Jamaicans are not innocent!

I DON’T REALLY KNOW TOO MUCH ABOUT THE LAW IN CARICOM TERRITORIES PERTAINING TO BODY SEARCHES. BUT I SEE THE RECENT INTERNATIONAL NEWS WHERE A BERMUDA WOMAN RECEIVED COURT SENTENCING FOLLOWING   A SEARCH DONE BY LOCAL AIRPORT AUTHORITIES UPON REMOVAL OF HER CLOTHES REVEALED SHE HAD ILLICIT DRUGS IN A CONDOM WHEN SHE RETURNED HOME SOMETIME LAST YEAR.  REGARDLESS OF THE LAW,  IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT THE CASE OF THE JAMAICAN IS INVESTIGATED TO THE EXTENT THAT ONLY IRREVOCABLE TRUTH WILL STAND OUT. TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY OUGHT TO PREVAIL SO THAT TRAVELLERS CAN BE SCREENED WITHOUT FEAR OF ANY FORM. REGARDLESS OF WHOM SHE INTENDED TO STAY WITH, IT SEEMS GROSSLY UNFAIR TO DENY ENTRY UNLESS CRIMINAL INTENTION COULD BE SUBSTANTIATED. IT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO HEAR WHAT THE ACCUSED OFFICER HAS TO SAY IF MS MYRIE IDENTIFIES HER AND CONFRONTS HER ON THIS MATTER, WHICH SHOULD LIKELY BE HIGH ON THE INVESTIGATION AGENDA IN THIS UNSAVOURY MATTER.  THEREAFTER, THE LAW WOULD HAVE TO TAKE ITS PRESCRIBED COURSE.

Why is the Chief Immigration Officer speaking for the Customs Dept?  Perhaps she should also speak for the Police Department. There are too many departments involved here and too much ambiguity regarding roles.  It is time to correct that, as well as upgrade standards and conditions regarding searches. Where is the Ministry of Attorney General and Home Affairs in all this and is Ms Mc Clean’s Ministry the appropriate one to respond? Under which Ministry does the Police, Immigration and Customs Departments fall? Are they conducting their own investigations as well. The Police have now been implicated, but will they investigate their own as usual?

The fundamental problem is that there is little or no trust of immigration officials across the region. Each one of us who are nationals of the region and have traveled to our sister territories can attest to some incident where the reception at immigration was less that polite.

What disturbs me about this story, is that the Barbados government has not suggested what procedures they have in place to prevent a single officer, acting on their own, to intimidate a visitor into the situation described.

I would suggest that the response from the Jamaican government that the lady in question is well connected and has some measure of significant credibility within the Jamaican community.

Perhaps the very tone of your offering should give you a hint as to why nobody else in the region (and I dare say, in the world) can tolerate Jamaicans for too long.

Take your head out of the clouds… you speak as one stuck in an era long gone by!! Your comment reeks of the same rhetoric and hints of the same parochial attitudes and maltreatment meted-out to people of the Eastern Caribbean by Jamaicans back in the 1960’s when your country was flying high. Not too long ago, Jamaicans had no use for “small islands or islanders” of the EC - not with North America and the UK as the apples of your eyes - the Eastern C’bean was only fit for your insults; the perfect outlets on which you and yours could off-load your ignorance and show your asses! Then visa requirements left, right and centre and alas… Perhaps, this is why you are now in this predicament.

Sadly, you are now on the receiving end of the scorn and this is not an acceptable predicament by any measure. This scenario bears testimony to the volitility of West Indian relations from colonial days! We have not yet come to the conclusion that we need each other more than we think that we do and while we spend precious time strutting around with our delusions of grandeur the world continues to lump us all together as insignificant, 2X4 little islands (yes, even BIG Jamaica), with small minded inhabitants and we have to take what we get because as you say, we behave like crabs in barrels!

My advice… let temperance and rationality prevail! Let the people responsible (from B’dos or J’ca) for dealing with this issue do their jobs instead of shooting your mouth off with a load of filth! Let common sense rein… I think Jamaica has more to lose from a boycott than anybody else. You had better check the figures…I think Barbados imports more from you that you do from them!! And, most of all, get some love in your heart!

World Citizen

Layla Arias’s previous submission was in response to statements made by Marlon Robinson. Now that her head has been sufficiently cooled, she suggests that the comments made by the Hon. Mia Mottley are instrumental in shedding some light on charting the way forward for this issue.

She believes that there are lessons to be learned from this sagga and the opportunity to learn should not be wasted.

God bless you all and may God’s way rule in this matter!!!

It is very interesting reading all these posts.  I think that any reasonably intelligent person would hold back on some of the comments I have seen here, until a proper investigation is carried out.

As a Jamaican, all I require of the authorities in Barbados is a proper investigation. Then and only then we can rant and rage if the letter and spirit of the law was not upheld.

Attacking individual nations will do no good here. It is visceral and childlike and will only fuel the fire burning.

Jamaica in the past was arrogant (still is) because of its economical progress. Now I see other Caribbean nations exhibiting the same trait who think they have arrived economically.

If we don’t integrate we will die economically! Sorry for shouting. China, Brazil and India are the emerging powers.  Europe and other regions had to integrate to compete.  Caribbean nations with a population less than five million need to get off their high horses. The world doesn’t need us.  Even collectively we can’t give economics of scale much less individually.

If all this rambling wasn’t such a sad waste of human energy it would be laughable.  We need to bring Caribbean nations out of the darkness into the light.

Sincerely yours,
Jamaican who loves all Caribbean Islands

The Bermuda government uses drug sniffing dogs at its airports. Therefore once you or your luggage fail the sniffing test, the rest of the search is easy. This is perhaps one reason why little is heard of unbecoming conduct. Barbados could do with some sniffer dogs in the airport too.

Barbados has some of the best police professionals in the Caribbean and that goes for the men and women in the immigration department also.

It is easy for many to speculate on what really occurred. Regardless of how it is articulated, why would government professionals risk their jobs and well being to commit an act this serious?

I do not believe it occurred. That said, if the accusation is proven to be groundless, this individual should be banned from the island. 

On the other hand, if the accusations are proven to be true beyond a reasonable doubt, then the individuals responsible should be dismissed from their posts.