THE EDITOR, Sir:
I TRY TO ignore it but increasingly it gets on my nerves - this constant cry for government or 'you Jamaicans down there' - to fix the disgraceful crime problem so that our Jamaican brothers overseas can return home in safety or even think of investing in the local economy.
We are constantly reminded that there are hundreds of Jamaicans who would love to come home but are afraid of crime, and hundreds more who have 'written the country off' and will never set foot back here.
There are others who worry whether if they send their hard earned dollars to various charities it will be used appropriately - they worry so hard they often don't send - because they are afraid.
WHY DID YOU LEAVE?
Listen, if Jamaica had been as fabulous back then - prosperous and crime-free, with a perfect school system, saintly politicians, reasonable and moral gunmen and jobs for all - why did you leave?
I am tired of the hypocrisy of persons who join the talk shops of persons pretending to be interested in the welfare of the island, yet use it as a chance to try to publicly humiliate our elected officials, ridicule our systems or compare it to Utopia Says it All (U.S.A.).
To our shame, there are several youth centres targeting inner-city school age children which are floundering because there are no mentors, and no sponsors local or otherwise despite aggressive pleas.
There are teenagers who have been kicked out of school, repeatedly, despite going through the Government-sponsored reform programme.
Some truly penitent youth are effectively refused a second chance at a future because school board and old boys association members, (some based overseas) have voted 'no' to them returning to school - ever.
PERSONS WHO HAVE ENDURED
So for the people who 'don't know what Jamaica is coming to', please stay where you are.
Jamaica does not need you at this time. Jamaica needs strong, creative people - much like the two million hardworking, law-abiding, peaceloving, long-suffering ones we already have.
Persons who have endured the horrors of the 1970s, and many turf wars of recent times, but who get up and go to work every day, holding down menial jobs for the past 40, 50, 60 years.
Strong matriarchs and patriarchs who hold their families together, basic school kids who know how to have a good game of 'dandy-shandy' weeks after a brutal shoot-out in their community, who still keel over laughing if you tickle them.
These gems live in a society where death is integral - yet they live, and strive because they are home and they know that what needs to be done can be done despite.
There is a Jamaica made up of tough inner-city children traumatised by continuous warfare but who excel beyond belief. Jamaica needs persons generous enough to call up an agency and say 'listen this is my skill area, how can I help?'
What if each Jamaican abroad 'adopted' a child of an infant school or basic school in the island and sent US$5 per year to make sure that he at ot a desk?
What if each church group overseas adopted an inner-city homework centre or youth club and made sure that they had a training centre? What if we had a strong lobby group in the United States as the Latin Americans (Mexicans) or Cubans do?
Would you at least feel safe enough to believe in us, and think kindly of the 'yard' that raised you to be the symbol of achievement you now are?
I am, etc.,
JOY ALLEN
22 Cove Close,
Kingston 20
