Flummoxed by feeds

August 3, 2009

Dear Sir,

Can someone explain why channel 10 Fox on Bermuda Cablevision switches to channel 15 City TV's feed during prime time (9 p.m.-11 p.m.) when if you wanted to watch City TV you just have to press 15 on your remote? The main reason I bring this up is that on Tuesday's prime time line-up on Fox, the signal kept going in and out and of course turn to City TV and it was the same problem since it was the same feed, wouldn't one think if Cablevision left the Fox feed on Fox there might have been a better signal?

UHF

Pembroke

Gangs that destroy

August 10, 2009

Dear Sir,

Your responsibility to the people of Bermuda should be more positive than interviewing gang members who are destroying members of the public selling drugs, and insulting our bus drivers, janitors, housekeepers and truck loaders who choose to make an honest living in what they do. One day some of the same young men may get married and have children of their own and I am sure they won't want their children destroyed through the use of drugs.

RAYMOND RUSSELL

Pembroke

Where the stories go

August 6, 2009

Dear sir,

Some while ago I noted that an article telling how the Chinese government had awarded Premier Brown a tourism award was relegated to page 14 of the Royal Gazette. However, an article in the July 17, 2009 edition, which tells of the Premier's son's legal troubles appears on page three. That difference in the way the two articles were placed does not feel right to me.

HELENE STEPHENSON

Smith's

A good Saltus experience

August 10, 2009

Dear Sir,

I am writing in response to Gregory Slayton's disparaging remarks about Saltus Grammar School which were quoted in the August 7, 2009 edition of the Bermuda Sun.

Our experience with our child's education has been that positive results are most often achieved when the parents work with the school to sort out any difficulties and misunderstandings. This was true with our child whose entire school education was at Saltus. Our child's hard work, combined with support and nurture through the years by school administrators, teachers and parents has resulted in our child attending an excellent university ranked significantly higher than Dartmouth College.

It seems to me, when seeking to accuse, that the Slaytons first should have looked into the mirror.

GRATEFUL TO SALTUS

Sandys

Historic UFO sighting

August 8, 2009

Dear Sir,

Since UFOs are known to make periodic appearances in various parts of the world, even until quite recently, enthusiasts are always ready to add to their own notes and observations whenever a refresher item appears.

We, as a family, have seen several of these mysterious flying objects here and abroad (the most impressive were off the North Shore from Devonshire and Shelly Bay) so we are always interested in updates. The History and National Geographic Channels have each presented fascinating documentaries that give hard-to-dispute evidence to the existence of these awesome possibilities. To us, simply seeing is believing.

Always on the lookout for interesting updates, I unexpectedly latched onto this one the moment it appeared in The Royal Gazette , 17 years ago!

Time passes so quickly I thought it would be fun for the Gazette to do an updated reprint:

Original item appeared 122 Years ago in The Royal Gazette, dated September 15, 1887

"A group of fishermen have reported spotting an unidentified flying object off the North Shore last week.

The men were fishing off the rocks between Mount Langton and Clarence Hill at a place known as Stools Rock, last Thursday evening when they saw a light gradually rising up from the horizon.

The light moved first to the west for about half an hour, turned around and travelled back to the east, and then, reversed direction again! Finally, just around midnight, the light started to move straight up in the air.

Mr. Emilius Smith of Pembroke parish, said the strange object looked like a "balloon showing a revolving light".

MAC MUSSON

Warwick

Reckless on the roads

July 20, 2009

Dear Sir,

On the first day of Cup Match I was returning home on my bike via Stowe Hill, Paget at approximately 8:15 p.m. I came to the stop sign at the junction with The Lane and though there was no traffic in either direction, I came to a stop because the law says I must! There were two cars that I could see following me.

Having pulled away from the stop sign I immediately indicated my intention to turn right to go into my driveway (which is approximately half way between said stop sign and Pomander Road) by activating my indicator as well as putting my right arm straight out. As a precautionary measure I quickly glanced in my rear view mirror to ascertain that the following traffic was aware what I was about to do. To my complete astonishment a taxi (you know who you are) which had been behind the two cars suddenly shot out into the opposite lane at a fast rate of speed. This fool made no attempt to slow down in spite of having seen my indicator as well as hand signal. Had I not at the last moment slowed to allow him to pass, I would certainly not be writing this letter today.

