THE EDITOR, Sir:
I WRITE to thank you for publishing my letter re the Registrar General's Department and the death certificate of Mr. Ernest Brown on the 26th. After waiting initially for one year and seven months, the certificate was sent to me by courier on the 30th - the following Friday. Dr. Holness called me by phone on the date of the publication and apologised, then she spoilt all this by writing subsequently to you to say that neither she nor her office was able to contact me. It was then that she requested my cellular number and I gave it to her.
May I be permitted to make a basic comment? We the people of this our beloved nation must all realise and never for a moment forget that we are responsible for the building of the nation both individually and collectively - not just the Government or the politicians. In this context, the officers and workers of all government departments especially, must do everything in their individual and collective powers to serve the citizens of this country and to make them feel that each and every one of them counts and is recognised and is part of the nation - as they say on the streets 'respect due'. This nation will not achieve the level of civility that we all crave for until this basic goal is achieved.
CONDITIONS WORSENING
In fact, we seem to be allowing the conditions to get worse by standing by and allowing unplanned communities to mushroom around us almost on a daily basis. We must insist and demand that all communities be planned and proper facilities installed: water, electricity, roads, before they are occupied. For try as we may, we will never be able to explain to the children of the first occupants how we as a people stood by and allowed them to grow up in an area like animals devoid of the basic amenities of life. How are we going to get them to respect the National Flag and the laws of a country that treat them so lowly? Mr Editor, these are some of the basic deficiencies we have to address as a matter of urgency if we are to 'take back our country'.
I have about 200 Justices of the Peace on my roll for the parish. They were appointed because they held out themselves as community leaders. At present the learned magistrate is training them in the common aspects of the law. Thereafter they will be trained in the basic principles of community living. They must learn how to assist their fellow community members to get basic things done, eg. how to enrol their children in school, how to bail a person incarcerated, to apply for a birth certificate, open a bank account and so on. This will be done in the hope that their involvement will make a difference to the community and to maintain or bring that evasive peace in or to it.
I am, etc.,
HON. ROYLAN B. BARRETT
Custos of Trelawny
