THE EDITOR, Sir:
I READ with interest an article by one Yohan White, guild councillor, Rex Nettleford Hall in The Gleaner of 2004/03/20, entitled, 'Put Haiti first'. The article, although an interesting one, lacks substance in many areas, which I did not expect from a tertiary educated person. As such I must agree with well-known Trinidadian Lloyd Best that the university is turning out journeymen and not thinkers.
Important points missed:
Democracy in the Caribbean and elsewhere in the world is a process and not only about elections. If in fact it was about elections only, many present CARICOM leaders could be guilty of using democracy to perpetuate de facto dictatorship.
S/he asks in his article, what is Amnesty International doing? If s/he had taken the time to visit www.amnesty.org and looked at the section on Haiti, s/he would have found that answer. Obviously the free Internet given to the university by the Hon. Mayer Matalon when he was chairman of Telecommunications of Jamaica (TOJ) in 1992 has been disconnected.
With regards to tertiary education in Haiti, I refer her/him to the University of Haiti's website www.haiti-unversite.org, s/he may learn a thing or two.
I am, etc.,
PETER JONES
liontraders@yahoo.com
5 Pawsey Place
Kingston 5
