Dear Editor,
As we host the leader of the free world with much pomp and pageantry I am reminded of the 1999 hosting of the Caricom heads of government in Montego Bay.
As part of the preparations, streets were cleaned and paved by the then P J Patterson-led Administration, in like manner as is taking place now. Sadly, however, that cleaning also meant that there was no room for street people -- mentally ill, indigent and generally homeless individuals. These persons would be a bad reflection on the worthy host.
By whoever's doing they were loaded in trucks and driven to the backwoods of St Elizabeth. Then mayor of Montego Bay, Hugh Solomon, denied any knowledge of orders given to remove street people.
To the peril of these individuals many of them were left on the banks of the mud lake that collected the caustic by-products of bauxite mining. To date there is no certainty as to whether or not any of these individuals met their untimely death in this mud lake containing concentrated sulphuric acid known to "melt" human flesh. For days they wandered in the wilderness of Myersville and Northampton without food or water. Some were clearly badly beaten and in need of medical attention. I remember travelling to school and observing some homeless people occupying bus sheds. Those were the strong ones who could find their way back to civilisation.
The Montego Bay Street People Saga, as it became known, sparked a commission of enquiry after much outcry from the people against this ghastly act committed against some of the most vulnerable in our society. As with subsequent commissions of enquiry, it was an exercise in futility. None of the major players took responsibility for this barbaric act. A little woman constable was fingered as the culprit, but the blind could see that she was in fact the scapegoat.
It is my impassioned plea that there should be no mass relocation of street people from our cities and town centres to 'save face' for the visit of President Barack Obama. If anything, fix them up and let them be a part of the celebrations too. America has street people too.
Kenroy Williams
Smoothland District
Leeds PA, St Elizabeth
willieboo25@gmail.com
No mass relocation of street people for Obama's visit
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As we host the leader of the free world with much pomp and pageantry I am reminded of the 1999 hosting of the Caricom heads of government in Montego Bay.
As part of the preparations, streets were cleaned and paved by the then P J Patterson-led Administration, in like manner as is taking place now. Sadly, however, that cleaning also meant that there was no room for street people -- mentally ill, indigent and generally homeless individuals. These persons would be a bad reflection on the worthy host.
By whoever's doing they were loaded in trucks and driven to the backwoods of St Elizabeth. Then mayor of Montego Bay, Hugh Solomon, denied any knowledge of orders given to remove street people.
To the peril of these individuals many of them were left on the banks of the mud lake that collected the caustic by-products of bauxite mining. To date there is no certainty as to whether or not any of these individuals met their untimely death in this mud lake containing concentrated sulphuric acid known to "melt" human flesh. For days they wandered in the wilderness of Myersville and Northampton without food or water. Some were clearly badly beaten and in need of medical attention. I remember travelling to school and observing some homeless people occupying bus sheds. Those were the strong ones who could find their way back to civilisation.
The Montego Bay Street People Saga, as it became known, sparked a commission of enquiry after much outcry from the people against this ghastly act committed against some of the most vulnerable in our society. As with subsequent commissions of enquiry, it was an exercise in futility. None of the major players took responsibility for this barbaric act. A little woman constable was fingered as the culprit, but the blind could see that she was in fact the scapegoat.
It is my impassioned plea that there should be no mass relocation of street people from our cities and town centres to 'save face' for the visit of President Barack Obama. If anything, fix them up and let them be a part of the celebrations too. America has street people too.
Kenroy Williams
Smoothland District
Leeds PA, St Elizabeth
willieboo25@gmail.com
No mass relocation of street people for Obama's visit
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