The Editor, Sir:

Something terrible is happening to Jamaica. The soul of the nation is being systematically destroyed. The years of living under a corrupt regime have so affected the willingness of Jamaicans to abide by the laws governing the country, that we have not only become comfortable with lawlessness, we now demand it.

We can fool ourselves all we want, with pithy phrases and pleasant-sounding platitudes, but the stage has been set for this worst-case scenario in which we now find ourselves. Corrupt practices across the board have become necessary because we have learned, through practical experience, that the laws are a 'poppy-show' and are only on the books to pretend that we are civilised. We have witnessed law breakers high on the echelons of power walk away unscathed, even challenging the law on occasion. How many can afford to live under the law, when it is costlier to be honest?

Ask some of our citizens how they can afford the law when they have to 'tek light' and 'tief water' in order to survive? Why not just 'tek' or 'tief' everything else? When 'a yute' can't gain honourable employment under the law, how is he going to turn down the lucrative job offers by his don, where even the tools of his proposed trade are part of the deal? How else could he afford a gun?

Out of control

Although everyone is hesitant in declaring Jamaica a disaster, the current state of affairs clearly indicates that things have careened so far out of control that nothing short of radical measures can bring any semblance of control to the country. Yet even the most radical measures need to be placed under the microscope of the law. Has this administration lost even though it has barely begun?

How will it accomplish its goals, when all this time, there is a pack of hyenas, drooling menacingly outside the gates of power, hungrily anticipating a return to the carcass of an economy they had picked almost dry for 18 years?

Can we afford to live on dry bones?

I am, etc.,

KADENE PORTER

kadene26@hotmail.com