125+ web files in a constantly
updated Gazetteer on Bermuda's accommodation, activities, airlines, apartments,
areas, art, artists, attractions, airport, aviation pioneers, banks, banking,
beaches, Bermuda Status and citizenship, books and publications, British Army,
businesses, calypso, Canadian military, causeway, churches, city of Hamilton,
commerce, community, cruise ships, culture, cuisine, customs, Devonshire Parish,
disability accessibility, districts, Dockyard, economy, education and
universities abroad, employers, employment, entertainment, environment,
executorships and estates, fauna, ferries, flora, food, forts, gardens,
geography, getting around, golf, government, guest houses, history, Hamilton
Parish, homes and housing, hotels, internet access, islands, laws and legal
system, local groups and organizations, location, media, motor vehicle options,
music, municipalities, Paget Parish, parishes, parks, Pembroke Parish, politics,
postage stamps, public holidays, public transport, railway trail, religions,
Royal Navy, Sandy's Parish, St. David's, St. George's Parish, shopping, Smith's
Parish, Somerset, Southampton Parish, Spanish Point, Spittal Pond, sports,
stores, telecommunications, traditions, time zone, town of St. George, United
States armed forces, tourism, vacation planning, villages, vital statistics,
water sports, weather, Warwick Parish, wildlife, work permits, etc. For
tourists, business visitors, employers, employees, newcomers, researchers,
retirees, scholars.

By Keith Archibald Forbes (see About Us) at e-mail exclusively for Bermuda Online
To add your comments to this Guest Book, quote "bermuda-online.org/email.htm" as your Subject.
|
|
Your comments on what you have read in any of the 125+ web files of Bermuda Online or wish to ask about Bermuda or have experienced recently in Bermuda will be welcomed and when appropriate and relevant published. Your feedback is important. We update our information from it, publish it below with the flag of your country (where you live, not where you are nationals, if different), appreciate your comments and show your e-mail by date of receipt. Send comments in plain text please, no html, no attachments - with subject "Bermuda Online Guestbook" - to this author at admin@bermuda-online.org. |
|
|
To show your authenticity please give your personal names (first and last) and at least the name of town or city and zip or postal code, state or province or county, country and your own (not someone else's) home or employment e-mail address (which we won't ordinarily include unless you particularly want us to). We'll be glad to include your comments in our Guest Book entries when you supply this information - sorry, we can't do so otherwise. |
|
Please understand that once published it cannot later be withdrawn. We reserve the right to publish your comments when the requested contact details are submitted unless we deem them to be offensive or known to be incorrect. Under no circumstances can any comments be published anonymously. Please limit your comments to no more than 10 lines unless are they are of significant economic or socio-economic importance to Bermuda. |
|
|
The methodology is not instant e-mail - may take a day or two to post - because we try to ensure the messages are genuine, accurate and avoid allegations or accusations, racial or libelous or slanderous attacks on anyone. Please note that if you were formerly based in Bermuda with the USA or Canadian or British military but have not visited recently, your comments if you have not already made them will be welcomed in our appropriate military files (as an example, see US Military Personnel in Bermuda file, with information on how to post and what information is needed). |
Guest Book years
| Guest Book 2013 and 2012 | Guest Book 2011 and 2010 | Guest Book 2009 and 2008 | Guest Book 2007 | Guest Book 2006 |
| Guest Book 2005 | Guest Book 2004 | Guest Book 2003 | Guest Book 2002 | Guest Book 2001 and earlier |
Comments for this Guest Book
I
have a painting of my two brothers and myself on the beach in front the house
where we lived in Somerset when I was a child. It is signed by F. Kenwood Giles
and dated 1956. I think this artist deserves mention in your list of Bermuda's
Foreign Artists of Yesteryear. The internet only tells of commercial art and
war and tropical disease posters he did (for which he was made a Fellow of the
Royal Geographical Society). When I visited two years ago, I found a short
reference in a book on Bermuda artists in the Bermuda archives which says that
he exhibited with the Society of Artists in 1952 – 1956 and was on their
exhibition selection committee in 1954. It also says he did Howdy Doody cartoons
for the Royal Gazette in the 1950’s, advertising for the Bank of Bermuda, as
well as maps of Hamilton and St. George’s, brochure and magazine covers,
depictions of scenes from Bermuda history, etc. I recently found several of his
paintings listed at $1500 despite the fact that the gallery owners in the USA profess
ignorance of the artist. Susan M Thomas, Charlottesville,
VA 22903, USA, April 26, 2013.
It seems obvious
from the quality of your website that you guys at Bermuda Online
keep your finger on the Bermuda pulse. You seem to have a keen interest in
Bermuda Industrial and other Bermuda union news. So it may be of considerable
local interest to know how one British UK public service union, UNISON - see www.joinunison.org
- makes a point of publicly advertising in certain national newspapers its
charges for union membership. Monthly cost starts at £1.30 sterling for lowest
paid public service employees and rises in stages to the top rate of 22.50
sterling for employees and management staff. Do any of the Bermuda unions
similarly publicly announce their membership dues? If not, shouldn't they? I
recommend it as a valuable exercise in continuing public relations and union transparency.
Bertram H. C. Forbes, Blairgowrie, Scotland PH10 7AW, UK. 15 April 2013.
I email as a resident of
Saxony, Germany, formerly in East Germany. How very nice it was on 7 April 2013
to meet your Bermuda Online's
Editor, Herr Keith Forbes, and his charming wife who were writing a travel
feature about a Viking River Cruises visit from Prague in the Czech Republic via
Dresden, Saxony, to Berlin. They told me and many fascinated others wonderful
things about your islands that we did not know. We were amazed to hear about
Bermuda's part in the Bermuda Triangle; how Bermuda is not in the Caribbean as
we had all thought but 900 miles north of it; and how in the early 1900s or
thereabouts a certain Herr Weiss originally from Saxony but living in Bermuda as
a photographer was getting his postcards of Bermuda printed in Saxony and having
them sold in Bermuda. Mr. Forbes's comments and comprehensive photographs and
writings about Bermuda that he showed us on his laptop on board the Viking
Schumann made us all want to visit the beautiful islands of Bermuda as soon as
possible. Vaclav Schmitt, Dresden, Germany, April 12, 2013.
I
write as a British resident of the Isle of Wight. I'm one of those with
relatives taking part in the Natwest Island Games to be held in Bermuda in late
July. I really like how in your superb Bermuda Online
you have highlighted the Games in both your Calendar and Sports sections and
have provided such detailed information about Bermuda in your many other files
that other web files about Bermuda don't show at all, or to the same extent, yet
are not linked to in the Bermuda Island Games Association (BIGA) website. I hope
they will soon do what the official Island
Games website does, namely link both to you and to your Royal Gazette
newspaper in its "Useful Links" area for the information you not only show now but have shown - and in your
case still show - about Bermuda's past Island Games performances. I'm sure your
daily newspaper will be carrying daily results of the Bermuda Games, to
contribute meaningfully to publicity of deserved winners of events in ways other
websites won't. It just seems wrong that neither your website nor
that of the Royal Gazette, the two most deserving, are yet linked to in the BIGA website. By the way, I
note your website even shows how much your hotels and schools will charge for
accommodation. I see you show that at one hotel, the Southampton Princess, the
price is for two beds, two to a bed, ahem, unusual without further explanation.
