Dear Editor,

Minister Ed Bartlett was on the defensive about the controversial ‘Happy Birthday’ billboard sign he received in Time Square, in the United States, recently. He said the signs were not funded by Jamaican taxpayers but paid for by a close friend.

He reportedly went on to describe critics as “wutless and bad mind”.

Bartlett needs to understand that, with corruption and nepotism running rampant through government ministries and agencies, people have a right to be concerned. Close to one billion Jamaican dollars have been reportedly lost in recent years due to corruption, and no one has been held accountable. Most incidents disappear quietly; the media reports these incidents, but then everyone forgets until the next incident surfaces. The most recent allegations of financial irregularities at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) appears to have been already forgotten.

No one would’ve cared if the billboard signs simply read ‘Happy Birthday, Ed Bartlett’, but the signs included his official government title — hence the concern.

This is not the first time Bartlett’s image has appeared on billboards in foreign cities; he has even appeared in New York’s Time Square before, and also Toronto, when he was welcomed to these cities by private interests. I am not sure why a government minister doing the job he is paid for needs to be welcomed by a private individual in a public square, on a huge billboard, with his face and official title. No other government minister we are aware of, or heads of government in the Caribbean or Americas are offered these type of accolades, which screams ego and self-interests.

Sorry, Minister Bartlett, but your face does not lure visitors to Jamaica, you have the right to tell your friend that it is not a good look from any angle to do that grandiose gesture.

P Chin

chin_p@yahoo.com