The Editor, Sir:

I am a cricket lover like anyone else in this region and I am enthusiastic about the fact that Cricket World Cup has come to our stage, but I must confess that I am a little bit confused.

It seems ironic that a government that had dismissed the JLP's call for free education to the secondary level as unworkable is able to finance the staging of the Cricket World Cup to the tune of an estimated $8 billion.

It is also ironic that only a few months ago Madam Prime Minister insisted that she had to raid the NHT and the NIS to help poor people because there was nowhere else the money could come from and she would remain undaunted in her efforts to assist poor people.

Poor people

I can't help but wonder if poor people would not be a little more grateful for sustainable jobs and better schools instead of two intense weeks of debushing our roadways and whitewashing trees.

I invite all grade nine high school students in Jamaica to get a pen and calculate the monies Jamaica has lost through corruption or just mismanagement, whether it be the White House project or the furniture scandal. It is at that time I would like to hear that it is impossible to finance education.

So as is customary in Jamaica, we will have a big celebration, foreigners will come and foreigners will go but our schools will remain in dilapidated condition, our teachers underpaid and our people uneducated ... it will be business as usual.

I am, etc.,

HAROLD BRUCE

MALCOLM

bruce_26@hotmail.com

Publications Director,

Generation 2000

20 Belmont Road

Kingston

Via Go-Jamaica