This stretch of The Lane to the North Roundabout is sadly lacking in radar speed control despite a sign which reads "Speed checked by detection devices". Oh really?

It is high time Government activated these so-called detection devices because sooner or later someone is going to get either seriously injured or killed along this dangerous speedway. I sincerely hope it will not be me. I am fed up with inconsiderate road users who have no respect for anyone and think only of themselves when some of us are simply trying to obey the rules of the road. This reckless behaviour must stop.

GERALD L. YOUNG

Paget

More is needed

August 7, 2009

Dear Sir,

Please allow me space to respond to the letter written by Mr. Sean Pitcher, UBP chairman, which was a rebuttal to my letter in which I stated the UBP were a weak opposition.

I have no desire to get into a running debate with the chairman via The Royal Gazette. My initial intention was to respond directly to Mr. Pitcher via e-mail unfortunately his e-mail address is not listed with his profile on the UBP website.

First, I'm pleased someone within the UBP decided to address my original comments. It shows that the UBP are not totally flatlined and that there is some heartbeat still remaining.

Second, let me say congratulations to Mr. Pitcher. This is the first time in quite some time that the UBP have actually laid out any specific platform goals. It's a shame it took my original letter to the editor to prompt this. You would think that any opposition political party really interested in regaining the government would continue to ensure the public is aware of their platform and plans.

I hope Mr. Pitcher realises that while I'm a single individual, the comments and views expressed in my original letter are felt by more Bermudians than just me. Mr. Pitcher's letter did outline a few specifics but much of it was vague political speak rather than detailed specifics. As the Chairman mentioned in his letter, the "Letters to the Editor" section of the newspaper has space restrictions so he could not fully list all the UBP's goals. I realise this and so I again went to the UBP website expecting that there would be more detail given on a number of his comments. Again, as mentioned in my original letter I found that the website was still not updated and many of the details are still not there.

When a party spokesman says they will "significantly cut back perks and travel" I want to know how they intend to do it.

When comments are made that the UBP will help small business I want to know what their definition of a small business is.

Mr. Pitcher also indicates the UBP "would broaden bipartisan cooperation in the legislature". That's a nice sentiment but no one can guarantee bipartisan cooperation, even President Obama has not been able to forge any real bipartisan cooperation within the Senate or House of Representatives.

Having a committee that includes members of both parties is not bipartisan cooperation, when that committee works as a team and compromises for the best interest of the country that is bipartisan cooperation. Bipartisan cooperation can't be legislated or guaranteed anymore than I can guarantee my wife will agree with me on what colour to paint the living room.

I'm sure the chairman's comments were appreciated by many and do indicate that the UBP may still have some fight left within. I believe they'll need to do more and be more issue-oriented in order to be the strong opposition the country needs.

JAMES JACKSON

Devonshire

Unfair against the taxis

August 10, 2009

Dear Sir,

Please give me a few lines to reply to the Hon. Derrick Burgess' unacceptable attack on our taxi industry. First, Mr. Burgess, the delays encountered by the general public over the second day of Cup Match was beyond taxi drivers' control. On the second day, Friday evening, the road blocks prevented drivers from getting to and from the airport. Secondly, holidays are very quiet in the industry with almost nothing open — restaurants, stores, bars, etc. Mr. Burgess you should know better. You worked at Princess and Grotto Bay.

Mr. Burgess, remember when they used to send us home early on holidays at Grotto Bay because it was too slow? Mr. Burgess, the average taxi ambassador is very hard working. It's no longer a safe job with drivers robbed, acid thrown in their faces, taxi carjacked, etc. And the industry has to put up with unacceptable attacks from you of all people, who came out of the BIU. Ninety percent of drivers are former BIU, BPSU, Prison, Police, Fire, teachers, union members. Your comments on the taxi industry are an insult to trade unions and labour in Bermuda.

Everywhere you go in the world you wait for a taxi, Mr. Burgess, why don't you spend your time on more physical and productive issues in the country, e.g. it takes you longer sometimes to check out of the airport through customs than your flight takes. Yet you slam the taxi industry if people have to wait.

