THE EDITOR, Sir:

I am often amazed at how casually Jamaicans use the word 'garrison' to refer to our communities. Do we really understand what it means, and even more important, what it represents? Originally, the word garrison meant a "fortified stronghold","body of troops in fortress," or "military stations".

To name our communities garrisons is to say that we are somehow a stronghold, with troops defending or fighting for a territory.

The name garrison creates a separation and the stigmatisation of a community. To say garrison is to say that one community is separate and apart from another community. After years of separation because of political affiliation, do we want to continue this corrosive culture of separation among our communities? Doesn't a man have the right to interact with his brothers and share for the common good?

A man in Jamaica has the right to live in a community together with all the other communities around him and not be separated by a name. We are all brothers who have to strive together to achieve the common good of the country.

Besides a separation created by the name garrison, there is also stigmatisation. Calling a comm-unity a garrison is a way of creating a certain type of lifestyle and presenting the lifestyle as true because the lifestyle now goes with the name. We have seen the lifestyle and the consequences of the lifestyle of the so-called garrisons in Jamaica.

This lifestyle is very different from a regular community. Since it's a garrison, 'a military station', people have the right to take the law into their own hands because a garrison is supposed to be indepen-dent and able to carry out its own style of law. These communities bear record of the consequences of a self-governed community.

I am, etc.,

Nylon Blake

nyronblake@yahoo.com

MAPS clears the air

The EDITOR, Sir:

Regarding the article entitled 'What's up at UWI?' published in The Sunday Gleaner February 10, the executive committee of the Mona Association of Postgraduate Students (MAPS) would like to unequivocally state that the above-mentioned publication was compiled and submitted without the knowledge of the executive and did not have our approval.

MAPS represents all graduate students on the UWI Mona campus. The executive body of MAPS serves as the liaison between graduates and the campus' administrative body.

While we do agree that there are some valid concerns raised in this publication and that these concerns indeed need to be addressed, the executive of MAPS is agitating on behalf of students through the policies and channels available and has seen positive results in recent times there is still much to be accomplished, we are encouraged by this trend, and we will continue to actively address the issues of graduate students on the UWI Mona campus.

I am, etc.,

Dwaymian Brissette

President

Mona Association of

Postgraduate Students

Political cover up?

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I Refer to the article in the Friday Gleaner 'No breach committed' - Tufton says no law broken by those who acquired government land. If land can be bought without the approval of the Land Divestment Committee, which was established to ensure transparency, then what purpose do they serve? What type of transparency will they insure? In essence, they serve no real purpose, so, dismantle the commitee. Then again, is it because members of both sides of the house are involved so that nothing will come of it? Another political cover-up?

I am, etc.,

Anthony Smith

East Ascot

Greater Portmore

St Catherine