Peter D. Phillips, Contributor

Last week, the new Half-Way Tree Transport Centre was opened: It is a massive and impressive structure costing almost $5 billion and providing valuable services for more than 300,000 commuters who pass through Half-Way Tree, in most cases, twice a day.

The urgency with which the current administration moved to complete the project, which had its conception as far back as 2,000 when the old Odeon property had been purchased, should be applauded. It demonstrates, to some degree, the growing maturity of our political process.

Add efficiencies to JUTC

No doubt the new transport centre will add to the efficiencies of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) once the various operational glitches have been worked out. The greatest benefit of the centre, however, is that it helps in some small way to create a more humane environment for the travelling public who are, for the most part, ordinary Jamaican people.

The dehumanising effects of our social and cultural environment are so many and so all-pervasive that they tend to be ignored as we have all become inured to the harshness of the predicament faced by ordinary Jamaicans in their lives. Now, at least with the completion of the transport centre, commuters won't have to wait hours outdoor for the buses, and pregnant women, incapacitated commuters, and the general public will at least be able to find comfortable sanitary facilities during their various trips.

The fact is that we have for centuries created in Jamaica an environment which is oblivious to anything but the most basic human needs of our people. Thus, our parks, libraries, and museums have been non-existent or run down. Until recently, we have constructed roads without any concern for aesthetic considerations. The ready explanation for this lack of consideration for the average citizen, and for the absence of basic facilities for their comfort and well-being or cultural development, has been that we are too poor. While money is obviously a consideration, the real factors go much deeper.

The roots of this phenomenon lie in the nature of our history as a plantation society with a long history of absentee ownership. Unlike the 'settler' colonies where the settlers sought to create the basis of humane societies with sophisticated facilities for the intellectual development, cultural expression and/or enjoyment of the population, slave-based 'colonies of exploitation', like Jamaica, had no such consideration. They existed simply to produce wealth for the overseas-based owners, who had no interest in devoting any resources to provide comfort or culturally uplifting or aesthetically pleasing environment for the majority of people who were, for the most part, enslaved.

The difference between these two contrasting historical experiences can be seen in the differences in the physical layout of Kingston as compared with Havana, for example. Havana, with its wide boulevards and gardens, its old colonial libraries, etc., is an example of the historical determination of their settlers, drawn largely from Spain to create a society reflective of the most advanced cultural practices of the period. There is very little evidence of a similar determination in the layout of 'colonial' Kingston.

Great schools in Jamaica

There were always counter-tendencies, however, that sought to depart from their philistine tendencies. We see them, for example, in the educational trusts that were founded mainly by colonial philanthropists, which gave us schools such as Jamaica College, Wolmer's, Munro, Hampton, Mico, Titchfield, etc. Also, some colonial administrators were more far-sighted, and thus we had botanical gardens established at Cinchona and Hope in the decades immediately following emancipation.

With the advent of modern Jamaican politics, however, despite the efforts of Norman Manley, Jamaica Welfare, which was formed in 1937, later to become the Social Development Commission, or the cultural movement spearheaded by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, there has been little real change in the situation.

Certainly, there has been no sustained attempt to create the necessary social and cultural infrastructure to facilitate the emergence of a more humane society reflective of the highest human aspirations and experiences. To be sure, there have been episodes that have departed from the main trend. The rehabilitation of Devon House in the 1960s and the creation of Emancipation Park in the 1990s have provided welcome outlets for wholesome entertainment for the Kingston public. Despite this, however, we have, for the most part, allowed the network facilities which existed at the time of independence to deteriorate.

Hope Gardens, Cinchona and Castleton Gardens have not been adequately maintained; and there is no network of community parks or national parks which can expose our young (and old) to the knowledge of their society and an enjoyment of its flora and fauna and the sheer beauty that is Jamaica. No National Museum system has been created; our National Library Services languish, and many of the community centres created by the Jamaica Welfare Movement in the 1940s and 1950s now lie in ruins.

It is no wonder, then, that so many of our young people seem devoid of positive attitudes and values and appear to be so easily seduced by the most banal and self-destructive appeals of Cable TV, pornography, lewdness and general coarseness.

How do we create such an environment?

How then do we advance this effort to create a more humane and culturally uplifting national environment? Of course, the linchpin of any such effort revolves around an effective education system. More than simply being a means of transmitting information, however, such an educational system must seek explicitly and deliberately to inculcate positive values of respect for life, integrity, honesty, appreciation of beauty, kindness, respect for community and all the well-known and accepted human virtues.

The quality of the criminal justice system, likewise, is an essential underpinning to any effort to create the levels of trust and mutual respect between citizens that is essential to the kind of society that we seek to create. It is also the case that we must maintain a commitment to redress the vast inequalities of wealth and income which, particularly in small societies, will impede any effort to create the sense of the collective and of mutually shared interest which is at the heart of the modern idea of nationhood.

Beyond these major 'sector specific' issues, however, there is the need to address other less tangible issues not as easily subject to the grand governmental initiatives or pronouncements which have become so typical of our contemporary politics. We need, for example, to manage our transport system, including our route taxis, so that our children and womenfolk, and indeed everyone, do not have to face the overloading and the consequent discomfort, and worse, that results, for example, from having 22 people in a vehicle designed for 15.

Designing and maintaining

Similarly, we can design and maintain our major roadways so that they are not only clean, but are also reflective of the natural beauty of our country. All of this involves inter-sectoral collaboration between the Works Agency, the Solid Waste Management Authority and the general public. I tried with only partial success. But wouldn't it be wonderful and uplifting to the spirit of everyone if all our roadways look like Trafalgar Road in the vicinity of New Kingston, or the Junction road by Agualta Vale?

Most of all, we need to reorganise and fund the state agencies respon-sible for culture. It is full time now that we go beyond what I call the 'festival concept' of cultural preservation and propagation. Their role now needs to extend decisively beyond the staging of the annual national festival observances and the honouring of our national heroes.

We need our National Dance companies and drama companies and music ensembles to be supported and maintained in order to preserve and advance the best of our traditions in this regard. We need, among other things, to create the infrastructure of theatres and performing arts centres in our cities and towns, and we need to sponsor a film industry reflective of the life experiences of the Jamaican people. Similarly, we need the network of national parks and community parks, both as outlets for performances and as places for wholesome family type enjoyment activities.

Some might say this is a pipe dream. Yet, it was certainly part of the vision of Norman Manley and others from as far back as the 1930s. Others might say we can't afford it. To these I would suggest that a dollar spent in these areas might help reduce crime at least as much, if not more, than the dollar spent in purchasing 'war-like stores' for the security forces. Most of all, let us remember that our forefathers and mothers set out on this adventure of nation building as a means of finding full expression for their humanity.

The society which we seek to build cannot be measured simply in terms of the size of the Gross Domestic Product, but rather by the quality of the life experiences of its citizens. The new transport centre represents progress on this path. More remains to be done, however, if the ultimate vision is to be realised.