The Editor, Sir:

I am a Jamaican living in another country. If it gets to the point where I have to be lamenting how I am being treated as a Jamaican, it is time for me to leave.

If Jamaicans in the Cayman Islands do not like how they are being treated, LEAVE! No one is holding a gun to their heads.

We should be embarrassed that we should be sponging off small Caribbean islands to eke out an existence. Usually, in the grand scheme of things, it is people from smaller countries, or islands, who flock to larger countries and islands, to seek a living.

We should be ashamed that we are beating down these small islands, because of the impoverishment into which successive governments have led us.

We should be ashamed that we can be treated in the manner some of these Jamaicans in Grand Cayman describe. We should hang our collective heads in shame.

If workers do not come from Jamaica, I am sure they can come from elsewhere. Stop kidding ourselves, that, somehow, the Cayman Islands are relying on Jamaicans for their sustenance! Get real.

Whenever I get to the stage where I start complaining bitterly about my hosts, it is time for me to leave!

Finally, perhaps, we get to know what prejudice and discrimination are like. We are the same people who, just a few days ago, were gathering outside a mall pharmacy to 'beat down' a group of men from a victimised group in Jamaica.

Now that we have the Cayman experience, do we now have an idea of how victimisation and discrimination feel? I hope so.

I am, etc.,

ANTHONY BEECHAM

anthonybeecham@yahoo.com