The Editor, Sir:

Recently, I have had to question whether or not the emancipation of slavery was merely a clever shadow game played out by the patriarchs of the plantocracy or a romantic nightmare after a late night curry goat feed.

I began to come to grips with these thoughts when one of my service providers sold my contract, my identity and the services that I was purchasing and for which I paid on a monthly basis, to another service provider without my knowledge or permission.

It did not take me long to realise that in the same way that my ancestors were bought and sold on the slave blocks of centuries past, in the 21st century I am also a human commodity whose identity, address and service needs can be sold to the highest bidder on the market floors of crass capitalism.

Free markets

While I fully appreciate that the capitalist mode of production is the basis of free markets and high roller deals amongst those who own the means to control the economies of countries, I question whether or not any human being should be cut off from the decision making that ends up in the purchase of his or her identity, contract or service.

At the moment, I, like many other Jamaicans, have made a conscious decision to purchase my telephone and internet services from Cable and Wireless, Jamaica; my water services from the National Water Commission and my electricity services from the Jamaica Public Service Company. I am hoping that if these entities make the decision not to provide me with the services for which I am paying a very high price, they would have the decency and the ethics of the best business practices to inform me that they are transferring me to other plantations.

Meaning of freedom

The time has come for us to have a serious discussion on whether or not the emancipation of our ancestors liberated us from human bondage in fundamental ways. Black History Month should remind us that we need to continuously question the meaning of freedom, integrity, autonomy and our essential humanity in the crass market place.

I am, etc.,

Dr GLENDA SIMMS

Kingston