Letters

THE EDITOR, Sir: I DO not expect my lone voice to make a difference because, in Jamaica, justice is not only blind but deaf, dumb - and slothful as well.

WE ARE frequently reminded that the key to successful cancer treatment is early detection, followed by appropriate, timely intervention in the health-care system. In the current free health-care system in Jamaica, the results of a biopsy, Pap smear reports and other diagnostic reports take many months (up to a year) in being returned to the health-care provider, thus delaying diagnosis and possible treatment.

Writing in The Gleaner of July 31, Reporter Daraine Luton, recalls some words of Senator Sandrea Falconer, addressing the Senate on Jamaica's national HIV policy for the workplace. Luton quotes Falconer as saying, "We need to look at how persons with HIV/AIDS are discriminated against in places of public accommodation..."

While the community of Buckfield celebrates the 'heroism' of the policeman who shot 'Chen-Singh' as he lay on the ground, and lament the death of the woman he stabbed to death, they all forget that neither party needed to die.

The Editor, Sir: In response to your thought-enriching editorial in Saturday's Gleaner (August 7), should you be asking 'Do you love Jamaica?' or rather 'How do I love thee, Jamaica?'Either way, the word 'love' is often misunderstood.

The Editor, Sir, I want to really have a conversation with you today to see if we can figure out what went wrong or whether, in fact, it did.

The Editor, Sir, On Friday, August 6, (Independence Day), St Thomas saw the staging of the annual Independence Day Parade in Morant Bay.

A man, as the well-known story goes, was passing by a busy construction site. Curious, he asked the first man he met: "What are you doing?"

Jamaica's 49th year as an independent nation has taken off on its journey, with 'Dudusgate' and its progeny snapping at its heels. It was a long night of distress that enveloped Year 48, and the hundreds-pound gorilla which was created by, and which haunts Jamaica House has spawned many children.

It is fortuitous that in the week in which we celebrate our Emancipation and our Independence we find ourselves being told by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) that they disapprove of tax breaks given to the tourism industry.

I read in Thursday's Gleaner, with more than a little concern, that a team of police investigators is now trying to locate the person who videotaped last week's shooting of a man by lawmen in Buckfield, St Ann, as well as the cellular phone he used to capture the controversial images.

Over the past couple of months, the Government has undertaken the restructuring of the public sector. This is a move to which I give full support if it will benefit the Jamaican people by preventing unnecessary spending and improving efficiency (or better yet, creating it).