THE EDITOR, Sir:
I WRITE in response to Professor Rex Nettleford's article of August 23 regarding the significance of the colours of the Jamaican flag, especially the "contentious nature of the symbolism for the colour black".
I would urge Mr. Nettleford to be of good cheer. We can give new meaning to the colour; we can lose the negativity usually associated with it. We can make it the symbol of our future as a nation! Success, prosperity, justice and truth can be ours forever with this colour of hope behind us!
Alas, Mr. Nettleford, the colour black itself suggests its meaning and possible connotations, and its presence in the flag does not change our reality. For the flag to mean anything to our illiterati, we must avoid the complicated explanations.
If 43 years after Independence, our people are still being oppressed and there is a marked absence of benevolent governance in the land, then it would only be fair to presume that the green represents the JLP, the gold the PNP, and the black, the sum of both.
I am, etc.,
JENNIFER STONER
jstoner2005@hotmail.com
Montego Bay, St. James
