Letter of the Day | My country! My country!

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I am happy that our Reggae Girlz have done us proud by being the first Jamaican football team ever to reach to round 16 in the FIFA Women’s World Cup competition.

I applaud the Sunshine Girls on achieving bronze at the Netball World Cup.

I see our people celebrating the 61st anniversary of our Independence at the Grand Gala with exuberance, and I am delighted to hear Tessanne Chin sing our national anthem with such passion and excellence.

But I awoke yesterday morning to read again of multiple murders being committed in our beautiful island. This is just what has become the daily diet: killings being fed by the news.

Then to my shock, I saw a photo of an innocent-looking 15-year-old girl whose home was invaded by two masked men, who brutally beat her mother and cousin with pieces of board in their heads. If that were not enough, this innocent-looking child was not only brutalised like her mother and cousin, but she was also raped and then left tied up in a yam field near her home. She subsequently died in hospital!

I am shocked and heartbroken by this level of bestiality that is being displayed in our country. There are so many people who no longer listen to or read the news, because they cannot ‘bear’ it. We are becoming more and more desensitised as a nation to the rampant killings taking place. Jamaica is becoming a killing field.

What makes these killings even more heinous is the fact that many of the perpetrators are never brought to justice. This lack of consequence for committing murders seems to inspire hitmen, who, it is said on the road, are “ready to dun a man for a bills!” Our justice system seems to be a joke!

UNBRIDLED ANIMAL-LIKE BEHAVIOUR

Our leaders of Government are lauding themselves on how well our economy is doing and giving themselves hefty salary increases, yet food prices are going through the roof, and the poor cannot afford to buy what their children need to go to school or pay their bus fare!

Our leaders seem not to want to be held accountable to anyone but themselves! The summary of Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Index (CPI) states that: “There is significant resistance to (anti-corruption) reforms from many politicians in the country.” The fight against the Integrity Commission is a glaring example of this situation.

So corruption has become endemic in this country, murders are a way of life, and children are imitating the vulgarity displayed even by our leaders! How can I, then, be proud of the baseness and unbridled animal-like behaviour of so many our people - from the top to the bottom?

What the prophet Isaiah said is so relevant to our country: “So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter” (Isaiah 59:14).

ESTHER TYSON, CD