THE EDITOR, Sir:
I AM a sea turtle, and I am an endangered and supposedly protected creature.
It was with horror and a nervous pulling in of my head and limbs that I saw the article in The Gleaner of March 22 entitled 'J'can historical item for sale in Edinburgh'. Apparently, the 'item' is a 'tortoise' shell case and two combs made in Port Royal around 1670. What is called tortoise shell is actually sea turtle shell, and comes from a slaughtered sea turtle, possibly one of my ancestors. The writer of that article would like someone to buy it for the Jamaican museum.
Is that writer inadvertently encouraging the illegal slaughter of protected sea turtles? Because I have been around for 95 years, and I have seen the desperation of Jamaican craft vendors and artists in the quality and content of some of their work, and I am seeing the desecration and demolition of our marine life and forestry day by day.
BETTER THINGS TO DO
For poor Jamaicans trying to survive, (who are not going to be visiting a museum anyway, as they have more important things to do, like feeding their children) this turtle shell case and combs (which carries the Jamaican motto despite being 350 years old) would merely present them with a possible alternative idea for making money to survive ... and I would be even more endangered than I already am.
The writer seems like a very nice lady and I am sure she means well, but I think the Jamaican people have more serious things on their minds now - or should have.
I am, etc.,
OZYMANDIAS
(Of the Caribbean Sea)
