Crime has transformed Jamaica for the worse – Pastor Samuels

Western Bureau:

Pastor Glen Samuels, president of the West Jamaica Conference of the Seventh-day Adventists says, the days of citizens sleeping with their doors open without getting killed are long gone, and that a return to those days will require all hands on deck.

“The truth is, the Jamaica in which I was born, I could leave my doors open and go to sleep at peace; as a matter of fact, I could leave the keys in my car and find the car when I wake up,” said Samuels, who was speaking at the Western Leadership Conference at the West Jamaica Conference in St James on Sunday.

“But today, if I lock the car and sleep with the keys in my pocket, I may not be lucky enough to find it when I wake up,” stated Samuels.

SERIOUS ABOUT SAFETY

Last January, Prime Minister Andrew Holness defended a claim he made on the campaign trail that, under his administration, Jamaicans would be able to sleep with their doors and windows open. “I find it incredible that someone would want to diminish the value of Jamaicans sleeping with their windows open. Though I made the comment on a campaign platform, my comment was serious. I take it personally,” Holness insisted at the time.

However, Samuels said that the current reality is quite frightening and believes the time has come for the nation to unite in seeking to address the problem.

“The truth is staring us in the face, the building of a better nation requires all hands on deck; the building of a better nation rests not in the pronouncements of Parliament,” said Samuels.

The conference was staged under the theme, ‘beyond the ordinary building a better nation, mentoring the next generation.’