. They send their kids to private schools and have established separate play environments. Those lucky Bermudians that are granted entry in their exclusive play groups are more than a little happy to shout down the naysayers. "Don't mess with my cash, my 4 x 4 and my massive house. I got a degree and earned the right to play the one-up-man's game."

We got issues folks; however we don't have the leaders to tackle them, even if they were interested. Our politicians have sacrificed their principles on the altar of special interests; our corporate leaders have sacrificed their integrity on the altar of profits; and our media watchdogs have sacrificed their voice of dissent on the altar of political and social bias.NO GOLD DIGGER

PembrokeWhat is Govt. hiding?September 8, 2006

This was sent to the Ministers of the Environment and Works and Engineering and copied to The Royal GazetteDear SirRe: Proposed development at "Loughlands", South Road, Paget. As a Bermudian first and then as a neighbour of the development, I strenuously object to the proposed development at the "Loughlands" property. The land was zoned as tourist accommodation and now open space is being turned into a congested development. You are allowing every inch of land in Bermuda to be built on with no regard to the previous zoning. There will be little open space left for our children. It is a fact that there is plenty of housing for all Bermudians but not enough 'affordable' housing. Your Government needs to establish what it in fact means when it says 'affordable housing'. Condos, at $500,000-$600,000, are not especially 'affordable' to a lot of people and will require both adult members of the family to have good paying jobs.

You are allowing the desecration of open space and over-development that will result in another 96 cars on the road. South Road, by 7.30 am in the morning, is already backed up to Horizons and beyond. What about another 96 cars trying to get onto South Road in the morning? Has anyone considered this? Something needs to be done about the convergence of traffic all at one point at the Paget traffic lights! Why does your Government not look at this problem?

As no plans for the development have been made available to the general public, there is a perception that this Government is hiding something. I thought the PLP Government was supposed to be a transparent and open government? As for the Sustainable Development initiative and the announcement of the new Hospital being built on the Botanical Gardens, this Government will go down in history as the ones who destroyed more open space than any other Government before. I am sure this letter will have no effect as your Government has railroaded this development through under a Special Development Order but if there is an objection period to the development, please consider this as one.ROBERT MASTERS

Paget