All Jamaicans must share the sadness expressed by Garth Rattary in his column 'Unhappy new year' which appeared in The Gleaner yesterday. He concludes that the tragedy that claimed 14 lives on an unsafe roadway at Dam Bridge in Portland was avoidable.

Unfortunately, the conditions that lead to tragedy abound in our society. Dangerous roads, inept drivers and defective vehicles are constant threats to life and limb on our highways.

Gunmen with illegally obtained guns kill with impunity. Corruption and inept government add to the conditions that threaten our daily lives. Little is done to resolve the problems which lead to tragedy, yet we continue to be shocked when lives are inevitably lost.

R Oscar Lofters

lofters1@aol.com

Fix that bridge

There is a bridge on the way to Millbank called the Alligator Church bridge. It amounts to a death wish to drive on this bridge. It's wrong to have farmers, schoolchildren and people in general travelling on a bridge like that.

If this bridge is not replaced soon the people of these communities will be in the same situation or worse than the people in that major truck disaster. When you walk on the bridge it shakes.

It's at the crossroads to Millbank near to Seamans Valley and Ginger House.

Byron L. Somers

byron.somers@century21.com

Sexual apartheid

With reference to Glenda Simms' 'Other rivers to cross' published December 28 - apartheid is a system of laws applied to one category of citizens in order to isolate them and keep them from having privileges and opportunities given to all others.

Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, spoke recently by video phone to the New York Times and said that just like apartheid, laws that criminalised sexual relations between different races, laws against homosexuality "are increasingly becoming recognised as anachronistic and inconsistent both with international law and with traditional values of dignity, inclusion, and respect for all."

Thomas Mooney

boarderthom@hotmail.com

Good luck, Orville

This a good luck wish for Dr Orville Taylor with whatever you do next in addition to your 'day job'.

A lot of your writings were indeed truthful, yet funny.

Now I will have to find another columnist to post on Facebook!

Once again all the best with whatever you do, and walk good.

S. Dennis

Herts, UK