RECENTLY, I drove along Charlton Road in Kingston 8 and marvelled at the roadway that was just completely repaved. However, instead of feeling happy for the residents of that area, I was very angry. Why? Just the day before, I had risked the well-being of my car's front end to traverse the roadway that runs behind University of Technology, which has been allowed to disintegrate into a pathetic track resembling the moon's surface.

This road is the only means of accessing the National Children's Home, the Danny Williams School for the Deaf, The Lister Mair Gilby School for the Deaf, McCam Centre and Early Childhood School and Papine High School.

No positive response

Despite years of constant appeals to the National Works Agency and Kingston and St Andrew Cor-poration (KSAC), the prime minister's office and, most recently, the Ministry of Education, for assistance in fixing this dangerous problem, to date there has been no positive response.I wondered how it was that a road that had been in relatively good condition in Charlton could have been so perfectly redone, yet the desperate cries from innocent children in need have been so callously ignored by the roadwork authorities?

Then I realised that this was only one of the many examples of the general disregard for the most challenged and vulnerable members of the Jamaican society. Recently, the Government procured 200 new buses, but none has been provided for the disabled community. The three buses which are outfitted for wheelchair access are overworked and in need of constant repair. Ministers of government spend millions ensuring that they don't have to live in squalor, yet wards of the state have to use buckets for bathrooms.

The development of a civilised society is in direct correlation with how its citizens deal with the less fortunate. Jamaica's poor track record with caring for vulnerable persons shows that we have a long, long way to go.

I am, etc.,

CHERYL HANSON SIMPSON

cherrylhanson@yahoo.com