Letter to the Editor
No intent in Besmirching anyonefrom any Neighbour-'hood'
We must admit we are not committed to readingany newspaper or the watching of much local news, so it was notuntil Sunday while having lunch with some friends that we heardabout the picture in your newspaper depicting our son Sean asone of the Boys From Their 'Hood'.
Our first reaction was maybe he was standing and sharing withsome of the boys from the area of Windsor Park, which we assumedwas the area being referred to as the Hood. On seeing the picturewe quickly realized that this was certainly not the case and thatall of the persons in that picture were not from the "Hood"but were either related to us or were our invited guests.
The three young men to the left of the picture were employeesof our company that we invited, the one second from the rightis our nephew and the one to the extreme right was our son.
Sean had not seen the picture either but by Sunday night he startedhearing from his peers some negative comments in regards to hisinvolvement in the "hood". To say the least he was notat all happy because in our society it does not take a whole lotfor a person to quickly tarnish a good reputation. He was askedif he was a gang member from Windsor Park and was that his 'posse'he posed with in the picture.
Additionally, on Monday when our staff saw the picture they toowere disturbed by it and wondered what kind of repercussion toexpect for a group of expats (here on a work permit) to be seenas from the "hood". They all recalled the person whotook this picture just approaching them and snapping but the personnever asked who they were and where they were from. They are allvery unhappy with the negative publicity that this picture hasgiven them and feel that it was irresponsible of the photographernot to ask who they were in order to be better informed.
The most distressing part of this whole situation is that Seanwho regularly attends Agape Family Worship Centre, was not knownto the Publisher of this news paper.
It is now approximately three years since we have been attendingAgape and Sean has been there all of that time with us (with theexception of January through June this year while he was awayat school).
In a crowd of a million we would be able to point out regularattendees of Agape and their children even if we do not know theirnames because they are our brothers and sisters. Are we angry?No. Are we hurt? No. Just disappointed.
Our son always proudly declared in the past his Church as Agapebut he now feels that he might not even be known there. It iseasy to believe that he might not be known because he is a goodchild who is never in trouble but it is hard to accept that heis not recognized as the son of Bro. Fred. He is the exact replicaof his father.
We took the time to send you this email because we understandyour busy schedule and might not have the opportunity to see youin person anytime soon.
Fred and Sangela Haye.
Editor's Note:
The 'Bless Our Neighbour Day' event on Sunday the 9th of July,which was so well organised and appreciated by hundreds from surroundingneighbourhoods - was an astounding success. The idea was firstsuggested by Bro. Fred Haye along with PC Michael Montague. Onbehalf of Cayman Net News, we offer our apologies to Bro. Fred,Sis. Sangela, their son and friends for any pain suffered becausewe made light of the caption of a photo taken at the event whichseemed to have offended them.
The entire event of BOND took on an air of celebration, and itcertainly was not the intention of the publisher - who also tookthe photo and wrote the caption, to besmirch anyone - and certainlyany of the young men who made their presence known.
It is a fact that because of the lack of staff, the publisherputs in an average of 18 - 20 hours a day to produce Cayman NetNews. A candid photo ... with a candid caption ... is the resultof so much to do with so little staff - which at times precludegetting full names for the hundreds of photos taken at this andother events. Yet, we are quite sensitive of the smallness ofour community, and do everything in the execution of our responsibilities,not to offend anyone.
If in this case, if we have done so, we apologise.