A strong air of malicious glee
published: Friday | June 11, 2004

THE EDITOR ,Sir:

I REALLY have to say, Senator Noel Monteith's statements about the teachers who will be compelled to return to Jamaica have a strong air of malicious glee. A sort of childish "A bay, a bay, yuh watch mi an' dem now!"

He speaks freely of the teachers who ''abandoned' their duties to accept jobs in NY's public education system', yet there is no mention of how the Jamaican Government abandoned its duty ­ to provide decent wages and working conditions for its teachers, as well as others without whom Jamaican society would rapidly deteriorate.

I advise the Government to put the pettiness aside. Firstly, unemployed people returning to Jamaica will only be a burden on Jamaica. Secondly, teachers with academic degrees AND overseas teaching experience can only be an asset. Thirdly (I just feel like rubbing this in), if Jamaica was such a wonderful place to live and work in, the lines at the U.S. embassy would not be so long, the best teachers in Jamaica would not be leaving in droves, and I would not be here.

I am, etc.,

KALEMA BROWN

limali2001@yahoo.com

Bronx, New York

Via Go-Jamaica