Let’s band together to save Jamaica

THE EDITOR, Sir:

ANYONE WHO has not been disturbed by the horrendous spate of crime and violence in Jamaica is either fast asleep and needs to be awakened or is ready to be moved out by the undertakers.

The Jamaica Government Pensioners Association, Manchester Chapter, expresses its concern, especially in respect of the frightening incidence of murders, and asks the Government to increase its efforts in addressing this alarming situation with the urgency and dispatch that it deserves.

Jamaicans should all be aware by this, that if the daily savagery that has been occurring is not quickly and, yes, ruthlessly dealt with, the nation runs the risk of going under, sunken in the blood of our people that saturates the ground. If nothing else is frightening about this dreadful national situation, the number of innocent lives snuffed out since the beginning of the year should be. More than 50 children murdered in less than one year, in our small country!

We call on the Church – of all denominational persuasions – in the words of an old Negro spiritual: “Get on board! There is room for many-a-more.”

We call upon all service clubs and other civic organisations to make available their human and financial resources to fight this monster.

This chapter has been ramping up efforts to rescue children in six high schools across the parish. Our mode is one scholarship for the first five years of schooling and five grants. These are complemented by close mentoring via specific pensioners and a contact teacher in each school. Previously, we mentored a young man through high school and college and on to his full employment in a reputable Jamaican firm.

These are examples that can be replicated nationally to build a nation of caring and compassionate people.

Parents, too, would benefit greatly from mentoring.

We call on all Jamaicans at home and abroad to let their voices be heard and their developmental actions felt, remembering that in the words of Dante, “The hottest seats in hell are reserved for those who, during a period of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”

The storm clouds have been gathering over our country for a long time, but we seem heedless of their foreboding while we sing and dance – frequently to vulgar songs, some of which incite hotblooded people to acts of excesses, violence and savagery.

JOHNATHAN BROWN President, Jamaica Government Pensioners Association, Manchester Chapter jgpaoffice@gmail.com