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The New Tivoli
JLP Officials have high hopes that battled-scarred enclave will become middle-class neighourhood
By HG HELPS Editor-at-Large helpsh@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, June 06, 2010
TOP Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) officials have high hopes for the new Tivoli Gardens that will emerge from the post-Dudus era which ended in bloody clashes that left close to 80 people dead, by police records.
The West Kingston enclave will become a middle-class community, predicted Andrew Holness, one of six senior JLP personalities interviewed by the Sunday Observer.
HOLNESS… I think the people of Tivoli will change their attitudes and embrace a new vision that Jamaica will ultimately be proud to embrace
VAZ… regardless of what has been said about Tivoli Gardens, the kind of foresight and infrastructure that have been put in over the last 40- odd years is commendable
TUFTON… I would like to see a Tivoli where the people are prosperous, where there is no perception that continues to plague them that they are a community engaged in all sorts of mysterious activities
MULLINGS… Tivoli's strength in sport must be placed at the forefront of any push to improve the area
SAMUDA… optimistic that Tivoli Gardens will eventually become a model of development to be copied
CHANG… thinks Tivoli will be able to shrug off some of the stigma that has stalled its growth over the years
BARTLETT… the initial perception of Tivoli Gardens was to have a garden coming out of a slum
[Hide Description] HOLNESS… I think the people of Tivoli will change their attitudes and embrace a new vision that Jamaica will ultimately be proud to embrace
[Restore Description]
1/7
"I think that at the end of the day, Tivoli will emerge as a middle-class community with middle-class values and social attitudes," said Holness, the education minister and member of parliament for West Central St Andrew.
"It will take some time. It may not be for another decade or so, but once the State makes its resolve clear, I think the people of Tivoli will change their attitudes and embrace a new vision that Jamaica will ultimately be proud to embrace," said Holness, a party rising star and leader of government business in the House of Representatives.
Holness shared the view of other stalwarts and members of parliament Karl Samuda, Dr Chris Tufton, Clive Mullings, Dr Horace Chang, Daryl Vaz and Dr St Aubyn Bartlett, who believe that all is definitely not lost for the community.
They spoke candidly about their vision for a better Tivoli Gardens, hoping for a community that will shrug off the stigma of violence and the Christopher 'Dudus' Coke factor.
Alleged drug lord Coke is wanted by police to face an extradition hearing that could result in him being sent to the United States to face trial on drug- and gun-trafficking charges.
The community, regarded as trhe JLP's power base, had been called various names, ranging from the 'Mother of all Garrisons' by former army chief Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, to 'Modern-day Back-a-Wall', the latter a reference to the name by which it was popularly called before former prime minister and MP for West Kingston Edward Seaga transformed the area.
The community has produced bright and impressive scholars, but the areas of culture and sport allow it to stand out like a beacon.
United States national basketball great Patrick Ewing, who spent most of his playing life representing the New York Knicks, remains the most famous find of West Kingston, as he was born on Bond Street.
"Yeah man, I was born at Bond Street, but I have not gone back there since I was a kid," Ewing told the Sunday Observer in an interview several years ago, while conducting a summer camp for youngsters in Negril.
It is that level of brilliance in sport, added to other achievements, that Holness is basing his prediction on.
JLP General Secretary Karl Samuda, the minister of industry and commerce, who is also member of parliament for North Central St Andrew, is optimistic that Tivoli Gardens will eventually become a model of development to be copied.
"I would like to see Tivoli Gardens be given an opportunity to achieve all the objectives that were set for it when it was first conceived and constructed," he said. "In other words, all the infrastructure — for instance health-care facilities, provisions for training young people, educating the youngsters, development of cultural activities, which they have excelled in, in a very considerable way in the past."
"Also, in the area of sports where the young can engage in sports activities without any fear of any kind of interruption, where the society is one where they welcome persons from outside and where they interact with their neighbours, where they engage in the development of industry, for instance, where you can have trade training centres established for the youth to prepare them," Samuda added.
Agriculture Minister Dr Chris Tufton, who, like Holness, is highly regarded by party supporters as a potential leader of the JLP, is also firm in his belief that much more positives can emerge from a reformed Tivoli Gardens.
