Reference is made to Garth Rattray's column in your March 2 edition titled 'Writing the wrongs on bauxite reserves'. According to the article, the St Ann Parish Council recently declined to approve an application for the sub-division by a property owner based on the objection of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI), which argued that the property falls within an area reserved for 'possible future mining' by the JBI.

Private property

While it is understandable and entirely appropriate that government, under certain conditions, can justify expropriating private property for the benefit and use of the government; to extend this privilege to another (private) entity - in this case a bauxite company - appears prejudiced, arbitrary, contrary the basic principles of equity under the law, and a denigration of property rights of the ordinary citizen as property owner.

Clearly, this 'deal' cannot be allowed to continue. No, not now. Not at a time when it is widely accepted that property rights form the very foundation of 21st-century capitalism.

I am, etc.,

CLIVE BANTON

cabanton@hotmail.com

Ontario, Canada