The Editor, Sir:

It is not often that I agree with Mr. Ian Boyne on many topics but, I have to say that he was right on in his piece last Sunday, titled 'The perils of the new morality'.

I can't remember a time in the country's recent history when evil over good, not the opposite, reigned so supremely. Our collective moral compass has really gone! What is to be scorned is revered and what is to be revered is scorned. So, beating the system, badmanship and 'badgalism' are not just glamourised, but are put forward as lifestyles that are to be enthusiastically emulated. The lack of love, care and patience and how we deal with each other on a daily basis, even in traffic, is truly astounding.

Which brings me to ask these questions: Who is orchestrating and perpetuating this chaos and why? Who benefits from this, our insiduous slide into anarchy? Many, great and small, have blood on their hands, because they are content to mortgage thefuture of the nation's children for big life and a bellyful right now. So, Mr. Boyne is very right when he intimates that, because we are so caught up in me, myself and I, collective social and economic security is sacrificed on th of selfishness and all the plumb lines and yardsticks have been thrown out the window.

All I can say is this: We are setting ourselves up for some serious judgement. And, if the two parties who are competing against each other to lead us, think that they can come to power to rule and not govern and seriously attack the fundamentals of these seeming intractable problems, then they are not leaders at all but traitors to the nation. I see them talking, as they are wont to do, but are they actually going to do something?

In closing, in the Bible, repentance is not simply about expressing deep regret. It really means to change one's thinking. The hearts and minds of the people of Jamaica need to change. We need to see each other through and with the eyes of God and not in selfishness. Our ancestors and future generations are depending on us to do what we must to make this nation fulfil its destiny, to truly play her part in advancing the welfare of the whole human race!

I am, etc.,

MICHELLE REID

meesh@cwjamaica.com

Montego Bay

Via Go-Jamaica