Dear friends, 2022 is nearly upon us and we need to seriously look at our country and reprogramme our plans to start anew on several fronts. Here are some of my thoughts.

Human Environment

We need to accept that ignoring the people who live in slums and squatter settlements will not work anymore, and we need to have a national strategy for upgrading these areas not just physically, but by providing secure land tenure so people can invest in their own homes, upgrade the basic services – roads, water, sewage, and garbage disposal – and intervene with social services to improve education, establish green areas for recreation, and improve community relations by involving the people in the communities in planning the improvements.

The Ministry of Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment and Climate Change must play a lead role, but the National Housing Trust (NHT) and Urban Development Corporation (UDC) must be thoroughly engaged in the financing and planning of these interventions. This will, in time, lead to a more productive and less crime-engaged society.

Natural Environment

Our very existence as a human race is being seriously compromised by our lack of care for our beautiful natural God-given environment. We must focus more attention on preserving our forests and natural beauty and stop destroying what makes us stand out from the rest of the world as the land of wood and water.

Strip mining in our Cockpit Country and, in fact, anywhere in Jamaica needs to be phased out entirely, and we must change our focus to protect and share our natural beauty.

Littering and throwing our garbage in the gullies must be stopped, and we all must make a serious commitment to be more careful not to destroy our environment, and recycling must become a part of our DNA.

Governance

Our governance model needs a total overhaul, and we should commit to constructing a more transparent people-focused model as the colonial relic of a constitution clearly allows cronyism, corruption, and crime to thrive within our current system.

This review needs all hands on deck with the leaders of the two major political parties and civil society committed to addressing the situation in a collaborative manner. Let us seriously tackle these ills by pulling together our best minds to create a new constitution and governance model, which is less corrupt and not driven by individual greed.

Peace, Love and Understanding

If we adopt an approach in which we allow peace, love, and understanding as preached by Bob Marley, our international human rights and justice ambassador, to prevail, we will all see a different level of respect for ourselves and our people and the rest of the world will wish to emulate our lifestyle and culture even more than they currently do .

We need to recognise and understand that what separates Jamaica from the rest of the world is not only our natural beauty, but our culture, which is based on peace, love, and understanding.

Please let us reach out and help one another to succeed more and not just be totally selfish and believe in the principle of every man for himself and God for us all. Caring and loving one another must be our guiding principle going forward.

Blessings to all for the new year.

rspragma@yahoo.com