Dear Editor,
I am delighted to see that for the first in a long time a group of intelligent people are not only concerned about the neglect and underdevelopment that is the parish of St Thomas today, but are working to put a plan together to address it.
I urge Delano Seiveright, Peter Young, Juliet Cuthbert, and Dr Peter Nelson to make sure that we don't just get lip service but real action as they move forward with this St Thomas Eastern Development Taskforce, as read in the Sunday Observer.
My close family and I, though from St Thomas, have lived in the US for the last 40 years. After visiting to see some family and friends a few months ago I am appalled at the worsened state of neglect and underdevelopment. St Thomas has always been a "lost and last" parish. Nobody goes there unless they have to, and it is always the last parish to get anything, including as Seiveright said, a high school in 1961 and bridge over the Yallahs River in 2008.
The people have suffered decades of zero representation. Today there is hardly anything happening and the majority of the people's daily existence is to find food to eat, have night-time 'bashment' parties and pressuring families abroad to send money every week. It is a miserable existence.
I make one recommendation to the task force and that is to look seriously at getting reparations from the British Government for its heavy-handed and cruel tactics in the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion that left hundreds killed, including national heroes Paul Bogle and George William Gordon and thousands of homes burnt to the ground. Let us not forget that then Governor John Eyre was charged with murder, but the case never proceeded. To this day that wrong is yet to be properly addressed.
Over to the task force.
Jamie Patterson
Chicago, Illinois
pjamie198@gmail.com
Want more than lip service from Seiveright task force
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I am delighted to see that for the first in a long time a group of intelligent people are not only concerned about the neglect and underdevelopment that is the parish of St Thomas today, but are working to put a plan together to address it.
I urge Delano Seiveright, Peter Young, Juliet Cuthbert, and Dr Peter Nelson to make sure that we don't just get lip service but real action as they move forward with this St Thomas Eastern Development Taskforce, as read in the Sunday Observer.
My close family and I, though from St Thomas, have lived in the US for the last 40 years. After visiting to see some family and friends a few months ago I am appalled at the worsened state of neglect and underdevelopment. St Thomas has always been a "lost and last" parish. Nobody goes there unless they have to, and it is always the last parish to get anything, including as Seiveright said, a high school in 1961 and bridge over the Yallahs River in 2008.
The people have suffered decades of zero representation. Today there is hardly anything happening and the majority of the people's daily existence is to find food to eat, have night-time 'bashment' parties and pressuring families abroad to send money every week. It is a miserable existence.
I make one recommendation to the task force and that is to look seriously at getting reparations from the British Government for its heavy-handed and cruel tactics in the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion that left hundreds killed, including national heroes Paul Bogle and George William Gordon and thousands of homes burnt to the ground. Let us not forget that then Governor John Eyre was charged with murder, but the case never proceeded. To this day that wrong is yet to be properly addressed.
Over to the task force.
Jamie Patterson
Chicago, Illinois
pjamie198@gmail.com
Want more than lip service from Seiveright task force
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