At times, Mr. Editor, this Government from the Transport Ministry's Ewart Brown down don't have any respect for the tax paying taxi men and women of Bermuda. Mr. Burgess, where were you both days of Cup Match? At the game. Yes, and to Mr. John Harvey, did you enjoy your two days at Cup Match? or Mr. Editor is this a front to put more and more mini buses and limousines on the road to further put the hard working taxi men out of business?

I may end Mr. Editor by saying as a former labour supporter there is nothing labour about the present Government. Maybe they should change the name of their party to Progressive Self Gaining Party. PSGP

A FORMER BIU SHOP STEWARD

Warwick

P.s. I and my family will remember the destruction the PLP has done to taxi industry and Bermuda at the next election!

Don't idolise Newton

August 3, 2009

Dear Sir,

It is interesting that Opposition Leader Mr. Kim Swan's Opinion piece in the Royal Gazette states that "… forward progress (on slavery and segregation) depends absolutely on people from one generation to the next stepping forward to move society forward, to fighting the good fight." And then goes on to say "World history is replete with the names of these good people – John Newton who penned "Amazing Grace", William Wilberforce, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela…"

Should John Newton be listed as someone we should idolise? As a young man he worked for white traders who acted as middle men between African merchants and the slave ships. In 1747 he returned to England on a ship called The Greyhound and it was on this journey they encountered a terrible storm and during it Newton had his religious conversion. However, this did not deter him from the profits of the slave trade and within a year he took the first of four voyages on slave ships, one as mate and three as captain between 1748 and 1754. According to his own accounts, he ordered slaves to be punished and tortured, and used fear and terror to control them. In 1754 he was about to leave on his fifth slave trading voyage but was taken seriously ill and was advised to quit the sea, however he continued to invest in the slave trade.

How can a 'good' man, a faithful and loving husband, who read the Bible daily, sat in his Captain's cabin and vowed to do "good to my fellow creatures", not see the depravity in which he was involved? Here is a man that had gone through a conversion, a date which he remembered for the rest of his life, yet continued to work in the slave trade for a further six years and only quit when he had to due to ill health.

His fame derives from his subsequent career, in which he became an active, visible minister of evangelical bent in the Church of England, wrote numerous hymns, most famously "Amazing Grace," (believed to have been written between 1760 – 1770), and finally in the late 1780s toward the end of his life publicly rejected his own past and embraced the cause of abolition, which was then in its ascendancy. He wrote a vivid pamphlet about the horrors of the trade in 1788 entitled Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade and he testified in similar fashion before committees of the House of Commons in 1789 and 1790 (Source: The Slave Ship by Marcus Rediker).

Before his conversion Newton was a wild and rebellious young man, who fought against authority, and was a known womaniser and drinker. He was a highly intelligent self-educated man, and was a prolific writer providing detailed accounts of life on board the slave ships which would later become invaluable material in the anti-slavery campaigns. He became an evangelical minister at a time when it was ridiculed by the more conservative Christian churches, but who went on to become one of the most highly respected ministers of his day.

Why did he wait over 30 years after leaving the slave trade before finally speaking out? Did he only go public when it was politically expedient to do so, when anti-slavery abolitionists were finally in the ascendancy after their long battle? How could a man so immersed in the degradation and horror of the slave trade write the beautiful words of "Amazing Grace?"

Dr. Joy De-Gruy Leary talks about 'cognitive dissonance', which in the slave trade context enables an individual to lead a normal, loving family life, and be a doting father, and yet do brutal acts to slaves. It is the ability to assure oneself that slaves were less than human, that this is how it was, and everyone is doing it, so it must be okay. Any and all doubts would need to be submerged, because life would become mentally intolerable to even consider that slaves were thinking, feeling human beings. Historians and medical science of the day constantly assured that blacks were backward and inferior to whites, and could withstand hardship and pain due to their primitive status. Even the ministers of churches reassured you that the Bible decreed it, and they too invested in the slave trade.

So should Newton be idolised or denigrated? Perhaps instead we should consider a third alternative, that he went along with societal norms, and even if he did have doubts never allowed himself to dwell on them. Only later in life did he find the courage and enlightenment to understand his sin; and offer reparation through his willingness to expose a degenerate and evil side of his life in the hope that it would affect change. Is this enough to idolise the man along with extraordinary men like Nelson Mandela? No. But it is enough to forgive him and to understand that humanity has the will and heart to change.

LYNNE WINFIELD

City of Hamilton