Not being an old person, I do not have the opportunity to wax philosophically about 'the good old days', but that has not blinded me to things I am sure I heard of while living in Jamaica.

I grew up in rural Jamaica, with concepts of honesty in our practices, belief in the common good, respect for all things, love and equity. I cannot help but feel as if, somewhere during the last I do not know how many years, these old values that defined my life (though I have not been a true and continuous exemplar of them) have passed on.

Country rotting at its roots

I see few honest dealings in the attitude and behaviour of our role models; respect for all has gone and in its place a deference to power and might. The country is rotting at its roots and there is no decrease in the crime rate. Children are now more victims and perpetrators of crime than at any other time that I can remember, yet we still have no real move to develop their coping capabilities nor are there any real attempts to accept the need for across-the-board action on the part of all.

Our shared environment is being raped and pillaged in colossal proportions, yet we can see nothing wrong with that.

As a child growing up, I was taught the value of all the trees and animals in my environment. I am still upbraided by my mother to steer clear of half truths and lies, yet I get the feeling that this is not the same for many.

If the values that I spoke about in the beginning are dead, could we at least have a proper mourning for them? I am worried that they may have just died and have long been buried in paupers' graves at May Pen cemetery.

I am, etc.,

GAVIN MYERS

ggmyers@gmail.com

Steer Town

St Ann