Within one day of the opening of school, self-styled child advocate with Criminology training, Sheila Cooper, told the country that 15 percent of children go to school without lunch. How could she possibly say that? Without much evidence from principals to this effect, businesses ran to help her with yet another bag of money. I would like for a full audit of that agency to be given to show the public exactly how much money benefits the client as compared to the salaries of those who administer the programme and make such statements without the statistics from those closer to the problem. Minister Nelson was therefore correct to say that his Ministry was not contacted to assist. I am sure he would have asked the Minister of Education for an evaluation which in itself would take at least one month followed by random checks throughout the year. That is what I call responsible reporting of a problem.

Further, could your newspaper clarify whether or not another of its workers, recently reported as a "child expert'' Ms Kit Swainson, is in fact a child expert or was that another exaggeration of the facts. We are not aware of her qualifications either and we need to know if anyone can call themselves what they want to be called and we are to accept it. If we do the above, let us also ask, under what terms does Mrs. Yvette Swan suddenly become Dr. Yvette Swan and she makes NO effort to correct it.

FOR FAIRNESS AND STATISTICS Warwick A pain in the neck September 14, 2000 Dear Sir, Getting around Bermuda is one big pain in the neck, for the people residing here and the people visiting. There are tractor-trailers, heavy construction equipment, trucks, buses, taxis, private cars, motor cycles, bicycles, roller blades, horse and buggies, and pedestrians all crowded onto roads that were designed for a few cars and mopeds. The roads are seriously overcrowded and rapidly getting worse. This has been known for quite awhile, and has been debated many times. Every time the subject comes up there are numerous suggestions put forward, none of which will work without curtailing the rights of residents to purchase and have full and unregulated use of their vehicles.

I have a suggestion. Instead of trying to make the traffic match the outdated road system, how about making the roads match the traffic. Certain portions of the main arteries, South Road, Middle Road and North Shore Road, should be widened, as was done down at East Broadway, with two lanes going in each direction. Apart from making travel around the Island pleasant and less stressful, it would cut down head on collisions dramatically.

Acquiring the land will be a bit sticky because that means purchasing from the owners where necessary. Since providing adequate safe roads are, in my opinion in the national interest, it must be done one way or another. The major challenge to doing this is of course money. A project like this will cost plenty. Bermuda can earn the money, make a positive impact on our dangerous drug abuse problem and provide years of employment all at the same time, by simply adopting and modifying a system that has been tested, with great success, for more than twenty years in several countries of the world. The most notable being Holland. We must legalise and industrialise marijuana. This is a billion-dollar industry waiting to be harnessed, and, not to do so in the interest of the country is no less than criminal.

AL EASTMOND Devonshire Another white elephant Dear Sir, With regard to hotel subsidies and the comments of Mr. Stewart and Mr.

Richards I would comment as follows.

I have been involved in the hotel industry for over 25 years in Bermuda and very successfully.

I believe Mr. Richards' father E.T. senior was a Jamaican Ex-pat and if so he may recall that when the Jamaican hotels were in deep trouble the government stepped in, spent millions they could ill afford and failed badly and got out.

The reasons the large hotels fail in Bermuda are too numerous to list in detail.

The simple answer is that Bermuda is too expensive for the lower income tourist and can not attract the wealthy tourist as Bermuda is incapable of giving the five star service demanded.

What Bermuda needs is a large five star hotel suitable both for conventions and for personalised luxury accommodations for individuals.

Bermuda will never be able to accomplish this, and any hotel will lose money accordingly. Bermuda is in no position to provide staff to run such a hotel as those who may be suitable are not interested in the hotel industry. The hours are long the wages not really good, etc. so they seek a career elsewhere.

I predicted and told everyone Marriott would fail, Club Med would fail I already had written off Bermudiana and Belmont Manor and am certain even Elbow Beach was losing money while the Princess Hotels were struggling and were happy to see when they did, I speculate if the new owners had realised the situation they would not have bought the hotels, time will tell. Bermuda will never again be able to sustain a large luxury hotel unless it introduced gambling and combines a casino as in the case of the Bahamas for example.

Anyone who is willing to invest $150,000,000 would need to have more courage (or to use Michael Dunkley's terminology "testicular fortitude'') than good business sense.

Proceed with another white elephant.

WAIT & SEE Nothing like a Dame September 19, 2000 Dear Sir, When is our Attorney Generally Dame Lois Brown-Evans ever going to cease making intemperate remarks, and hold her post with the dignity and total respect it deserves? I refer to two recent outstanding "eruptions''. Her looking for a handout from our exempted companies towards purchasing Cragmore for the Ministry of Tourism, and saying "international business needs to do more for Bermuda after enjoying the Island's tax free environment''. This is an ungrateful and provocative remark in light of the millions already given to the community.

Her remark over the Middelton case "why do we need an inquiry? What do we owe the Middleton family? This was a disgusting and offensive diatribe. I cannot help but wonder what she would have said had the female student been black and murdered by two white thugs.

Get with it Lois. Act like a Dame with which you were so honoured.

AD REM