Anyway, thanks again. John Williams, Newport, Isle of White, England, United
Kingdom, 26th February 2013.
I
have been looking through your Bermuda Online
website and have found some facts there that worry me at present, and I was
hoping that you could clarify them for me. I am due to take part in the
Island Games in July this year in Bermuda, but I saw on both your site and
another site, the matter of customs and import duty/tax. From what I can gather,
it appears that all visitors to the country are required to pay an import tax on
any items being brought into the country valued at over $100? I will be bringing
with me equipment and sporting equipment to the value of around $12,000 (Bermuda
Dollars). Would I have to pay any form of tax on these items? Don Cowan, Avalon
Web Enterprises, United Kingdom. Dom Cowen, Coventry,
West Midlands, CV1 2FL, England, United
Kingdom, 25 February, 2013.
Any visitor who brings in expensive equipment worth far more than most visitors bring to photograph and record their visit, which may make their goods dutiable or subject to certain conditions re their use in Bermuda should, to avoid any problems that might arise on arrival, make a point of contacting Bermuda Customs with questions. Also, note limits on what visitors and residents can import duty-free, etc and be informed about import duties on other items imported. It is recommended they do so well in advance of their arrival, supply appropriate full information re purpose of the equipment they bring, provide their full contact details and give any sports or other relevant credentials requested. For more information on the Island Games including schools' dormitory pricing and hotels pricing, see our Calendar for July 2013.
As a possible first-time
visitor to Bermuda and follower of your excellent Bermuda Online, I was
dismayed to read of the triple-whammy tourist transportation disadvantages when
arriving at your Bermuda airport. Not being able to rent a car is one serious
disadvantage. Not being able to use public transportation either is a
killer, especially when in all other major tourism resorts in the world you can
easily do this via tourist-friendly luggage-rack equipped buses, hotel airport
limousines and/or trains. And compared to such places abroad, in Bermuda
you can't even yet get a water taxi when your airport is next to the ocean and
likely your hotel is too. All this means you have a very serious problem that
must be addressed if you hope to attract the many times more tourists mentioned
in your new tourism authority plans. You guys in Bermuda need to get major
improvements in buses, courtesy hotel limousines and water taxis in real soon if you want to be seen as
both tourist-friendly and tourism-capable to pump up your tourist numbers from
the stagnant or falling visitors by air you've been experiencing in past years,
especially but not exclusively if you want to see world-wide-media-exposure
events like PGA golf tournaments continue in your jurisdiction. Mike
Carter, Florida 33410, USA, February 7, 2013
You folks at Bermuda Online
seem to be well attuned to goings-on in Bermuda, an island group I'd like to
visit one day, especially with the incentive of my comments being
appropriately addressed. As a regular reader of the UK's Daily Telegraph
newspaper and with friends living in both Bermuda and the Caribbean,
particularly in the case of the latter Barbados and St. Lucia, can I please ask you to publish my request
that Bermuda's Ministry of Tourism go to the same time, expense and trouble of
promoting Bermuda in the principal UK print media as Barbados and St. Lucia do?
In last Saturday's (19th January 2013) Daily Telegraph there was a superb
fact-packed 20-page feature on Barbados as a must-see island and the merits of St. Lucia are also
featured regularly. But nothing of equivalent noteworthy, quote-worthy and
newsworthy travel status ever seems to appear about Bermuda. I understand it's
from January each year that most tourists plan their holidays abroad. Please,
Bermuda, don't be left out by default. John Williams, Cardiff, Wales, 25
January 2013.
Greetings from New Zealand! I
am writing to you at Bermuda Online
to enquire if you know what work my great-grandfather John Joseph Crellin (1850-1937) could possibly have been engaged in from circa May
1902 to May/ Jun 1904 at Hamilton, Bermuda. He was a deep-sea diver from the
Isle of Man in the UK and had previously worked on Northwest breakwater jetties
etc in Colombo, Ceylon in 1890s. A fellow passenger John Rice on board the ship
with my grandfather was a diver, presumably engaged on the same project as J J
Crellin. I have searched your historical timeline webfiles but was unable to
find anything that I thought looked relevant during that period. I look forward
to your reply and any info you can send will be most appreciated. Marsha
Donaldson, 12 Ngarara Road, Waikanae 5036, New Zealand, 24 January 2013.
There are no online or offline civilian employment records available for public inspection in Bermuda. It's (perhaps remotely) possible your g-grandfather might have been employed at that time in Bermuda by Britain's Royal Navy (RN), as it is believed to have been managing or undertaking dredging or surveying of local ships' channels or working on breakwater jetties then. The Royal Navy left Bermuda decades ago and took all its records back to the UK. There might be a reference there. Hope this helps............
I read with
astonishment the Royal Gazette of Bermuda
news item "Why strip our seniors of their
dignity" in which your new Government's commitment to reinstating the
medical clinic for vulnerable patients is a step backwards, according to former
Health Minister Zane DeSilva. Its closure was cited as a mistake by your new
government — and new Health Minister Patricia Gordon Pamplin wasted little
time pledging to make good on frequent vows to open the facility again. Indeed,
it covered all the bases that it should, and served people who needed its
services in an excellent way. It was well placed. Transport was provided for
seniors and the physically challenged, through the Red Cross and other
charities, so they had ways of getting there. Once there, they could be seen by
any of the specialists if they were needed. They had all the testing right there
at the hospital, and a pharmacy there for them. It was comfortable, and going
there was an enjoyable event for many of them. And, of course, you had to be
assessed before you were admitted. It provided free medical attention, free
consultations, free testing and free medication. Because of the clinic’s
location at King Edward VII Memorial, it had everything under the same roof,
with quick and easy access. Transport was right outside the door with the bus
stops 100 yards away for people who didn’t have their own cars. It's just a
universally-unjust shame that for a country as wealthy as Bermuda, with the
World Bank accreditation Bermuda has as the world's most affluent nation,
Bermuda Governments past and present have not yet considered doing what less affluent
nations including the so-called tax havens of Liechtenstein,
Luxembourg, Monaco, etc. have long done and the British Government here in the UK certainly does, namely give
free hospitalization and free medical prescriptions to all seniors and medically
vulnerable. Why doesn't the British Government here in London insist that its
British Overseas Territories do the same! It's monstrous that it doesn't. Margaret
Moore, Fulham Broadway, London SW6 1BG, England, 16 January 2013.
