NO FUN FOR DUNN!
The dust has settled and calm has returned to the St Mary South East constituency, but the people anxiously await efficient representation from newly elected Member of Parliament Dr Norman Dunn.
Like a broken record, people across three of the four divisions in the constituency called for infrastructural improvements, a functional water system, youth training and employment, and community development.
“We hoping for the best from Mr Dunn, we hope he will work with us,” Loris James of Castleton said. “We don’t have any road, and the street need to clean up, a lot of water is on the road, so I hope that he will work with us.
“We need a centre for the young people, a training centre to train them with skills and the people who live across the river, I would like them to get a bridge. They don’t have a driving bridge to go across to the school. I am hoping that they will be able to widen the road that they can drive go over there to the school (Castleton Primary and Junior High School),” she continued.
Similarly, Andre Young, while attending to his shop on the Junction road, called for an improvement in the community’s water supply system and the development of Castleton Primary and Junior High School. For Young, the creation of a housing scheme in the community and improvement of the road network are also necessities.
Clive Howell believes that though there is not much development in the Castleton area, there is a lot that can be done to ameliorate the people’s living standards.
“Up at the garden there right now them have a lot of land wasting,” Howell said as he sat outside his shop on the Junction road. “The garden need a hotel where you have tourists come in, spend a night or two and people can get work from the community up there, if is even to sweep up the yard, do gardening work, cook in the kitchen, or something.
“Again, from yu put a hotel there and tourists coming, yu know yu a go need a little craft area,” he continued, adding that an area for craft vendors once existed across from the police station. “You can develop those things and we have calabash here, we have beads here, see a lot of beads spoiling on the tree up there, people would pick them and them have a little shop up there, if a even to pay a little rent for the shop, you have to pay your dues ’cause yu run business. So you can get things to develop a little situation.”
Pointing out that there is a high level of youth unemployment in the community, he said that the youth, oftentimes after leaving school, resort to mining sand from the river on a small scale to make money. This, he argued, is reason for the development of a skills training centre.
Beatrice Campbell, 79, of Castleton said that emphasis needs to be placed on educating the young people.
“The young people them, some of them don’t even out school and them leave school and out at the riverside carrying sand on the road. If we could get someone, even the social worker, to get them off the road and put them back in school,” she said. “We need somebody to guide them, like even in town and foreign countries where you can’t have your children on the road without going to school.”
She added that the new MP should also focus his energies on the expansion or development of a driving bridge that connects the community to the Junction road. Currently a foot bridge connects the community.
According to Campbell, residents would love to drive to their homes instead of parking along the road.
“When you go out the bridge head you see the whole heap a vehicle them park, all when you go up the road them park in people yard too,” the elderly woman said as she sipped her tea on her veranda. “It is very hard. Further up the road, some of them have to swim in the river to go home.
“This road is always a parochial road going all the way up to a place called Chesterfield and is a blank road now, pure woodland…[but] I expect this Government now to take over and do all the things that [are] needed now.”
Last Monday, after weeks of vibrant campaigning by both major political parties, the Jamaica Labour Party’s Dr Dunn was declared victor, amassing 8,176 votes to the 7,230 cast in favour of the People’s National Party’s (PNP) Dr Shane Alexis.
Dunn reversed the 2016 General Election results — which saw him losing by five votes to the late Dr Winston Green of the PNP, who died suddenly in August — to receive over 900 votes in the by-election.
“The work has just begun. We can celebrate tonight because we should, but tomorrow is a new day for South East St Mary,” Dunn told ecstatic party supporters at a victory rally in Annotto Bay square on Monday night.
Prime Minister and JLP leader Andrew Holness echoed Dunn’s sentiment. “While we bask in the glory and victory of tonight, tomorrow we go back to our reality. And I want you to understand that I appreciate the reality that you have been living; that I come from that reality; and that I am committed, with 100 per cent of everything I have, and I know the same for my team, to [change] the condition of the life of the people. After this election I cannot forget the people of South East St Mary,” Holness said.
But as the party celebrates an increase in its margin in the 63-seat House of Representatives — JLP 33, PNP 30 — the constituents watch intently for the execution of promises.
“Weh dem start, dem need fi finish an’ no bother wid di trickery ting,” a bus driver who plies the Portland to Annotto Bay route told the Jamaica Observer.
