THE EDITOR, Sir:
I READ with interest your report 'JLP warns Government about Chavez' in today's (June 12) Gleaner. The report quotes Mr. Bruce Golding as saying that Jamaica should not support Venezuela's bid for a U.N. Security Council seat because "I think it will affect our relationship with America, how I can't tell, but it won't be good".
A few months before the start of the U.S. invasion on Iraq, I engaged a close friend, an American citizen of Jamaican birth, on the wisdom and morality of the upcoming invasion. This friend firmly put me in my place by telling me "Beggar nations like Jamaica should shut up".
ANTI-US VIEWS
Over the last few years, I have forgotten this lesson. I have been expressing several views that could be regarded as anti-U.S. I have continued to criticise U.S. action in Iraq. I have criticised its actions in Haiti and its prison in Guantanamo Bay where 'human rights' is an alien concept. I have even criticised the U.S. government's position on torture. In summary, I have become somewhat of an 'uppity nigger'.
I would like to thank Mr. Golding for reminding me of my proper place in the universe. I am, after all, a citizen of a 'Beggar Nation'.
I am, etc.,
HUGH P SMYTHE
hpsmythe@cwjamaica.com
10 Schooner Court
Westmoorings
Trinidad & Tobago
Via Go-Jamaica
