The Editor, Sir:

This is my response to the 'Angry Jamaican' whose letter was published on Saturday, December 1.

It is folks like you who are giving Jamaica a bad name abroad.

We have our ills as any other country on this planet, but if we give up, turn our backs on our lovely country, then our future will be bleak.

I was born in Brooklyn to parents who have a fifth grade education and have managed to carve out a piece of the American pie for themselves and managed to return home as often as they could to help others they'd left behind. I learned from them that an education and hard work are the keys to success. I have a daughter, born in Manhattan and we both have dual citizenship and are proud holders of both American and Jamaican passports.

My daughter attended school in Park Slope which is considered the top district in Brooklyn, and wasn't reading at the age of five. I sent her to Jamaica to attend St. Theresa prep and she was reading with comprehension in two weeks of admission and is dazzling everyone because "she is a farrinah".

I want you and our community to know that I have faith in the teachers, the Government and I don't care who is power. We will overcome.

Just do your part - reach out to those in need, lend a helping hand or sponsor a child's education. Do not criticise; be a part of the solution, not the problem.

I am, etc.,

PROUD JAMAICAN

New York