Delroy Chuck
Let me wish you a peaceful, prosperous and wonderful 2007 - and it can be if we make the right choices. Choices bring change and, I daresay, changes are urgently needed.
Very few areas of national life give us comfort, satisfaction or a sense of pride. For 2007, Jamaica must become a different country, certainly from its present decrepit state, and we can begin by cleaning and beautifying everywhere.
Dirty place
The year 2006 ended with the outbreak of malaria - a disease widely associated with poverty and unhealthy living conditions.
Our Christmas was spoilt by thick and unhealthy smog spewing from the Riverton City dump and covering parts of St. Catherine and most of Kingston and St. Andrew. The fire at the dump continues due to lack of equipment and, probably, funds to hire private contractors.
Our cities and towns generate huge amounts of garbage which pile up and remain for days, during which period portions of it scatter along the roadside and into the gullies.
Consequently, empty containers, plastic bags and trash can be seen everywhere. Our gullies have become garbage dumps, primarily from the deliberate dumping of garbage by residents who complain that the garbage trucks do not come on time.
In truth, garbage collections have been quite haphazard and regular schedules are not kept. It appears that most of the garbage trucks are out of use due to lack of funds to buy petrol or needed parts, and many private contractors are now reluctant to help, as they are owed huge sums of money for work already done.
Dishonestly, a couple empty-headed, misguided and politically-connected commentators have sought to blame the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) for the malaria outbreak, the Riverton City smog and the nasty state of our towns and cities.
Thus, the Member of Parliament for West Kingston, Bruce Golding, and Mayor Desmond McKenzie are foolishly blamed because some cases of malaria started there, and despite cases of malaria occurring in contiguous PNP-controlled consti-tuencies. When things go wrong, as it has with the malaria outbreak and at the Riverton City dump, incompetents need to blame others.
The fact that 11 of the 14 parish councils are JLP-controlled makes it easy for partisan commentators to blame them for the grimy and filthy state of their cities and towns, without acknowledging that street cleaning is the responsibility of the central government-controlled NSWMA. Moreover, the streets and towns of the PNP-dominated Westmoreland, Portland and Portmore councils are as bad, or probably worse, yet the JLP-controlled parish councils are conveniently blamed.
Jamaica can be a clean place, and it was in the decade of the '80s. The streets of Kingston and St. Andrew and the towns and cities were well-swept and well-kept. Fountains decorated the main towns. It was a pleasure to drive and view the flower gardens along many roads and to appreciate the cleanliness of the streets.
In 2007, Jamaica can become a clean and different place. But, we must start by enforcing the laws against littering and punish people for using the roads and gullies to discard their waste.
Simultaneously, we must provide the resources, supervision and leadership at the NSWMA to get the job done. It is time, once again, to get our cities and towns nice and clean, and our roads repaired and pothole-free. It is time our citizens demand the basic government services and find the leadership to get them.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by email at delchuck@hotmail.com.
