Tweet
EDITORIAL - Some movement in the right direction
published: Thursday | March 8, 2007
Two developments this week suggest that the authorities may have begun to stir and might be inclined to head in the right direction. But as much as we hope that this is the case, we wouldn't bet on it. There have been too many false starts by officialdom and far too much disappointment for the public.
Anyway, we were heartened by Sunday's attempt by the Fire Brigade, captured in photograph by this newspaper, to wash away the rank stench of stale urine from the outer wall and sidewalk around the St. William Grant Park in downtown Kingston. We suspect that there are two reasons for the effort: that the administration was finally shamed into action by our repeatedly drawing attention in these columns to the state of the park; then there is a wish to clean up so as to show even a semi-clean Jamaica to the world while we host matches in Cricket World Cup (CWC).
Better late, they say, than never. It is, however, still a shame that it required Jamaica's hosting of an international event and editorial agitation for the Government to act at St. William Grant Park, a place named for an important labour leader, whose activism in the 1930s contributed to the birth of the nationalist movement. Moreover, outside the northern and southern gates to the park, stand high statues of two of Jamaica's National Heroes and major political figures, Norman Manley and Alexander Bustamante.
The park that celebrates the memories of these important personages is enveloped in the stench of excreta, urine and the scum, grime and overburden of the homeless people that it houses. It will require more than hosing down by firemen to make St. William Grant Park presentable for anyone - Jamaicans or visitors. But then, National Heroes Park and Circle, while not as bad as the downtown park, was in no great shape until we shamed the authorities into some action, belatedly expanded for CWC.
The other point of interest is the declaration by Information Minister Donald Buchanan of the Government's intention to enforce the laws strictly to clean up public spaces and to keep them free of garbage. The administration, according to Mr. Buchanan, is pushing ahead with the national clean-up project announced by Prime Minister Simpson Miller last September.
Additionally, the National Solid Waste Management Agency says that not only will it prosecute people for flouting the rules on garbage disposal, it intends to implement the ticket system aggressively for litterbugs that is allowable under the law. A litter ticket commands an automatic fine or acts as a notice for prosecution of persons intent on challenging the ticket.
These are of themselves not bad ideas, though not easy to implement. It will, however, demand far more than this to clean up Jamaica. Unkempt and ramshackle, or the "uglification of Jamaica" as former Prime Minister Patterson called it, has become something of a national culture. It developed because no one, at least in the Government, seemed to care or to pay attention. Or keeping the place clean couldn't hold their attention long enough, so they went about it in fits and starts: the period campaigns. Cricket is now the driving force.
However, this time we hope they can sustain the effort. We will be watching.
published: Thursday | March 8, 2007
Two developments this week suggest that the authorities may have begun to stir and might be inclined to head in the right direction. But as much as we hope that this is the case, we wouldn't bet on it. There have been too many false starts by officialdom and far too much disappointment for the public.
Anyway, we were heartened by Sunday's attempt by the Fire Brigade, captured in photograph by this newspaper, to wash away the rank stench of stale urine from the outer wall and sidewalk around the St. William Grant Park in downtown Kingston. We suspect that there are two reasons for the effort: that the administration was finally shamed into action by our repeatedly drawing attention in these columns to the state of the park; then there is a wish to clean up so as to show even a semi-clean Jamaica to the world while we host matches in Cricket World Cup (CWC).
Better late, they say, than never. It is, however, still a shame that it required Jamaica's hosting of an international event and editorial agitation for the Government to act at St. William Grant Park, a place named for an important labour leader, whose activism in the 1930s contributed to the birth of the nationalist movement. Moreover, outside the northern and southern gates to the park, stand high statues of two of Jamaica's National Heroes and major political figures, Norman Manley and Alexander Bustamante.
The park that celebrates the memories of these important personages is enveloped in the stench of excreta, urine and the scum, grime and overburden of the homeless people that it houses. It will require more than hosing down by firemen to make St. William Grant Park presentable for anyone - Jamaicans or visitors. But then, National Heroes Park and Circle, while not as bad as the downtown park, was in no great shape until we shamed the authorities into some action, belatedly expanded for CWC.
The other point of interest is the declaration by Information Minister Donald Buchanan of the Government's intention to enforce the laws strictly to clean up public spaces and to keep them free of garbage. The administration, according to Mr. Buchanan, is pushing ahead with the national clean-up project announced by Prime Minister Simpson Miller last September.
Additionally, the National Solid Waste Management Agency says that not only will it prosecute people for flouting the rules on garbage disposal, it intends to implement the ticket system aggressively for litterbugs that is allowable under the law. A litter ticket commands an automatic fine or acts as a notice for prosecution of persons intent on challenging the ticket.
These are of themselves not bad ideas, though not easy to implement. It will, however, demand far more than this to clean up Jamaica. Unkempt and ramshackle, or the "uglification of Jamaica" as former Prime Minister Patterson called it, has become something of a national culture. It developed because no one, at least in the Government, seemed to care or to pay attention. Or keeping the place clean couldn't hold their attention long enough, so they went about it in fits and starts: the period campaigns. Cricket is now the driving force.
However, this time we hope they can sustain the effort. We will be watching.