When are we going to learn? When are we finally going to realise that the world owes us nothing and that when we behave like savages and criminals, that is exactly the way people are going to treat us?

News came this week that Jamaicans will now be required to obtain visas if we are travelling in-transit through the United Kingdom. In response, some letter writers to the local dailies were upset. They claim it is wrong to make all of Jamaica suffer because of the actions of a few. Poppycock!

We are suffering from the actions of a rapidly increasing number of selfish, inconsiderate Jamaicans, who either don't seem to comprehend that their actions reflect on an entire nation, or they just don't care. I am inclined to believe it's more a case of the latter.

There was a time when Jamaicans were seen as nice, friendly and courteous people. Not so much anymore.

blacklisted

Over the years, Jamaicans have been blacklisted more than nationals from any other country or, at the very least, it just seems that way. When you consider that some nationals of some of the most violent countries in the world are not as blacklisted as we are, you have to stop and think. It's easy to figure out why. It is usually the governments of some of these countries that are horrible. In our case, it's those Jamaicans, who are, in some cases, inexplicably given access to other countries and then go about making life a living hell for their hosts.

We start gangs, we sell drugs and we behave boisterously and obnoxiously (like we would at home) and expect everybody to just accept it. Think about it, if you visit someone's home and start breaking the furniture, can you blame them if they throw you out and put locks on their gates? That is what is happening to us now. Countries are putting locks on their gates to protect themselves from us.

The so-called innocents among us need to share the blame too. We are the ones who allow our fellow nationals to behave like wild animals and are all too content to ignore it, believing that their behaviour doesn't affect us. Well, clearly we will now see that we're wrong, very wrong.

external threats

Every country has a right to protect its people from external threats and, over the last three decades, or more, we Jamaicans have become more of a threat than people from any other nation. So what did we think was going to happen? Very soon we will all be stuck here with ourselves, and all the flights leaving will be taking back tourists to their homes. They'll be no Jamaicans on them. Pretty soon, too, the only Jamaicans taking planes will be the ones that are being deported back here from high-security prisons we fill in the United States and the United Kingdom, from all over, for that matter.

Even in a tiny little colony like Saint Maarten, they're considering imposing visa restrictions on us. People are getting tired of our obnoxious behaviour and its time we start doing the same too.

Send comments to shearer39@gmail.com

'Over the years, Jamaicans have been blacklisted more than nationals from any other country or, at the very least, it just seems that way. When you consider that some nationals of some of the most violent countries in the world are not as blacklisted as we are, you have to stop and think.'