Dear Editor,

Mr Gaul is only one of many Guyanese who have been treated impolitely by Caribbean airport authorities while going through immigration or other flight procedures. Some years ago a Guyanese pastor was handled in an infra dig manner by Trinidad airport officials as he was passing immigration. This had caused a stir in our news media.

Why do they treat some of us contemptuously? Is it because of the way we behave when we are in the Caribbean and further afield? What impression do they conceive on becoming aware that we are Guyanese?

And, most of all, why were the Barbadian Police cognizant that Mr. Gaul was travelling on a Swedish passport? These stark questions would surely stimulate Guyanese awareness in relation to Caribbean hospitality.

Our police would never brutalise a Caribbean brother/sister, even had he/she done what Mr Gaul had allegedly done. Guyanese are so amicable that we tend to respect foreigners and treat them hospitably, at times even more than we do our very own. Mr Gaul's traumatic and belittling experience is a lesson that locals ought to heed.