As
a citizen of Great Britain and with a relative working in Bermuda I write to ask
if the National Westminster Bank (NatWest)-sponsored Island Games are still planned
for Bermuda in 2013? And if so, are they still going to be funded by that
bank, which I gather is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Royal Bank of
Scotland (RBS)? If so, while I had no problem with that bank hosting the
Island Games when that bank was privately owned, I just don't think it is right
or fair for a bank which is now majority British Government taxpayer-owned to be still
forking out huge sums for offshore Island Games. Instead, it should be using
those funds to pay off its debt to British taxpayers. David Graham,
Westminster, London SW1, England, January 15, 2013.
Checked and at http://www.investors.rbs.com/equity_statistics it is stated the RBS is 65% UK Government-owned. Also, see ownership of NatWest at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_NatWest.
I've
been reading bermuda-online.org
recently because you have some really useful information on Bermuda that could
be valuable for the vacationers who use FlipKey.com, TripAdvisor's vacation
rental website. I'm reaching out today because I thought of your site when I was
researching travel trends in the Caribbean. We pulled all the travel data we
collect here at FlipKey and put together some interesting statistics about how,
where, and when people travel to the Caribbean.
I would love to share that info with you to use on bermuda-online.org. You
can check out this research here:
http://www.flipkey.com/blog/2012/10/01/travel-trends-a-week-in-the-caribbean/.
If you find that info interesting, please feel free to re-post the full
infographic or cite specific bits of information. Thanks for considering! Claire
Fischer, FlipKey, Boston MA 02110, January 14, 2013.
Replied saying that Bermuda is often confused with the Caribbean but in fact is over 900 miles north of it, with no airlines or ships flying regular services between Bermuda and the Caribbean.
I'm
a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. I'm trying to
get more information about a
1758 land granting episode sponsored by Governor William Popple that effectively
turned St. David's public land into privately held shares. Would you know
where I can get more information about this, such as: Which families lived there
at the time? Who bought up the shares in 1958? Any
information you can provide, or direction you can point me would be very
helpful. Jill Gaieski, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104. January
14, 2013, USA.
Referred Ms Gaieski to St. David's Historical Society as they may be able to help with this enquiry.
I’m
a reporter for the Wall Street Journal at WSJ.com. I’m looking at the five
best/easiest places to benefit from low taxes and to get citizenship. It’s a
story on the back of Gerard Depardieu’s defection from France to Russia and
the hike in taxes for Americans earning over $400,000. I picked Bermuda as
one place, as it has no income tax, but I’m trying to give U.S. readers an
idea of how they might apply for citizenship, and what the requirements are.
Could you help? Quentin Fottrell, Consumer
Reporter, MarketWatch.com, Wall Street Journal Digital Network, New
York, NY, January 7, 2013.
Referred Mr Fottrell to Citizenship in Bermuda at http://www.bermuda-online.org/citizenship.htm. Please note you can't buy or otherwise quickly obtain citizenship in Bermuda as Monsieur Depardieu did in Russia, you need (a) to have been a law-abiding resident for a minimum period of 10 years and (b) to be married to and living with a Bermudian. Other factors apply uniquely in Bermuda, as the captioned website mentions.
I
write to say I liked how Bermuda's Royal Gazette daily newspaper commented about
Bermuda's depressed economy in http://www.royalgazette.com/
Congratulations, Bermuda
Online, on your both constant and constantly updated,
comprehensive files on a vast array of matters relating to Bermuda. I'm
especially glad you make a point of featuring Bermuda's unique cave system in
your Hamilton Parish files. Thanks to that file I became aware of them and
passed that information on to my friends and business colleagues who are also
cavers. I recommend
Your Department of Tourism link to your files as they do what Tourism's files do
not, namely show unique aspects of Bermuda. I was so sure, when today I found
Yahoo's Ten Best Places in the World to Explore Underground - see http://travel.yahoo.com/ideas/10-best-places-to-explore-the-underworld.html?page=all
- that Bermuda's Caves would be included. They certainly should have been. Yves
Lambert, Montmartre, Paris, France, 28th October, 2012.
I
have just seen and read your most excellent article
about the dockyard and wonder if you know of any records that might provide
further details of my family. I am engaged in compiling an extended family
tree of my Bermudian roots and bought home with me a copy of Halletts book of
births, deaths and marriages as a starting point. Things I would like to know
about include the deaths that occurred in and around the dockyard. I have at
least 3 relatives who were shipwrights and simply disappeared from Bermuda
records. I can now trace a direct line from my first ancestor on the island to
my parents. All were involved in the dockyard from the first, Richard Parker a
stonemason from London, through James William Parker a writer in the steam
factory. John Andrew Feild, who married his daughter Constance Gertrude, was a
blacksmith from Wales; Albert Longhurst Blackmore married their daughter MIldred
Ellen Feild and was a shipwright also from Wales, and he ended up running the
floating dock; finally my father (Leslie Harold Blackman)who came from England
after the war storing ammunition and met my mother Elizabeth Constance Blackmore
who worked as a clerk in the northern storeroom next to the clocktower. I saw my
great great grandfather's grave in the Royal Navy cemetery (James William
Parker) and also that of his young sister Eliza Ann who died age 12 in 1856.
Finally I saw my mum's house, 4 Victoria Row. My mother and father married in
June 1950 and left Bermuda 2 months later. My mum's sister, mother, father and
grandmother, Megan Dawn Blackmore, Albert & Mildred Balckmore &
Constance Gertrude Feild, left later in 1950 as the dockyard closed. I have
visited the dockyard and trod in my ancestor's footsteps and I remain fascinated
by the intertwined nature of my family history and that of the dockyard. Are
there any personnel records showing where people worked in more detail and what
they did. James William Parker for instance was a writer in the steam factory. I
assume this means he was a clerk but what did a clerk in the steam factory do?
This was his sole employment for 30 years so there must have been something to
keep him occupied! I have managed to expand my Bermuda family tree quite widely
and it will not be long before I have exhausted Halletts and will have to move
on to the records held by the Registry General. BTW I spent a day in the
Archives plus a day in the RG during my visit. My aim is to gather enough
information to create a book showing my family history. It will not be a
conventional text based book; instead I want to have a timeline running along
the bottom of each page with notations of world history, dockyard history and my
family history so it can be seen how they are linked. I would be very grateful
if you can point me towards any further records that will help me in my quest or
indeed if you have any information you would be willing to share with me. Peter
Blackman, London, England, 19th October 2012.
Replied to the email above, saying that when the British Army and Royal Navy at the Bermuda Dockyard left Bermuda in the 1950s (except for a token presence until later in the case of the RN) they took most if not all their civilian and military personnel records re their once-active and subsequently de-activated Bermuda military bases with them back to the UK. Only (a) Bermudian and (b) locally-employed apprentices with got some personnel records. British Army and RN military and civilian personnel units then stationed in Bermuda were at designated sovereign military bases areas outside of local government and reported directly via their COs to the UK and were not in any way (except for contravention of local laws for speeding and other minor legal infringements) recorded by Bermuda's local civilian government. This may explain why certain sought-after information never appeared in local (i.e. civilian) records. In the UK, It may necessitate a search of British Army or RN records at Kew in London. It is not known if there is a particular place or office in the MOD or Kew that handles any records from the British Army units once stationed in Bermuda or the Bermuda Dockyard.
