Readers asked me to further reflect on the VW Super Bowl commercial that captured much of our imagination and column space last week, suggesting that it hardly promoted Jamaica in the best possible light and that the world is laughing at us and we don't recognise it as such.

That the world sees us as "monkeys and playthings to be laughed at"; as unsophisticated and naive, "un-serious, un-cultivated and uneducated third word people of African descent".

Winston said: "As someone who has been exposed to the frequent use of "mon", I have a different take on the VW ad. It reinforces the stereotype of the Jamaican as a joker without any real depth. As lazy people who spend their time under a coconut tree, known for their sexual prowess but lacking the intellectual toughness required to run a viable economy."

How do you get all of that from one ad, I wonder?

For Winston et al, who have taken umbrage at the Super Bowl spot, I say don't take the ad more seriously than in a humorous vein and remember, as I said in the column, that we've got to be very careful, because "what sweet we soon sour we", and if we don't watch it the veil will be lifted and our crass, murderous underbelly will be that which is exposed as what separates us from everything and everyone else.

The world now has us up on a pedestal as being the culture which uplifts, but the higher we climb, the more "we show we tail".

And "show we tail" we did, on that very same Super Bowl Sunday.

Until the news that youth parliamentarian, advocate and convenor of the Jamaica Youth Crime Prevention Council, Omar Bailey, was killed on Sunday -- execution-style: three shots to head, neck and chest -- there were many who had never heard of the young man, and many more who were disturbed by the sad and shocking irony that someone who championed the need for youth crime prevention became a victim of crime.

A clip on the nightly news showed the young man arguing passionately for the various crime prevention groups to come together under the same umbrella and unite in the fight against the crime monster.

"We're all saying the same thing," he said. If we could infer anything from this, it would be that he wanted more than just words, he wanted action too.

How noble a cause for this young man, we may have thought. That he would dedicate his youth and ultimately his life to community service. Who would kill such a young man, who clearly had the makings of a future leader? Who would want him dead?

No word yet on the motive for Bailey's killing, and only scant details are available: his body was found in an open lot in Portmore, St Catherine, and his driver's licence was found in a nearby car. There is some confusion as to why he was carrying Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) identification, but perhaps it is sufficiently explained by the notion that he was known to be a School Resource Officer (SRO), and in order to be an SRO one has to be a member of the police force.

But he wasn't. In fact, the JCF is refuting claims that Bailey was a policeman and has characterised him contrary to what his peace advocate rep suggests. The JCF has stated that he was charged twice for impersonating a policeman and convicted for other offences.

We may never know why Omar Bailey was killed. By the time the police find the killer our memory of this crime would have been replaced by shock and horror over the many such killings that will be committed in the meantime. We may never know why Omar Bailey chose to impersonate an officer of the law.

For good or for evil? We will always wonder if two polar opposite natures -- peace advocate and nefarious impersonator -- could possibly reside in one promising young man.

So Winston, let the world maintain their delusion of Jamaicans being easy-going, simple, pleasure-seeking jokers. But we know differently, for while we might appear like that on the outside, we're capable of far more sinister things on the inside. Let's hope they never find that out for themselves.

One love.

scowicomm@gmail.com