The Editor, Sir:

Barack Obama's presidential bid empha-sises the fact that in the case of dual nationality the United States is far more liberal and democratic than Jamaica. The Americans sail easily along with it while the Jamaican ship of state remains becalmed in a constitutional Sargasso that provokes division, dissension and distrust among the travellers and the crew.

American law requires that candidates running for the presidency must be born in American territory. Dual nationality does not matter; thus Barack Obama is able to be a contestant without having to renounce connection with the land of his father's birth. At another level, naturalised American Arnold Schwarznegger is governor of California while still holding Austrian citizenship. Colin Powell would not have had to renounce his Jamaican connection had he chosen to run for the White House.

Obama was born in Honolulu, which makes him an American; and under the Independence Constitution of Kenya, he became a Kenyan citizen on the date that he was born. He was never required to renounce anything, nor is he subject to the groundless suspicions that he would have had to endure were he born in Jamaica of an American parent.

Constitutional amendment

Amendment XIV of the American Constitution reads, in part, "All persons born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." This allows dual citizens in America, including many born Jamaicans, to run for any office except president, which is reserved for natural-born citizens.

It is bemusing to listen to and hear from some Jamaican commentators who enthusiastically support Obama for president of the United States. They urge him on while carefully avoiding the challenge to demand amendment of the Jamaican Constitution that makes second-class citizens of persons born in this country. Of such is the insecurity of a Third-World mentality.

I am, etc., KEN JONES

alllerdyce@hotmail.com