Dear Editor,

As a Jamaican, born and raised, I’m distraught. When I hear some things being reported in the news, my initial response is: “It can’t be Jamaica?!”

The most recent news item which evoked this distress was the heinous demise of 83-year-old Ceyan Foster of Watchwell, St Elizabeth, who was raped, beaten, and left for dead. She eventually died. I am particularly moved because, in Jamaica, I was raised by three ladies — two lived well into their 80s, the other to 100 years old. I now regard myself as blessed knowing that all three have long ago slept off to their Maker. God forbid, if they were alive today, they would be candidates for rape.

The sort of depravity that is now reeking havoc across Jamaica is not necessarily the fault of the hapless perpetrators. Over time, successive Jamaican governments have embarked on so-called ‘development strategies’ that have failed to develop the minds of these depraved practitioners of crime. Instead, they have coddled them into failed, valueless, clenched-fist, bell-ringing monsters. And now that we have all had our fill, we are running around like headless chickens, scratching for growth in all the wrong places.

The only thing growing in Jamaica now, and for the foreseeable future, is the elephantitis of our depravity.

It can’t be Jamaica?! This can’t be Jamaica, my Jamaica!

Ray Ford

fordraye1@aol.com