The Editor, Sir:

I had the opportunity this evening to listen to Power 106's 'Breakthrough' programme, followed by a reading of your piece on Monsignor Richard Albert's talk. The Monsignor made several valid and relevant points regarding the status of the massive army of poor people in Jamaica, points that I believe we now need to take heed of, especially given the current state of violent meltdown we are facing.

I despair when I hear bright and intelligent people like the presenters on the 'Breakthrough' programme, blame the poor for the state in which they find themselves. The conspicuous consumption that is evidenced among the wider population in Jamaica largely reflects the society that we have created; we have dangled the 'trappings of success' via material wealth before our people, telling them that only if they own these things and conduct a bling lifestyle, can they have some kind of value or worth. Where is our sense of duty of care towards our people when we begin to blame them for the misfortune of being born to urban poor or peasant farmers who can hardly scratch out a living from meagre hillside farming?

People can only take hold of opportunities if they exist and are accessible. If I remember correctly, we have a two-tier education system - 'those who can' and 'those who can't'. Some of us have been very lucky to escape the scrap heap of 'those who can't', only through a policy in the 1970s that enabled poor people of whatever age to access education. That structure is now non-existent. Is it then possible that programmes like 'Breakthrough' and the influence it has, should be encouraging the government to take on radical educational reform, that deals with the deep structural deficiencies which disable so many of our children? Shouldn't we be instead looking at how social and economic deprivation among our rural and urban population might be influential in the low levels of attainment among our children and young people, the consequent social exclusion and economic marginalisation that is created and the knock-on effects that this has for crime and violence?

We have created an underclass - simply, a whole section of our society that is not in a position to help themselves, without any safety net and nowhere to go. When did we begin to use a deficit model on our own people? The mentality and behaviours now on display are only an exaggerated form of the values and norms of the wider society. As long as those of us who have made something of ourselves continue to point the finger at the most vulnerable in our society, the rapid decline that we are now experiencing will continue.

The Monsignor's call to a moral economy is not only a challenge, but an imperative, one that we should begin to think about carefully and what this means for us and the future of all our children.

I am. etc.,

Dr. DEON EDWARDS-KERR

Manchester,UK

Via Go-Jamaica