NOTE-WORTHY
Published:Wednesday | February 17, 2010 | 12:00 AM
An appeal to NWC
It is sad that we have been in a drought for the past few months and we have not heard a proper plan put forward by the National Water Commission (NWC) to ease its customers' plight. Its solution to the drought is more water lock offs and fixing leaks. While fixing leaks are good, it should be a part of the commission's annual maintenance programme.
The Mona Reservoir and the Hermitage Dam (809 million and 393 million gallons respectfully), were built in the 1950s when the total population of Kingston and St Andrew was about 130,000 people. The current population of Kingston and St Andrew is now more than 650,000.
Every day the NWC institutes tighter water restrictions while there are three water sources just outside of Kingston - Rio Cobre, Duhaney River and Fresh River. Why doesn't the NWC look to harness these water sources to serve the Greater Kingston Area?
NWC, please, tell us what you are really doing to help with this situation.
Rohan Pottinger
'We cannot afford Air Jamaica'
Come on, guys, enough is enough. All this flagellation about saving the national airline at this time is really ridiculous. Are you aware of the burden this airline has placed on the nation? Clearly, we cannot afford it at this time. It is time to cut it off before it kills us.
I am sure one day when our economy is stronger we will once again be able to purchase a national airline, but to persist with trying to live above our means is the surest way to sink us into poverty.
- Brad Edwards
Mental illness and public education
I read an article written by Glenn Tucker in Tuesday's
Gleaner
. It raises a number of questions on the issue of mental illness. I work for the federal government in the United States, designing programmes that assist the mentally ill. There definitely needs to be a change of thought in how we view mental illness in Jamaica. It's really not that Jamaica is behind in its thought process in regards to this issue because there are many in the US who still think this way. However, public education on the question of mental illness has proven fruitful in the US.
The federal office I work for get more than a US$1 billion every year to assist this special population, and so I know that money is key. However, if we could do the same in Jamaica with limited resources, we would still be able to produce change.
Being mentally ill should be viewed similar to someone having diabetes. They just need treatment. The treatment will be different but there is potential for significant change. Mental illness is more common than we realise. We just need to understand it and treat it accordingly.
Nakia P McMorris