THE EDITOR, Sir:DO WE have a new national crisis in the making? After reading the article entitled "On board with Cocaine Air" in the Internet newspaper Mirror.co.uk about Jamaicans using Air Jamaica as COCAINE AIR (coined by the paper), I am saddened especially when I visualize the lasting national crises that are being created. As you know, the economic climate in Jamaica is at best desperate and with that, we have hungry people doing desperate things. Drugs seem to be the answer.
We are not seeing many cases of greedy/heartless drug dealers stuffing their intestines and other body parts; instead, we are seeing poor, desperate high-schoolers and young adults trying to escape with the hope to score big. This is what spells out our new national crisis.
With this push for our young adults to find hope, we have many children being separated from their parents for many years due to incarceration. What we are left with are fathers and mothers, with many children, being sentenced to multi-years in prison and the (left-behind) children are the ones suffering. This is the setting for another generation of desperate people hoping to survive. When will we be able to break the cycle?
To attack this problem now, I strongly recommend that the Jamaican, United States and United Kingdom Governments come together and spend money on education and skill-developing programmes which will alleviate the present issue of no jobs and hope.
Hopelessness breeds criminals and criminals breed hopelessness!
I am, etc.,
BOBBY SINCLAIR
sinclair_bobby@hotmail.com
Syracuse, New York
Via Go-Jamaica
