Jamaica is not a paradise found

Rockaway Park: I have followed Jared McCallister’s CARIBBEAT column in the Daily News for a long time. His column relates people who are the backbone of our great city who work in many industries and follow diverse career paths. It also enhances the mosaic that is New York City. One of the issues that I would like to see him focus on is the reality of what is going in in Jamaica, and especially in St. James Parish. As he must be acutely aware, Desiree Gibbon (right), a young, talented model who went to Jamaica searching for an opportunity to follow her dreams, was brutally murdered there.

It has been one month with no positive actions from the police force there, with their only comment being they are searching for a person of interest. Focus should be placed on the high amount of corruption there and the role the crime lords play in the fabric of society.

It is sinful and unjust what is going on in that specific area of the country. Americans are being led to believe that Montego Bay is a safe place to vacation, to live or to even visit for a day. It is not. There are an average of six murders daily, more than 1,800 this year. This is an area with a population not larger than the total inhabitants of St. Albans, Queens Village, Rosedale and Hollis combined. Imagine there being six murders daily in those areas. There would be outrage, protests and movements started to do something.

Disney, through its game shows, is promoting travel to Jamaica, and Montego Bay in particular, and getting big advertising dollars for this. There is also the hustle of the prizes given, which also result in Americans traveling to this cesspool. The big-money resorts sell the illusion that it is a safe, pristine, beautiful paradise.

The cruise lines continuously make stops in Jamaica and promote lies. In effect, these actions, among many, help to bring people there to be robbed, insulted and disrespected at the least. My dearest future daughter-in-law was callously murdered there. We are selling a lie and pulling wool over people’s eyes and placing Americans at risk by not disclosing these things. Guillermo Rodriguez

First things first

Floral Park: I agree we needed to help Puerto Rico, but they do not pay their fair share of taxes to support the United States, so why is it they think we are obligated to fix everything for them? Maybe they should become a state and pay in to the country before they complain. Barbara Arias

Bitcoin primer please

Rockaway Beach: Is there someone in your vast readership who can define and explain bitcoins in a comprehensive manner? Googled it, without much input. I get the eerie feeling that it is an invisible commodity, and one that can end like the tulip bubble of the Netherlands. What is the structure? The collateral behind it? How did it become negotiable? Obviously, I am unschooled in the art of finance, but can’t help being curious about something that seems ethereal.

Marlene Cunningham

America or England, old boy?

Stratford, Conn.: How can you possibly have cricket on your sports calendar and not bowling?

Raymond R. Saksa

New York refugee

McAllen, Texas: I was born and raised in New York City and moved to Texas 30 years ago. NYC is a crime-infested, overpriced hellhole unless you are very affluent and can live in a high-income area. Texas has no state income tax, warm weather, lower cost of living, less legal regulation and friendly people. I was robbed three times and burglarized once in NYC. It never happened to me in Texas. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Big Apple; I just couldn’t live there anymore. Steven Widnick

Taking a bumping

Staten Island: Re “Pol at center of a 1st-class flap” (Dec. 25): Just wondering who paid for the first-class ticket, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee or taxpayers?

Andy Rosalisi

Nest of spies

Brooklyn: UN out of the U.S.A. Out out out! Pay your damn bills and get the hell out of here!

Diane Hunt

The good guys list

Rockaway Park: Maybe it’s time for The News to run a list of men who haven’t been accused of sexual misconduct. Though it’s not newsworthy to include common men (I volunteer to share my list), at the rate you’re going you might need to dig deeper to keep up with the stories! It might be time to pat some gentlemen with manners and class on the back even though good behavior should be what is expected of men, not something they should be rewarded for. It’s a sad time for us all, but nothing new: My stories go back many years, but no one cares — I’m not famous. Elyse Rubin

Speaking of lists . . .

Brooklyn: I witnessed a Santa Claus shout “Ho, Ho, Ho” and get heckled by the #MeToo movement crowd. We also know Santa Claus is under federal investigation by Robert Mueller for possible connections to Russian collusion thanks to his red suit. Oy vey! Lydia DiBello

Limits to congestion pricing

Manhattan: A few corrections to Paul Steely White’s Dec. 22 plea for congestion pricing (“Gridlock alert for all transit”): 1) You do not pay to go over bridges and tunnels in a bus or subway, you pay a fare, the same fare we all pay whether we cross a bridge or not. 2) Congestion pricing will not only affect car owners. Taxi and Uber riders will pay, and storeowners will see increased delivery costs. These costs will be passed on to you. 3) With congestion pricing, city dwellers pay more, Albany pays less. We already send far more to Albany in taxes than we get back. Before we are asked to pay any more, the state needs to provide its share. 4) We already pay 20% of all tolls in the entire U.S. and some of the country’s highest taxes. Yet, the state raids the MTA for nontransportationrelated items, notably for a ski slope. Before we give the government another nickel, they must prove they can act responsibly with the billions of dollars we are already sending them. 5) Congestion pricing is not going to solve congestion. Over a 10-year period, bridge and tunnel tolls doubled and congestion is worse than ever. 6) Congestion will not be solved by making it harder to use cars, as White claims, but when we make it easier not to. New York, city and state, must offer convenient alternatives to driving, and they must do so with the billions of dollars in tolls and taxes we already send them.

Charles Gross

Losing bet at Belmont

Franklin Square, L.I.: Over a century ago, August Belmont had the foresight to build his racetrack on state land. He must have had an inkling of the local politicians of today and their fouling nature of anything that may come out of something that has a positive future. David Lean

Israel is everywhere

Monsey, N.Y.: Re (“Lorde will shun Israel,” Dec. 25): So let’s educate Lorde. These boycotts are an extension of BDS. Thus, if she is going to stand by her “integrity/ethics” now since she is informed, then she must boycott all Israeli products: 1) no more social media, as software behind it has an Israeli signature. 2) cell phones; same as above. 3) computer chips; same as above 4) water; same. We can go on. The point being is, if she stands by her position, then we simply won’t hear from her or the likes of her ever again. I’m no Zionist, I’m a Yid; it makes me pragmatic. So boycott Israel, but be “man” enough to stand by your positions. Yosef Chaim

Israel can’t win

East Windsor, N.J.: Chutzpah is explained by the example of the boy who murdered his parents but then asked the judge for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan. Saeb Erekat, a top official in the Palestinian Authority, accused Israel of genocide but then checked into an Israeli hospital for medical treatment.

Arthur Horn

Missing from Mass

Manhattan: I noticed that the mayor was conspicuous by his absence from Midnight Mass at the cathedral as was Police Commissioner Jimmy O’Neill, although O’Neill may have been out with his troops. In fact, the only high-ranking city official I saw at the Mass was Fire Commissioner Dan Nigro. Quite a departure from times past.

Frank B. Meade

Bottom of the barrel

FACEBOOK Manhattan: It’s not true that the Giants never lost 13 games in a season. It was a long time ago. I’m 66 years old, and when I played for the Bronx Giants, in the Pop Warner Pee Wee League, we went 0 and 13. Larry Madden