Birth certificate woes

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I KNOW that I am just one of many asking this question; 'Are we getting anywhere or are we achieving anything at all?'

I said this because of a headline I read in the Thursday Star dated June 7, 2001. This headline reads as follows; 'Old birth certificates being rejected?' Anyone who happened to read this article would notice that there was a question sign at the end and to my knowledge there wasn't really any need for it because the certificates which they are classifying as being old, and these are not the very old red and white ones, I am referring to the black and white ones, like the ones I managed to receive from the Registration Department one year ago after applying for more than three years.

Now before May of this year I know of persons who were eagerly looking about getting one or more copies of this valid document and I can gamble with the intention of winning that the RGD people did not say anything until about the second week in May when a notice was published in the dailies telling us about the newest ones or the computerised copies.

This rejection is being done at the passport offices and about seven to eight months ago these same people told us that they will be upgrading passports also, replacing the old ones with computerised versions. I read all of the article which was published on June 7, 2001, and at the end the persons at the Ministry of National Securities and Justice were trying to confuse us even more.

I received my passport seven months ago and three days later I heard that they will be changing them and of course it comes with a price of $1,000.

Now what I'm asking is; do these people who are fooling us have to do this so frequently? And if they wish to do so, why not do it at the same money that we've already paid. We keep on paying for the same thing over and over again, and the only questions that I can really ask is: 'Are we going anywhere or will we reach anywhere?

I am, etc.,

C. JAMES

Gravel Heights District,

Spanish Town P.O.

St. Catherine

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