Go back to the beginning

May 29, 2007

Dear Sir,

Your article in yesterday’s paper ‘The Cedarbridge Mould Crisis’ by Sam Strangeways is misleading. Construction was not “botched” and the facility was not “badly built”. It is the building’s design and lack of maintenance that have caused the mould problems.

Construction was performed by a workforce of predominantly Bermudian sub-contractors in accordance with plans and specification packages originating from Works & Engineering. The quality of construction was apparently sufficiently adequate to be signed off by the main contractor Somers Construction and Works & Engineering site representatives. It was not signed off by the sub-contractors themselves as the article implies.

I am sure if Somers Construction or their sub-contractors were approached, they would be able to locate original plans, manuals and schedules to help the repair crews. The fact that there are no such documents available throws even more suspicion on Works & Engineering for an inadequate design in the first place.

WHO’S KIDDING WHO

Warwick

The value of education

May 24, 2007

Dear Sir,

The unstated but pervasive operating principle of the Bermuda Department of Education is that parents cannot be entrusted to make decisions about the education of their children; the “experts” at the Department must take on that momentous duty because, unlike parents, only they possess superior talents and limitless wisdom.

The problem now is that Professor Hopkins’ report has exposed this falsehood; the morons in the educational process were not parents but the dunderheads at the Department of Education.

The Professor’s statement that “the Ministry exercises much control but little leadership” squares with my long-held view that the greatest educational reform we could implement would be to send a demolition truck to the Ministry and blow it up.

From press reports (the public is not allowed to read the report because they are so stupid they would not understand it) Mr Hopkins confirms what many Bermudians have known for years, namely that the public system of education in Bermuda is a scandal and a disgrace. From gang violence, to dumbing down, to building defects, to sub-standard schools, to the pilfering of public funds by “sticky-fingers” Green at the Bermuda College, to dreadful graduation rates the horror story continues - and too many of our children (although not all) are robbed of a future in the new Bermuda.

A major flaw in his report is that parents are still largely excluded from the educational process, unless they are rich and smart enough to use the private system. Professor Hopkins endorses the same failed operating principle - parents are morons and only the experts in government are endowed with sufficient wisdom to educate our children. This is, of course, complete nonsense but it is the lie on which the bureaucrats and politicians depend in order to keep their jobs, and fool the naïve and gullible.

A real reform would be for government to exit the education business altogether, but still provide the necessary funds to parents who would then choose how, and where, they would like their children to be educated. Schools and government should be separate, just as church and state are separate. Those parents interested in having an effective education for their children, free from the stranglehold of government should check out the following web-site: http://www.friedmanfoundation.org/friedman/schoolchoice/

There has been a lot of talk recently about the evils of slavery. One aspect that has been neglected is the fact that the greatest slave is not he who is owned by the plantation owner (to use a popular political metaphor of the Premier), but he who is a captive of his own ignorance. The Department of Education has, for too long, delivered too many of our young people to the plantation of ignorance that has kept them in effective slavery. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus (55-135AD) put it succinctly almost 2000 years ago: “Only the educated are free.”

Is it not ironic that the Government department who should have been in the vanguard of liberating disadvantaged minds has, because of its incompetence, enslaved them? The people in the Department of Education were not just harmless bozos. They were people endowed with power who preyed on the young, and their parents, decent defenceless people who lacked the means to defend themselves.

In the meantime, many influential people in business, to their shame, pretended that everything was OK. Unlike the Good Samaritan they ignored innocent people who needed help. To rock the boat would have put work permits in jeopardy; or they hid behind that sinister threat of Minister Burgess that non-Bermudians should keep their mouths shut about Bermuda politics - or else.

The Department of Education has taken our money, poured it down a rat-hole, betrayed our natural trust in experts, treated parents like fools, and above all it has failed many of our children big-time. To make matters worse it has lied about the failure, by amongst other things, inflating grades and creating worthless graduation certificates. Our educational establishment have delivered too many young Bermudians into the educational equivalent of ground-zero. Those who succeeded were able to not because of, but in spite of, the educational bureaucrats.

The big question is, what is going to happen now. Do not expect anything to happen — the ducking and weaving has already started. Reforms will be promised, prominent people will be appointed to implement change, and press releases will fall from the sky. Alas, massive delay and the dead hand of civil service will outlast everyone. The guilty parties, the bureaucrats and politicians, will blame everyone except themselves and in ten years time we will have yet another commission to report on what has gone wrong. Smart and informed parents will scrimp and save to send their children to private school.

