THE EDITOR, Sir:
MY DISGUST with the American and to an extent the Canadian media continues. The most recent incident is the sniper shootings in the United States where it was alleged that one of the alleged snipers is a Jamaican citizen.
The media were quick to identify that this sniper was not an American citizen. They are trying to say that a non-American must be involved in such an attack on America, but the fact that the main attacker was an American war veteran was downplayed.
The fact that Malvo probably spent 13 of his 17 years in America was not highlighted. The fact is Malvo's development was more influenced by his American environment than it was by the Jamaican culture.
This case reminds me of the Ben Johnson incident where after he won the Olympic gold medal he was hailed as a Canadian great but as a drug test showed that his performance was influenced by steroids he was identified in the Canadian media as a Jamaican-born Canadian citizen.
I must say though, I understand the situation the American media are in. They are helping, and correctly so, to preserve their country's image. They have to show the American population that a non-American must have been involved in such an atrocious act. After all, Americans do not engage in such activities. After all, there was not an American San Francisco mass murderer who killed many; there was no Timothy McVeigh who killed by bomb, scores of his fellow Americans and there was no American citizen involved in the September 11 attacks that killed some 3,000 people, including Jamaicans, in the World Trade Centre bombing and it was not an American teenager who killed over 10 fellow Americans in the Columbine high school shooting incident.
I implore the American media to be more responsible in their reporting and see themselves as world citizens. Just think of the repercussions for Jamaica and its citizens of such a report... One, such a report is damaging to our tourism sector (our chief foreign exchange earner) and two, I think this will affect our chance of getting visas to America and other countries. This will in turn affect our economy as I foresee a reduction in the inflow of remittances to the island.
Finally, I want all of America to know that Jamaicans grieve with them in this time of loss and that we condemn any such action whether it is by an American or a Jamaican. Please remember though that Americans were not the only victims, a Jamaican was also killed and our country's image will once again take a beating on the international scene.
I am, etc.,
TREVOR THOMPSON
citi_rock@yahoo.com
Via Go-Jamaica
MALVO
