WANT to have a reasonably good indicator that a fire is about to erupt at the Riverton City dump? Visit sections of the highway in proximity to the site. There you will see huge mounds of dirt recently taken there by trucks as two sources told me they saw in the days before the fire. I will explain as you read.

Fires of this sort are caused by either spontaneous combustion where compressed organic material in a biological/chemical process reaches critical temperature levels and a fire is generated. More often than not, some person or people with grouses will deliberately set the fire, or those in the business of making money extinguishing those very fires will utilise their agents to generate them.

One very obvious method of bringing a fire of that sort under control is to smother it with dirt. Trucks are used to bring in the soil and huge earth-moving machinery is further utilised to push that soil over the affected areas.

The last two fires there, sometime in 2008/2009, cost the taxpayers of this country $16 million and $22 million to put out. Most of the cost involved the hiring of contractors with trucks and D-9 tractors.

The Riverton City dump site is 'home' to dozens of informal sorters who, on a daily basis, separate tyres, metal, glass, plastic, etc from organic material. These sorters are the forgotten of society, and they organise themselves into groups that make a living out of the exercise. It would seem to me that under the regime of Mrs Gordon-Webley when the NSWMA got into the business of commercial compost making, that activity would have been close to impossible without the input of these informal sorters.

On Thursday, at around midday, a blanket of smoke, soot and ash drifted towards Spanish Town, Red Hills and environs, then in light wind made a north-easterly turn towards the Liguanea plains. The entire Kingston Metropolitan Area, it seems, was affected by the environmental madness as many people with respiratory problems complained in silence.

It would never suit these informal sorters to set such a fire as that would affect them economically. While I have no hard evidence that the fire was deliberately set, the question must be asked whether previous investigations into fires had pointed to any such misdeed.

Does the public defender, Mr Earl Witter, have in his position any report or reports which could assist us? Come to think of it, does he have any report of any matter which he has completed? Quick to jump on matters, Mr Witter needs to be more of a public official who is there at the finishing line.

One lawyer suggested to me that that the public offices of Indecom, the Children's Advocate and the Public Defender should be rolled into one in these times of economic stress and named the Advocate General.

She also suggested that the NSWMA should employ the services of two full-time social workers at the Riverton City dump site with the specific duty of maintaining contact with the informal sorters at the site.

"Many of these people are made to feel that they are the rejects of society and yet they perform an invaluable service to this nation. Apart from just the social outreach, I am certain that there are additional business ventures that can be generated from the huge mounds of waste and the involvement of these sorters. The compost project showed us what was possible," she said.

A full and concise investigation needs to be launched into the causes of this fire, as it seems to be a recurring decimal.

Ignition on JEEP?

Now that the PNP administration is eagerly trying to live up to its main campaign promise of an emergency work programme for the large mass of unemployed in this country, Finance Minister Peter Phillips has said that he has identified $4 billion for funding the programme.

Simultaneously, the PNP Youth Organisation has been early and vocal in its demand that JEEP should have a special seat for young people.

Remember now, I am so far the only person in the media to have attached some numbers and costs to JEEP (Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme). To be fair to the PNP, when JEEP was first proposed in September 2011, the party wisely steered away from numbers and costs.

This $4 billion is the closest the PNP has come. But what can $4 billion really do in alleviating the plight of about 150,000 people across the 63 constituencies who would gladly accept work at minimum wage right at this minute?

Well, it would provide minimum wage work for about 15,000 people for a period of one year!

That's about 10 per cent of the need.

The bigger question is, who will be the chosen ones? Will it be on a staggered basis? Fifteen thousand people work for three months only, then another set for the next two staggered quarters?

I don't mean to pour cold water on this proposal, even if the country can afford it or not. The fact is, I am not in the business of creating government policy, revenue shortfall or not. The fact is that people need work now!

That said, I see trouble ahead.

It seems foolish to suggest that the JEEP proposal should never have been made, but that is what politicians do; make promises that turn back on them in rage. Among the 63 constituencies are some absolute disasters where unemployment, especially among those aged 19 to 35, is in the region of 70 per cent!

Even with some constituencies more equal than others, with $4 billion being earmarked, the emergency employment averages at less than 250 people per constituency, while in reality, in some constituencies, the employment need is in the region of 7,000 to 10,000!

Why did the PNP decide to open this Pandora's box? Only that party knows the real reason.

One reader who told me she read my last column, 'Getting JEEP out of the showroom' touched on one of the major sticking points in employment. Lack of training.

She said: "I have a small business that I have been operating for years, and the main problem that I have found and have noticed is that there are just too many persons out there who are not really employable. I tend to employ younger persons as I get along well with the youth, but in truth, their heads are tough, they take long to learn and shockingly, these are mainly persons out of high school and with CXC passes.

"They all need to enter some form of finishing school before they attempt to apply for a job. They do not know how to prepare a résumé. My interviews tend to end up with me giving them a lecture on how to dress, how to respond and what to bring to an interview.

"It seems that they have no parents to guide them. I have had to correct their spelling errors and yet I note that some have got high passes in English.