In short, nothing will really change, and the idea of Black Economic Empowerment will be as elusive as it is at present.

ROBERT STEWART

Smith’s Parish

Right old wrongs

May 24, 2007

Dear Sir,

I heard a story many years ago. We were at our friends’ home on Talbot Lane. Winette (may she rest in peace) and Rodney Tucker had asked us for lunch telling us that they wanted us to meet Cyril Packwood’s dad (may Cyril and his dad both rest in peace).

Cyril’s dad was a marvellous storyteller and after lunch he started to talk. He had a quiet voice with that wonderful old Bermuda accent one hardly ever hears any more — the one which called a window ‘windah’ and a piano ‘pee-anna’. He told us stories of his cricket days (he was a notable Cup Match hero), and a story about how and why one wore shoes to school — it was a matter of family pride to wear shoes when in school but the shoes were not to be worn walking to and fro’ school because that would wear them out, and shoes were expensive.

Mr. Packwood’s story, as I remember it, is as follows. This is a story about the take-over of homes and land in Tucker’s Town.

An old Bermuda lady lived in a small, two-storey cottage in Tucker’s Town. She had lived there all her life having been born in the house. There was a community of people down there who fished and grew their own vegetables. They had a little church and a little school and they went about their business and lived best they could.

One day, the residents of this area were told that they had to leave their homes and move elsewhere. A group of white men - influential businessmen, who were probably part of the government of that time, had come up with a deal with a foreign company called Furness Withy, and they wanted the land. The deal was going to launch a new era in tourism (sound familiar?) and would, it should be said, be more than a little financially rewarding for those in power. The land was deemed too valuable for a community of so called simple black folk.

Notice was duly served on the elderly lady, telling her that she had a limited number of days in which to pack her belongings and vacate the premises. She responded with a statement that if they wanted her house, they were going to have to come and take it - she was not going to walk away without a fight.

She readied herself for the siege. She stocked up on food and she barricaded her front door and downstairs windows. Every so often, over a period of a few weeks, a man would arrive and bang on her door, telling her he had come to deliver notice that she must leave. He would push the piece of paper under her door and leave.

Eventually, Sir Stanley Spurling, with the bailiff and a group of men in tow, arrived at her door. According to Mr. Packwood, Sir Stanley was there to represent the new owners.

Sir Stanley was dressed in a ‘sharp, white, sharkskin suit’ and he stood ‘straight and tall’ outside the lady’s door and banged on it - telling her to come out peacefully because if she didn’t, they were authorised to break the door down and remove her forcibly.

His answer came quickly — from the upstairs window, and before he realised what was about to happen, buckets of slops rained down on Sir Stanley and anyone unlucky enough to be standing close. Sir Stanley and his white, sharkskin suit were covered in many weeks’ worth of vegetable peelings, egg shells and other putrid things.

A few minutes later, the old lady opened her door and with head held high she walked past the men and without a backward glance, she walked off her property, never to return.

True to her promise, she didn’t leave without a fight and, unlike the sorry sight outside her door, she left with her dignity intact.

The Tucker’s Town issue has been in the news of late - and, although, we cannot go back in time and right the wrongs of so many years ago, we can, as a community, try to put ourselves in the shoes of those people who were wrongfully evicted from the only homes they knew. Each of these families will have a story to tell.

A few days ago, we were told that there is a cemetery down there at Tucker’s Point which is part of a golfing practice range — it is a graveyard with the ancestors of Bermudians buried there - People who once lived in that part of Bermuda. How can we, as a civilised society, knowingly allow a burial ground to be desecrated in such a manner? Burial grounds, since the days of the cave men have been treated with either reverence or superstition - either way, they are taboo. What on earth goes through the minds of those men and women who stand on that practice range and hit golf balls over and in to a cemetery?

Most of us had no idea that this was taking place, but, now that we do know, what are we going to do about it?

KATH BELL

Paget

Wrongly accused

May 25, 2007

Dear Sir,

We, the bike-riding students of Warwick Academy hope that you will allow us to reply, through your column, to the two letters about us submitted by Mr. Tom Panchaud.

We do not find his ‘apology’ clear enough. We are quite capable of finding out if any of us was guilty of the dangerous driving of which he made mention. It was none of us.

