CEO: ‘Very Impressed By Student Ideas’
Ways to stimulate the Bermuda economy proved to be a stimulating choice of topic for this year’s Business Bermuda student essay competition, drawing more than one hundred entries.
Winners of the third annual contest were presented with their prizes by Premier Paula Cox at Business Bermuda’s annual general meeting last Friday [Mar. 4]
Students were challenged to submit a 500-word essay in the form of an open letter to the Premier on the topic, “I want to ensure our future financial security, and this is how I suggest we can help Bermuda stimulate the economy.”
Entries were received from the Berkeley Institute, Cedarbridge Academy, Sandys Secondary Middle School, Bermuda Institute, Bermuda High School for Girls, and even a few students in college.
The winner was Berkeley’s Stevona Daniels who won $300, second was Sandy’s Shobhitha Balasubramaniam who won $150 and in third was BHS’s Brittney Ferreira. Honourable Mentions went to Jai-Onni Outerbridge, Sandys Secondary Middle School; Bakari Simons, Berkeley Institute; Shaena Simons, Berkeley Institute; Andrew Fleming, Cedarbridge Academy; and Israel Sanchez, Cedarbridge Academy.
Berkeley Institute’s Stevona Daniels winning essay is below:
Dear The Hon. Paula Cox, JP, MP,
Speaking candidly and with the utmost respect given to the Hon. Premier, a budget is merely “mathematical confirmation of one’s suspicions.” Upon making this statement, I ask that you kindly allow me to express my opinion regarding the security of Bermuda’s present financial position in addition to recommending effective ways in helping to stimulate the economy. As a young Bermudian student, I want to ensure our future financial security and the following bullet points is how I propose we can help Bermuda stimulate the economy in the hopes that we get back on target or close.
- To scale back on spending completely by implementing a stricter expense budget by ALL Civil Servants.
- Scale back on the usage of GP cars; i.e. MP’s to purchase their own fuel for GP vehicles and to only utilize GP cars for Ministerial duties only. The personal use of a GP vehicle should not be used for Sunday or public holiday outings or as an additional family vehicle. In addition, they should not be driven or used for matters that are not related to official Ministerial business. For MP’s to pay for their own parking tickets and traffic violations that they incur while they are utilizing their assigned GP vehicle. I can assure you that you would see a decline in the aforementioned expenses if it had to come directly from their own personal budget.
- This may sound a bit strange coming from a teenager, but I do believe that if we scale back on the unnecessary million dollar concerts that do not benefit our island directly, only for the sake of lining the entertainer’s pockets we would be in a better position.
- To reinstate student to pay for public transportation fares, but at a relatively affordable rate. To only continue minor children up to the age of 5 yrs and Senior Citizens of 65 years and older to remain the same as being free. At least this would enhance a small stimulus back into The Ministry of Transportations budget by doing this. Every little bit helps!
- It is The Ministry of Finance’s utmost duty to ensure that all unnecessary spending be dealt with immediately and not to allow it to get out of hand and to the point of disrepair and to the tax payers’ unfortunate expense. Meaning, I’m more than certain that the Government will now raise the taxes as at April 1st, 2011 in order to recoup lost revenue which I feel is very unfair to the average person. We are currently in a recession and this I must again candidly accentuate is merely resulting in a depression for our island and the world at large.
- To cut back on unnecessary overseas travel. This can be combated when required by Government officials utilizing Skype, e-mail, text messaging, fax transmissions, Black Berry messenger or the good old postal service. These are the signs of the times and are fine tools of our modem world and modem technology.
- To take care of our own backyard, our own island home before accepting and taking on the responsibilities of other countries, especially during Bermuda’s current financial situation.
- To offer different payroll tax packages or percentages for different categories depending on the individual company’s profit margin. For example, a small business will be taxed according to their revenue intake, which I’m sure is far less than the International Businesses revenue intake. This would deem to be fair by our business owners giving the circumstances of our current economic climate.
- To put a freeze on Civil Servants and MP wages and overtime. For example, do not increase wages for an agreed period of time until we can rise up from the sink hole that we are currently in. The benefit of this is that there wouldn’t have to be any redundancies within the Civil Service, thus promoting job security for all, but without a raise or overtime until we see our way clear.
- To cut back on overseas consultant fees. By doing this, I suggest the Bermuda Government should only utilize the services of overseas consultants when it is absolutely necessary. If a consultant is needed or required, rather then committing to paying for their housing allowance AND consulting fees, only commit to paying for their services if they are required to be on island while performing their duties. Have them pay for their own living expenses so that would appreciate the cost of living in Bermuda and not take our country for a ride and for granted. Many foreigners and/or consultants live far better than our own Bermudians because of this. If they remain and work in their own country while consulting for Bermuda, that is a great advantage because it would be far less of an expense on the Government’s purse.
I can go on and on and on about many other ways to recoup our finances, but this is what I will put forth at present. It is my hope that my suggestions will be taken into consideration respectively because of my strong feelings about the aforementioned points as they are huge pet peeves of mine.
Thank you for your kind consideration and attention while reading over this letter.
With Sincere thanks,
Stevona F. Daniels
S4 Berkeley Student
“This year I was very impressed by the ideas the students presented,” stated Cheryl Packwood, CEO of Business Bermuda. “Each and every submission had at least one good idea, and the quality of suggestions proved that Bermuda’s youth have a good idea of the political, economic, and societal challenges facing Bermuda today.
“They are concerned for their future, and have put a lot of thought into ensuring their future financial security. I’d like to congratulate all of the students who participated this year and especially the eight winners.”
Essays of all the top students are below, click ‘Full Screen’ for greater clarity:
What an excellent job of our local public and private school students that participated. Here we have informed, educated students showing that they are aware of our current plight and have provided sensible, common sense suggestions for improvement. I am well impressed. I hope the government of the day takes their suggestions under serious consideration.
WELL DONE!!!
Great job to all students! We have some talent in our schools-public and private. Special shout out to my Berkeleyites and winner Stevona Daniels!
Respice Finem
Congratulations students, I’m impressed that as young teenagers you can see through the folly of our former leader and his administration who put us in this mess. It is definitely unfair to penalize those who have no say in how or where money is spent. Those responsible for effectively managing departments are the Permanent Secretaries and their respective Heads of Departments; the very ones who received generous increases in their salaries. Did we get value for money spent?
Why aren’t these students running the Country? I WOULD FEEL A LOT BETTER
Hear, hear! I think the comments said were well thought out and said. I just hope they don’t go on deaf ears.
BERKELEY!