THE EDITOR, Madam:
TECHNOLOGY MINISTER, Phillip Paulwell laments the mass exodus of IT personnel from Jamaica to North America and other first world countries. He, as expected, also outlines his plans of providing more job opportunities and training for such persons.
As an IT person with a degree to match my chosen career path, I have encountered many well-meaning friends both here and abroad who marvelled at the portion of the pie I take home as salary when compared with what could be earned in North America with my competence. Minister Paulwell is promising an improved IT industry and after all, money is not all. I love Jamaica. Being born here, I relish the sense of belonging. I love the climate, I love being near my family and friends. So, why leave?
It is quite possible to work in my field and earn enough to buy a nice sports car, carry a laptop, don a cellular telephone and make believe all is well but let us get real. Driving back and forth in a nice sports car will eventually leave one with a jalopy as the roads are an obstacle track. If one is lucky enough to reach home without a scratch, it is not a guarantee to enter your front door without being brutally murdered as in the case of the unfortunate Mr. Shim.
Living in an upper scale community does not assure security as this happened on Paddington Terrace.
So we have a crime problem; everywhere has such problems. The question is, what are we doing about it? How effective have our tasks forces been? Will the recently developed one make a difference? Should we, while putting ourselves at risk, wait and see? In the span of just a couple days of waiting, Mr. Wijesekera of KFC was also gunned down.
What future is there in Jamaica when our social fabric is constantly deteriorating and there is no ray of hope. Homeless children roam the streets; the mentally ill are being carted off to strange places, the suicide rate has skyrocketed along with domestic violence. What hope is there for Jamaica when unemployment is now a way of life; our justice system is ill-equipped and our government officials seem to, not only look away in convenient ignorance, but also with such airs of arrogance.
The truth of the situation could not have been any clearer when the goodly Bishop deSouza compared us with civil war-stricken Sierra Leone.
I thank Minister Paulwell for his efforts but one needs much more than a comfortable salary to be secure in Jamaica. The question is no longer 'Why leave' but, 'Why stay?'
I am etc.,
CHERYL TOMLINSON-THOMPSON
E-mail: ctt@programmer.net
Montego Bay, St. James
