Save the BSoA gallery

January 6, 2007

Dear Sir,

As a former President of the Bermuda Society of Arts (BSoA) and retired Bermuda art teacher, I wish to make use of your valuable newspaper space to express my alarm and concern that the BSoA has been given six months notice to leave City Hall.

Bermuda needs more public spaces like the City Hall art gallery, not less. The measure of a city/country is how it encourages culture and freedom of expression. Who are these decision makers and how can they be so short sighted?

Here we have a uniquely designed Bermudian public building which was set up to serve the cultural needs of the community and now it is to become office space.

Shame on you decision-makers if you follow through with what is proposed.

Bermuda is a very special place filled with a very special people. Our community deserve to be led and served by those who can see well beyond immediate short term needs.

Please have another good "think" about what you are proposing to do by destroying the oldest art group on the Island.

This centrally placed public gallery has served Bermuda well by having art shows of great diversity. For example when the Queen visited Bermuda in 1995 it was a great occasion when Prince Philip visited the BSoA gallery and Bermuda schoolchildren were there not only to meet the Prince but had their work on display in the Annual Secondary Schools Art Show. The Edinburgh gallery (within the BSoA gallery) was given its name that day.

The BSoA complements what the Bermuda National Gallery does at the City Hall and it is the greenhouse for our future artists.

You could argue that Masterworks or The Arts Centre at Dockyard or Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation could fill the gap but I doubt that very much as each of those other groups have their own "raison d'etre"and ways of working.

I call on all of Bermuda's art lovers and art groups to please express their dismay at what is being proposed.

Please encourage the decision makers not to destroy what can be proudly termed "The People's Gallery" and a mother gallery out of which so much of Bermuda's present art and artists have grown.

We have lost too many private Galleries in Bermuda over the last decade.

The community cannot afford to lose this very successful and long serving public one.

VAUGHAN EVANS

Hamilton Parish

Learning lessons

January 2, 2008

Dear Sir,

The United Bermuda Party just doesn't get it. As long as they don't get it, they can expect to keep losing elections. Renee Webb hit the nail on the head with her recent opinion piece. Her reasoning for the UBP's loss echoed my exact sentiments – especially where she stated that the UBP should have focused on what they intended to do if voted in as opposed to constantly attacking the PLP.

I am a PLP member, and I consider myself to be an open-minded, sensible black individual. I don't blindly agree with everything that the PLP does, and although I have respect for Dr. Brown, I don't always agree with him, either. I do realise that there is a lot that still needs to be done in Bermuda. With that said, I was ready to be fair and listen to everything the UBP had to say. It's possible that I even could have supported them and given them my vote. However, as time went on, I got so sick of reading and hearing of these scandals and accusations. It seemed that every effort was made to constantly attack Dr. Brown and pounce on everything he said or did. Constructive criticism I can take, but this wasn't constructive. It really started to get on my nerves.

The UBP just seemed to run tattling to the media over every little thing. Furthermore, they just came across as condescending and phony. They made so many promises to the black community – it just seemed like a blatantly phony attempt to act like they cared so much about the little man whom they seemed to ignore when they were in power. Over the last year, they promised everything from free day care to opening up the long ago proposed park at Marsh Folly – yet they criticised the PLP for the similar promises that they made. Why did they feel that their promises should be viewed as genuine, but the PLP's should not? They just came across as so hypocritical to me.

In my area, Hamilton East, Mr. Derrick Burgess is such a visible face in the community. He canvassed long and hard, even before the election was called. I wouldn't even recognise Mr. David Sullivan if he stood here in front of me right now. He never came around to our neighbourhoods to hear our concerns. Then, the Friday before the election, I found letters in my mailbox addressed to my husband, son and myself, asking for our vote. It was so obvious that they were generic, mail-merged letters to all the registered voters in the area. Perhaps Mr. Sullivan thought that as our area was a PLP stronghold, that it didn't make sense canvassing. Yet, Mr. Burgess canvassed, even knowing that fact. If anything, he should have relaxed and sent around mail-merged form letters but he didn't take his constituents for granted. At the end of the day, many in our area decided that we had to vote for the person who we felt had the best interests of our area at heart and that person was Mr. Burgess.

I have been reading so many ugly comments thrown at PLP voters. One person even wrote that half of the citizens of Bermuda are of low intelligence, thus the result. I don't even have to ask which half he was talking of. How insulting is that? I am sick the sour grapes coming from the UBP alleging that people were tricked or hoodwinked. One writer alleged (while quoting her physician) that Bermudians support the PLP along the lines of the way they support their favourite football team. Those comments are so offensive to PLP supporters who made a conscious decision on who to vote for. PLP supporters aren't stupid or backward, and to suggest so is racism in and of itself. The way the system is, you don't go in and make a blanket vote for the UBP or PLP – we vote for the candidate we feel will best represent us and people obviously preferred the PLP candidates.