I
was wondering if you could direct me to a person or organization that might have
records for the Royal Naval Cemetery in Sandys Parish. My
great-great-grandparents James Bone and Ellen (Miller) Lutman (military records
consistently referred to them as 'Luffman') were based on Boaz Island in
November 1871, with the 69th Regiment of Foot and according to a record they
kept in their family register their second child was born on Boaz and died aged
¾ of an hour. I presume they would have buried their child at the Royal Naval
Cemetery. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Greg Stott, PhD, Faculty of
Arts and Science, University College of the North,Thompson, Manitoba R8N 0A5,
Canada, 11th October 2012.
Replied saying it would have been unusual for a Royal Navy Bermuda grave to have been used for a British Army dependant, referred the writer to the Bermuda National Trust as it looks after British Army in Bermuda graves.
By
way of introduction, my name is John Cook. I served in the U.S. Air Force Force
for 22 years, including four years at Kindley
Field (1956 – 1960). My wife of 54 years (who passed away late last
year) was the daughter of E.T. Sayer, long time editor of the RG and General
Manager of the Bermuda Press. Though I haven’t been to Bermuda since before
9/11, I still am interested in the Islands, especially historical artifacts,
photos and collectables. Of late, I have been assembling a collection of airline
badges, buttons and wing of the airlines that once served, or are still serving
Bermuda. Did United serve Bermuda before it’s merger with Continental in 2010?
Any help would be appreciated. John W. Cook, PO Box 288, Rose Kill, KS
67133-0288. September 27, 2012.
I was totally shocked to hear
on the British television stations that an Italian gossip magazine owned by
former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi (who I understand from a reliable
source owns a luxurious home in Bermuda) published a 26-page spread of topless photos of
Prince William's wife Kate today despite legal action in France against the
French magazine that published them first. I understand Chi hit newsstands on
Monday, featuring a montage of photos taken while the Duke and Duchess of
Cambridge were on vacation at a relative's home in the south of France last
month. They included the 14 pictures published by the popular French magazine
Closer, which like Chi is owned by Berlusconi's Mondadori publishing house. But
the Chi spread ran the whole sequence of photos as the couple sunbathed on a
terrace. I'm glad the Royal couple is hitting back hard
against the publication of the images, which William's St. James's Palace called
a "grotesque" invasion of their privacy. Later today, lawyers for the
royal couple went to court in Nanterre, France, to seek an injunction against
Mondadori to prevent further dissemination of the images, which were also
reproduced over the weekend by an Irish tabloid. The palace said it would seek
damages from Mondadori. I believe the Bermuda Government of the British Overseas
Territory of Bermuda should also take immediate action against Berlusconi. They
should declare him as no longer welcome in Bermuda. He should be booted out for allowing
those pictures to be published in his magazine. And who of us who are royalists
would ever now want to go to France or Italy or the republic of Ireland after
their insults to our Royal Family. BTW, please show a Union flag, not a
Scottish one one if you publish this email. Bertram Forbes, Perth and Kinross,
Scotland, United Kingdom, 17th September
2012.
I
write to express my sincere thanks to you at Bermuda
Online for the forthright, honest and comprehensive summary of Bermuda's
Disability and Physically Handicapped conditions. They told me what I
needed to know when, as a severely handicapped wheelchair bound cruise ship
visitor, I went to Bermuda recently via the USA. Thanks to your good advice I
avoided having to take a super-expensive private taxi van as my only option and
was able, using the wheelchair accessible ferryboats to and from Hamilton,
Dockyard and St. George's, to see a fair bit of your island. Much appreciated! David
M. Black, Toronto, Canada, September 12, 2012.
I was shocked and appalled to
read in the Canadian press of how a Canadian family who had spent over eighteen
continuous years as unblemished Bermuda residents and whose daughter was born in
Bermuda were unable to obtain Bermuda citizenship. In Canada, well within five
years of obtaining permanent residence, which you need to live and work in
Canada, you can apply for and get citizenship. I firmly believe that those of us
who are Canadians or Canadiennes or Canadians-in-waiting should by all
means spend our hard-earned dollars in foreign places where we are
welcomed as tourists or visitors and newcomers then citizens within say five
years. But we should not go at all as tourists or visitors or as professionally
or casually employed persons to those places such as Bermuda that refuse to let
us become citizens and vote, even with 18 years of law-abiding residence. Emily
Etienne, Montreal, Canada, September 12, 2012.
Note: See the citizenship laws in Canada at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/become-eligibility.asp#status.
A
relative worked in Dockyard in the late 20's I believe in the victualling yard.
He was there with his wife and four children. Following the death of his wife
Daisy Fitzgerald on 4th December 1929 he returned with his children to
England/Gibraltar and remained in the Admiralty until the late 50's. I have
found online an image of Daisy's headstone in the Royal Dockyard Cemetery. I
would like to obtain a copy of her death certificate. Could you offer any
guidance on from where to request this? I have been unsuccessful using the usual
search engines. I am visiting Bermuda in early October and would wish to pay my
respects and visit any other relevant locations while I am there. Thank you for
any assistance you are able to offer. Peter Kent, Kent, south east England,
UK, September 6th, 2012.
Suggested to Mr Kent that before his Bermuda visit he locate the Bermuda Government's Registrar General on the government's website http://www.gov.bm. Email to ask if it can issue him with a death certificate and if so how much will it cost and can he go there to collect it? This should be obtainable if (a) his relative's wife died in Bermuda and (b) his relative and his wife were civilians, not serving members or a dependent spouse of a Royal Navy member. If the latter, he may have to go via the Royal Navy, MOD, UK, which left Bermuda decades ago with all its records.
My
name is Priscilla and I work for Global LT, a language training company. Our
company provides expatriates and their families with foreign language and
English as a second language instruction around the world. I found your Bermuda
Online
information on Google and I hope
you do not mind that I'm contacting you. We are currently looking for an English
Second Language tutor in Paget, Bermuda and I was wondering if you would know a
professional that would be interested. Our client and her daughter would like
lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10-11am and 7-8pm, respectively. So if you
know anyone who might be, I would greatly appreciate the referral. We often
employ graduate assistants, teaching assistants and instructors seeking to
supplement their current income. Please feel free to let me know if you have any
questions. Thank you so much for your time and consideration! Priscilla
Gambino, Woodslee Drive Troy, MI, USA, August 28, 2012.
Referred Ms Gambino to Ministry of Education and Bermuda College in hope they might help.
