Why can take care of pets

May 15, 2008

Dear Sir,

Kindly allow me the space in your newspaper to comment on the events of the last few days regarding veterinarians with Caricom credentials.

It seems as if for some sectors of this society the only qualified persons are either from the UK, US or Canada or the only valid credentials are issued from institutions of learning in these said countries.

Might I remind those who may be so inclined that people with credentials attained from institutions within Caricom have been staffing the hospital, schools, pharmacies, courts, hotels and most recently your police stations for a very long time. Why then can't we take care of your precious (sic) animals?

Credentials from UWI, NCU, Utech, Samuel Jackson Polytechnic to name a few can stand up any the world over, that Mr. Editor have been proven time and time again.

Why then would we have an ongoing brain drain with UK, US and Canadian companies and institutions flocking to the Caricom region to recruit qualified personnel? That Mr. Editor is food for thought.

WINSTON JONES

Devonshire

Kudos to ambulance crews

May 14, 2008

Dear Sir,

I must reply to the letter in today's (May 14, 2008) Royal Gazette signed by "Daughter" of Warwick who was not satisfied with the Ambulance service. As an elderly person with asthma, my family and I have had to call the ambulance at all hours of the night.

The ambulance as well as the West End Fire Service Paramedics have always responded very quickly, and have always been very kind and caring. I cannot praise them enough! Thank you, guys and gals – you're a great bunch!

M. WATKINS

Warwick

I saw all this coming

May 15, 2008

Dear Sir,

Not only was I a Bermudian parent of three children at an aided school (Warwick Academy – 1993 to 1998), not only was I a Bermudian teacher in the Bermuda Public Education System (Port Royal Primary School – 1992 to 1998 & Westgate Correctional Facility 1995 to 1998), but I was also a Bermudian Political Science major in college (Saint Mary's University – 1975 to 1977 & 1978 to 1980).

By the end of my tenure with the Department of Education in 1998, I had a total 12 grievances outstanding against various senior personnel in the Department, the last of which was actually against the Chief Education Officer. It would thus appear that I perceived that there was a severe problem and anticipated the Hopkins Report by almost a decade. The Bermuda Union of Teachers were willing to offer moral support, by the way, but were in no position to offer financial help so I had to fight the good fight on my own.

My first grievance came about as my response to having the Probationary period of my first year of extended. I respectfully asked the Senior Education Officer I was dealing with on the issue to find one other Reading Resource Teacher in the entire Bermuda Education System who had produced better results than my students had based on objective testing.

Had she been able to do so, I would have submitted to having my Probation extended by one term. I was later to find out that that Senior Education Officer wrote a report stating that I had "gloated" about the results my students had achieved in my first year of working with them. Look it up … the definition of "to gloat" is to "look or ponder with greedy or malicious triumph or pleasure". I failed to see then just as I am unable to see now how celebrating my students results while being reprimanded and punished could ever constitute gloating.

So from my perspective, it is somewhat ironic to hear now of a plan to treat individual teachers as valuable resources to be shared between schools; but hey, if it works, nobody would be happier for the students of Bermuda than I, especially if it eventually means less young Bermudian boys ending up incarcerated at Westgate as adults.

The thing is (and this is why I mentioned my major in college), what seems to have been forgotten here is that the Progressive Labour Party is a party of the left. I am not saying that the PLP is heavy-duty socialist… that would simply not fly with anyone in 21st century Bermuda, but they are certainly to the left of (say) the current Opposition.

That being the case, it should come as no surprise to any body that the Progressive Labour Party would strive to use education policy, as Minister Horton puts it, "…to see that every single child in Bermuda has an equal opportunity".

I never voted while I was living back home in Bermuda. One party came to my door and acted as if I would naturally vote for them because of the colour of my skin, and the other party did not even ask for my vote assuming (I suspect) that I would never vote for them because of the colour of my skin. That ticked me off because I did not feel like I was really being offered a choice. And so, in typically obstinate Bermudian fashion, I didn't vote for either of them. We all have not wanting to get pushed around in common; too bad so few of us Onions see how much we all share.

Bermuda has long been uniquely positioned in the world to be a shining example of the promise of all that actual, albeit representative, democracy could be. Instead we squander the geographic and cultural advantage we enjoy on working hard at getting individually rich and in our spare time hurling racial epithets at each other. Don't listen to me… I'm a hopelessly romantic dreamer. But if you want to know who I really am, go ask Day Day… he'll tell you straight.

MARK SHEPPARD BA (Pol. Sci. & English), B.Ed. (Spec. Ed. & Secondary English Methods), M.Ed. (Primary Reading)

Vancouver, British Columbia

Welcome to Bermuda

May 14, 2008

Dear Sir,

I was on a Delta flight into Bermuda last week. We disembarked in good weather; I walked down the stairs about three or four feet behind a woman who was holding her purse and a carryall bag, and walking in shoes with heels about 1 ½" to 2" high. About six stairs from the bottom, she tripped and fell, in almost a somersault, ending up fully down and jammed across the steps, her shoes and bags scattered and askew over the stairs and asphalt.

I could not climb over her to help her up or to collect her possessions. There were four to five airport employees standing near the bottom of the stairs, watching. Not one of them went to her aid. This woman had to struggle to free herself from the position she was in, gather her belongings, find her shoes, and try to attend to the bleeding from a nasty gash on her knee. Finally, she hobbled barefoot into the terminal. Welcome to Bermuda.

Perhaps those employees were stationed there for security reasons, but there were more than enough of them to reach out to another person in need. I really can't think of an excuse for this.

SHOCKED

Pembroke