The Editor, Sir:

Danville Walker, former head of the Office of National Reconstruction (ONR), says residents of Shearer' in Portland Cottage, Clarendon, who recently accused his organisation of providing substandard houses, need to be more grateful for what they received after Hurricane Ivan.

In this excerpt below:

"If you get a house as a gift and the roof is leaking, I only have one thing to say, go and fix the leak," Mr. Walker said. "I have no apologies about that statement. If you can't fix the leak, set a bath pan and if you can't set a bath pan, sweep out the water. We're sorry and sympathetic with your pain, but I'm sure the Government will be working hard."

The rhetoric before the sympathy is well in line with the class prejudice and social injustice that people of the lower socio-economic scale endure at the hands of those entrusted with their well-being. This was an extremely rude and inhumane verbal response as the pictures proved that the house was of poorer quality than what they the people owned prior to 'Ivan'.

The state cannot pretend to have helped the people and then staunchly defend its failed policies by further embarrassing the people when the truth is to the contrary. The Govern-ment promised them a better house and gave them a flimsy shack instead. This display of unapologetic state arrogance against the poor has no place in today's Jamaica.

I am, etc.,

EVEREL A MORRIS

Everel2007@yahoo.com

New York City

Via Go-Jamaica