"I would like to see a Tivoli where the people are prosperous, where there is no perception that continues to plague them that they are a community that is engaged in all sorts of mysterious activities," the MP for South West St Elizabeth said.
"That has been a perception for a long time and I think they deserve better. There are a lot of law-abiding, hard-working people there. I've been there several times and I think one of the things I would love to see, going into the future, is that Jamaica views the community as a peace-loving, law-abiding community with citizens who work for their living rather than a community which has been viewed frequently as one that is not lawful.
"That perception needs to change, and I'd love to see that change so that they can feel like any other community across the country," Tufton said.
Former mining and energy minister Clive Mullings, the MP for West Central St James, is also optimistic that better will come for the embattled community.
Mullings, who was largely quiet before his stout defence of Prime Minister Bruce Golding during last Wednesday's no-confidence motion tabeld in Parliament by the Opposition, said that Tivoli's strength in sport must be placed at the forefront of any push to improve the area.
"I believe that Tivoli Gardens ought to be fashioned along the lines of a modern space for creative and sporting excellence. This would have the effect of bringing about a sense of renaissance and will help to erase the psychological scarring.
"This would encourage greater interaction of uptown and downtown and reduce any sense of isolation that may be felt by the residents," said Mullings.
For his part, Water and Housing Minister Dr Horace Chang, a deputy leader of the JLP who has made the constituency of North West St James virtually his own, thinks that Tivoli will be able to shrug off some of the stigma that has stalled its growth over the years.
"Tivoli Gardens was originally conceptualised as a model of urban renewal, which should have been extended to neighbouring communities like Denham Town, Fletcher's Land and surrounding communities, reflecting better quality housing, infrastructure, and a creative and dynamic social lifestyle, with access to quality education," Dr Chang recalled.
"That really is what we should have for all areas of urban decay, and what I'd like to see is that restored in Tivoli, where the physical infrastructure really needs to be repaired, and therefore provide a true model of what can be extended to other areas, of course without all the alleged criminal attachments that are there," said Dr Chang, a medical practitioner by profession.
Information Minister Daryl Vaz is insisting that criminality must be curtailed if Tivoli Gardens is to make significant improvement.
Vaz, MP for West Portland, also believes that the State must focus on redeveloping the community in order to allow it to reach its true potential.
"What I'd like to see for Tivoli is for the community to get on top of the criminal elements inside Tivoli Gardens and elsewhere, allowing for the innocent people who reside in these areas to live better," said Vaz. "Now, to a large extent they have been held hostage, not only in Tivoli Gardens, but across Jamaica, because of the fear of persons perceived to be dons or being involved in criminal activities.
"Regardless of what has been said about Tivoli Gardens, the kind of foresight and infrastructure that have been put in over the last 40-odd years is commendable in terms of the housing facilities, schools, police station, clinic, etc.
"A large number of persons in those areas are not part of the tax roll and therefore there is a feeling that they should not get the attention in terms of basic infrastructure, water, light, sewerage, etc. It has been rundown because of lack of upgrading and maintenance. So it is going to require a full implementation of projects in terms of what we consider inner-city communities," Vaz said.
Tivoli Gardens must reach a stage where it can be rated on par with other communities across Jamaica, MP for Eastern St Andrew Dr St Aubyn Bartlett suggested.
Bartlett, younger brother of Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett, argued that the uptown/downtown divide that has affected the community must be tossed aside moving forward.
"The initial perception of Tivoli Gardens was to have a garden coming out of a slum. What has happened over the years is that it has fallen short of being a garden, and I would love to see a situation where Tivoli Gardens becomes one of the regular or normal communities in Jamaica and looking as well as the rest of the uptown communities look," he said.
"So when individuals say that they are from Tivoli Gardens, they can be looked at with more respect and not with fear," the veterinary surgeon said.
Holness believes that Edward Seaga's original vision of Tivoli was hijacked: "Along the way that vision, that dream was hijacked by many occurrences, not to mention the main problem, of course, which was the political instability of the area.
