Get special contractors for returning residents
Published:Thursday | December 13, 2018 | 12:00 AMGlenn Tucker
THE EDITOR, Sir:
State Minister Pearnel Charles Jr has expressed condolences to loved ones of British-Jamaican hairdresser Karen Cleary-Brown, who was recently murdered. So, too, has Percival LaTouche, head of the Jamaica Association for the Resettlement of Returning Residents (JARRR).
It has been years that I have heard Mr LaTouche expressing frustration over the same issue. Is there more that his association can do for these persons?
Returning residents have been seen as easy targets. One reason is that it’s relatively easy to hide from them. Then, it seems many of them have not quite made the distinction between one Jamaican dollar and one British pound, so their spending habits often convey the impression that they are persons of enormous wealth.
Friends and relatives tend not to treat assignments with the seriousness they deserve, leading to strained relations and financial losses.
Perhaps the JARRR could, for a fee, identify competent and credible contractors who are prepared to sign legally binding agreements to do work - for a fixed sum - that would be completed by a specified date. Work would be monitored and videos and Skype used to record and report on the progress to persons abroad.
Caretakers should no longer be just a 'little man' who is not working. Sometimes there is a good reason why he is not working.
Returning residents are, potentially, a tremendous asset to this country - not just because of their money, but persons who spend four or five decades in a developed country usually return with helpful skills.
This is not a 'police problem'. By the time it becomes a police problem, it is too late for these hapless victims. These persons must be helped to understand that Jamaica is still beautiful, but it is no longer the place they left 50 years ago.
GLENN TUCKER