Furthermore, the way the constituencies are divided is an asset to the PLP, but when it comes down to it, the white community only has itself to blame. They chose to segregate themselves into certain areas and shut black people out. When blacks chose to move into some of these areas, some whites chose to make those individuals' lives so difficult that many blacks didn't stay. Even today, there are certain areas where blacks know that we are not welcome. Now we have these concentrated pockets that are predominantly UBP (white) or PLP (black) strongholds. If more whites would move to Friswell's Hill, or Loyal Hill or Middletown, etc. we'd see these pockets broken up and a more even spread of the vote. However, as we all know, there is no chance that whites will move into predominantly black neighbourhoods and many blacks cannot afford to move into the prestigious, predominantly white neighbourhoods. Therefore, as it is, we can expect to see the PLP continue to win.

The UBP also needs to stop assuming that by pushing black faces forward that we blacks will go 'Golly, gee-a black man-let me go vote for him!' That is where the phoniness comes in. Not to mention that it is extremely insulting to our intelligence.

I have heard the phrase 'token black' from friends, acquaintances and others so many times over the last few weeks it's not funny.

I don't particularly like that phrase, but that is the way many people see the black UBP candidates. Also, the UBP talks so much of the "mistakes" they have made in the past, but don't elaborate-just say that they've 'learned from them' and that 'it's time to move on.'

The UBP needs to say specifically and precisely what exactly those mistakes are, instead of sweeping them under the carpet. How can they expect us to believe that they've learned anything if they don't talk about it? It's like they're afraid by being specific, they will remind us of something that we may have forgotten and it will be used against them. Yet, people remember, anyway. This failure to properly atone for their wrongs shows that they really are not sorry at all, and are simply telling us what they think we want to hear.

The UBP hasn't changed, sad to say. They accuse the PLP of running a nasty campaign, but I feel the UBP was just as nasty. Their supporters were even nastier behind the scenes. As soon as the final result was in, instead of being gracious, they started throwing out barbs against the PLP. Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin, who seemed totally disgusted with the result, even said something like 'The people have chosen the government they deserve...'

As she feels that the government isn't suitable, then she is saying that the PLP supporters deserve to be let down, that it will be our own faults. Even if she thought that, she really shouldn't have said it. The UBP says that in some constituencies, the PLP 'only' won by such-and-such number of votes as if by saying that, it will somehow take away from the PLP's victory. I'm sure that the UBP would have rejoiced at a victory no matter how close! It doesn't matter by how narrow a margin the PLP won – the UBP must accept it and look at what they did wrong that they didn't win.

The UBP need to look inside themselves and inside their own party for answers. There's a scripture in the Bible that says (and I'm paraphrasing) 'Don't look at the splinter in your brother's eye…first take the log out of your own eye so that you may clearly see the splinter in your brother's eye.' Don't attack the PLP because their platform was stronger and attracted a positive outcome. Don't attack them over their "scandals" just because you know that your own scandals never made it to the light of day. Don't accuse them of having 'rifts' in the party, when you know very well that your own party has rifts also. Get the log out of your eye first!

The UBP must sort their party out, confront their mistakes, properly atone of them and then maybe they'll get somewhere. They have approximately four years to do this. They can start by talking to blacks outside the UBP circle who will give them an honest, unbiased opinion on how things really are in the black community, and what they must do to get the confidence of the black community back. If they get it right, maybe they stand a chance at winning next time. If they don't learn anything, they can look forward to being the Opposition for a very, very long time. I, for one, will be eagerly waiting to see what happens.

LV

Hamilton Parish

P.s. In reference to the UBP admitting their past mistakes, they can start with the colossal one they made when they changed the school system against the protests of the community. Now they have the nerve to attack the PLP over failing graduation rates over the past few years.

Performance matters

February 6, 2007

Dear Sir,

Much has appeared in the Press recently regarding polarisation in Bermuda. If history is any guide, temporary relief will arrive in two weeks in the shape of International Race Weekend, when hundreds of runners of all abilities will be concentrating on the clock, not on skin colour or political persuasion.

But IRW is not unique – it happens at every road race, as well as training events and fun-runs. Nor is it unique to running. Those taking part in cycling, swimming, triathlon, squash, tennis and sailing all prefer to concentrate on the sport rather than on superficial differences.

Participation in sports also boosts health and fitness, while reducing obesity and health care costs. So let us hope that Government spends wisely, promoting participation in a wide range of sports rather than spectatorship of just a few.

Yours releasing the doves,

ANDREW R. DOBLE

Hamilton Parish