Let's enjoy Celebration

June 29, 2007

Dear Sir,

Tomorrow's sold-out US Independence Day Celebration will be at Moresby Plain near Dockyard from 5-10 p.m. We are expecting 5,000 guests. So let me strongly encourage all confirmed guests (and all confirmed guests should have their official American Society Celebration wristbands by the end of today) to use the special mass transit that has been especially organised by the Ministry of Transport for the Celebration. Fast ferries and express buses will provide express transport to and from Moresby Plain from St. George's, Hamilton and Rockaway. And parking at No. 1 Shed will be free between 6 p.m. and 12.30 a.m. with official American Society Celebration wristband. Detailed schedules may be found on the American Society website www.americansociety.bm. Again: for those with official wristbands, travel is free.

Let me also take a minute to thank the incredibly generous Corporate Sponsors that made tomorrow's Celebration possible. Each of these Corporate Sponsors, and especially our Premium and Gold Sponsors, has given very generously to make this year's Celebration the biggest and best ever. Thank you so very, very much for all you do.

Finally, a big thanks to our wonderful Charity Volunteers and to our 35 Chairs and Co-Chairs who have laboured tirelessly for many months on a strictly volunteer basis to make this Celebration a delight for one and all. We absolutely could not do this without you.

We look forward to seeing all our guests at Moresby Plain later tomorrow. But PLEASE wear your wristband (no one will be admitted without one — not even me!). And please do take either one of the express buses or the ferries that the Ministry of Tourism has so graciously arranged for the Celebration.

Thank you again to all those who helped make this what we hope will be a Guinness Book of World Records event — and no matter what a great time for one and all.

GREGORY W. SLAYTON

United States Consul General

UBP's asinine reasoning

May 15, 2007

Dear Sir,

In response to the letter, "the UBP built Bermuda", particularly its accusation (yet again) of the PLP's lack of diversity, I have the following observations. I went to Howard University and Hampton University, two black colleges in the states. What struck me first and what I loved about the friends that I made during those years was that aside from skin colour, they all were diverse, different, unique from each other, kids from San Diego talked, dressed and walked differently than friends from Philly who worshipped, partied and saw the world differently than kids from Detroit, and so on and so on.

The bulk of my family is black but my mom's artistic tastes are very different than my aunts — the intellectual leanings of my uncle Gilbert Darrell are very different than those of my cousin Jonathon. My brother David and I happened to travel to the African continent during the same year once, he spent his trip trying to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with the porters, I on the other hand stayed at the trendy "daddy long legs" boutique hotel on the main strip in Cape Town.

The point is, when the UBP touts its diversity, it's a slap in the face to all races, number one because it reduces true diversity to simple skin colour. What? Because my brother and myself are both black we must be the same, we are somehow not as enlightened because there are no white people around? The UBP's reasoning on this issue is asinine.

Second, the UBP are only referring to the black and white races (not Arab, Asian, Latino, etc) so they are not really talking about diversity they're unfortunately exhibiting that old symptom of internalised self hatred (hey look whitey likes/legitimises me)

The truth is that Bermuda is a multiracial island and that we all have to co-exist. What irks me is that as black people we still sometimes and maybe sub-consciously think that we have to be the ones to repent and forgive for the sins of "their" fathers — in terms of the racist history of Bermuda, we didn't do anything wrong — we didn't call in loans as a form of threat, we didn't set up segregation laws, we didn't bar black doctors and nurses from working at the KEMH as late as the 1950s, we didn't tell black Bermudians that they couldn't sit in the cinema with whites; white Bermudians did this, plain and simple.

So why do some of us, the sons and daughters of the oppressed rush to join the party of "yesterday's" oppressor as some sort of act of forgiveness — while the sons and daughter of those oppressors do not rush to join us? Why is the onus on us? Maybe part of the answer is in the battered wife syndrome — when a wife is battered for so long, her dignity becomes so crushed that she perpetually thinks that she did something wrong, something to deserve those beatings; even after years of abuse — the battered wife still feels that it is up to her to take the first steps toward healing — that is not and has never been true — the battered wife isn't the one with the problem — it's her husband who does and it's her husband who needs to seek help and forgiveness. Not the other way around.