How
nice it is, via a relative working there on contract, to read via your
oh-so-informative and proactive Bermuda
Online that your government has not allowed your monopoly
Bermuda electricity supplier to raise prices arbitrarily and unfairly.
I wish we had the same calibre of government here in the UK where there is no
such compassion for our people already hit by massive recent household energy
prices. Our government should take lessons from your Bermuda Government.
Consumer groups here in the UK have reacted with fury after a nationwide
energy firm confirmed plans to once again - after huge increases in 2011 - raise
its gas and electricity bills by an average of 9% from October 15. SSE said the
9% rises would add the equivalent of $13 a month on to the typical monthly
billing done by direct debit. Last winter, over eight in 10 households rationed
their energy use because of cost - a round of British price hikes this winter
will condemn many more to this misery too due to our rip-off British Government
and its indifference to the plight of so many people, especially those on low or
fixed incomes. I'll gladly recommend your Premier who is also your Minister of
Finance exchange posts with our Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer.
I bet the latter two would not last a day in Bermuda. Elizabeth Mills,
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL52, England, 22 August 2012.

Your Bermuda
Online
prompted me to write this about
my memories of Bermuda. Momma was born and raised by a large Portuguese
family who were almost completely wiped out by the TB epidemic. Daddy was a
marine marooned on Bermuda so his ship could be repaired. They met in a small
perfume shop downtown. If only we could have stayed on those pearly pink shores.
If only the turquoise waters could have been our salve for all the losses and
hurts that came later. If only I'd married my childhood sweetheart from Dellwood
School. If only we hadn't left for the bigger so-called greener fields of North
America. In my dreams I fly over the beaches. I walk in the lilies and eat
Bermuda cherries. My old man worked for ZBM when Quinton Edness was there. My
dad was known as Uncle Dave and worked as a DJ on Radio and hosted a children's
program on TV. I got my start in the singing world on his show and in the cedar
scented Evangelical Church in Paget. We lived on Dudley Hill and my days were
soft and filled with perfumes of mint and fennel. God, how I miss those hills
and white roofs. I've had an interesting ride in my life. But in my darkest
hours I have wandered in my virtual life down the narrow roads of walls and
hibiscus wishing I could have two lives at once. I would have loved to have
stayed in the arms of my family of Onions. Debra Kaye, Seattle, Washington,
USA, August 14, 2012.
I found your name while
researching Bermuda stamp issues on your Bermuda
Online website. I realize that you make no claim of being a
stamp dealer or expert, however the information on the history of Bermuda
Philately on your web site certainly makes you someone that I need to at the
very least contact in my quest. I am writing in hopes of your possible
assistance. I have a customer who is seeking a Mint Never Hinged Block of 4,
pristine condition, Bermuda issue Scott number 109. This is the yacht "Lucie"
issue, brown black & turquoise blue. This is proving to be an exceptionally
difficult item to find. With your knowledge of Bermuda philatelic issues I am
hoping that you may possibly know of someone who can direct me to such an item.
I am a motivated buyer. I will appreciate any assistance you may be able to
offer. David M. Chamberlain, Owner, Midwest Philatelic, Marshall,
Michigan, USA, August 14, 2012.
I write to express a particular hope for the new
Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda (CURB) website.
It was my clear understanding that the legislated mandate of the entity was to promote
equal opportunity and good relations between persons of different racial groups
and to work towards the elimination of racial discrimination and
institutionalized racial discrimination. I hope it will note that you at
Bermuda
Online (BOL) via your very detailed history files and
elsewhere have consistently taken a non-racial line and done probably more than any
other Bermuda website to help observe and promote equal opportunity and good relations between
persons of different racial groups in Bermuda. Well done, keep up the excellent
work! I hope CURB will want to provide a link to you on its website, to do
its bit to promote fairness and racial harmony. I'm
sure that if it does so you will reciprocate. John Walters, Wood Green, London
N22,
August 1, 2012
I
write as the mother of a daughter who had been planning to get married in
Bermuda, so nicely covered by your comprehensive Bermuda
Online website. But both she and her husband-to-be
are concerned over what has been happening in Bermuda re the possibility of
same-sex marriages. A friend from Bermuda has been forwarding me your Royal
Gazette daily newspaper stories and their email threads. I'm totally
appalled by some of their comments; how some are allowed to get away with
pseudonyms instead of real names; and how, when others who use their real
names make sensible points, they get ridiculed. My own attitude, which I know is
shared by my husband, is that we had favored Bermuda as a wedding destination
for our daughter and would have recommended Bermuda as a wedding destination for
our friends and business associates for their daughters, for one very
simple but important reason. It is because it has long been the only place
within reasonable distance where local laws sensibly, rationally and with good
taste require a man to marry a women and a women to marry a man. I gather
there's been considerable controversy in Bermuda, with homosexuals and lesbians
bleating they should be allowed to get "married" to follow-homosexuals
or fellow-lesbians to have "equality" under your laws and some
legislators supporting them. My faith believes in equality under the law when it
involves both a man and a women. By what twisted imagination can it now be
perceived that instead of a man and a women being deemed to be equal under the
law to be eligible for marriage, equality now means two men or two women? In my
view they should not even qualify for a civil partnership, only an uncivil one.
I believe with all my heart and soul that marriages should always be only
between a man and a women and that civil partnerships, which are not marriages
and never should be and I believe are many, should be only between men and
women. If Bermuda wants to take the same route of places where sham
"marriages" and uncivil partnerships apply, then I believe
you'll lose a lot of future tourism business, including mine. So please don't,
please maintain your high standards. Tracy Andrews, Buffalo, NY, 14201, USA.
July 15, 2012.
Greetings,
Bermuda
Online (BOL)! I am
the author of more than 30 books on ghosts and haunted places in the NE United
States, a morning radio announcer on station WEEU in Reading, Pa., and also
a travel writer for the Reading Eagle newspaper in Reading. I will be escorting
40 folks from my area on a Royal Caribbean cruise in late August. I am hoping to
guide some of them to any haunted places that may be accessible to the public.
Do you have any leads? I have read John Cox's and Terry Tucker's books on the
paranormal in Bermuda, but can use all the help I can get. I'd love to write
about our experiences in my travel column sometime around Halloween. Thanks in
advance for any help you can provide. Charles J. Adams III, Reading, PA USA,
July 13, 2012.
First
of all, please know what an incredible resource your Bermuda
Online (BOL)
website is - I refer to it frequently. What an amazing amount of work you've put
into it. We are in the process of trying to make sure that information regarding
St Peter's on various websites is correct and up-to-date. I wonder if you would
be able to add an update to your article on St Peter's? 1. Correct Heading:
"St Peter's, Their Majesties Chappell. " 2. In 2012, its 400th
anniversary year, Queen Elizabeth II honoured St Peter's with the title: 'Their
Majesties Chappell', a term first used in the late 1600's during the reign of
King William and Queen Mary. 3. If possible, could you replace the existing
photo of the church interior with the attached? Thank you and I look forward to
hearing from you. Linell Greet, Parish Administrator, St Peter's, Their
Majesties Chappell, St George's, Bermuda, July 13, 2012.
