A change of style
June 25, 2008
Dear Sir,
December seems like a long time ago. But in just six months the regime has the following to it's credit:
1) The Labour Party cannot figure out how to deal with labour. The police are ticked off, understaffed and underpaid; all the Unions seem to be mad about everything this regime does; and teachers are mad about pay, work conditions and not getting de respect they think they deserve. Even the UBP could do better than this!
2) We have a hospital not only crumbling into disrepair but understaffed and with machinery failing left right and centre. And just 18 months ago the regime spent millions on a report suggesting that we need a new hospital and now we have the same old hospital and not a penny budgeted for the new hospital. And, my friends who voted for the experts in the PLP, where do you think you will go for medical treatment?
3) The regime thinks that frolics at the Playboy Mansion is a fair and good way to spend your money. And do you think we are not the laughing stock of the world? This is just one example, and just the tip of an iceberg, where fund-raising and money matters are done in such a way as to totally disregard decent and supposedly regulated practice and all because no one has the guts to stand up to 'he who cannot be named'.
4) The leader of the pack wants everybody to cut costs, travel on public transport and suffer while he buys himself a $90,000 BMW. He guards himself with bodyguards and security fencing at his house. He's got a chauffeur and a Private Secretary and an aide de camp to boot. What's this dude so afraid of and what do all these people do every day?
5) One of the best schools in the system (Whitney Institute) is closing because Randy and the boys can't figure out how to make a decision because it will cost $20 million to refurbish. Message to Randy, talk to Doc. He knows exactly how to make those decisions ... I give you Coco Reef, the new cruise ship dock, Morgan's Point, the renovation of Port Royal and St. George's Golf Courses, payments to football players and cricket players... and, hey, let's not forget the travel expenses of the regime.
6) The lovely promise of free public transportation so aggressively tossed out during the election is still just promises. As someone asked 'How long does it take to implement a free payment system'? I figure that was one promise we might hear again at the next election...
I could go on but, and I address this question mainly to the black Bermudian population and particularly those who think the sun shines out of these peoples you know what, how long do you want to let this go on? Do you think that this money is coming from international business and tourists and not from you? Do you think that being the laughing stock of anyone who pays attention to Bermuda is a fair price for just letting the boys run the show?
Maybe I am totally off base and maybe I'm just wrong but it does seem to me that a change of leadership might just represent a change of style. And that might be a change of style that normal, civilized human beings can live with. And please do not tell me that all this asininity is worth it in the name of race.
AUNT POLLY SAWYER
Southampton
We'll have to tighten belts
June 23, 2008
Dear Sir,
Economies world wide are floundering and Bermuda will not be an exception, a fact that our Government, which resides in Cloud Cuckoo Land seems oblivious to. Everything, we purchase is going to cost more. Employers will have to tighten their belts to stay afloat which means salary increases are unlikely in these times. Our spending power will be seriously diminished. Those of us who'll manage to keep our jobs will be fortunate. We will all need to tighten our belts. A responsible Government would be setting an example to its people. Instead, what do we see? Our Premier, has purchased the most expensive car available and with our money. Quite astonishing!
To add insult to injury, in this time of so much financial insecurity, I am also informed that the Bermuda Housing Trust, (in all fairness, not a Government body) has seen fit to raise the rents on its facilities which they rent to seniors living independently. These seniors, who government claims to be so concerned about are on modest fixed incomes and can hardly meet their expenses now. A good example of a government which cares would be to subsidise these seniors rents rather than throwing funds around on flashy cars and unnecessary travel jaunts.
DISGUSTED
Devonshire
See things the way they are
June 20, 2008
Dear Sir,
To all of my martial art students, without mindfulness, we live like the dead, and every time mindfulness is born, we are back, body and mind in this moment, in the here and now. Look around you, see people moving about us carrying their own corpses, to be alive is being in the present moment. We must not lose ourselves either in the past or in the future, the only moment in which we can touch life is the present moment. We all have a destination, only one, that is the cemetery, so why are we in a hurry to get there? Life does not lie in that direction. Life is here, in each step in the here and now.
Because of the pressures of modern living — commuting to work, stress, crime, unemployment and all the other problems we live with daily — we cannot see how to ease our problems. The key is to see things the way they are, not the way we would like for them to be. If you kill out of anger, your enemies will be never ending... If you kill anger that will kill your enemies once and for all.
SENSEI BURNELL WILLIAMS
Pembroke
P.s. I love you all! You made me what I am. You will always be in my heart.
A rush to judgment
June 25, 2008
Dear Sir,
I noted with interest your coverage today on page 3 of The Royal Gazette the case of Simon Farmer's appeal against malicious intent with wrongful accusation and I believe wrongful arrest and taken into custody. It is probably difficult to prove malicious intent with arrest etc. and probably equally difficult to prove innocence, in my opinion. What is much easier I should think, would be to prove incompetence and what I personally think went beyond mere stupidity in the police services' decision making on two counts.
First in arresting Farmer without positive and compelling evidence and second releasing his name to the media before getting DNA results back. This reminds me of the tragic incompetence of the Rebecca Middleton case with internationally damaging results.
It is one thing to do so to a retired senior citizen or a young person not yet in an established career, quite another to one having gone through years of training and in middle of a career as was the case here. The damage done is probably not reversible given the nature of the alleged offence and saying sorry which incidentally I have never heard said to date even by Judge Bell as a common courtesy.
What puzzles me and possibly others that while there was a rush to judgment publicly naming Mr. Farmer wrongly, as the accused, to date there has been no mention of the accuser and their name which I am and sure others are curious to know and if there was possible malice involved. Why one name given but not that of his accuser raises questions of fair and equal treatment and possible bias.
Beyond doubt, this is a very unsatisfactory outcome, if one is to treat seriously "Justice" and reminds me of Clarence Darrow's now famous statement "I can promise you the law but I cannot promise you justice." Perhaps it is time to recharge the justice system to the legal system as clearly fairness, is to say the least, vague as these bewigged dinosaurs get caught up in the minutia and cannot see the forest for the trees.
BILL COOK
P.s. While I do not know Mr. Farmer on a personal basis, he did act on my behalf with a particularly complicated conveyance in a most competent and professional manner. I was part of a quiz team with him on a fun evening and any comparison with the perpetrator or deranged person is quite ridiculous.
How many?
June 20, 2008
Dear Sir,
I am writing in response to a letter that appeared in The Royal Gazette on Thursday, June 19, 2008 by John Barnett. (Just Wondering). Mr. Barnett said: "I wonder how many white supporters Barack Obama would have attracted if he raised his arm with a clenched fist at his many well attended meetings?"
Now Mr. Editor, that caused me to wonder how many white supporters did the late Dr. E.F. Gordon attract without a raised arm with a clenched fist. How many white supporters did the late Freddie Wade attract without a raised arm with a clenched fist? How many white supporters did the late Dame Lois Brown-Evans attract without a raised arm with a clenched fist? How many white supporters did Dame Jennifer Smith attract without a raised arm with a clenched fist? How many white supporters did Dr. Ewart Brown attract before the time of which he was accused of raising his arm with a clenched fist? I also wonder if Barack Obama was a Bermudian running for the Progressive Labour Party, how many white supporters would he attract. I wonder if Mr. Barnett has the answer.
JUST WONDERING
