NOTEWORTHY
Published:Monday | August 2, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Link tourism, agriculture
We need to find a way to positively link tourism with agriculture. Ministers Ed Bartlett and Christopher Tufton need to sit down and devise a plan which they can take to hoteliers and request that they include local suppliers in the tourism industry. I think many big companies are socially responsible and would be willing and open to meaningful and open discussion.
Everyday, we hear of record arrival and the booming tourism industry, but when we look around us, all we see is poverty. Lucea is as poor and rundown as it was 40 years ago.
Why can't our local farmers supply fruits and vegetables to these hotels? The farmers are more than willing, but they lack representation. They lack a voice to advocate for them. For the tourism industry to be really great , local participation beyond the server level is essential. We have to be a part of the many markets. Only then will our communities begin to grow.
Wayne Graham
Lucea, Hanover
Justice delayed
Why it is so difficult for the victim of an unjust act to obtain justice from Jamaica's justice system? Some of my main concerns are: Why is a matter that is filed with the court taking years to come before a judge? Why is it taking several years for a fairly straightforward civil matter to be resolved? Why are attorneys demanding huge sums of money for retainer, and other fees, while the matter appears to be stalled and, in some instances, inappropriately concluded?
These deficiencies have caused me to feel victimised repeatedly, while the perpetrator of the unjust act flourishes in what seems like a wrongdoer's paradise.
Desmond Clarke
Brockley, London
Development, a distant dream
The Jamaican Constabulary Force's motto is to serve and protect, a duty which they ever so 'effectively' exercise daily, while the rest of us wait with bated breath for the due recourse for the apparently extra-judicial killing of a man, as shown on television last Friday.
We establish courts to deal with breaches of the law, which brings order, formality and control to the punishment of persons who disobey the rule of law. However, in the same breath, we use archaic and barbaric methods of bringing our own vengeance to fruition.
Jamaica constantly compares itself with its Caribbean counterparts in developmental advances. However, look at a country like Barbados and we will see how often occurrences like these take place. True development for Jamaica is a distant dream.
Timothy Cawley