Happy to have complied immediately with and responded swiftly to this request re http://www.bermuda-online.org/seetown2.htm.
Sincerest
thanks and congratulations to you folks at Bermuda
Online (BOL) for your clear, concise, detailed, logical and well-presented
piece on Links and Mentions
and how they fit into your methodology. Also, I like your comments on
things not Bermudan but Bermudian (thanks also for that correction). As a
Floridian myself, I particularly understand your comment that only
non-Bermudians refer to Bermudians as Bermudans. I'm sure Canadians feel miffed
when ignoramuses refer to them as Canadans not Canadians. Shame on you, Webster's,
Oxford University Press, Encyclopedia Britannica (EB) and others for being so
ignorant. Speaking of EB I note much of the information about Bermuda is way out
of date, pity they don't rely on you. For example, EB states your City of
Hamilton is a free port but surely not based on prices business associates and
friends of mine found when there recently and confirmed by your piece about how
Customs Duties, which reflect in all Bermuda retail prices, are the major form
of Bermuda Government revenue (as demonstrated rather shockingly by how your
residents, who traveled on the same flight to Bermuda as my friends, had to pay
up on arrival in Bermuda for items that in the USA are routinely duty-free).
It's my understanding free ports are duty-free places and attract tourists en
masse for their low retail prices. Given that Bermuda is revising its tourism
policies and trying to revive and rev up its tourism industry, it would seem
logical for Hamilton to become at last a true duty-free port. It would help to
lower the hugely higher cost of a Bermuda business visit or vacation when
compared to anywhere in the Caribbean. Jose Gonzalez, Clearwater, Florida
33756,
June 30, 2012.
I am writing a book about the
1944 captivity of the U-505 crew, from their capture off West Africa, their
internment in Bermuda as prisoners-of-war, then their relocation to the USA and
post-war return to Germany. I live a few miles from Camp Ruston, Louisiana, where the crew was held after departing
Bermuda. Your Bermuda
Online website has been extremely helpful in determining where the
crew and the U-boat were kept in Bermuda. The multiple American bases had me confused until I found your site.
Do you know if any photographs exist of the Naval Operating Base (Annex)
dispensary where Captain Lange was treated or the stockade where the crew was interned? I'm also looking for anyone who might can describe
these facilities to me, or if either is still standing. Thank you for any help or suggestions you can provide.
Wesley Harris, Ruston, LA 71273-0030, June 24, 2012.
Replied saying "Regret don't know if any photographs exist of the NOB's dispensary or stockade. If any exist they would not be in civilian Bermuda but might be in the archives of the US Navy in USA. When it left Bermuda in 1995 it took all its military Bermuda-related records with it. Those facilities were available only to qualified US staff who most likely all returned to the USA after their Bermuda visit or posting."
To
supplement those of the Scottish lady from Fife I'd like to add my own comments
about Her Majesty the Queen to your always-informative and proactive Bermuda
Online website. I too have a relative living and working in Bermuda with
whom I keep in close touch. He refers me to your website. With the Queen having
now served for 60 years and still carrying on wonderfully serving your country,
mine and many others despite her advanced age of the late 80s, why is it that
her civil servants including the Police are allowed to retire on fat government
pensions and golden handshakes when in their late 50s? I'm one of those who
believes firmly that especially now in these lean times economically for most of
us in any British or British Commonwealth or British Overseas territory it
should be mandated that occupational contributory and non-contributory
government and private sector pensions should not start until they are at least
68 years old, not far younger. And that, again in deference to Her Majesty, God
Bless her, all domestic properties in the UK, as the Fife lady has implied,
should be re-rated by their local authorities and taxed at a national, not
provincial, level based on their re-assessed market value fairly proportionate
to the current market value of Buckingham Palace. One way of doing this would be
to raise the number of tax bands significantly. Elsbeth Gibson, Edinburgh,
Scotland EH28 8AU, 3 June 2012.
I
write as a Scot with
a nephew working in Bermuda, hence my interest in your Island and your website
as the most informative by far on Bermuda according to my nephew. I'm not
an anti-royalist by any means, just a tax-paying realist. As a
Scottish taxpayer, I wish folks in Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland,
British Overseas Territories like Bermuda and British Commonwealth of Nations
countries like Australia, Canada, etc. and royalist adherents in America would
know how over-taxed British-UK taxpayers are in Council
Taxes or US-style property or real estate taxes compared to the Queen. Where I
live, in a modest 3 small bedroom bungalow on 0.25 of an acre with a present
market value of about £179,000 (about Bermuda $250,000) I pay as more in annual Band
E 2012-2013 Council Tax (UK property tax) than higher-banded Buckingham Palace, London, the
Queen's official London residence estimated to be worth £935 million, with 775
rooms, including 19 State rooms, 52 Royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff
bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms, a cinema, swimming pool, on 40 acres of
land. It's just not right that I, with so little compared to the Queen,
should pay more in annual tax on my house than the Queen does on hers. You're
most welcome to check my figures if you wish. I'm told your Bermuda system of calculating
your property taxes are much fairer, are updated more frequently and are much more democratic than
ours (last updated in 1991 but still grossly unfair). My sister who
lives in Connecticut, USA, pays only a fraction of the property tax of that
state's most expensive home, which is how it should be but not in the UK where
autocracy not democracy still rules despite the lessons of 1776. Sarah Jones, Cupar, Fife,
Scotland KY15 UK, 30 May, 2012.
It was appropriate to check, before publishing this astonishing email. The Queen is not involved in setting real estate tax rates, her government is. But in other ways this writer is correct. According to its last (1991) tax valuation, Buckingham Palace is in Band H, which covers all properties valued at £320,000 or more, in Westminster City Council in London, where Buckingham Place is located. Thus the Queen's annual real estate tax for the palace with all its opulence is less than for a small Band E 3-bedoom house in Cupar. Council Taxes in the UK vary so hugely by local authority jurisdiction that many affluent homeowners such as the Queen actually pay less than or the same in land/property taxes as homeowners whose properties are valued at far less.
I
really like how you guys at Bermuda Online have such a comprehensive website on
each one of Bermuda's parishes. As a long-time frequent visitor to
Bermuda and with Paget Parish one of my favorite places to stay there, your
write-up on Paget is easily the finest and most comprehensive of any Bermuda
website. You mention aspects of Paget other websites don't cover, clearly from
the point of view of a Paget insider. You even mentioned Elba Beach, where my
grandparents and parents used to swim in the 1950s long before that beach became
fashionable as a Bermuda College facility and later a Bermuda Government-owned
hotel. With the sheer quality of your Paget website I hope the folks at the
Bermuda Government-appointed Paget Parish Council have asked if they can link to
your site because of the information you show that its own website does not. James
D. Egan, Brooklyn, New York 11208, USA, May 17, 2012
I
write to thank you unreservedly for your very practical and sensible Links
and Mentions web file and policy relating to them. I've long thought
there's no point at all in linking to and/or mentioning any entity that won't
reciprocate the link and mention unless for strong strategic reasons and you've
kindly reinforced my opinion. Thank you for making it clear that if
entities want to show their message on your website they should either agree to
reciprocate the link or be prepared to pay for it in the manner you indicate if
they don't wish to link. I'm going to follow that methodology on my own website.
