The Editor, Sir:

I was encouraged to read the report of Professor Nettleford's comments in support of Local Government Reform in The Gleaner of April 22. In my view, this move is long overdue - not only for the very real reasons stated by Professor Nettleford, but also for the dire current need to break away from the outdated model of colonial style local government inherited by us long ago.

Why is it, it is frequently asked, that citizens continuously find it necessary to block roads, burn tyres and create havoc, simply to attract the attention of those who, far away and unlistening in the capital city, control their destiny?

The answer, or at least one of them, I suggest, is out of a helpless frustration. There are cries for help in all aspects of their daily lives that, from time immemorial, have gone unheeded. The power to heed those cries in the past has been too remote and in most cases too late, to be effective.

The good professor has put forward some powerful arguments for urgent local government reform. My suggestion is that it is no longer a political matter - depending on which party the reform will, or will not benefit - but one which is long overdue to alleviate the plight of those who presently have no one of influence in proximity to listen, or the local power, authority and financing to act on their behalf.

I am, etc.,

MURICE STOPPI

stoppi@cwjamaica.com

40 Shortwood Road, Suite No 9

Kingston 8

Via Go-Jamaica