ZBM off the ball

January 4, 2008

Dear Sir,

So here I am on a Sunday afternoon thinking I'll tune in to ZBM and watch the "NFL Today" pregame show, it is the playoffs after all.

Wouldn't you know, instead they have the BBC World News feed on instead. OK, so one figures when the game starts they'll switch to that, nope, 2 p.m., still BBC World News, I guess someone woke up and switched the game on close to 2.30 p.m.! Another brilliant job by Bermuda Broadcasting, and they wonder why people do not want to pay for their channels.

This, my friends, is not an isolated incident, it always happens, why should we the cable viewers pay for their inept service? I agree with CableVision not wanting to charge us for these local channels, sure CableVision has its problems from time to time too, but at least they did upgrade to digital, they aim to improve. Bermuda Broadcasting it still stuck in the 20th Century! Upgrade, give us a better signal, ZBM looks horrible, the new flat screens make it look even worse. When all local channels in the US are going digital we still have the same old local channels, does anyone think with the extra money in their coffers they'll upgrade? I highly doubt it!

Bermuda Broadcasting you need to improve your service tenfold, and then you might get the support of the people to actually want to pay for your channels. For now just try to stay on the ball and show programmes that should actually be on, on time!

DISGUSTED

Pembroke

Televised game shambles

December 4, 2009

Dear Sir,

Is it any wonder that CableVision wants to get rid of the Bermuda Broadcasting channels?

I settled down today at 2 p.m. to watch the NFL playoffs and what happens? ZBM forgot to change the feed from the BBC World News to the football until 25 minutes after the scheduled starting time.

I missed almost the entire first quarter. This isn't the first time this has happened. They really are a shambles.

NFL FAN

Devonshire

Bermuda is declining

December 29, 2008

Dear Sir,

Mr. (Carlton) Adams' blunt portrayal about the future of Bermuda is unfortunately true. I have visited Bermuda at 15 times in the last 12 years and have witnessed the steady decline. I have seen gang members wandering around John Smith's Bay and open drug dealing in St. George's. If this downward trend continues, Bermuda will be a third world island in a very short time.

SCOTT R. NICHOLLS

New York City

Reaction to Adams

December 31, 2008

Dear Sir,

After reading Carlton Adams' assessment of conditions in Bermuda, regarding the crime situation & everything associated with it ... I wondered if there would be a comment from the "PLP high command" on what their intentions were going to be in the New Year regarding his very pragmatic interview?

A good idea might be to start giving the Police and judicial system more power and latitude to deal with these ever increasing problems! In a small Island such as Bermuda, with a population of only 60,000 people, I can't understand why it is so difficult to get a handle on the out-of-control drug epidemic!

With all the advanced electronic surveillance and monitoring equipment now available, plus the combined help of the DEA, Interpol and other various law enforcement agencies, one has to wonder how a bunch of amateur smugglers can still win the day!

Of course, this automatically raises all sorts of questions! You can read into this any way you like!

BRUCE MCCLARRON

Arizona

Where are road patrols?

December 31, 2008

Dear Sir,

Now this is getting me very upset. Another dead teenager.

All I can say is that it doesn't take a genius to see that there is no Police presence on the roads and everybody knows it. When you have nobody enforcing rules; nobody watching people so that they don't break the rules; nobody evidently caring enough to do something; nobody leading the effort; and nobody with seemingly any will to change behavior ... well, bad things will continue to happen.

I know what Joe Froncioni feels and he's probably not saying much because it's like taking a leak in the breeze. Where's the Road Safety Chairman with his ridiculously stupid plea for everybody to slow down? Where is anybody in the Police leadership (I do use that term very loosely)? Where is anybody? I have no idea whether the Colonel in charge, whether it's the Governor or whether there is actually a leader in the Police force but clearly taking any intelligent action is beyond the imagination of these people..

So the Colonel puts it down to "personal responsibility" ... message to Colonel, of course it's their "personal responsibility" but if we or they relied on that being accepted, well, you wouldn't need any cops to catch all the murderers, thieves, bag snatchers, and general thugs who just don't accept any "personal responsibility"... but, I agree, it would be nice !

Maybe I'm no genius, but if you put your basic cop (presumably we have some who know how to drive bikes and know their way around) on a chopper cycle and have him patrol or even sit in driveways from one end of the island to the other, I guarantee that in about six months you will find that people slow down and stop driving like getting there fast is really meaningful.

