Dear Editor,

I make reference to the letter written to Charles Washington Misick, finance minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), and published in last Sunday’s Observer. The message in the letter is uncanny because it is as if someone borrowed my thoughts exactly.

I, too, have lived in the TCI for many years now, and my relatives in Jamaica often wonder why I keep putting up with the pettiness that I encounter here. They insist that I can do better.

Foreigners are not appreciated by these people. Nobody has told them that without foreigners, investors and labourers they would have to shut down the TCI. From the Government down, they behave as if they are doing everyone else a favour by having foreigners here.

The TCI does not have enough skilled workers. Many of the Belongers, even when they don’t have a skill, refuse to do work they regard as menial. Many of them who take such a job just walk off shortly after without notice. Yet, at the same time, the Government is holding on to work permits as if there is a scarcity.

If all foreigners, including those from Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean, the United States, Canada, and Europe should pack up and leave, there would be no TCI.

It is as letter writer Devon Raul Duncan says: they seem to tolerate foreigners only because the TCI is woefully short of qualified professionals to fill critical positions in many areas of the country.

Mr Charles Misick’s arrogance is not new-found. I worked some years ago in North Caicos, where he comes from,. and his reputation precedes him. It’s time he wakes up and smell the coffee before it’s too late.

Pierce Anderson

Grand Turk