Dear Editor,
In the current debate about whether to go for jobs over the environment in allowing China Harbour Engineering Company to develop Goat Islands into a trans-shipment port, nobody has said a word about the scope of the project and its specific intended economic benefits to Jamaica. What kinds of jobs will be on offer? How many Jamaicans will get work?
In considering the matter of economic gain, shall we recall that China Harbour, the same Chinese company angling to set up the port in a protected environmental zone, is yet to pay the Government of Jamaica US$120 million for the incomplete Mount Rosser Bypass road that they have taken over since they broke ground in December last year. At that time it was said that the Chinese company would be spending US$610 million in new construction and buying the incomplete road for the US$120 already spent on it by the Government. As far as the public knows, not one red cent of this money has been paid to the Government by the Chinese.
Ask the unions, has China Harbour paid the Jamaican workers on the Palisadoes construction, Westmoreland Bridge, the Rio Grande Bridge, their end-of-project gratuity that is part of the labour regime for projects of that kind?
Ask the truckers who had to mount days of protest to get paid for hauling rocks to Palisadoes, can the company be relied on to pay?
Ask the contractor who had to barge into their Kingston office with CVM -TV in tow, earlier this year, to raise hell to get paid for work done?
I say show me the economic gain. Show me the money.
Sean Masters
seanmasters87@gmail.com
Show me the $$$
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In the current debate about whether to go for jobs over the environment in allowing China Harbour Engineering Company to develop Goat Islands into a trans-shipment port, nobody has said a word about the scope of the project and its specific intended economic benefits to Jamaica. What kinds of jobs will be on offer? How many Jamaicans will get work?
In considering the matter of economic gain, shall we recall that China Harbour, the same Chinese company angling to set up the port in a protected environmental zone, is yet to pay the Government of Jamaica US$120 million for the incomplete Mount Rosser Bypass road that they have taken over since they broke ground in December last year. At that time it was said that the Chinese company would be spending US$610 million in new construction and buying the incomplete road for the US$120 already spent on it by the Government. As far as the public knows, not one red cent of this money has been paid to the Government by the Chinese.
Ask the unions, has China Harbour paid the Jamaican workers on the Palisadoes construction, Westmoreland Bridge, the Rio Grande Bridge, their end-of-project gratuity that is part of the labour regime for projects of that kind?
Ask the truckers who had to mount days of protest to get paid for hauling rocks to Palisadoes, can the company be relied on to pay?
Ask the contractor who had to barge into their Kingston office with CVM -TV in tow, earlier this year, to raise hell to get paid for work done?
I say show me the economic gain. Show me the money.
Sean Masters
seanmasters87@gmail.com
Show me the $$$
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