Dear Editor,

In Television Jamaica’s prime time newscast on Wednesday, August 27, 2014, Jamaicans saw the capital of Hanover, Lucea, in a deplorable state. There were blocked drains, stagnant pools of water, garbage strewn all round, and a mentally challenged man occupying the parish council’s building. A couple months ago it was Brown’s Town, St Ann, overwhelmed with garbage.

Jamaicans have become apathetic to the nastiness around us, our vendors sell goods alongside dirty water running in gutters. Not so long ago, whenever there were street demonstrations and roadblocks, old refrigerators, cars and all types of objects were brought out from “storage”. Then came the scrap metal trade, and as soon as this became a business and money could be earned from exporting scrap metal, the way roads were blocked changed.

Nowadays you are more likely to see tree stumps rather than metal objects at  roadblocks. The same strategy could be used with garbage, why not make the collection of garbage a business in which there is competition? But to do this we need a waste-to-energy plant.

Minister Paulwell has promised us and so has Noel Arscott, minister of local government and community development, that by the end of the year we should have a deal. Many people are sceptical about whether we are able to successfully execute a logistics hub and employ thousands of Jamaicans. This scepticism is borne out of harsh experiences and sobering realities, especially regarding Paulwell and unfulfilled promises.

He promised 40,000 jobs in information technology; it didn’t happen. Then the 381-megawatt power plant, and lately he promised remarkable earnings from rare earth metals. This too has flopped. Paulwell might mean well, but his timing and clear inability to handle or understand the exigencies and complexities involved in mega-projects is obvious. If we cannot execute simple projects how can we expect to convince people that we can handle more complex ideas. The costs to the poor is unbearable.

We therefore cannot have faith in the future if the present seems so uncertain. Eighteen years ago, Henry Lung-Kit, production manager at Frome, and a Mauritian told sugar technologists that Mauritius had long stopped manufacturing sugar as their primary product but instead generated electricity. Today, the Chinese at Pan Caribbean Sugar Company are about to embark on such a project. Why didn’t our Jamaican sugar experts, like Derrick Heaven and Allan Rickards, have the vision to agree with such a proposal and influence the Government to go along? Our leaders don’t inspire confidence and so we are unable to indulge hope in their actions.

The future seems a blur. We need a clear vision to inspire us as we move from failure to failure. Dr Peter Phillips and Ronald Thwaites are seriously trying, but the rest are making up numbers. Without the IMF’s influence and Chinese investments we fear the ship Jamaica would have floundered long ago.  

Mark Clarke

Siloah, St Elizabeth

mark_clarke9@yahoo.com