The lead story in yesterday's STAR was indeed hilarious.

According to the story, popular deejay Natural Black was arrested and sentenced for behaving in a boisterous manner at the Norman Manley International Airport. He pleaded guilty to using indecent language and to shouting "death to cricket" and other derogatory things.

As the presiding magistrate pointed out in court, our international airport is the gateway to our country and is the place where visitors form their first impressions of our island.

Can you imagine just landing in a foreign country, only to see and hear a man dressed in bright colours and wearing a tight turban shouting "death to cricket"? That must have been frightening.

But that was not all. The story also said the deejay was 'burning' uniformed officials and appeared to have a special problem with members of the police force.

The punishment he received was justified. After all, that sort of behaviour at the nation's airport, and at a time like this when our island is flooded with visitors, is simply unacceptable.

Perhaps he was annoyed by the strict regulations now being enforced at the airport, but that still does not justify his behaviour.

We all have at one point or another, been subjected to long lines and hours of waiting, but that does not give us the right to shout and carry on in a disrespectful way.

Even though he is not Jamaican, we expect him to show us some respect, the way Jamaicans have accepted him and his music.