Her prerogative

In attempting to "engineer" a response to Carolyn Cooper's article 'Aborting women's rights', Romain Stewart exposed his total incapacity to understand basic issues.

Let me, therefore, try to explain it to him as simply as possible. What a woman decides to put in or take out of her body is her prerogative and hers alone. This is a principle that has always applied to the male of the species, with whom we are equal (like it or not!). - Joan Williams greatestj@hotmail.com Kingston 10

Rights restrictedby criminals

The future of the nation of Jamaica will be a terrible tyranny of criminals and murderers if we don't act urgently to neutralise the rapidly increasing growth of this demographic. We must muster the character to devise and implement the strategies that will ensure that when the criminals do their risk assessment, they will be convinced that their reward is not worth the risk.

Dwight Nelson, our security minister, has resolved to confront and slay this beast that has been plaguing our country over many decades and he must be encouraged and supported by those of us who have grown tired of living under the tyranny of gunmen.

Jamaicans for Justice has taken the minister to task for declaring at a forum in Westmoreland that there might be some temporary restraint of some of our constitutional rights as the security forces are given increased powers to push decisively against criminal subversives. The rights of ordinary Jamaicans have already been restrained in some areas and curtailed in others for decades now by criminals. There can't be many Jamaicans who don't feel personally insecure and threatened by the levels of murder, robbery and rape, to name a few, and which have incarcerated us in our very homes.

Minister, there are more with you than against you. Be strong and take courage, do not fear or be dismayed.

- Lloyd Maxwell

ellmax7@yahoo.com

Kingston 6

Implicationsof job cuts

I am amazed at how, without serious analysis, you treat the retrenchment in the civil service. Let us put matters into context.

Very recently, 30,000 persons were added to the list of the unemployed. Now, if the writings are to be believed, there are 25,000 persons from the civil service to go. These two figures add to 55,000 more on the unemployment heap. Each person feeds four or more mouths; this amounts to 220,000 persons who will need help. Does not this cause you to pause and reflect?

It is interesting that this reason for social unrest occurs just at the same time as the 'Dudus Affair', which has within it the seeds of social disturbance.

Does not all this concern you?

- Middleton Wilson

wilsonmiddleton@aol.com