Marjorie A. StairJAMAICA IS still a beautiful paradise island. Waking up very early in the morning some weeks ago, as is my custom, but this time in the beautiful hills above Tryall, Hanover, I fell in love with my country once more for the umpteenth time. I was not only able to breathe in the fresh morning area, but I was able to take in the breathtaking view of the dark bluish green rolling mountains, kissed by the red and gold of the rising sun and softened by the thick mist in the deep valleys between the layers of mountains. Then I returned to Montego Bay.
On my fourth trip home since I left on February 19, 1998 to take up a three-year assignment in St Vincent and the Grenadines, I spent 28 days. Except for seven days, the entire time was spent in Montego Bay, partly because I was ill for eight days and partly because I had to do major repairs, among other things, to my home.
Montego Bay was never the cleanest of cities. Now, downtown Montego Bay stinks and can only be described as a disgrace and an affront to the dignity of all of us who have to live, work, visit or transact any type of business there.
Montego Bay has traditionally been drained by two gullies. The North Gully and the South Gully or Creek. Squatting and the construction of high-income housing areas on the hills surrounding the city have combined to create drainage problems over the years resulting in flooding of sections of downtown Montego Bay, especially in the area of the Creek, with heavy rains. The infrastructure projects, especially the South Gully project, were supposed to address these and other problems. One would have assumed that all the citizens of Montego Bay would have united to ensure that such a project was implemented as expeditiously as possible.
The South Gully project was a six-month project that should have been completed before I left Jamaica in February 1998. The contractors experienced problems almost from the first day to the extent that the project closed before I left because of disputes between the contractor, the union, the Govern-ment and the workers. I am not too sure what has occurred since but the project is almost exactly at the same stage of implementation as when I left Montego Bay in 1998. If progress has been made, I am unable to see it. The result of this is that some roads are closed; the traffic situation has become a nightmare and there is sewerage everywhere and the city, which has not been in the best of shape for years, has now become a bloody disgrace.
What is the point, I ask, of removing street people, purportedly to make the city palatable for delegates attending the G15 conference? What is the point of removing the ubiquitous vendors to facilitate filming by some international film crew on St James Street? Time and space do not allow to address these controversial issues at this time, unfortunately. Who cares about the people of Montego Bay and their right to live and work in a clean and healthy environment? Why have the people of Montego Bay allowed their city to deteriorate to the extent that it has? What of the Greater Montego Bay Dev-elopment Plan?
In 1998, and for years before that, a zinc fence surrounded the municipal building, of the St James Parish Council. A wall, of well-dressed, able-bodied, relatively young men and women, surrounding the building on weekdays, has replaced this zinc fence. They appear to be quite idle to me and are quite aggressive in their behaviour; at least on those four or five occasions I passed them there. The faces are the same. I assume that they are there for a reason and that they are benefiting in some way from the taxes paid by our productive citizens. The members of the St James Parish Council should provide us with an explanation for the human wall that surrounds the building daily.
They seem to have fired all of the traffic police in Montego Bay. Police, in groups of four or five, dressed in bullet-proof vests and toting mean looking weapons, are occasionally seen at different points of the city, either in vehicles or on the streets. They appear ready for war. Community police, dressed in a very attractive uniform, ride bicycles through the streets. I failed to see one policeman directing traffic anywhere in Montego Bay during the entire 28 days. In 1998, the Assistant Commissioner in charge of Area 1 would himself go and direct traffic at different times at peak hours.
At certain hours getting through the city or travelling on the Howard Cooke highway boils down to your effectiveness in bumping and boring. I must confess that after years of leaving Reggae Sunsplash early in the morning and attending sporting and other entertainment events all over Jamaica, I am somewhat of an expert at bumping and boring through traffic otherwise I would have probably been ill for 20 of 28 days vacation instead of 8. The second time I got ill, it took me longer to get from downtown Montego Bay to my home in Irwin, normally a 10 to 20-minute drive depending on the time of day than it took me from St Ann's Bay to Montego Bay.
The police are either unable or unwilling to deal with one particular sound system operator who, some miles away from me as the crow flies, plays loud, obscene and vulgar records, making loud and discordant noises until as late as 5.00 am on a Sunday morning, that sounds as if it was right inside my house. The police appeared surprised that I kept calling about the noise and the last Saturday night I slept in peace. Have the people of Chelsea, Irwin, Irwindale, Porto Bello, Irwin district and the other areas affected become immune to the noise or have they just given up in despair. What of those who are even closer to this outrage than I am?
Jamaicans, the citizens of St James and the people of Montego Bay deserve a much better quality of life and they should demand it.
Whereas the quality of life in the tourist capital of Jamaica has deteriorated dramatically in the past two and a half years, the deterioration did not start when I left Jamaica. It started a long time ago. We are only now coming to terms and reeling from the devastating effects of a deteriorating education system, the breakdown of law and order in our country, our tribal political system; selfishness, greed, injustice, the predominant ethic of wealth without work; dishonesty; political instead of economic decision-making; the coarsening of our society and our willingness to accept low standards and make foolish compromises.
The solution cannot be for all of us to migrate; or to stay crippled with the fear of offending the wrong person - politician or drug/criminal don. The solution must be that we unite around the common goal of rebuilding our country in a sensible and civilised way, no matter the cost. The solution must be that we stop complaining, and, like Lot's wife, keep looking back at the past. The solution must be that we look beyond the present negative state and start the process of rebuilding a prosperous, safe, clean and healthy country in which our children can be assured of a future. The alternative is to remain trapped in despair, fear, seeking any what way to get out and allow the situation to get worse.
