I should be very grateful if you would publish this letter in the next available newspaper.

On behalf of all the Lions, Lioness and Leo's of Bermuda, I would like to express our appreciation to all those who gave so generously on our annual White Cane Tag days on March 26 and 27.

Including donations, we raised approximately $16,000, which exceeds the amount raised last year.

These funds are administered by our Sight Conservation Committee, under the very able chairmanship of Lioness Jane Amaral, who assists on average 120 people each year with eye examinations, eye glasses, cataract operations and other eyes surgeries and advice and accommodations.

We truly appreciate the generosity shown by the people of Bermuda which enables us to continue to conserve the blessing of sight.

May God bless you all.

DUDLEY COTTINGHAM Zone Chairman, Lions, Lioness & Leo Clubs of Bermuda Exhibiting hostility April 30, 1999 Dear Sir, I write in response to Margaret DeShields letter regarding the review by Gareth Finighan of Ras Mykkal's exhibit. I have not seen Mr. Mykkal's work but I think that a critic should be able to give their opinion without being told to "go home'' -- I will certainly now make a point of going to this exhibition.

I assume by your letter that Mr. Finighan is an expatriate and you personally have a problem with that by wishing that he be "sent home'' from your "New Bermuda'' for giving his opinion -- who is getting "personal'' here? I think it is you Mrs. DeShields. Would you like me to go home now?! EXPATRIATE JUST LOVING THE WARMEST OF SOME BERMUDIANS Pointless PR exercise April 7, 1999 Dear Sir, I am bemused at the concept of the National Go Slow day, a strange name for a day designed to encourage people to drive at the legal speed limit. It highlights the fact that Bermuda's speed limit is as outmoded as the thinking at the Road Safety Council.

The 20 mph limit is completely incongruous when every car on the Island is designed to cruise at 70 mph yet barely gets out of second gear. Our national highway speed must be temporarily suspended for pedal cycle races and coasting downhill can exceed it. At 20 mph we spend more time looking at our speedometers than at the road. Speed is not a road safety issue, it's a government revenue issue.

The problem is the inability of 99 percent of the population to drive competently. Slow speed, seat belts and air bags only breed tedium, compliancy and a sense of invincibility, consequently people focus on everything but the task of driving. I would suggest that driving would improve immensely if the air bag in the steering wheel were replaced with an 18 inch steel spike pointed at our chests.

A more appropriate theme for an awareness day would be one that focuses on real road safety issues, I would like to suggest the following: National find your turn signals and learn how to use them day.

National your lane is your lane, my lane is my lane day.

National fix that leak in your oil pan day.

National saying `Yo!' to your ace-boy is not a valid reason for an emergency stop day.

It would also help if the Police would get out of the bushes and act upon complaints from the public about bad drivers, oil leakers, cell phone yakkers, make-up fixers, octogenarians who can't see over the wheel and mothers trying to mix quality time with drive time. That is the kind of action that will get results. We are all aware of the problems, awareness days are just another pointless PR exercise.

Speed is a non-issue when people know how to drive and focus on the task at hand.

SLOW LANE Pembroke Technical difficulties April 27, 1999 Dear Sir, Would it be possible for you as the major local newspaper, or the Telecommunications Authority, the Premier or ANYONE to extract an undertaking from Cablevision Ltd. that they will aquire the expertise, the equipment or the time to learn, after two years of appallingly bad transmission, how to handle a digital TV signal such as the one for what becomes channel 8; the one that the BBC broadcasts with great care.

It seems that whenever the content of channel 8 becomes exceptionally interesting or crucial the picture breaks up into the mass of coloured square dots indicative of their complete uselessness in their chosen area for gouging the Bermuda public. Every engineer whom one talks to seems to agree on this point.

It is rare in Bermuda to come close to something which could be regarded even vaguely as value for money, but the situation with cablevision is absolutely ridiculous. Surely a government which calls itself of the labour persuasion should nationalise it and get it run properly. And for those readers who laugh at the prospect of an efficient nationalised industry, please remember that the British Broadcasting Corporation has been nationalised since its inception in 1924.