Fear is a beautiful thing. If you know people are watching and that if they see you doing your basic speed show, overtaking where there is maybe six inches between vehicles, driving with a little weed in the lungs or Dewars in the belly ... I think people just might slow down.

Maybe worth a try? Better than burying anymore kids ...

AUNT POLLY SAWYER

Southampton

Speed-bump solution

December 31, 2008

Dear Sir,

With regards to road safety it is quite clear to me that something very drastic has to be done and it needs to be done immediately. I am an educator, however, I don't think any amount of education in the short term or television campaigns are going to be as effective as taking immediate action now.

I would like to wholeheartedly support the idea sent in by one of the readers a few days ago. That person stated that speed-bumps were used widely to deter speeding in the jurisdiction in which they lived. I am a driver and despite the obvious inconvenience this would cause, I wholeheartedly agree with this idea.

I think that the island should be covered from East to West in speed-bumps (and care should be taken so that no fast shortcuts are left anywhere). That way, people would find it much more difficult to speed and they would have to allow additional time to travel. I think that saving lives far outweighs any costs of time or financial considerations. Whilst this might cause some delays to police, fire-fighters and ambulances in the end they would have far fewer road accidents to attend. In addition, with the urgent medical centres due to be built in the East and West in the longer term this would be less problematic. If Warwick got its sub police station, again this would alleviate some of the pressure.

I have lived in other countries and I really don't believe that additional speed cameras or police presence would make as much difference as physically being unable to speed. The speed-bump outside Robertson's Drug store in St. George's works. Now we need a whole lot more from St. George's to town! This would force everyone to slow down and would also make the roads safer for tourists who hire scooters. The tragic death of the young mother whose daughter was also trapped and injured is a sad reminder that no one is immune.

In the longer term I think that educational campaigns, together with free transportation for all would help. Reducing rather than increasing the size of vehicles allowed on the island seems to me to be the saner way forward. If there were speed-bumps everywhere, I for one would be happy to give up my car and start riding a bicycle. I am sure I would not be alone in this.

Finally, I cannot find words eloquent enough to express my sadness and empathy for the families of those whose loved ones have died on the streets of Bermuda. I have personally known of several people who have died in this way. As a mother and wife of males who ride bikes I am concerned. I think that we need to put away our selfish concerns for the inconvenience a solution like speed-bumps would pose and think about how we would feel if the person who died today was our son, husband or father.

CONCERNED AND SADDENED

St. George's

Contributing factors?

December 31, 2008

Dear Sir,

In the wake of yet another young life lost on Bermuda's roads please afford us the space to make a few comments on what we feel are the contributing factors and possibly some solutions to what can now be called an epidemic.

We feel the main contributing factors are (in no particular order):

1) Overpowered bikes: When the decision was made to phase out two stroke engines in favour of four stroke engines for environmental reasons an argument was put forward that engine capacity would have to be increased as four stroke engines do not generate the same horse power. Engine capacity was increased to 150cc and we saw the emergence of vastly overpowered bikes such as the Honda Sonic and the Suzuki Raider on the island's roads. Bikes that due to their light weight and powerful engines are better suited the decks of US Navy aircraft carriers with two wings strapped to them.

Proposed solution: Reduce engine capacity. Whether that be by banning gas powered bikes all together and relying on electric bikes thus helping the environment further or by reducing the capacity to 50cc for everyone. Does it matter if your bike can do 90 mph when you're only supposed to be riding at a fraction of that speed? For those of you who will argue "it's not the bike it's the person riding it", the person can't ride the bike in a dangerous manner if they don't have the bike.

2) Male ego and Bermuda's bike culture: Let's face the facts very few females are killed on Bermuda's roads and when they are it is usually the result of being the passenger on a bike ridden by a male (obviously we're not saying all female bike riders drive in a safe manner but you can't argue with the statistics). The truth is up to a certain point in their lives one of the main things young men have on their minds is who has the fastest bike and the bragging rights that go with it. As we all know there is only one way to prove who has the fastest bike.

Proposed solution: There is nothing that can be done about the male ego but steps can be taken to focus the ego on other things such as sports. Fathers, uncles, older brothers and cousins stop bragging to the next generation of riders coming behind you about the times you used to race your Cyrus, Mobylette, Peugeot 103, RC, CB, XL etc. from Dockyard to City Hall in a pack, "whalin guys down de stretch" and "burnin dat guy by five pole lengths". Hearing those stories doesn't deter someone from wanting to do it, it glorifies it. Perhaps think about telling them the stories of your friends that never made it from Dockyard to City Hall.