"What we have today is a situation where the criminal network stands alongside the political structures... But Tivoli Gardens now has a chance to go back to its original social engineering vision, which is to transform the standard of living, quality of life from a slum into a total community that caters for all the welfare and the well-being of all its residents, removing from it the business of enforcing an exclusive political domain and expanding the horizon of choice for its residents," said Holness.
"The challenge still remains because right around it the same structures of enforcement and narrowing of choices still exist, so my vision for Tivoli is that it will become the beacon to those communities, to show them that there is another way of living without relying on this business of dons and enforcers and garrisons to protect them," he said.
Holness, too, wants one of the symbols of the area, the Coronation Market, to be improved.
The market was torched and extensively damaged during the security forces' offensive to restore stability to the community and flush out Dudus and gunmen loyal to him.
"Tivoli and West Kingston are built around the market. It is the main market in the island and I would like to see that market rebuilt substantially to be the pride of place of the Caribbean," said Holness.
"If that is done, political problems that they are experiencing now in terms of unemployment and delinquency would be dealt with because the market is the source of economic activity and quite a bit of social events take place in that area.
"Another thing that needs to be done is the improvement of the social infrastructure there."
Veteran politician Samuda remains convinced that if all the right medicines are served to the ailing community, Tivoli Gardens would not only make a full recovery, but would strengthen itself and become a good example to be emulated...
"So I am talking about the development of Tivoli Gardens, both from internally and externally so that people from outside can come to appreciate the cultural strength of Tivoli Gardens and Tivoli Gardens residents can feel free to interact with their neighbours, without any threat or fear of reprisals because of any activities that may involve persons from adjoining communities that are not of the same political persuasion," said Samuda.
"What I would love to see is a total interaction of all persons in the adjoining communities with Tivoli Gardens, because only by doing that can the real qualities of Tivoli Gardens be fully appreciated by all...
"I'd love to see the stigma that has been attached to Tivoli Gardens removed, where people don't see Tivoli Gardens as a place that supports gunmanship and violent behaviour, but rather as a friendly, open community that welcomes all who wish to enter and to participate with them," he said.
JLP Officials have high hopes that battled-scarred enclave will become middle-class neighourhood
By HG HELPS Editor-at-Large helpsh@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, June 06, 2010
TOP Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) officials have high hopes for the new Tivoli Gardens that will emerge from the post-Dudus era which ended in bloody clashes that left close to 80 people dead, by police records.
The West Kingston enclave will become a middle-class community, predicted Andrew Holness, one of six senior JLP personalities interviewed by the Sunday Observer.
HOLNESS… I think the people of Tivoli will change their attitudes and embrace a new vision that Jamaica will ultimately be proud to embrace
VAZ… regardless of what has been said about Tivoli Gardens, the kind of foresight and infrastructure that have been put in over the last 40- odd years is commendable
TUFTON… I would like to see a Tivoli where the people are prosperous, where there is no perception that continues to plague them that they are a community engaged in all sorts of mysterious activities
MULLINGS… Tivoli's strength in sport must be placed at the forefront of any push to improve the area
SAMUDA… optimistic that Tivoli Gardens will eventually become a model of development to be copied
CHANG… thinks Tivoli will be able to shrug off some of the stigma that has stalled its growth over the years
BARTLETT… the initial perception of Tivoli Gardens was to have a garden coming out of a slum
[Hide Description] HOLNESS… I think the people of Tivoli will change their attitudes and embrace a new vision that Jamaica will ultimately be proud to embrace
[Restore Description]
1/7
"I think that at the end of the day, Tivoli will emerge as a middle-class community with middle-class values and social attitudes," said Holness, the education minister and member of parliament for West Central St Andrew.
"It will take some time. It may not be for another decade or so, but once the State makes its resolve clear, I think the people of Tivoli will change their attitudes and embrace a new vision that Jamaica will ultimately be proud to embrace," said Holness, a party rising star and leader of government business in the House of Representatives.
Holness shared the view of other stalwarts and members of parliament Karl Samuda, Dr Chris Tufton, Clive Mullings, Dr Horace Chang, Daryl Vaz and Dr St Aubyn Bartlett, who believe that all is definitely not lost for the community.