DISCONNECTED Pembroke Brouhaha over broccoli April 28, 1999 Dear Sir, I am writing in reference to the front page story in The Royal Gazette on April 28, 1999 and would like to ask Mr. Hill if he had at any point thought to perhaps donate his broccoli to a charity. Might I suggest one or two. Let's see, The Salvation Army, Hands of Love Ministry, The Brangman House, Sunshine League, The Haven, Fair havens Christian Care Association, His House, the Lighthouse, The Committee of 25 for Handicapped Children, Devonshire Parish Home, Packwood Old Folks Home, The Summerhaven, Meals on Wheels and The Family Resource Network Charitable Trust.

In the event that Mr. Hill did not wish to donate his broccoli to one of the aforementioned charities, surely Mr. Hill could have advertised his broccoli surplus and sold it to the public in bulk or by the pound. I know someone, somewhere, would have bought Mr. Hill's broccoli, but alas, Mr. Hill's broccoli is on his compost heap, probably smelling to high heaven. Boy, am I glad I am not one of Mr. Hill's neighbours.

SHARI L. SIMONS Pembroke Hard times ahead April 7, 1999 Dear Sir, Training is almost always a necessity in most hotels in Bermuda. It is as necessary for executive managers as it is for those who are being managed.

However many otherwise good management courses in our hotels are built on the wrong foundation. Indeed they teach planning, organising, leading and controlling, but these are not sufficient for today's managers. These management functions fail to come to terms with the reality of today's workplace. Clearly a new set of rules are needed for executive managers in the 90s and beyond.

In Bermuda Hotels there is not much inspiration among workers. It is difficult to inspire people on the job when working harder does not guarantee keeping one's job. New technology, computerisation, corporate re-engineering all have the effect of reducing the numbers of jobs regardless of how productive individuals might happen to be. It is time executive mangers stop sapping the energy of hotel organisations. Instead of passing on negative vibes to "line staff'' about middle managers who are in their charge because of personal reasons, executive managers in our hotels should encourage and give initiative to workers instead of playing union members against hotel middle managers.

Executive managers should try and run hotels by themselves they will soon run into trouble.

Management efforts must be supported by the skills of the workers if the hotels are to survive let alone succeed. Anything short of this only results in a lose/lose situation. Management today should be a matter of soliciting cooperation rather than commanding obedience with the type of executive being allowed in Bermuda to run our hotels there is in my conclusion hard times ahead.

RAYMOND RUSSELL President CAFBR Out of order April 25, 1999 Dear Sir, Is it any wonder the telephone company is in a mess? Or are they hoping soon to join the Third World? You can complain all you like for three, and soon four, months that you need a telephone. Eventually, a man will come round with a telephone in his hand. You think "Praise the Lord''. But wait, he tells you that there is no sense in connecting it up to the already installed outlet, because it still can't be used until they connect some wires to a pole outside. But, you say to the telephone man, "OK, connect the wires outside and I shall have a phone!'' Does this sound reasonable so far? Oh, no! He is the wrong man to do the necessary outside work. So we are back to square one.

Now we have to wait till the "pole' man comes. But he won't be coming because it's either the wrong month, wrong area or the wrong telephone company. You can say that again...I need the telephone company of Kalamazoo. I'm sure they would fix it in five minutes flat.

You plead with the man to connect the damn phone anyway, so that when they get the outside pole-wires connected we'll be that far ahead, and not wait another three months till this "phone'' man appears again. Any such sanity is, of course, strictly avoided.

But wait again! The telephone company must have some praise. They keep their jobs, regardless, and do not let "lack of telephones'' upset them. This go-without-proper-service department seems to be prevalent enough so that a large room on the ground floor of the telephone company building is a "listening-to-the-customer'' area, with four large desks attended by four delightful ladies who listen patiently.

You will get sympathy...plenty.

You will get promises...galore.

BUT YOU WILL NOT GET A PHONE! The sooner that's understood, the better for all concerned.

A "PATIENT'' Pembroke