Dear Editor,

Crime has escalated, the economy has descended further into tatters and ruin, and there is an escalation in the killing of professionals, some of whom have returned home to serve when they could have remained abroad safer and better paid.

More people have lost their jobs and we are spending more on frivolities than on serious things. We haven't been able to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, pension reform or restructuring the public sector.

Project director of the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme, Mrs Lucille Brodber, tells us it is more aligned to people under 40. But was this communicated to older folks on the campaign trail? Isn't this prejudicial? A bunch of old politicians are running a programme that shows preference for younger voters.

Everyone in the PNP seems tired. The political campaign clearly took its toll. Mrs Simpson Miller isn't saying much and Peter Phillips perhaps wished he had left finance to someone else. The country is on auto-pilot - no one is flying the plane. What's Bunting saying now? Roger Clarke needs more rice to produce more fertiliser and Lisa Hanna seemed to have scraped through with the jubilee celebrations. Only eight months, and failure is staring the new administration in the face. It is easier to win state power than to govern.

Mark Clarke

Siloah, St Elizabeth

mark_clarke9@yahoo.com