They spoke candidly about their vision for a better Tivoli Gardens, hoping for a community that will shrug off the stigma of violence and the Christopher 'Dudus' Coke factor.
Alleged drug lord Coke is wanted by police to face an extradition hearing that could result in him being sent to the United States to face trial on drug- and gun-trafficking charges.
The community, regarded as trhe JLP's power base, had been called various names, ranging from the 'Mother of all Garrisons' by former army chief Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, to 'Modern-day Back-a-Wall', the latter a reference to the name by which it was popularly called before former prime minister and MP for West Kingston Edward Seaga transformed the area.
The community has produced bright and impressive scholars, but the areas of culture and sport allow it to stand out like a beacon.
United States national basketball great Patrick Ewing, who spent most of his playing life representing the New York Knicks, remains the most famous find of West Kingston, as he was born on Bond Street.
"Yeah man, I was born at Bond Street, but I have not gone back there since I was a kid," Ewing told the Sunday Observer in an interview several years ago, while conducting a summer camp for youngsters in Negril.
It is that level of brilliance in sport, added to other achievements, that Holness is basing his prediction on.
JLP General Secretary Karl Samuda, the minister of industry and commerce, who is also member of parliament for North Central St Andrew, is optimistic that Tivoli Gardens will eventually become a model of development to be copied.
"I would like to see Tivoli Gardens be given an opportunity to achieve all the objectives that were set for it when it was first conceived and constructed," he said. "In other words, all the infrastructure — for instance health-care facilities, provisions for training young people, educating the youngsters, development of cultural activities, which they have excelled in, in a very considerable way in the past."
"Also, in the area of sports where the young can engage in sports activities without any fear of any kind of interruption, where the society is one where they welcome persons from outside and where they interact with their neighbours, where they engage in the development of industry, for instance, where you can have trade training centres established for the youth to prepare them," Samuda added.
Agriculture Minister Dr Chris Tufton, who, like Holness, is highly regarded by party supporters as a potential leader of the JLP, is also firm in his belief that much more positives can emerge from a reformed Tivoli Gardens.
"I would like to see a Tivoli where the people are prosperous, where there is no perception that continues to plague them that they are a community that is engaged in all sorts of mysterious activities," the MP for South West St Elizabeth said.
"That has been a perception for a long time and I think they deserve better. There are a lot of law-abiding, hard-working people there. I've been there several times and I think one of the things I would love to see, going into the future, is that Jamaica views the community as a peace-loving, law-abiding community with citizens who work for their living rather than a community which has been viewed frequently as one that is not lawful.
"That perception needs to change, and I'd love to see that change so that they can feel like any other community across the country," Tufton said.
Former mining and energy minister Clive Mullings, the MP for West Central St James, is also optimistic that better will come for the embattled community.
Mullings, who was largely quiet before his stout defence of Prime Minister Bruce Golding during last Wednesday's no-confidence motion tabeld in Parliament by the Opposition, said that Tivoli's strength in sport must be placed at the forefront of any push to improve the area.
"I believe that Tivoli Gardens ought to be fashioned along the lines of a modern space for creative and sporting excellence. This would have the effect of bringing about a sense of renaissance and will help to erase the psychological scarring.
"This would encourage greater interaction of uptown and downtown and reduce any sense of isolation that may be felt by the residents," said Mullings.
For his part, Water and Housing Minister Dr Horace Chang, a deputy leader of the JLP who has made the constituency of North West St James virtually his own, thinks that Tivoli will be able to shrug off some of the stigma that has stalled its growth over the years.
"Tivoli Gardens was originally conceptualised as a model of urban renewal, which should have been extended to neighbouring communities like Denham Town, Fletcher's Land and surrounding communities, reflecting better quality housing, infrastructure, and a creative and dynamic social lifestyle, with access to quality education," Dr Chang recalled.
"That really is what we should have for all areas of urban decay, and what I'd like to see is that restored in Tivoli, where the physical infrastructure really needs to be repaired, and therefore provide a true model of what can be extended to other areas, of course without all the alleged criminal attachments that are there," said Dr Chang, a medical practitioner by profession.
