Visa revocation a fitting penalty
Published:Wednesday | May 25, 2011 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
The Gleaner's recent series pertaining to WikiLeaks' disclosure of the American embassy's cables has revealed stuff about corruption in Jamaica that we already knew existed. The difference is the weight carried by this source of information - Jamaicans have more regard for things that are foreign.
We also know that (as the embassy acknowledged) nothing matters more to Jamaicans than their ability to travel abroad, and (as the 'Dudus' extradition reaffirmed) messing with people's visa prospects carries domestic outrage that leads to achieving things that were deemed impossible. This reflects the power of the information age in which we now live. Thanks to WikiLeaks, the US Embassy and The Gleaner have climbed up my favourability chart.
hope for Jamaica
For the first time, I see some hope for Jamaica because this use of the visa leverage shows the only alternative to the currently unfolding Arab Spring as my embraced realistic options for bringing fundamental and meaningful change to Jamaica. It is one of life's many paradoxes, where injustice creates justice.
It is unjust for the embassy to use the visa system for punishment in the way that it does - on the back of its visa rejection letter, the embassy boldly states that it recognises the right of every individual to travel. Clearly, this is a case of intersecting interests, but the fruits produced by recent visa leveraging against certain influential Jamaicans taste like poetic justice to me.
An escape route, to which our leaders look forward in case their selfishness results in revolts, has momentarily come around to bite them from behind. Commissions of enquiry won't work for Jamaica because, like the current prime minister once said, the politicians here are of the same elite club. There are too many conflicts of interests, and our leaders, in general, don't seem to believe in sacrifices for the greater good. Did anyone consider doing pro bono work for the commission of enquiry into the Dudus extradition, since the country is in such a bad shape financially?
I am, etc.,
MARLON NEWMAN
St James