THE EDITOR, Sir:TWICE IN recent days you have featured complaints from persons who were upset at being searched at the Norman Manley International Airport before they boarded flights out of the island.
The accounts of alleged "indignities" suffered would give the impression that once again Jamaica is at fault, that as usual, there is something wrong with our system.
I wonder how these and other aggrieved travellers react when they arrive at other airports and are confronted by the search dogs, the coldness of the immigration and police at the numerous checkpoints, the questions and the rigorous perusal of documents. I wonder how many of us complain to them about "indignity?"
One writer complained of shoes being searched and bent out of shape. Get a life!
Haven't you heard about the Shoe Bomber? Isn't that kind of search standard at most international airports now?
Some of us are acting as if we do not know of tightened "anti-terrorism" regulations everywhere not to mention the awful reputation which has been earned for all of us by drug smugglers who often look like "decent people".
Searches might be inconvenient but it is a little price to pay if we could prove to the world that one in 10 Jamaicans is NOT a drug smuggler as they claim. I believe in freedom of expression "to the max" but so much valuable space to the whining and self-pitying can be better spent.
I am, etc
BARBARA GLOUDON
Kingston
