The majority must respect minorities

As the Charter of Rights bill is being "discussed", Portia Simpson Miller pleads with the international community to respect the Jamaican majority in denying a portion of the Jamaican citizenry their basic rights and Bruce Golding (uncharacteristically) remains adamant, stead-fast and consistent about one thing - homosexuals will not have equal rights in Jamaica.

If we accept this "respect the will of the majority" argument then black Jamaicans should happily accept the majority rules of white supremacy when living in countries where they are the minority, and should in fact ask that the legal equal rights provisions in the laws that protect them from the white mobs be repealed.

Likewise the Final Solution beliefs that led the majority German Christians to slaughter millions of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and other minorities must also be accepted not as genocide and crimes against humanity, but simply the will of the majority.

Yes, heterosexuals are in the majority. Yes, their privileged status will remain much like all the rest of the ruling classes and tyrants of history. The question is upon what basis do human and civil right exist? On what basis does citizenship exist? What is the point of democracy which our politicians are supposedly sworn to uphold? Surely all Jamaican citizens deserve the same basic rights or none at all.

Esther Figueroa, PhD

Gordon Town

St Andrew

Respect for national symbols

I was surprised to read Carlton Smith's complaint about only one verse of the national anthem being sung. I sang the anthem twice last weekend, at the 90th anniversary reunion of the deCarteret College Past Students Association on Saturday evening and 12 hours later in Mandeville Parish Church at Sunday worship. On both occasions we sang both verses. Agreed, my experience may not be typical but even so.

And incidentally I was surprised and pleased to find that I still knew all the words, even though I haven't lived in Jamaica for more than 30 years. It is tribute not to the power of my memory, but to the memorable anthem that was written all those years ago.

David Shepherd

Past Principal, deCarteret College