More training for riders

March 25, 2008

Dear Sir,

Re: "Tourist tragedy"

In future, giving American visitors an extra dose of road caution, including vivid examples of hazards associated with relying on ingrained left-right driving reflexes, might help minimise the danger on Bermuda's roads.

If someone as gifted as Winston Churchill could lapse while beginning to cross a street in New York, Americans are likewise highly susceptible when in Bermuda. A friend who once returned from Bermuda in a leg cast described how easy it was to lose control of a scooter simply by leaning slightly the wrong way during a bend in a rain slicked road.

If officials determine that extra instruction and training are needed for Americans and others who are unaccustomed to driving on the left, this latest tragedy might serve to prevent others.

WILLIAM E. COOPER

President Emeritus

University of Richmond

Richmond, Virginia

Train visitors better

March 25, 2008

Dear Sir,

With the latest road death being an American tourist on a rental scooter, I feel tourists shouldn't be allowed to ride rental bikes until they:

1. Really, truly know that we ride on the left!

2. Have good balance on that bike.

3. Don't get easily distracted (one of those accidents happened when the wife noticed her husband had decked out because he lost control of his own bike and she followed suit).

4. Don't panic (yes, there will be idiots on the road as well but panicking will only make their situation worse. They should simply ride close to the sidewalk and not into it to avoid those idiotic riders).

5. Understand fully how to handle that bike even in a situation where they're on a roundabout.

Until all that happens, they should be catching the bus or taxi or even a safe ferry. This would eliminate tourist road deaths.

SAFETY FIRST

Pembroke

Restrict cycle rentals

March 26, 2008

Dear Sir,

Re: The death of Martha Hoopes

This tragedy is horrendous!

It brings into focus the fact that the guests we invite to our island are introduced to a form of transportation that they have little training and preparation for. This would be tolerable if the end result was just a loss of money or other such disposable but the recent tragedy was a loss of life! Think also of the horror experienced by the victim's family. We can only hope that the little girl survives without major damage.

My observation and point of view is that the cycle livery business has been useful and a source of enjoyment over many past years. However, the increase of traffic on the roads today means that cycle rentals to tourists is a great disservice – indeed a dangerous practice.

How much instruction is given to a tourist before leasing the bike? We have all heard or witnessed the instances of, "Here's the gas, here's the brake, here's the indicator, drive on the left. That's it!" So many of the tourists have not even driven a bike in the last ten years. They work hard at their jobs, at a computer, behind a desk for 50 weeks in order to afford a Bermuda vacation of their dreams. The fact that they are allowed to rent a cycle infers to them that it must be safe. They presume that, because it's the 'done thing' that they will be able to do it. Their logic being, "You buy a ticket for the bus, ferry, taxi (whatever) then it must be safe".

Then reality sets in! Driving along the road, they are distracted by the traffic, the sights, perhaps a daughter on the back of the bike. For a split second, they are dazed and they automatically return to the wrong side on the road. They revert to the pattern they have been driving on for the past ten or twenty years.

I believe that the cycle liveries do not intend for any customer to be injured – or killed. After all, it is their livelihood. However, it is not reasonable to expect anyone to be capable enough to negotiate our roads with the minimum of instruction and familiarity with cycles. I propose:

1) The cycle liveries are allowed to rent only to persons who hold a cycle driver's licence. The fact that rental cycles are less powerful than other bikes is not a valid factor in accidents. Towing a passenger, even a child, should be illegal.

2) Bermuda looks into the stability of a tricycle vs. a bicycle to see if this would offer more security.

3) Tourists should be encouraged to use the bus or minibus. I have heard many tourists compliment the service. Of course, the added pleasure is that they can sit back and relax – and be safe.

4) Aside from fatalities, can the Government state how many tourists are treated at the hospital for other cycle injuries? The fate of these unfortunate visitors must be very detrimental to the attraction of a Bermuda vacation.

5) I do not think that the business profits of the cycle liveries should take precedence over the safety of our visitors. I feel that the tourists are not aware of the risks involved.

6) What will it take? America is a very litigious society (ask Oprah!) Perhaps a few lawsuits based on inadequate instruction or information at the time of hiring a cycle would get some attention.

Whilst our thoughts and prayers are with the Hoopes family – that is not enough!

