Stop this rape of our forests

THE EDITOR: I congratulate Ann Hilton on her articles on La Laja, off the Arima Valley. Why are joggers wrecking the road in pursuit of their profits? I haven’t been to La Laja for 20 years, even then it was difficult to drive. Ms Hilton shows that it is much worse.

All the “relevant authorities” seem to be inert — Forestry/Wild Life, EMA, police, Road Transport, Regional Corporation — so that a handful of people can wreck the lives of many users of the roads and those who live in these areas. I hope Ms Hilton will keep on exposing these abusers, and the prodding for action to stop this rape of our forests and our rural folk. Marion O’Callaghan, in her article on the Pope’s life says the young Vojtyla worked in a quarry or mine prodding “caustic” soda! Don’t believe this — caustic soda will attack and destroy your skin and flesh in minutes. (Try some lye, and see for yourself). If the dear lady is correct, the young man had special protection from “providence” but any student of chemistry would agree that she is wrong. Another newspaper wrote that it was a mine of sodium carbonate, and that later the young man worked for a firm that made lye; this is more believable.

MATTHEW G LEWIS
Curepe