The Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) has once again called for a pound of flesh from the poor - certainly not from those who can afford to drive around in air conditioned vehicles all day; not from those who can afford to buy what they need without worrying too much about the costs; nor from those who have never ridden on one of these buses.

The JUTC has, instead, chosen to squeeze the last cent from the pockets of those poor, unfortunate, meagerly working hustlers who supported it from the beginning. It is unfortunate when those who should protect and defend you betray you in the most devious way.

Can't be satisfied

This story is no different from that told of the biblical Zaccheus, the chief tax collector whom the Romans used to squeeze monies from his compatriots. Zaccheus, while collecting for them, collected a little extra, from which he received his wages and an extra percentage and became extremely rich.

Oh! I wonder where all those monies the JUTC has collected over these many years are, even as it desperately tries to get rid of the other operators. The JUTC is now consumed by its own greed and the more it has, the more it wants because it cannot be satisfied.

Rolling back prices was just a sham to roll them up. I am not hearing of much increases in the payment of these workers and now that the recession is taking even greater effect, people are losing jobs and can hardly pay what is now required. I see that the tears are rolling down the faces of the many unfortunate Jamaicans. My defenceless people mourn as the hands of injustice and tyranny rule.

Jamaica cries for an emancipator, one who will free us from the oppressors, especially those with the Zaccheus spirit. There is a Zaccheus spirit in the JUTC.

I am, etc.,

EVERTON TYNDALE

evat_78@hotmail.com