Newstocks

Pro-PLP bias in the RG

I'm probably only one of a handful of people who care about stuff like this, but the phrasing of this story in today's Royal Gazette hit me like a ton of bricks:

Exciting plans to transform North East Hamilton have been unveiled by Minister of Finance Paula Cox, detailing how the area will change over the next ten years.

I don't know whether Matthew Taylor, the journalist who wrote the piece, really considers the plans exciting, or whether he was just parroting a Ministry press release (I suspect the latter), but either way, the word "exciting" has no place in a news story in that context.

The Gazette should be careful lest the UBP start accusing it of pro-PLP bias!

Hello CellularOne, goodbye Digicel

So CellularOne expect to start offering 3G iPhones within the next few months, and they will finally allow global roaming too.

If they were offering the first, but not the second, Digicel would keep my business. Currently I believe you have to borrow a handset from CellularOne when you want to roam anywhere but the US, which is just pathetic.

My only concern is that CellularOne are still referring to their iPhones being "unlocked". Is that going to stop me applying firmware updates or using things like the iPhone App store? CellularOne COO Michael Leverock implied not, but I'd like some reassurance that CellularOne have Apple's permission to sell iPhones in Bermuda before I buy.

If it turns out that their iPhones will be fully functional, however, I'll be switching from Digicel to CellularOne faster than you can say "Steve Jobs".

LittleBigTetris

Found an absolutely amazing user-created level in LittleBigPlanet at the weekend - a version of Tetris. You zoom around with a jetpack and have to grab the blocks as they fall and drop them to fill up the rows in the usual Tetris way.

Mandy and I had a great time playing this together. Even though it can get really frustrating and your Sackboy sometimes dies for no readily apparent reason, it's incredibly addictive. The best score we managed placed us #124 in the world, which we were pretty pleased with.

The level is called tetrin.jp, created by user rrr30000.

Daycare assistance for some Bermudians

So at the last general election, the PLP pledged to introduce free daycare for all Bermudians.

After the election, they confirmed that actually, it would only be available to Bermudian families earning less than $70,00 per year.

Now they've admitted that it won't actually be free, and that the amount will actually be limited to $800 per child per month.

There were indications before the election that the PLP knew that the benefit would be means-tested, so the deception on that point by the PLP blog was clearly deliberate. I don't think they deliberately lied about the $800 limit, but it does demonstrate what happens when you dream up manifesto commitments with properly costing them first.

Meanwhile, comedic relief can as usual be found from PLP chairman Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf - sorry, David Burt - who now seems to be arguing that it was the Royal Gazette who used the term "free" to describe the PLP's proposal, not the party. Not that that stopped him referring to it as "the PLP Government's free day care initiative" in his next breath. Hopefully Mr. Burt will be the first beneficiary of the Government's Throne Speech pledge to strengthen "communicative media skill" in Bermuda.

With the Premier recently casting doubt on whether the free public transport for all pledge will also be delivered, I pity the credulous voters who took the PLP at their word with regard to these promises. When will they learn?

Back to school

We're in the process of filling in an application form for a school we're hoping to send Aidan to next year. Competition for places is crazy, and to separate the wheat from the chaff, the school's application process requires us to answer the following three questions.

Suddenly I feel like I'm the one back at school!

1. As a parent, no-one knows your child better than you. Please help us to get to know your child as you know him/her by letting us see him/her through your eyes. For example - favourite activities, routines, special characteristics, experience with care givers, play groups, etc.
   
   
2. Diversity is a long-valued tradition at [X]. Bringing together families from various cultural, ethnic, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds and experiences allows us to celebrate differences within our community. We would be interested in learning anything about you, and your family, that you believe would serve to contribute to the diversity of our community.
   
   
3. What is it about your child and [X] that you believe will make a good match?

By all accounts this is an excellent school, and we really want to get Aidan in if we can. But even if our answers to these questions pass muster, we'll still have to go in for - and pass - an interview. For the first time, I can feel myself starting to worry about what it would mean for Aidan's education if we don't get accepted.