THE EDITOR, Sir:
I HAVE to disagree with certain sections of the article contributed by Stephen Vasciannie which was printed in the IN FOCUS section of the Sunday Gleaner of December 16, 2001. The article seems to be based on the premise that between 1996 and 2000, the 773 individuals killed by police, had their human rights violated.
It is not clear how this assertion can be made from the statistics presented in the article. He further laments that for many in the society there is no sense of moral outrage at the level of police killings since 1996. How are we to express moral outrage if we do not know how many were actually in self-defence or how this compares with the rest of the world?
He goes on to assert that the statements made by Minister Peter Phillips on order in the society are too broad to make sense. The Minister's statements imply to me that in maintaining order, one actually restores greater access to rights and justice.
Finally, he proclaims that if progress is to be made, the state must acknowledge that it is the greatest obstacle to the promotion and protection of human rights in Jamaica today. As he has presented no facts to back this statement up, one can only assume his proclamation is based on his subjective judgement.
In my opinion, the greatest hurdle we face is keeping pace with the effects of globalisation, which seems to have caught by surprise, not only Jamaica, but the rest of the world, including the so-called developed countries. Globalisation has allowed activities to simultaneously extend across widely dispersed locations. So territorial distance and borders now have limited significance. Three key factors, communication, finance and organisation have all been impacted by it, and all three have been critical to the exponential growth of organised crime, in particular the narcotics trade. Organised crime thrives in disorganised and disordered societies. We have to start thinking global in order to beat this threat, local measures will not suffice.
And if we do not beat the threat, human rights will be of little significance. Minister Phillips is on target.
I am etc.,
PETER MYERS
chessplayers@go.com
Via Go-Jamaica