STOP THE CARNAGE

St. David's

Stop whining

March 26, 2008

Dear Sir,

I read the report with great amusement. Absolute amusement. First you are always on the Government's case about it taxing and spending too much. Now that they heeded your advice and have started the cutting you are mad because you are caught in the squeeze. You wonder aloud how much of a dent can $42,000 put into a $1 billion budget, but you must remember that the longest journey starts with the first step.

The other point you made me keel over laughing. You complain that this will somehow have an effect of freedom of the press in Bermuda. What rot! If you cannot run a newspaper with the loss of that money, you don't deserve to be in business. The Government is not there to provide you with a subsidy; every business must sink or swim on its own merit and resources.

The loss of the subscription has nothing to do with the freedom of the press. It more properly has something to do with the running feud that you have with the government and the government does not have to justify its action to you. You are free to print your paper and engage in any warfare that you wish with the Government, they just do not have to pay you to bash them.

Your licence to conduct business is still in force and the government is not asking to approve what you have to report before it is printed. Go out there and find the sponsors to replace the Government account. The irony may just be that you will have so many of your cronies annoyed at the Government that they will more than make that loss revenue with their large ad buys, thereby giving you a tidy profit in the barging. So stop whining!

PURPIE LE NOIR

Scarborough, Ontario

Editor's Note: This newspaper has never suggested that it is entitled to Government advertising or newspaper subscriptions. What we do believe is that we are the most effective means of reaching the largest number of people in the community and have simply asked Government to show how it came to the conclusion that electronic media is more effective. The concern is that if Government cannot show its reasoning that this could be seen as an attempt to, as the writer puts it, squeeze this newspaper for other reasons.

Obama's honesty

March 17, 2008

Dear Sir,

So! Barack Obama has acknowledged and discussed slavery and racism!

Those Bermudian commentators who earlier implied that we blacks in Bermuda should follow his example and "rise above" or "transcend" any continuing discussion of slavery and racism ignored the obvious.

Obama was raised by a white mother and white grandparents and spent much of his youth outside of America. His African father was a free African whose ancestors had never been enslaved and who returned to his own land, people, culture and language, an option never available to any black person in Bermuda.

Even Bermuda's "free blacks" were on this side of the Atlantic because one of their ancestors had been enslaved.

Obama has no slave ancestry. No slave blood runs in his veins. Although he was in such a good position to "rise above slavery and race", he could not narrow the chasm between black and whites in the USA anymore than silence or ignoring it could do so in Bermuda.

The deeply entrenched and divisive racism in America meant that not even an Obama could "rise above it" or "transcend it" for very long. So he addressed the issues with clarity and honestly. So now I am going to hope that all those Bermudians who praised his "rising above it" and "transcending it" will now follow his example and also be willing to acknowledge, and discuss the issues of slavery and racism and their continuing impact with equal courage, clarity and honesty.

EVA N. HODGSON

Crawl

Send applications back

March 26, 2008

Dear Sir,

I am amazed that the backlog of incomplete work permits has been allowed to grow to the huge number of 4,000. This was disclosed in The Royal Gazette today.

Can one assume that there are 4,000 people/employers/agents waiting this inordinate amount of time for a response from the Department of Immigration? I think not. Either the employee is continuing to work under an expired permit knowingly – or un-knowingly – in the belief that he/she is OK as long as an application has 'gone in'!

One cannot help but 'see the elephant in the room', that being: Why doesn't Immigration return an incomplete application immediately after receiving it with a (dated) standard covering note:

Application incomplete – refer to check list and re-apply. Or is that too simple?

No backlog. No misunderstanding. No nuisance phone calls asking for status of incomplete application, etc. etc. Prospective employers would know right away what the status is. Why keep them and file them?

KEPT IN THE DARK

St. George's

Editor's Note: According to Home Affairs Minister Sen. David Burch, this is exactly what is now being done.

Cement Company woes

March 8, 2008

Dear Sir,

The headline in today's Royal Gazette, "Cement silos can stay", only proves that whoever said the PLP Government was not transparent, didn't have a clue what they were talking about, and that includes me as well.

This Government is more transparent than a glass top table. You can see right through them! You can see the unfairness in the way they conduct a lot of their business, and a case in point is the cement fiasco at Dockyard and their dealings with Jim Butterfield.

