Buy the guns
I am encouraged with the recent news coming out of central Kingston and August Town, and other areas trying to embrace peace.
The Government must not let these opportunities slip away, first reward these communities for their action by giving them hope in these very hard times. If necessary, buy back the guns from the youths and help them set up business that can keep then out of trouble. We must not, and cannot, allow these communities to fall back into anarchy. It is much cheaper to pay for peace than to pay for war; with peace comes a bonus, but war brings only misery.
- Christopher Campbell, camo4@charter.net, Via Go-Jamaica
Bank failures
I must comment on the letter, 'Forex Trading' in your June 18 edition (Page A9).
Mr Glave asserts, "In the last 20 years, I can't recall a single bank failing because of forex trading." I suggest Mr Glave do some research on Barings Bank (England) and the Société Générale (France).
"A rogue trader has cost French bank Société Générale €4.9bn (£3.7bn) in the biggest fraud in financial history ... which will virtually wipe out 2007 profits at France's second-largest bank."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jan/24/creditcrunch.banking.
"In February of 1995, one man single-handedly bankrupted the bank that financed the Napoleonic Wars, Louisiana Purchase and the Erie Canal (and was) Queen Elizabeth's personal bank. Once a behemoth in the banking industry, Barings was brought to its knees by a rogue trader in a Singapore office." http://www.stock-market-crash.net/barings.htm.
- Claude B. Manning, godsondis@yahoo.com
Branding communities
Many inner-city communities have suffered from negative stigmas resulting from the revelation of incidents that have occurred in their community.
An example is the incident that took place in Trench Town recently, where the community is somehow 'branded' very closely along with the negative crime that took place. I urge all Jamaicans who are not yet helping places like Trench Town, or those currently doing so, to increase your courage in investing effort into helping to improve these communities, and use the current revelations not as a deterrent, but a motivator, because the potential is great, and the negative costs of turning our back will be greater not only for residents of Trench Town but all of us who share this land.
- Mark Pike, mark@cct-Jamaica.com, National Youth Ambassador-at-large, Via Go-Jamaica
