THE EDITOR, Sir:
Is has been reported that persons such as Mr. Audley Shaw, Mr. Bruce Golding and Mayor Montague of the St. Mary's Parish Council are chastising the government for spending funds to assist the affected Haitians, who are now in Jamaica, with the argument that Jamaica has enough monetary and financial related issues and should not be spending any amount on the Haitians. Implicitly, are we saying that so long as a country has its own issues, which require financial resources, then no such resource should be spent to assist other nations or nationals?
Clearly, these views are motivated by one or more of three things: downright cheap, selfish, and narrow political thoughts; inhumane thinking; and/or a colossal ignorance of nation-states' responsibilities towards each other in a regional or hemispheric environment.
In the early 1980s, the Seaga-led government sent Jamaican soldiers to assist in restoring social order in Grenada after the assassination of Maurice Bishop. Was that a correct thing to do and was not there a cost to the Jamaican Government for that? Didn't Jamaica have financial problems at that time?
Information obtained from the USA Census Bureau indicates that over 33 million persons are living in poverty in the United States of America today, and that on average, one child dies every 53 minutes from poverty-related causes. Are these leaders of the Jamaica Labour Party therefore saying that the United States should not have given aid to Jamaica already exceeding US$2 billion in total since 1962 and now, with present aid valuing some US$13.5 million per year, through its USAID programmes - which is only one source of such aid to Jamaica from the USA?
The extension of kindness to countries and people in need is not only and always, the sole responsibility of developed nations. It is full time for political maturity in Jamaica. Let's begin the process please.
I am etc,
KIRK JOHNSON
Dread27@hotmail.com
National Organiser
PNP Y.O.
Via Go-Jamaica
