The Editor, Sir:

I offer no suggestions or solutions, but I want to express my own dismay and add to the ever-growing chorus of collective dismay about the current state in which Jamaica finds herself.

I am a Dutch national, married to a Jamaican. We live comfortably overseas. My employers relocate me every four years to yet another overseas location. My wife is of a highly educated disposition, and finds work wherever the powers that be send us.

Wouldn't it be nice if at some stage, we could both decide that we (and our child) wish to live or retire in Jamaica?

I, for one, would love to because you have a beautiful country with a unique culture and so many good things going for it.

My wife, too, would at some stage have preferred to have gone 'home' and bring her experience and PhD qualification with her, in order to thrive in Jamaica and possibly try to add something that could be of value to Jamaica, the country that she loves.

No improvement

However, the state of affairs of horrendously violent crimes against the person that continues to not only prevail throughout Jamaica, but seems to reach new levels of incredulity as each month and year go by, stops us in our tracks.

It saddens us, therefore, that we will never be able to settle there because we cannot see things improve one iota on the medium- or even long-term horizon.

She now sees that the longer one stays away from Jamaica, the less inclined one is to come back, discouraged as she is by the many random - often murderous - acts of violence.

We cannot envisage living in a society where constantly looking over one's shoulder is a prerequisite, and a fully sealed-off home, preferably behind high walls, with a guard at every exit and entrance, is the 'only way to live' in relatively safety, although nothing is ever quite 'safe' about living in Jamaica.

Continuing brain drain

The brain drain (my wife, for one) will, therefore, continue and members of the Jamaican diaspora will continue to be scared to go 'home'. And we will just end up seeking and settling on some other Caribbean island that does not come equipped with the hurdles described above.

I realise that there are reasons behind the violence and they are well documented. I believe that matters have gone so far beyond a certain level now that it will be virtually impossible to pull Jamaica out of this quagmire, but I would not want to be presumptuous and pretend that I'm fully qualified to make such assertions, as a foreigner watching Jamaica from afar.

Nevertheless, Act 1, Scene 4: Merciless (an officer) says, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

I am, etc.,

F. KERMESS

flexure@yahoo.com

The Hague

The Netherlands

Via Go-Jamaica