THE EDITOR, Sir:

I am alarmed, confused and downright disgusted about most of the politicians who have put themselves forward as our country's representatives. I have said repeatedly that a type of slavery still exists in our country, and most of all, in the half-empty spaces between the ears of these politicians. It's the classic case of mental slavery.

Politicians have kept the Jamaican people - at least, a good portion of them - in ignorance. Education is at the bottom of the pile because these mental slave masters understand that by keeping our people uneducated, they are kept poor and dependent on the scraps that fall from the tables they, the slave masters, eat.

Why else would the People's National Party decide to reopen the so-called scrap metal trade? The scrap metal that has been generated over the years is now gone. Finished. The very earth has been dug up for what was beneath it.

We have no manufacturing companies that produce scrap, so where the hell will this scrap come from but from the country's infrastructure, which is in a deplorable state.

People's gates are being cut off at nights and their grilles as well - even in broad daylight.

I know that the intention of reopening the scrap metal trade is a Cabinet decision, and not only of Anthony Hylton. The leader of the party, who pretends to love the poor, has virtually decided that those of us who are already struggling to keep food on our tables and roofs over our heads must pay for the ineptitude of others.

PEPON RUDDOCK

CEO, Jamrow Trading &

Manufacturing Company