Dear Editor,

Travelling from Kingston to St Thomas to meet my brother’s new American wife I looked at the road through the eyes of a first-time visitor and found myself disgusted with the conditions.

I was disgusted not only by the road surface itself, in all its undeniably potholed glory, but also by the garbage littering the roadway. Why are we so nasty? Why must we throw our garbage out the nearest window of a moving vehicle? From Bull Bay to Yallahs has to be the dirtiest stretch of road in Jamaica: plastic bottles, bags, wash pans — seriously?!

JEEP has a plastic-recycling initiative. Can St Thomas please be included in this? The bushes, trees and random piles of sand need to be removed. What is the parish council doing? Where is our civic pride or just general cleanliness? It saddens me that this was my sister-in-law’s first impression of my home parish and Jamaica in general.

Morant Bay, the capital, is even more depressing; blocked drains with stagnant water, again those poor plastic containers, broken sidewalks with grass and small trees growing in them, and unpainted buildings. Parish council, what did you do with your allocation? It is clearly not being spent on keeping the roads repaired and cleaned. The arcade, with its broken-down, wooden stalls, is a sure haven for vermin and needs to be rehabilitated or, better yet, just demolished. I remember when there used to be a garbage bin on every corner and a time when people used them, and I’m in my 30s. There is just one major road through the town, why must it be in that condition? Store owners are just as bad. But we sit and we accept it.

Speaking to an acquaintance, he was of the opinion that this was how people liked it. They are quite happy walking about, sitting in, and selling their wares in what has to be the ugliest, dirtiest and most depressing town centre in Jamaica. It didn’t even bother him anymore to throw his trash in the drain, since the whole place already looks so bad. He says he comes into Kingston when he wants to lift his spirits. Portland and St Mary are also poor parishes but their town centres seem to be more maintained and are certainly cleaner.

The people of St Thomas keep electing the same officials every election even though they have done nothing to improve the parish. Yes, there may be limited job prospects, but must we also sit in our own filth and be happy about it? I believe that the way we keep our surroundings is a reflection of our state of mind. Are we so short-sighted that we do not see the long-term benefits of a clean, well-maintained parish? When people are uplifted in and by their surroundings they are more likely to be creative and this creativity can lead to great productivity, which is something sorely needed in this parish and Jamaica, as a whole.

RF

renroc18@gmail.com