The Editor, Sir:

I note over the years the massive profits obtained by some local business interests and wonder how it is that these companies have been able to achieve record profits while the Jamaican economy retracts, beaten back by inflation and the loss of capital, human and otherwise.

I might have surmised that it was the companies' stellar performance due to discipline or sheer genius, but in a country where citizens work for less each day and are forced to pay for poor drinking water, poor power service and use disastrous roads, it seems hard to expect the average Jamaican to manage to arrive at retirement without becoming a fatality.

feathered beds

Is it possible that most of the large business interests in Jamaica have always had their beds feathered by the Government that guarantees them profit margins, or issues exclusive import licences, like back in the good old days of colonialism? Isn't that amazing. Consider the Cement Company that made a greater profit this year while producing less, and the JPS, that is guaranteed 17 per cent profit whether the public has light or not. I could go on.

I hope one day average Jamaicans can see the benefits of their hard work in real gains by their own hands. It should not be that in a country where some have been making record profits year after year, the people and country continue to drown in desolate despair. Maybe the majority of Jamaicans one day can say, we had a good year. When that day comes, I will truly celebrate our Independence.

I am, etc.,

HUGH DUNBAR

hmdenergy@optonline.net

West New York, NJ