I'm also very grateful to you for being the only Bermuda website to state, to
help American, British and Canadian visitors who will be in Bermuda during the
2012 Olympic Games - as I will - and want to cheer on the athletes from their
home countries, what Olympic websites they should use. Great stuff! Thomas M Malloy,
South Attleboro, MA, 02703, USA, May 13, 2012.
In
your excellent Bermuda
Online you noted that "since
September 2011 Publicasity - see www.publicasity.co.uk
- vowed to come up with innovative ways to encourage Brits to fall in love with
Bermuda. It was selected to carry out a massive marketing blitz in a bid to lure
more tourists to Bermuda from the UK. The company, based in Covent Garden,
London, selected a ‘Bermuda Team’ of staff to draw up its marketing
campaign. Staff are said to dedicated to reawaken Britain’s love affair
with Bermuda. The company aims to showcase the Island as never seen before
through print, broadcast and digital mediums. They want to make sure Bermuda is
read and talked about, watched, listened to and engaged with in all of the right
places. The aim is to boost arrival numbers and length of stay of visitors
stay by specifically targeting the urbane over-35 traveler market. Rooster Inc
previously represented Bermuda for four years and it is understood they bid for
the contract again. From April to June 3011 there were just 6,371 visitors from
the UK compared to 61,232 visitors from the US. But Publicasity believes Bermuda
offers “an unparalleled island experience” because of its secluded location,
pink beaches and quaint ports. Publicasity also handles the UK publicity for
Orlando and South Africa, plus Bacardi, Heinz, Kia Motors, McVitie’s, Jack
Daniel’s. With Bermuda considering whether to legalize gambling, the company
also has Grosvenor Casinos as one of its clients." While Orlando and
South Africa are clearly shown as Clients on its website, Bermuda is, sadly,
omitted. I find this a
deplorable omission from a company that has publicly stated its Bermuda
ambitions and efforts. If indeed it includes Bermuda as a client then can it
please earn its money by being
active on Bermuda's behalf with appropriate publicity including, surely, taking
the time and trouble to ensure all its clients are included on its website. J. H. Mackay, Palmer's Green, London N14, England, 28th
April 2012.
As
a UK pensioner who has been hoping to go to Bermuda soon to see English
expatriate relatives living and working there, I'm intrigued and concerned by
your reports in your Senior
Citizens of Bermuda sub-sites and those in recent articles of your Royal
Gazette newspaper on the plight of the elderly generally in Bermuda. I
note there is an Age Concern in Bermuda. I'm distressed to see it does not
appear to be doing anything similar to what Age UK - formerly Age Concern and
Help the Aged - is doing to counter age-related pain by insurers and your government.
I'm one of those who welcomes Age UK's campaign to put a stop to UK insurers
discriminating against older drivers being forced to pay sky-high motor
insurance premiums. Age UK believes that insurers should judge drivers on
ability not age and should offer drivers in later life appropriate motor
insurance products. I was appalled to hear from my Bermuda-based relatives that
65-year old people, even with a maximum 75% no claims bonus have to pay so much
for their motor insurance. I'm also advised that only in Bermuda do drivers over
65 have to get re-licensed for a maximum of three-years at a time subject to a
satisfactory medical and eye sight test. In comparison, in the UK this does not
happen until a pensioner is over 70. I understand pretty much the same
policy applies in the USA and Canada. I believe Age Concern Bermuda should be
pressing your government to remove the over 65 restriction and replace it with
the over 70 methodology. Also, with the UK, all of Europe, Canada and USA via
Medicaid now offering substantial concessions to the elderly in either
free or nearly-free prescriptions, medical and health services, why is Bermuda
so mean to its seniors? Age Concern Bermuda, if it really does have Bermuda's
seniors' welfare in mind, should be advocating vigorously that there's no way many
of your nationals can afford the Bermuda Government's hideously expensive
FutureCare and that Bermuda should instead copy what the elderly but not very
affluent get, free, in
prescriptions and other healthcare services from their governments in the UK, Holland, Norway, Denmark,
Luxembourg, Monaco, Canada, etc. Free healthcare services are are largely
considered a universal right in Europe. They so hugely more important,
impactive, significant, less stressful and contribute far more to a better
quality of later life than the scant considerations given in Bermuda to citizens
in free annual registration of cars and free annual property tax
that only car owners and some pensioners who own their own homes in Bermuda get.
I know Age UK and my friends in the USA who are members of the AARP agree. Jean Smith, Lyme Regis, Dorset DT7, UK.
3rd April 2012.
In
your excellent Bermuda
Online and particularly in your remarkable and
grandly-titled Royal Gazette daily newspaper, there has been a fascinating focus
on Bermuda hotels and alarm as to why Bermuda's hotel bed count has fallen so
significantly compared to two decades ago. As a retired former hotelier -
and former Bermuda visitor - I believe I am qualified to offer some relevant
views, which I hope you'll publish, on why there is likely to be some serious
reluctance, under present circumstances particularly, for foreign investors to
finance and build any new hotels. I personally will be very surprised if that
much-hoped-for new hotel in St. George's and one in your city of Hamilton will
ever get built under Bermuda's presently not-very-hospitable conditions.
Unfortunately, the Marriott experience, as told all over the USA, made an
enormous negative impact. But if conditions and restrictions can be loosened; if
future new hotel sites in Bermuda can be purchased and not just leased on land
belonging to your government; if long-term work permits can be given to imported
staff; if the horrendous cost of building a hotel in Bermuda - said to be in the
vicinity of a million bucks a room - can be lessened with economies of scale and
freedom from huge customs duties granted new hoteliers; if local employees can
be had for minimum wages and not the $60,000 a year average paid to Bermuda
Industrial Union workers; and if the overall new hotel outlook is ever made to
be as welcoming in Bermuda and as well financially-supported by your government
and others, then, yes, the outlook could be considerably brighter for new
hotel prospects. Let's hope this will be the case. Peter M. McMahon, Boston,
MA 02101, USA, March 21, 2012.
