Orville Taylor, Contributor
Whether it is spelt 'steal' or 'steel', the booming iron and other metals export trade is big business. It has not been reported to the police, but there is an unconfirmed case of a family in sheer terror a couple of weeks ago, nervous over the intruders outside sawing off their burglar bars. Surely, this must be Halloween, becaus they managed to remove large chunks of the protective grille, no entry was made, nor was there any attempt.
As fate would have it, the grating and billets were the target and not the poor souls inside. This is one of those ironic comedic stories, similar to that of the hapless crook, who stole an alarm system and a GPS tracking device from a car. You know the rest.
Nevertheless, this is a serious issue because it tells us a tale of a number of relationships that we are somewhat aware of. The most obvious one is that which we already know - that there is an apparent infinite demand for scrap metal and the shortage of ore in the motherland.
Globally, scrap metal comprises a multibillion-dollar industry. It has increased in value by more than 100 per cent in a few years. A ton of scrap steel sold for US$120 in 2003. At last count, this was more than $300.
Surplus of the unemployed
China, now on the verge of taking over the world economy, has the largest steel output in the world, with some 220 million tons in 2005. With a growth rate of more than 50 per cent in the period 2003 to 2006, China has had to increase its imports of both ore and scrap. Scrap metal is not only cheaper to process but most important, one does not have to mine the ore, therefore, saving multimillions in the productive process. Even 70,000 tons of 'sentimetal' scrap from the twin towers of 9/11 was bought for export to Asia.
The demand for scrap iron and steel has been a bit of a godsend for Jamaica. It reduces some of the work of mayors like Desmond McKenzie by removing many of the discarded motor vehicles, parts and household appliances from the hallowed sidewalks. Thus, it creates more space for the wreckers and gives the clean-up team more space to walk while removing signs and other offensive remnants of the recent political campaigns.
Furthermore, it eliminates many of the makeshift obstacles that irate citizens use to block roads because of 'innocent' men, whose first names are all pronounced 'dead', after shoot-outs in eight-by-eight rooms.
However, the most important impact of the global demand for discarded metal is the mopping up of the surplus of the unemployed the evidence is mostly anecdotal, it is estimated that at least some 500 residents of Riverton City and its environs now subsist from selling metal to 'the big man,' who then exports them in container loads. It leaves little to argue that the industry has immense potential, even to the strategic Vision 2030 development plan, launched last Wednesday.
Riverton has one of the highest poverty, illiteracy and unemployment rates in the Caribbean it has mostly very good and decent persons, who worship their God and will not steal even a penny, one cannot deny that unemployment and poverty, coupled with lack of opportunity for young men, create a very dangerous elixir. In allowing a set of persons to now 'eat a food,' the steel trade prevents some of them from 'eating our food' (eliminating us violently).
However, like all good things, it has to be controlled, because there are elements that will bring it into disrepute. Even by the admission of some of the middle men, in recent radio interviews, they typically do not question the source of the metals. When they receive the suspected contraband, especially when it obviously comes from walls, railroad tracks, bridges and perimeters, they perfectly deserve the name 'fences'. In plain language, they wilfully receive stolen property.
It has got out of control as thieves have stolen the covers off manholes to meet Asia's ore shortage. They have denuded bridges of their supporting rails, streets of their drain covers and of course, householders of their domestic metals. Residents of Duhaney Park, Pembroke Hall, Patrick City and Washington Gardens might now have to return to making their gates and water-meter covers out of the original wood as in the 1960s.
The Government has a dilemma. It has to put a lid (non-metallic) on the thievery as it endangers all. However, in shutting down the industry, even in the short term, it prevents a large number of margin gatherers from meeting their day-to-day expenses. Even two days of hunger will push a vulnerable youth over the edge and lead him to another type of metal that is not in short supply in Riverton - lead.
Supply in Riverton
Still, this is a problem that, like the Frankenstein monster, is coming back to haunt the creator. For years, Riverton was treated with Band-Aid instead of serious governmental intervention. Beyond that, Riverton was created by the industrial strategies of the 1950s and 1960s that attracted migrants from out of town, with little or no opportunity for them. They stayed and made their beds in Back-a-Wall and Riverton. As the former was laid waste to create Tivoli Gardens, only Labourites returned there, with the displaced joining Riverton. You guessed it! Rivertonians are all 'Comrades'.
Is it, therefore, surprising, that persons, who lead intra-human lives and who don't feel that they are part of 'society' will take society's infrastructure to feed themselves? Read the signs, they are written in iron.
Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at UWI, Mona.
