THE EDITOR, Sir:

A few years ago, my gardener called me at one'oclock in the morning. His pregnant wife had gone into labour and he needed a ride to 'Jubilee'. I left them at the entrance, went to park the car then returned to see how things were going. As I approached the entrance, I heard a woman in a booth shouting at the woman I had dropped off. A carefully sanitised version of what she was saying went something like this: "... When you were in the act of making this baby nine months ago, were you so ecstatic that you forgot to make preparations for hospital fees?" It's just that she used crude, colourful, gutter language, punctuated with expletives to make her point. I had difficulty restraining myself.

The anger I felt toward this employee soon transferred itself to the pregnant woman and the rest of us in this society. In a society that makes a big song and dance about being 'dissed', what about us is responsible for the absence of outrage at the way we are treated by those we pay to serve us? Is it in our history or in our water? Both are a bit murky. Many of the problems at Jubilee require money. The problem I witnessed early that morning does not require one cent to correct. I am not shocked by the cockroaches. Not because, as the Permanent Secretary suggests, we have cockroaches in our homes. There are none in my neighbourhood. But I visited the Kingston Public Hospital 12 years ago to see a patient who was severely injured and lay motionless on a bed. There were five cockroaches keeping his company on the bed. Nearby, an elderly man, showing no sign of life, was host to one cockroach which made its way slowly up his chest, all the way to his lower lip before pausing, obviously contemplating its next move.

Can you imagine if ... ?

Can you imagine the difference in our approach to human rights if the country rose up with one clear, firm, unified voice and demanded appropriate sanctions following the Green Bay crime 30 years ago? Can you imagine the difference in the way we conduct our affairs if the country demanded to know why the Forum Hotel was purchased and left empty for 30 years? Can you imagine the care that would precede announcements if the country demanded to know - 10 months ago when it was announced - why work was going to start on the Yallahs bridge in September, the month noted for rain and hurricanes?

The problem, Sir, is not in our politicians but in ourselves. If we insist on turning ourselves into footmats, we cannot blame them when they use us for that purpose.

I am, etc.,

GLENN TUCKER

Stony Hill

Kingston 9