Thanks, Uncle Ken
Thanks Mr. Jones for your sobering reflections though riddled with innuendoes and sarcastic undertones. The nurses have always seen and acknowledged your commentaries. If you reflect on Mary Seacole's legacy bequeathed to nurses, you become 'a son of the soil' that seeks always to join hands and heart with the 'Angels of Mercy' (nurses), to advocate for reasonable wage increase. i.e. doubling of nurses pay, establishing the risk differential and offering tax-free benefits.
Mr. Jones, Edith might have broken the historical marginalised and sacrificial complicity barriers of nursing and/or the nurse but at such a time as this, let me be the 'sacrificial lamb', since my lamb has conquered, and I will follow him. I urge you to review the speech of the Hon. Audley Shaw and be like the 'wise men' who took another route or turn aside, like the Moses character and 'behold the burning bush.'
If you can help nurses as they travel this journey, then your living will not be in vain. Walk good Uncle Ken; nurses will always be there for you.
- The Nurses Association of Jamaica, najtrevennion@hotmail
Integrity and trust
Daren S. Larmond's letter regarding Rev. Devon Dick's call for the Finance Minister's resignation is misguided at best and unfair at worst. To question the Reverend's spiritual commitment and Christian responsibilities highlights his own intolerance of the views of others. The issue, as I see it, has to do with the matters of integrity and trust.
I for one would not go as far as calling for the Minister's resignation, as he may indeed have forgotten this particular promise. However, the fact that he categorically denied making the promises without even referring to his notes or speech of the day is a legitimate issue which the public has a right to examine - especially after the surfacing of the 'tape'.
The Minister should be mindful that he is now in Government and accountable to the people and not merely a 'Shadow Minister' trying to get a job. I believe Rev. Dick has merely put the issue on the table for examination, that surely does not make him a 'Comrade' and I hope it does not make him less of a 'Representative of Christ'.
- John Lucas
Discovery Bay, St Ann
No to army training
I would like to add my views on the issue of military training for youths in Jamaica, as an answer to crime. While I believe that those calling for such service mean the best for society, I would not agree with that approach. Care needs to be taken when using the military as a panacea for social ills, because it is not, as many countries throughout the world have discovered quite painfully. Facism is an example of some misguided thinking arising out of the belief that the military is a panacea, or a cure-all.
Such a development would also be very costly, as soldiers have to be clothed, fed and sheltered, etc. Jamaica's problems have progressed too far for this to be a viable solution, because rather than selectively choosing recruits and eliminating potential problems, it would absorb all the society's problems (in the form of untrainable persons).
- Paidin O'Brien, taeson_1@hotmail.com, South Florida, Via Go-Jamaica
