Where were the whites?

May 28, 2007

Dear Sir,

I attended the Premier’s annual Senior Citizens ‘Tea yesterday, May 27, at the Botanical Gardens. It was an affair that we seniors thoroughly enjoyed. The music of Shine Hayward, Lance, The Bermuda Regiment Band, the Liturgical dancers, was fantastic. However, the highlight of the entertainment in my view was the world’s best vocalist Toni Lee Robinson, who received a standing ovation after she sang. And entertainer Gene Steede who is one of Bermuda’s best entertainers, if not the best. The tea was concluded with the Warwick Gombeys.

I wish to thank the Premier and all those who helped to make this an enjoyable afternoon. Of course another highlight was the Premier’s announcements that come 2008; seniors will no longer have to pay for their vehicle registration nor their driving licence. That announcement was obviously well received.

The only sour note, if one can call it that, was the invisibility of our White Senior Citizens. There were approximately 900 seniors present and out of that number five to six were whites. My son, Neville C. Darrell, who was one of the several volunteers at the tea approached me and asked: “Daddy, do we have any white senior citizens in Bermuda, because I don’t see any here ?” I reminded him that on page 112 of my book Acel’dama I spoke to the issue of one way integration in Bermuda where whites do not mix with the Black masses. He indicated that he was beginning to understand now what I was writing about at that time. My question to this Government, and indeed the Premier of Bermuda, Dr. Brown is this: Were Whites invited to the senior’s tea, or were the Black Seniors invited exclusively? I will discuss this topic further when and if I get a response from our Premier.

NEVILLE T. DARRELL

Devonshire

The PLP are sincere

June 1, 2007

Dear Sir,

When I heard about this report about CedarBridge, I hoped and prayed that the UBP would not make a political issue of it and blame the PLP Government. Shouldn’t all politicians and Bermuda as a whole focus on what is best for the children in this Country. I’m not going to get into the “blame game”, there is enough to go around for everyone — UBP, PLP, Ministry of Education, Works and Engineering, Department of Planning, Board of Governors, facilities manager, headmaster, deputy headmasters and any other person or group who knew about the problems at the school since before construction was completed back in 1997 and today but did not do anything to address it. I now know, based on this report, that the school was not designed to be air-conditioned in the first place!

CedarBridge and the Education reviews should be treated with the utmost importance by the leaders of this country. True to form, all Grant Gibbons says is that the PLP “dropped the ball” on a great plan started by the UBP and that Mr. Randy Horton should resign. Is this helping to address the problems? Does Grant Gibbons really care about the students in public education and especially those at CedarBridge? I don’t believe he does. He does not care because he has no “connection” with students in public education. I wonder if he could even name one student he personally knows in the public system. If he and the UBP knew their “plan” was not being implemented properly, why did they not put pressure on the PLP to address it much sooner than the last two years or so. No, I believe they knew the system was failing our children (maybe by design) but waited until it became a crisis to then say it was the PLP’s fault. This is only coming to light because the PLP finally had the guts to be honest with Bermuda by admitting there are many problems with education as evidenced by the graduation rates and sicknesses at CedarBridge. The problems with education cannot be solved by the PLP alone. All of Bermuda must get involved!

So, Mr. Gibbons, your insincere and phoney attempt at being concerned about the average Bermudian who cannot afford to send their child to private schools has not fooled me. It was this same phony concern which caused the UBP to lose the 1998 and 2003 elections. I recall back in 2003 before the election, I saw Mr. Gibbons walking around the Sea Breeze Oval at a county game with Wayne Furbert, speaking to everyone. I doubt if Mr. Gibbons has been back to Sea Breeze Oval since. To Mr. Dunkley, Mr. Gibbons and the UBP do what is best for the people and help fix the education system for all children. Don’t just point your fingers. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

To my fellow average Bermudians, the PLP has its problems and my not be doing a terrific job. At least they are sincere and are still working on undoing 30 years of UBP rule and hundreds of years of elite white rule. Do you believe the UBP was and is “transparent” with all of their business deals the same way they want the PLP MPs to disclose all of their business deals? Keep the phony UBP in the opposition benches! Oh, I saw Michael Dunkley walking up and down Cedar Avenue on May 24th speaking to everyone. I don’t recall seeing him on May 24 of any other years, among the “average” people.

TIRED OF PHONY POLITICIANS

Hamilton Parish

Julian Hall was wrong

June 15, 2007

Dear Sir:

My attention has been drawn to a paragraph near the end of Julian Hall’s long article, published in today’s