VANZ CHAPMAN

Toronto, Ontario

PLP threat to democracy

June 20, 2007

Dear Sir,

I am 17 years old and I can already see the threat of destruction to democracy in Bermuda. I go to school in Canada and must say that it saddens me every time I come back to my Island home to pick up the newspaper and see the road which my Island is going down. I used to speak with pride about my Island with my friends in Canada, but I find it increasingly difficult when I look at the direction which this island is going.

Racism, corruption, and violations of freedom of speech are all I read about when I read about the PLP. The PLP in my opinion is looking more and more like a fascist dictatorship. Just open your eyes and you will see what the government is trying to do that is similar to what a dictatorship would do: trying to control the press, trying to control the Police, cutting ties with the Governor, arresting the Auditor General, pushing for independence, intimidation of opposition and more. These are consistent with the actions taken by most historical examples of dictatorships of the last century.

I think it is obvious that as soon as Bermuda goes independent, the PLP will pull a move similar to the move taken by Adolf Hitler took when he got into power. First the Opposition United Bermuda Party will be thrown in prison as soon as the Government has power over the Police; anyone who the PLP thinks is inferior will be persecuted. Minority groups won't stand a chance. Basically Bermuda will become the newest member of the third world. I am not saying that this is what will happen, but I am saying that it is possible and I would not give the PLP the chance to do it and when I turn 18 and am able to vote, I will return to the Island and do everything in my power to make sure that the PLP does not get that chance. People of Bermuda, when you go to the polls in the next election, you will have two choices, you can choose between a potential PLP dictatorship or democracy and freedom.

For me the choice is obvious, and I am only 17.

BLAIR SMITH

Pembroke

Ugly fact concealed

June 26, 2007

Dear Sir,

Slavery was, and still is the owing of labour and carries with it the care of the labourers. Europeans planned the freeing of slaves not out of concerns for their slaves, but out of their love of money.

The bankers then, who were capital money lenders, decided they could control labour by controlling wages as the bankers of today; so the freeing of the slaves by the UK was not out of concern for the slaves, but to retain slavery through wages which worked out successfully in Bermuda. Therefore black and white slaves in Bermuda were reduced to a condition of serfdom.

While whites in Bermuda may boast of noble deeds, they are careful to conceal the ugly fact that by our iniquitous system the establishment has nationalised a system of oppression which though more refined, is no less cruel than the old system of chattel slavery.

RAMOND RUSSELL

Pembroke<$>

Dr. Brown and 40 Thieves

June 25, 2007

Dear Sir,

Concerning Dr. Ewart Brown's remarks in The Royal Gazette on the 25th June 2007, regarding the 40 Thieves, and his concern about them being reintroduced into Bermuda society, I might add that the 40 Thieves were "Tame" compared to what his regime is doing . . .

ROBERT HENDERSON

City of Hamilton

Some answers please

June 19, 2007

Dear Sir,

With regard to the BHC scandal and the attempt by the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General to prevent publication of the leaked Police reports the following questions need answers:

1. Shouldn't the Police Commissioner's sole concern in this matter be finding out who leaked or stole the reports and bringing such person(s) before the Criminal Courts if an offence has been committed, i.e. fighting crime; rather than getting involved in a Civil Court case that is of no benefit to the taxpayer?

2. Why is the Attorney General spending piles of taxpayer funds trying to prevent the publication of reports into how even bigger piles of taxpayer funds were abused, misused or just plain stolen? Oops, sorry, we have been told that no crime was committed. If the A.G.'s political bosses want to prevent publication then let them pay for it, instead of the poor old taxpayer.

OBSERVER

Warwick