Interestingly enough the frontal lobe of the human brain which helps one recognise the future consequences of current actions is not fully developed until about the age of 25.

3) Lack of Police presence and driving under the influence: We hear this time and time again and yes the Police are understaffed which makes it harder but the driving habits of people on Bermuda's roads have deteriorated over the last ten years. It's a case of if you get away with something enough it becomes normal practice and unfortunately due to the lack of police on the road drivers are being able to push the envelope more and more without punishment. Each week we hear on the Monday morning news how four or five people were arrested over the weekend for impaired driving, the truth is this is probably one percent of all those that drove while impaired over the weekend. Think of this, drive into Hamilton on a Friday or Saturday night and see how many cars and bikes are parked along Front Street, No. 1 Shed, Reid Street etc. and then go into the bars and see how many people are in there drinking non-alcoholic drinks.

Proposed solution: Random road blocks along the main arteries going out of the city (East Broadway & Palmetto Road). Even if it is two officers and one Police bike this will be a deterrent.

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list and there are many other contributing factors but we see these as the main items contributing to the increasing number of deaths on our roads.

By no means are we pretending to be angels and we are all guilty of taking unnecessary risks on the roads in the past but can now look back on some of the things we have done and realise how dangerous and foolish they were.

THE FORUM

City of Hamilton

Stop erasing Britain

December 31, 2008

Dear Sir,

I have just had a look at "Notes of Distinction" which was released by The Bermuda Monetary Authority, and needless to say, I am not impressed.

Whether some people like it or not, Bermuda still belongs to Britain, and until we are independent, we will remain so … but with the design of these "specimens" (and specimens they are), it would appear that we are not. It looks as if someone has to design "notebook" style wallets to view what the denomination is on a note – otherwise, you'll have to pull the notes completely out to see what you want! This vertical style design is absolutely crazy. I wonder if any other country has this insane design – or are we just so different (stupid) in our way of thinking?

With my bad eyes, I had to look for the Queen, and there she is on one batch, tucked away in the corner, as faint as she could possibly be, with birds, fish and a toad sitting on top of her. While on the other batch, I can't find her at all! What an insult and what disrespect! The ruler of a country is usually in the middle of the denomination or on the side, but as I said, poor Lizzie has been relegated to the bottom left corner.

Instead of this Government prioritising and fixing what really needs attention, they seem bent on erasing anything that is British. Some people seem to forget that it was the British who colonised this island – it wasn't the "Bermudians!"

Granted in the "old" days, some British people had some pretty nasty ways and had terrible airs of superiority, but these nasty people don't live forever, they die and others, meaning more polite and accepting, take their place…but, life goes on!

At this stage of the game we cannot live with division, look what it did in the past! It has created people who are still dividing us today! People who are treating their own as others treated them in the past. It seems that this Government will not rest until everything in Bermuda is black, as it was in the past when everything was white. Two wrongs do not make a right. When in God's good name will we ever learn?

One thing I must say, and that is how I admired Barack Obama and his team for uniting America in the manner they did – granted, there are some demented insecure people in America who have bullets with Obama's name on it, just waiting for a chance to use them, and Obama has always known that, and in spite of this knowledge, Obama did not play the "race card", he played the "issue card", the card that appealed to the secured, intelligent and tolerant people of America and for that matter, the world.

He took the high road, and the McCain team took the low road. The McCain team, the GOP (Good Old Party) was reminiscent of our Government in the last election. When I looked at the Obama electioneering, I saw people of all colours, races, religions, cultures etc., who were inspired by this truly, African/American! What I saw in our Government's electioneering was name-calling, division, inflated egos, insults, hatred, and darn right disgusting attitudes. There was no uniting of the people.

If this Government could take a page out of the Obama book, it then might be able to get back on the right tract. People just want good Governance and fair play; but changing every thing that stands or hangs that looks British, that is not going to do it.

Take another look at these "Notes of Distinction", with their old Broadway theatre style-like ticket appearance – they are a joke, and again, another waste of taxpayer money!

A Happy New Year to all!

PAT FERGUSON

Warwick