Why aren't we our brother's keeper?
published: Saturday | February 28, 2004

THE EDITOR, Sir:

AREN'T WE a part of CARICOM? Isn't Haiti a part of the same organisation? I know that Jamaica has our own set of problems, some that no country can help us with, but in the meantime, if all we can do is house a couple of refugees who seek asylum in a country which they deem to be safer than their own, then why aren't we our brother's keeper.

A writer in your February 26 edition suggested that we send back each and every one of them. My question is: send them where? If there was a 'war' going on in any one of our own inner-city communities in Kingston, and someone could take it no more and decided it was time to pack up and leave, who would be the one to say, 'go back'. We are faced with the same problem here, just that the persons seeking refuge came via a boat instead of on the back of a truck, and they are not Jamaicans.

Personally, I think everyone of the Haitians who happens to reach Jamaican soil and breathe a sigh of relief should be just that, relieved. Relieved of the burden of what is happening in their country. Relieved of the fear that they will be returned without being properly interviewed. Relieved of their hunger and occasional sunburn. Relieved that they are in the hands of another black race who will listen to their cry. Something has to be done about Haiti and the crisis that they now face, but in the meantime, if Jamaica is only a rock for them to seek refuge, let us be the strongest rock there is.

I am, etc.,

GARFIELD GORDON

garfieldgordon69

@hotmail.com

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Via Go-Jamaica