Barbara Gloudon

AT 5:30 THIS AFTERNOON, Air Jamaica Express flight 311 will leave Tinson Pen for Montego Bay and with it, another "end of an era" moment. Flight 311 will not be making a return journey. Operations at its Tinson Pen office will come to an end as far as service to the public is concerned and so will the business of the MoBay station.

The JUTA drivers who cluster around the doorway at each location to see which passengers need their services, will have to deal with the change. The purveyors of other goods and services who, up to now, have been part of the support group in Kingston and in Montego Bay, will not be unaffected either. In particular, I think of the ever-cheerful young newspaper vendor at Tinson Pen who has never let physical disability hold him back. Whatever is to come, he deserves his chance at success.

I think of "Pablo", my self-appointed "designated driver" in Montego Bay and how we greet each other like family every time he comes to collect me for the trip into town. Driving taxi keeps the family fed and helps him do right by his young son. For Pablo and others, it is vital to maintain those cross-island flights.

As one who had come to appreciate the expediency of a quick air link between Kingston and Montego Bay, the demise of a service which we have taken for granted, is unwelcome. To be able to get from one end of the island to the other in under half an hour, as opposed to three or more by road, is not a privilege. It has become a necessity.

Going down to Montego Bay in the mornings, in addition to the environmental anticipation of viewing from above our hills and valleys in cool splendour, you are liable to meet businessmen heading to meetings where major deals affecting the nation's economic well-being could be decided.
Then, there are the lawyers bound for court, the building contractors hastening to construction sites, the civil servants on the nation's business, and the Japanese tourists returning to the Coast after a foray into city Kingston in search of Trench Town Rock.

One morning, I shared space with a young bride proudly taking her wedding dress back to the Bay for the big day. On another occasion, there was somebody's grandma, more than a little nervous, it being her first flight, getting her back home after a visit to the doctor, and I've encountered children, the modern variety, totally blasé at what another generation would have found exciting.

At evening, the process is reversed. The hills and valleys stage a different show. On ground, people are going either way to get home at the end of a day's toil. This is the time when you catch the musicians, coming back from touring Up So, with that spaced-out look from being up in the air too long.

OVER THE TIME of seeing Jamaica from the Air Express perspective, I've had occasion to reflect on how rapidly the tenure of our lives have changed. While money is found to access goods and services from all the bazaars of the world, social barriers are also being broken down, more than we care to admit. Even the epidemic of brutality has not stopped it. The mix of people who, over time, we have seen and met on those flights from one end of the island to the other, bears testimony to the New Times.

Now that the little airline has been grounded and "the mini Love Birds" with their radiant plumage, are being readied to be shipped back to "Lease-land" overseas, the message is out that alternate arrangements must be made, and made quickly and efficiently.

Pilots and flight attendants from Air J Express are being absorbed into Air Jamaica, I'm told. Some senior management will also go over but customer service reps are somewhat embittered that, up to the time of my writing this, they were struggling to get accepted into the Air J grid too.

They were not happy with redundancy and even though they have been advised that they could apply for posts with Air J, they fear loss of seniority, with obvious consequences for their earnings. Today will not be a happy day, at Tinson Pen or Montego Bay. Some will say "that's life, eh". Others will have regrets, more than enough.

All is not lost, International Air Link, based in MoBay, has taken up the challenge to fill the void. Its managing director Capt Howard Levy is reported as being confident that he can provide the necessary Link. Additional equipment is on order, we're told, and there are plans to increase the frequency of its flights. We wish them well. and the beat goes on.

So. walk good all my AJE friends. All the best to two ladies who kept the flag flying high at both stations. I speak of Diana Fraser-Campbell in Kingston and Sharon Austin in MoBay. Their respective teams are, of course, included in the salute.

I DO NOT KNOW Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin beyond cursory contact at the odd social event. I've always found him to be civil and civilised. After his assessment last week of Tivoli as "the mother of all garrisons", I now have to add "a brave man" to his designation. Few there be who have ever made such a public declaration. You don't go up against "Tiv" unless your back well broad and you have courage to spare.

Hardley McCarley Lewin is either courageous or does not know the meaning of the admonition "fools rush in where angels fear to tread". It is difficult to believe, however, that a man could be such a fool as to endanger his career and credibility by recklessness. So, what prompted his outspokenness, knowing well that there would be a backlash?

The response of those who are angry with the army chief is that this is yet another attempt to "demonise" the community.
With the events of 2001 still raw in memory, the reasoning is that once again the innocent people of Tivoli are being set upon by wicked agents of the state. You will never convince some people otherwise.

Let us just suppose, even for a minute, however, that what Lewin says has even a grain of truth in it, should this be of wider concern to the nation as a whole? Can we really go on with communities which appear to operate outside the law, which make their own rules, imperilling themselves and the rest of us?

If there is even one such, wherever it is located, to whomever it belongs, it has to be made aware that their conduct is unacceptable. It is said that the PNP far outranks the JLP in ownership of garrison communities. Whoever owns how many, is of little consequence now. Knowing what we know, BOTH sides should be ashamed of themselves. Be it Tivoli or Mountain View, Spanish Town or Arnett, Barnes Avenue or any other violence-plagued corner, it is time for a change.

If they haven't got the message yet, read the lips of a battle-weary nation: WE'RE SICK OF IT! GET A LIFE AND GIVE US BACK OURS.

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