Roper Espeut and Lee

The Editor, Sir:

An article written by me and published by The Gleaner on January 31, titled 'NEPA, wetlands and Ramsar Convention', has occasioned a broadside on me by environmental activists Peter Espeut and Wendy Lee. They have made wild and unsubstantiated assertions about me. By contrast, Franklyn McDonald, who still remains the doyen of the local environment community, has welcomed my article as helpful to the scientific and environmental communities; he said on a radio programme that the article has served to highlight issues which are moot concerns at this time.

The pieces written by Mr. Espeut and Ms. Lee were unworthy of our intellectual traditions, lacked balance and grace, used abuse instead of arguments, and made no attempt to acquaint themselves with the facts.

To assert that Roper is project manager for Tank-Weld Port Rio Bueno, at which they claim the Tank-Weld Group is seeking to establish cement bagging facility, is an attempt to discredit both Roper and Tank-Weld at one and the same time.

self-interested considerations

It is to acquiesce to cynicism that assumes that every one is dishonest and that persons can only be prompted by self-interested considerations.

The Tank-Weld Group doesnot need me to speak in their defence. A thousand environmental activists cannot discredit Tank-Weld in the eyes of the community, their record of community outreach and philanthropy, in building community infrastructure, sports facilities and their contribution to inner-city communities and to the disabled is legendary.

It is preposterous to suggest that a company with the sophistication of Tank-Weld would employ someone with no background in engineering to be project manager for a US$35million port development project. Mr. Espeut, relying upon Ms. Lee, repeats this ridiculous assertion because of contempt for the reading public and an anxiety to discredit.

However, the advice of my development facilitation company was sought by Tank-Weld at the planning stage of Port Rio Bueno. They followed my advice to meet with all the stakeholders including, fisher-folk, community leaders, political leadership on both sides, and to hold a meeting of the entire community. On their behalf I engaged the Social Development Commission to organise a series of meetings with all interests in the community, including environmental lobby groups.

The result was not merely the full participation of the entire community but their ringing endorsement. The environmental interests, including, I believe Ms. Wendy Lee, were present at that Sunday afternoon meeting in Rio Bueno, and vigorously engaged in a full ventilation of the issues. On their behalf I also organised its press launch. All the costs for the consultations were borne by Tank-Weld.

block development

The steps taken by Tank-Weld in Rio Bueno are the steps that ought to be taken by all developers and investors before ground is broken. The gravamen of the article that I wrote is that the same thing that is required of developers and investors should also be required of those who are seeking to block development.

I offer as an example the attempt to list the Great Morass in St. Thomas as a Ramsar Site. If the Great Morass is listed as a Ramsar site the result wouldbe to foreclose the option of building the two hotels proposed for Holland Bay on lands contiguous with the Great Morass. The process to make that determination has gone on without any community consultation whatsoever. I have never met, nor have I been contacted by, anyone who is involved with the building of the two hotels at Holland East End.

I believe, however, that those who are interested in foreclosing the option of building the hotels that would benefit the economy of the community, should be duty-bound to meet with the communities of Dalvey, Rocky Point, Belgium, Duckenfield, which together constitute the largest rural comm-unity in the West Indies. They should stand up in a community consultation meeting and tell them why it is better to facilitate the copulation of crocodiles than to increase social and economic development of their communities. Only after such a consultation should any one be able to block such a development.

As it stands, these communities are entirely dependent on the Duckenfield Sugar Factory, because there is no other economic driver in the community. One local pastor told me that the hotels are the only hope for the economic future of St. Thomas; without it, St. Thomas is dead.

incestuous relationship

My comments about the incestuous relationship among the environmental activists community, NGOs and regulators appeared to have earned the ire of Mr. Espeut and Ms Lee. I abide by those comments. Should NEPA make public the funding given to NGOs, if this is put alongside the funding given by EFJ, as well as overlapping board memberships, it would only confirm my observation.

As far as my suggestion goes, that they are behaving like new elite who know what is best for the rest of us, this is unwittingly borne out by the column by Mr. Espeut; the closing paragraph of his column offers unsolicited advice to Roper on what to do with his time. I suppose his delusion that he knows what is best for others is incurable.

Just for the record, among other things, I am fully employed as pastor of Portmore Missionary Church, I teach courses at two different theological colleges, I do development facilitation, later this year, I will do some development of my own, for which I have so far waited more than 15 months for approvals. I learnt long ago how to walk and chew gum at the same time. The modern name for it, I believe, is multitasking, which is not a bad thing.

I am, etc.,

GARNETT ROPER (Rev.d)