The Editor, Sir:

I have never sought paid employment in Jamaica, having been transported to the heart of colonialism to be educated and like most such stayed to labour. Last week I was given a gift of ground food wrapped in the classified pages of The STAR dated November 17, 2007. Being an avid reader short of material I read every scrap. Please try to imagine my horror upon reading the following advertisement. "Need Christian live-in helper age 24-26 must be fair skin. Tel ... " I was gobsmacked, as they say in the colonial capital.

A walk on the beach splashing in the warm Caribbean Sea was the only way to convince myself that I was indeed in Jamaica in the first decade of the 21st Century and not cold, damp, mid-20th century London/England. I was not shocked by the AD itself, the world is chock-a-block with fair-skinned, Christian bigots. What horrified was the fact that there is seemingly no law in Jamaica to prevent such outrageous racial and religious discrimination being published in one of the nation's most popular daily newspapers.

Dangers of skin bleaching

Daily, I am rightly bombarded with articles on the dangers of skin bleaching, especially among young adults. What chance do they stand when the vast majority of the population being of African descent is being discriminated against in this blatant and wicked way? Faced with such evidence I woman must yearn for and demand repatriation to Africa, the place where my dark, chocolate coloured face does not exclude me from any employment I choose.

I, therefore, implore the Hon. Prime Minister Mr. Bruce Golding to place the discussions of international repatriation at the top of his and his Government's agenda, as therein lies the solutions to many of the country's problems.

I am, etc.,

Hon. EMPRESS PETRONA

SIMPASA

Whitehouse

Westmoreland