This was a takeover action right out of the pages of Zimbabwe. How more transparent can they be in this affair?

Now that I look at the word "piracy", I think it is too sophisticated a word for what has happened. In my opinion, this company was stolen from Jim Butterfield.

I also get the feeling that Jim Butterfield is only the beginning of what's to come in manoeuvred takeovers. I wonder who the next victim will be?

Mr. Editor, if I am wrong in what I said above, I hope someone will correct me, and I will apologise … but apologise that is, only if I have been proven wrong!

If certain people are going to retaliate for every wrong that was done in the past by committing another wrong, how in the world is anything ever going to be right? They stole from us, so now are we going to steal from them? In the United States they lynched people and burned crosses on people's lawns, so in retaliation, are people going to turn around and commit the same hideous crimes in return? The madness has to stop somewhere, and God help us if it doesn't.

The vocal character defenders of the PLP will probably come to the rescue of the Government's actions in this affair, but then I expect them to.

While on the subject of Government, another goodie graced the papers yesterday, and that was the story in the Bermuda Sun. "Dr. Brown: We must reduce public spending!" This is the joke of the day and I have to ask, "Is he serious or is he just trying to be a comedian? Maybe he is starting up a Comedy Club here in Bermuda, because if anyone has any knowledge of Government's excessive spending, they will know who is in the forefront of it. None other than Dr. Brown himself! This Government has been spending like drunken sailors since 1998!

Dr. Brown also said every Bermudian must engage with the idea of living within the island's limits, and that Government has a responsibility to lead by example, now isn't that just "reeel spaschul?" How soon can we get that Comedy Club going because we certainly have enough jokers to fill it! In closing, I say, Dr. Brown, thou doth speaketh out of both sides of thine mouth!

PAT FERGUSON

Warwick

Alternatives to diesel

This was sent to Vince Ingham, chief executive officer of Belco Holdings, and copied to The Royal Gazette:

March 26, 2008

Dear Sir,

Last time I checked, crude oil is at US$106.10 per barrel

With your planning application now submitted to increase current generating units by adding another three stacks and going from 165 mw to 200 mw, I am left scratching my head. How does Belco plan on making money with the price of fuel going sky high? I guess the consumer will bear the brunt of these additional costs?

I realise there is a real need for consistent, safe, reliable energy on this growing, but nonetheless, tiny island – do we really need another 3 more diesel turbines/stacks? I mean realistically, if we all consumed a bit less and educated a bit more about energy conservation, couldn't Belco lighten its peak load demands significantly? I see all those office buildings in Hamilton completely lit up with nobody in them from 7 p.m. till 7 a. m.? Can't the last one to leave simply switch the lights off? Pardon my scepticism, but are the proposed new generation plants a case of greed vs. actual need, Belco?

To be sure, in this day and age, with so much proven alternative technology out there, it seem absolutely ridiculous that we are not investing more in our (children's) future by going renewable. An Island our size and with our tremendous wealth (not to mention abundance of Sun and Wind) we could be the poster-child on how countries can and will need to move toward these renewable technologies in the not to distant future.

This absurd proposal to build more of the same (ie costly, dirty, and antiquated technologies which rely on ever scarce & therefore increasingly costly fossil fuels to create their energy) is akin to Belco 'adding more horses their carriages while young Henry Ford is selling automobiles down the street ..."

What will our children think when they look back 50 years from now, will they will be scratching their heads as I am today?

On your website, you state the need to build more on Serpentine Road "given no alternative sites available". Come on Belco, look around there are thousands of alternative sites, every office building roof top (PV installations) every home, (Thermal Solar Water heater and Micro wind turbines) is an alternative location!

By Belco installing proven renewable on business & homes to help "peak shave" during the hottest months,( lest we forget, PV works hardest when it's hot and the sun is shining, hence when the Air Conditioner demand is at full bore), would this not significantly curb the 'demand surge' your experiencing at the moment?

My guess it that Belco shareholders would be far happier if Management deployed 50m in Capx toward renewables then 100m 'upgrade' your existing "horse and buggy" technology...

Thanks for your time and consideration. I am just looking out for my son's future given the precarious state of our planet.

Sincere regards,

GAVIN DAVIS

Smith's