THE EDITOR, Sir:
I WOULD like to applaud Peter Espeut's article in your paper titled 'Working at Emancipendence'. There are several issues that were raised that warrant our most urgent attention if we are going to successfully complete our journey of Emancipendence. The quality of our lives is a summation and consequence of our past decisions which were influenced by our socialisation, experiences, perceptions and expectations. Therefore, failure to critically examine our history with a view to identifying our bad decisions will damn us to a future of generational mistakes.
Silence in the face of injustice and inequity is to make us co-conspirators with those that orchestrate and perpetuate these societal maladies. These are the same maladies that are responsible for the untenably high level of crime in the society, the widening of the gap between the haves and the havenots, the abandonment of the inner-city residents and the rural poor.
Everybody is crying out for peace but too few are crying out for justice but there will be no peace until we as a society come out of the closet and start talking about and addressing the social and economic inequities that exist in Jamaica.
Whether we admit it or not, racial (including colour shades) discrimination, class prejudice, bias towards one's place of residence and educational elitism are issues that, though swept under the carpet, are real in Jamaica and must be addressed with utmost urgency. Failure to do so will derail this journey of complete Emancipendence and regrettably relegate us to the lower rung of the socio-economic ladder of independent nation-states. A consequence too painful to contemplate.
I am, etc.,
D. SCARLETT
dhsscarlett@yahoo.com
London,
England