There are only three students here who own a Yamaha V50. Two of the three are orange, and only one would routinely pass Heron Bay Marketplace. On the day in question this boy had a class which started at 8 a.m. We can confirm that he was here, at the school, well before 8am. So the fact that Mr. Panchaud was travelling, and experienced this incident “shortly after 8”, makes it impossible for that individual to be a student of Warwick Academy. This young man is not even of Caucasian descent; his bike is brand new -without faults and his indicators are perfectly fine not matching the clear description given by Mr. Panchaud. The registration of the other bike does not belong to anyone connected with Warwick Academy, as confirmed both by the police and TCD.

Of the other Year Groups who have any bike-riders, the year above us (Year 13) no longer attend school on a regular basis as they are sitting exams — and none of them were in that morning and, of the 4 members of year 11 who own bikes, none of them are orange, nor are they Yamahas.

Our Warwick Academy Sixth Form uniform includes a polo shirt - like those of all other schools. The name ‘Warwick Academy’ is printed on the front left-hand side, unlikely to be seen if (the rider is) passing on the inside, especially as most of us were still wearing coats at that time. Again there aren’t any “white boys” at Warwick Academy who ride, or own a Yamaha V50cc motor bike.

Yes, we the student body of Warwick Academy year 12, 6th Form agree that we, as youth, need to slow down and take the necessary precautions on Bermuda’s roads. We agree with Mr. Panchaud’s description and judgement of the idiotic driving that he witnessed but we strongly regret that an assumption was made that was used to put ourselves and our school in such a bad light. Great care over accuracy should be taken in such circumstances. We all know that if we do anything so stupid, either Mrs. McCorkell or Mr. Lennox will, quite rightly, deal with us effectively. You may find it strange, however, but we do take pride in our school and are aware of our social responsibilities.

We accept the apology from Mr. Panchaud and hope that, should he encounter dangerous driving again, his first contact will be school officials and not the editor of the daily paper.

YEAR 12

Warwick Academy

Focus on the issues

May 23, 2007

Dear Sir,

The Government needs to address the following:

1. Education: Was destroying Devonshire Academy to make CedarBridge really worth it? Why did Government feel that having middle schools instead of leaving St. George’s Secondary and Sandys Secondary as secondary schools good for the children (this would’ve eliminated gang violence in schools)? Unfortunately now buying a new uniform for the child is a problem and getting him/her adjusted into A whole new school becomes the next challenge(Before it was from primary school straight to secondary school which meant simply buying just one new school uniform now it’s buying two! Does this really make sense?)

2.Cellphone Driving: Andre Simons might be right as it shouldn’t be a ban, why isn’t there yet a law that states any driver caught must pay a hefty fine? I feel if the driver can afford a car, with shiny chrome rims, dark tinted windows, a design and still drives up/down on a cell phone (most of the time) they should have no problem paying a $1,000 to $1,500 fine.If the driver is driving a regular car and drives this way(most of the time),maybe the price should be less ($900-$990).Another part that should be addressed is that most of the drivers that do this are female.

3. School Uniforms: What’s so popular about Navy Blue? First when Saltus was an all-boys school the sweaters wear grey. When the school first added girls, students were still wearing grey and now strangely they’re wearing these navy blue with a red stripe sweater and only girls are allowed to wear a cardigan. What’s wrong with red (students won’t look like St. David’s Primary or Gilbert Institute students by wearing red)? And what’s wrong with a boy wearing a cardigan?

4. Using Indicators on Roundabouts: It’s bad enough right of way doesn’t exist any more but, how’s a person supposed to know that somebody’s turning right if, that person isn’t first signalling right? Is the other person supposed to mind read that person? When an accident happens, you can only blame the person who was not using an indicator.

5. Old people and cars: If an elderly individual is slow-witted in movement while walking then, they’re likely that way behind the wheel of a car.There should be an age limit at TCD.

6.Race: Discrimination: Why hate one another? This message for Tucker’s Town residents and any Fairylands resident who’s white and strangely have something against black people (Hello, you’re on a black island so get used to being around black people!). Also, for any other race who, can’t wipe the past out of their mind so they treat another race badly and treat their own with kindness as well as those without love in them.

7. Gay Issue: Don’t hate the individual just, the ungodly act he/she is doing. If they choose to be an abomination hate the fact,that what they’re doing(men lying with men,women lying with women) is a sin and leave it at that (God will deal with these individuals when the time comes).

8. Discipline In Schools: Whose idea was it to take away discipline in schools anyway? That’s probably why education is failing. Some students misbehave while the ones who wish to learn have to suffer (and it’s not just public schools).

FOCUS ON ISSUES

Pembroke