He was referring to the road-patching initiatives that begun in the weeks leading up to the election in some communities. Up to Thursday when the Sunday Observer drove through, some potholes that were marked for repairs gathered water, causing motorists to slow down and dodge holes along the Junction main road.
“The politician dem have a style whenever dem win we nuh see dem back until next election an’ we need fi see the representative dem,” Sheldon Latouche, who sat atop the wall of an orange bridge in Belfield, stated. “Right yah now me nuh know the man, me only see him on TV, we need to see him.”
“Don’t neglect the people dem like all the others, that’s all me have to say,” a woman pleaded as she manned her shop in the Belfield division.
However, in the same community, a few metres up the road, one resident sung Dunn’s praises, pointing out that the day after the election the road work that had started during campaigning was completed and street lights were repaired as Dunn had promised.
“Dat is a good sign so far, but mek we see wah gwaan,” the woman, who sat outside a shop, said as a truck sped along the partially refurbished road.
Latouche, who sat among a group of other residents, noted the need for a solution to the community’s unemployment problem as a majority of the young people are jobless.
“We want community centre too, dah one deh grow up like a woodland. We need fi talk bout some football and cricket an dem ting deh fi build up di community,” the young man told the Sunday Observer.
His friend, Dwight Fisher, chimed in “a lot of talent is here, enuh, but the opportunities not there, so we just sit back.”
“Right yah now we nuh have no water an’ dat need fi fix,” Marcia Taylor stated. “We [also] want the rubbish truck come regularly too. The garbage a pile up on we an’ you cyaan burn them.”
“If we nuh bury them we haffi pack them up inna one corner an’… when di truck do pass through, them already full wid garbage from further up di road,” Latouche added, estimating that the truck passes through the community twice monthly.
But while noting that there were numerous issues to be addressed, a man who identified himself as “Masters” argued that constituents need to move past tribalism and encourage the advancement of the constituency.
“Me hope say a that him a go do — change the mentality of the people them,” he said. “You see when one party win, the other side have it say them a go dead fi hungry and it shouldn’t be like that, everybody must benefit, the die-hard thing cannot work. We need everybody to get a fair share.”
Additionally, Masters called for working street lights, and employment opportunities for youth.
Further east in Annotto Bay, Michael Phillips, a farmer, called for better housing solutions, more assistance for farmers, roads and employment opportunities within the area.
“The place stagnant, man, the place need some upliftment,” said a woman who identified herself as ‘Real Maccoy’. “A whole heap a tings need to be done, man, like dem need fi bring back di wharf inna Annotto Bay yah.
“The brasserie factory need fi open back, an di other two factory dem an’ we need one centre fi di youth dem go learn trade and things like that,” she added. “The place too stagnant, man. If one little club a gwaan, two twos it lock down because the people nah work fi maintain it to go enjoy themself an ting like that … we need something inna Annotto Bay yah, more plaza an’ so.”
Miss Valerie, who sells eggs along the main road, lamented the poor state of Long Road — the community outside the town. Asked what she expects will be addressed, she said, “We nuh want no money, food or anything like dat, we jus’ want di road fi fix”.
The egg vendor, who said she has lived in the community for over 30 years, told the Sunday Observer that the road was last repaired over two decades ago.
Her neighbouring vendor, who refused to give her name, and a man who identified himself as “Rasta Boom”, listed water supply, employment opportunities, and road network improvements as chief issues to be addressed by Dunn in the coming years.
“Light, water and road a di most important ting fi dem fix in these parts,” another bus driver stated.
In a 16-page manifesto, Dr Dunn outlined plans to include: investment and skills training – namely the development of an industrial area near Annotto Bay with factories; improvement of facilities at Castleton Gardens incorporating the features of a fun park for children; completion of the Richmond Community Centre and establishment of a multi-purpose building; encouraging investors to open factories and information technology facilities to benefit unemployed youth; rehabilitation of roads and bridges in communities to reduce travel challenges; developing water sources and major catchment facilities throughout the parish; improved housing; working with local farmers to increase cotton, kola nuts and plantain production to foster job creation and revenue earning; development of sports, arts, culture and heritage tourism — upgrading of the Westmoreland Oval; work to develop a private wing of Annotto Bay Hospital as a means of generating income; seeking funding to establish a museum showcasing the culture and history of Annotto Bay; partnering with the National Health Fund to establish a recreational and exercise area at Bottom Bay Beach; and seeking funding to build a recording studio in Annotto Bay to provide opportunities for talented youth in the parish.