THE EDITOR, Sir:
EVEN THOUGH Africa is largely underexposed, exploited and underutilised, it still continues to teach us lessons for survival.
Niger currently faces a catastrophic famine. According to U.N. reports, approximately two to three million persons face death from starvation of whom 150,000 are children. Niger now pleads with the international system for assistance in food, medicine and shelter.
It is truly amazing to look at this newly globalised world with a high propensity to consume and waste and see that very little is being done for the people of Niger. What this then forces us, as Jamaicans, to realise is that the more dependent we are, then the more we need to be self-reliant.
It may seem contradictory, however, it holds a golden principle for surviving the pattern of relations of the future. Thus, the rush to form economic relations with other states (especially industrialised states as a means of escaping poverty) is not necessarily the way out. Such relations serve us no good unless they seek to preserve or enable our ability to be self-reliant.
We have moved away from Africa geographically and culturally (to a large extent) however the lessons taught still resonate and the ones taught now are of the future, though their own place in the new world seems rather dismal.
I am, etc.,
KAY MARSHALL
makim_21@yahoo.com
Mona
Via Go-Jamaica