"Persons applying for household work have not a clue how to tidy a house, wash, iron or cook. Those applying for office work do not know how to properly answer a telephone. They do not know the proper attire for a job. The Government needs to first deal with training at all levels before they try and alleviate the employment problem. What is the use of finding jobs for these people when there is not much they are qualified to do? I feel sorry for my Jamaicans. Too many persons are uneducated.

"I continue to try and help whoever I can, but there are just too many to manage."

A male Jamaican employer said: "We keep deluding ourselves into believing that Jamaica will see meaningful economic growth without adequately possessing key factors of production, as well as being able to properly marshal them, so that their derived value can affect the lives of all Jamaicans.

"As you and others know, Jamaica's natural resources are meagre; and moreover, the State does not have the expertise or the vision to efficiently exploit them so every mouth can be fed. Jamaica's economic hub has been for the longest 5/25/2012 trade and tourism. We are mainly a consumer society and will forever be that way, consuming the latest in innovation and manufacturing goods from First World societies. Those who have been in control of the commercial trade since Independence and who also have the ability to bring the latest in technology to the island for consumption are the real beneficiaries of the economic viability of the country.

"Additionally, Jamaica is still suffering from a deficit in human capital, despite the noise about us having some of the brightest in the world. Yes, it is true that there are bright ones, but what is also true is that we are 'a frightened set of people' -- not in the real sense of the word, but in the colloquial sense -- and that is a form of ignorance. Given the current illiteracy rate, including functionally illiterates and, I might also include, those with education but [are] 'frightened', it will be impossible for us to overcome our economic hurdles and be successful in the short or medium term. This is only possible in the very long term.

"Jamaica will continue to muddle [through] like it always does without achieving any real movement of the economic prosperity needle. And these constant muddled achievements will always be spillovers from the global economy. And so this nonsense, JEEP, does not mean anything in real economic sense."

The problem of too many of our schools teaching our children purely how to pass exams is reflected in the response of the first employer above, but I must say I have problems with the second employer that there is no short-term 'solution'.

To me, 'solution' in the short term is buying social peace, in short, staving off rioting, burning and looting. It is easy for those who live with multiple visas to suggest sophisticated, long-term solutions without a recognition of the seething hopelessness and newfound expectation of the new PNP Administration.

If the streets erupt, they have a passage out and front patio space in a Florida apartment. The vast majority of those who want to work and live in peace and seek better tomorrows do not have that facility, so finding 'bullo wok' now for the angry unemployed, which will wreck the country in the near future, is the investment they want to make to ensure that the 'here-and-now' is socially liveable. Crazy, but true.

Another reader suggested the following: "I am thinking that as a Jamaican with some position of importance, you can quietly suggest to the Jamaican Govenrment that they engage the Chinese Government by agreeing to purchase enough solar panels to help reduce the glut in China and therefore provide a means, not only to create more than 200,000 well-paid, fairly labour-intensive jobs, but further reduce dependence on JPS while also reducing expenditure on petroleum products over the long term.

"The best thing about all this is that China would be willing to finance that project since we are buying their product and we will have a way of repaying the loan since the reduction in petroleum costs will go to that measure. The benefits are monumental.

"We spent over US$1.5 billion in 2010 for petroleum products. This is again possibly too good to be true for Jamaica, that has an oversupply of sun while China has an oversupply of solar panels and the additional pieces to reduce our overall power production costs for the next 25 years.

"The jobs are created by using carpenters, and semi-skilled [people] to install the panels on available areas for maximum exposure to the sun. There is one outstanding company operating there in Jamaica -- APS (Alternative Power Systems). They are installing systems around the island and they could tell you where the people would work. There are thousands of roofs that can be used, so that's where we need the people."

Mayor Lee Clarke, you are right

FOR many years now, as a councillor in the KSAC, Lee Clarke has been championing the founding of a city lottery to fund the items which fall under the KSAC.

For many years his pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Apart from the lottery itself providing direct employment for those who would sell it, the income would provide the much-needed funds to deal with the day-to-day needs of a capital city badly in need of a facelift and regular maintenance.

But of course, the Church has seen reason to criticise it.

Mayor Clarke must by now recognise that the Church is a political organisation in the business of trying to hold power and influence for the sake of controlling people's minds and lives. That will, in turn, cement the power and influence.

As the official morality police among us, the Church has elevated a myth, a mystery, and a downright concoction into reality and, dissatisfied with that, it wants us all to buy into its view of morality.

While I am cognisant of the good works of some denominations, the main role of the Church, as it ascribes to itself, is telling us with its own brand of certainty that its God exists and such a God will cast us into a pit of fire if we do not acknowledge His presence.

Will someone tell the Church that that brand of religion is fading fast?

The Church would like the mayor and the KSAC to exist in a financially parlous state but with the 'armour of God' or some such nonsense.

The fact is, people like to gamble and they do not like others telling them that they cannot do it. A city lottery would be the ideal way to capture the funds needed to fund the KSAC's duties.

Keep at it, mayor. You have bigger enemies than petty politicians dressed up in the 'armour of God'.

observemark@gmail.com

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