Information Minister Daryl Vaz is insisting that criminality must be curtailed if Tivoli Gardens is to make significant improvement.
Vaz, MP for West Portland, also believes that the State must focus on redeveloping the community in order to allow it to reach its true potential.
"What I'd like to see for Tivoli is for the community to get on top of the criminal elements inside Tivoli Gardens and elsewhere, allowing for the innocent people who reside in these areas to live better," said Vaz. "Now, to a large extent they have been held hostage, not only in Tivoli Gardens, but across Jamaica, because of the fear of persons perceived to be dons or being involved in criminal activities.
"Regardless of what has been said about Tivoli Gardens, the kind of foresight and infrastructure that have been put in over the last 40-odd years is commendable in terms of the housing facilities, schools, police station, clinic, etc.
"A large number of persons in those areas are not part of the tax roll and therefore there is a feeling that they should not get the attention in terms of basic infrastructure, water, light, sewerage, etc. It has been rundown because of lack of upgrading and maintenance. So it is going to require a full implementation of projects in terms of what we consider inner-city communities," Vaz said.
Tivoli Gardens must reach a stage where it can be rated on par with other communities across Jamaica, MP for Eastern St Andrew Dr St Aubyn Bartlett suggested.
Bartlett, younger brother of Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett, argued that the uptown/downtown divide that has affected the community must be tossed aside moving forward.
"The initial perception of Tivoli Gardens was to have a garden coming out of a slum. What has happened over the years is that it has fallen short of being a garden, and I would love to see a situation where Tivoli Gardens becomes one of the regular or normal communities in Jamaica and looking as well as the rest of the uptown communities look," he said.
"So when individuals say that they are from Tivoli Gardens, they can be looked at with more respect and not with fear," the veterinary surgeon said.
Holness believes that Edward Seaga's original vision of Tivoli was hijacked: "Along the way that vision, that dream was hijacked by many occurrences, not to mention the main problem, of course, which was the political instability of the area.
"What we have today is a situation where the criminal network stands alongside the political structures... But Tivoli Gardens now has a chance to go back to its original social engineering vision, which is to transform the standard of living, quality of life from a slum into a total community that caters for all the welfare and the well-being of all its residents, removing from it the business of enforcing an exclusive political domain and expanding the horizon of choice for its residents," said Holness.
"The challenge still remains because right around it the same structures of enforcement and narrowing of choices still exist, so my vision for Tivoli is that it will become the beacon to those communities, to show them that there is another way of living without relying on this business of dons and enforcers and garrisons to protect them," he said.
Holness, too, wants one of the symbols of the area, the Coronation Market, to be improved.
The market was torched and extensively damaged during the security forces' offensive to restore stability to the community and flush out Dudus and gunmen loyal to him.
"Tivoli and West Kingston are built around the market. It is the main market in the island and I would like to see that market rebuilt substantially to be the pride of place of the Caribbean," said Holness.
"If that is done, political problems that they are experiencing now in terms of unemployment and delinquency would be dealt with because the market is the source of economic activity and quite a bit of social events take place in that area.
"Another thing that needs to be done is the improvement of the social infrastructure there."
Veteran politician Samuda remains convinced that if all the right medicines are served to the ailing community, Tivoli Gardens would not only make a full recovery, but would strengthen itself and become a good example to be emulated...
"So I am talking about the development of Tivoli Gardens, both from internally and externally so that people from outside can come to appreciate the cultural strength of Tivoli Gardens and Tivoli Gardens residents can feel free to interact with their neighbours, without any threat or fear of reprisals because of any activities that may involve persons from adjoining communities that are not of the same political persuasion," said Samuda.
"What I would love to see is a total interaction of all persons in the adjoining communities with Tivoli Gardens, because only by doing that can the real qualities of Tivoli Gardens be fully appreciated by all...
"I'd love to see the stigma that has been attached to Tivoli Gardens removed, where people don't see Tivoli Gardens as a place that supports gunmanship and violent behaviour, but rather as a friendly, open community that welcomes all who wish to enter and to participate with them," he said.
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