Much has been written in the last few days on whether Jamaica should accept Haitians fleeing their destructed homeland to the shores of Jamaica. In making this decision government should let common sense prevail over emotions and points scoring.

 The fact is that the Haitians, who are most helpless, needing medical attention and food, are the ones least likely to end up on our shores. It will be the fittest of the fittest and a few troublemakers who are likely to make the more than 150km trip across. The irony is that those are the same young men and women that are needed to rebuild Haiti.

 A better approach is for the government to assist the Haitian government with human resources, aids and technology where possible, so that they can rebuild Haiti. This is a grand opportunity for the Haitians to use all the attention they are now getting to their advantage. It is not a time to abandon and retreat. They need to rebuilt Port Au Prince with hurricane and earthquake proof buildings that next time there would not be so much devastation.

 By the time all of this is over Haiti could resurrect itself from being called the poorest nation in this side of the world to the proudest nation. Japan survived atomic bombs devastation to become one of the greatest powers on earth. There is not enough space here to list all the countries that have evolved from both natural and man-made destruction.

 We should accept a manageable number of Haitians who need critical medical care but we cannot encourage able-bodied Haitians to flee their country. They cannot afford to miss probably the greatest opportunity since independence to rebuild their country.