Your
Bermuda
Online website clearly has quite a following here in Edinburgh! Everyone I
know quotes from it as the definitive guide to Bermuda! I
write as one of a trio of close friends from Scotland, all of us retired but
still active sports women, interested in renting a cottage for a month in Bermuda in August this year,
to be well away from the madding crowds expected to pour in to England for the
London 2012 Olympics, and to see some close friends from the USA whom we know
will be visiting Bermuda then by cruise ship. To avoid the rapacious new Air Passenger Duty (APD) hike
imposed by our rip-off UK government we will be flying from the UK to Amsterdam
to New York, then New York to Bermuda three days later and returning the same
way instead of using that crowded British Airways from and to Gatwick. As Silver
Surfers we particularly want to be able to follow the Olympic action and
results from Bermuda. We've paid close attention to your encyclopedic website, have read and printed
out or linked to much of Bermuda of prime interest to us. Ideally, we'd like to
find a cottage, not a flat (I think you call them apartments?) in a scenic area
out of your city and town areas but not too far from where cruise ships berth
(to help our friends from America who will arriving from New York by cruise
ship). We'd like to stay at a nice two or three bedroom 2 bathroom cottage equipped
with free WIFI if we can rent for a month for under £2,300 sterling a month,
payable by telegraphic transfer or credit card. By the way it's a huge point in your website's favour that
you've listed precisely by website URLs in your Bermuda Accommodation files how visitors from UK or USA or Canada who bring their own laptops
or netbooks (as we will) can log on from their WIFI-equipped Bermuda holiday
location directly to their country's Olympic sites. Well done! Elizabeth
Grant, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, 10 March, 2011.
As
a retired newspaper executive and with a relative working in Bermuda, I've been
fascinated by apparent differences in press standards and behaviour in the UK
including Scotland and Bermuda, with particular regard to the Leveson
Inquiry - see http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/
- still going on in London. There have clearly been some major press abuses here
in the UK, most noticeably in phone hacking, while in Bermuda your press appear
to have acted constantly conscious of both responsibility and accountability.
I've read Bermuda's Media Code with great interest. But I'm puzzled by some
references and possible omissions, for example with reference to press treatment
of Bermuda government ministers, members of parliament and civil servants. Here
in the UK, when MPs and cabinet ministers break the law such as when speeding or
being ticketed for other traffic offenses or in misuse of public funds,
newspaper headlines trumpet this. But I've been told that in Bermuda newspapers
never report them. Is this because your MPs never break the law and if so should
be commended for their exemplary conduct especially when compared to ours here
in the UK? Or, lest it risk the displeasure of MPs and others, is it simply not
recorded and reported under the terms of your very generous to MPs and civil
servants Media Code? Oh, and one other thing about Bermuda intrigues me greatly.
I've learnt that when his referendum for possible political independence for
Bermuda from the UK failed, your then-Premier, Sir John Swan, whom I'm told was
Bermuda's best Premier by far, did the honourable thing and promptly resigned. I
just hope that Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmon MSP, if his planned
referendum for Scottish independence fails, will be as honourable as Sir John
was and will resign as well, to end the Salmondella-created divisiveness. James McPherson, Glasgow
G3 6BY, Scotland, UK. 27
February 2012.
What
a treasure-trove of 50 year-old information in the Kindley
AFB and US Navy sections of your Bermuda
Online
website! Who
would have thought such a specific and narrow data base would be captured on the
internet? - US military personnel based in Bermuda from the 1940s to the 1990s!
My father, also Joseph J. Narciso, served there in the 55th Air Rescue Squadron
from April 1960 to June 1962. We lived on St. George, across the harbor from
Kindley, where for years there was a large rusty old shipwreck right off the
dock behind our home on Cut Road. I am the oldest of his six children and was
aged 10-12 while there, yet my memories are still quite vivid - a visit by
President Kennedy; walking to Stella Maris Catholic Church to serve early Mass
under Fr. Vallimont; receiving the New York Daily News every day - but always a
day late - to follow baseball and the Roger Maris & Mickey Mantle pursuits
of Babe Ruth's home run record in 1961; seeing the Ocean Monarch and Queen of
Bermuda spill tourists onto St. George; watching construction of the
uniquely-shaped and -positioned Sonesta Beach Hotel on Southampton's South
Shore; taking visiting relatives from the US on a one-day taxi tour of the
islands (Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, Somerset Bridge, Devil's Hole, Fort St.
Catherine, etc.). Thank you. Joseph J. Narciso, Atlanta, Georgia, USA,
January 21, 2012.
A
bunch of us from various parts of the USA are friends and committed NBC-watchers
and sports fans. We are planning a trip to Bermuda to coincide with the 2012
Summer Olympics from London, staying in various places you link to and
recommend. We note from your excellent Bermuda
Online (BOL) there's an NBC affiliate TV station in Bermuda, VSB, with
it's own website. That's great, can we assume it will be linking directly to the
NBC Olympics coverage? We really appreciate how you guys at BOL have been
suggesting to all potential internet-savvy visitors while in Bermuda how to link
up with the NBC Olympics events to help support our athletes from the USA, what
to bring in suitable WIFI-ready equipment and urging places to stay in Bermuda
that they have WIFI. David L. Jones, W. Burke Ave, Towson, Maryland 21204, USA, January 12,
2012.
Referred this enquiry by email to VSB Radio/TV. Mike Bishop, Station Manager, replied promptly, saying VSB will be announcing what will be happening this summer in due course. If Mr. Jones or anyone else wishes to call VSB re this topic, the phone number is (441) 292-0050. Suggest all from USA interested in following the NBC-broadcast Olympics while in Bermuda first contact either www.nbcolympics.com, or www.olympic.org to determine for sure who will be broadcasting from Bermuda.
You
chaps at Bermuda
Online are on the ball with your astute observations in your Bermuda
Government file. I was distressed to note that your general election and
bye-election procedures are so restrictive and unfair to Bermuda voters compared
to the methodology long in effect here in the United Kingdom, and I believe in
many democratic places elsewhere too. Yes, I can confirm - as one who used
this provision not long ago when I returned home from a longish spell
overseas - that voters are given up to 15 years before they
lose basic voting rights, not merely 6 months as is the case in Bermuda. If individual
Bermuda Members of Parliament are unwilling to legislate appropriate changes in
time for your next General Election which I'm told could be in 2012, perhaps the UK Parliament or the European Court of Human Rights or folks
at the UN can assist in helping Bermuda bring its standards up to acceptable
world levels so that Bermuda students, elder people, your other citizens who own
homes there, etc. can go home to vote without being penalised. Donald McKey,
Ludlow, Shropshire, SW8 1AY, UK, 12th January 2012.
Guest Book years
| Guest Book 2013 and 2012 | Guest Book 2011 and 2010 | Guest Book 2009 and 2008 | Guest Book 2007 | Guest Book 2006 |
| Guest Book 2005 | Guest Book 2004 | Guest Book 2003 | Guest Book 2002 | Guest Book 2001 and earlier |
![]()
Last Updated: May
18, 2013.
Multi-national © 2013 by Bermuda Online.
All Rights Reserved. Contact Editor/writer
and webmaster.