No. 46 Wednesday, January 27, 2010
[POSTED BY::: Neville Malcolm, Montego Bay]
I am not here to lay blame on any politician as to what they are doing or what they are not doing as is the case of Messers Dailey, Burnett and Lynn. The fact is that irrespective of whichever political party that is in power all governments worldwide is strapped for cash and as such funding for a number of projects are scarce. I am sure that Messers Bartlett, Chang and Mullings are doing as much as they can for the parish. For far too long a number of us sit back and criticize and we have no solution to the problems.
When you look closely at the state that Montego Bay and to a larger extent that St. James is in, the fault lies not with the politicians…we the citizens are to be blamed. The politicians spend the scarce funds that .are afforded them by the government on programs like garbage collection-there are a number of garbage receptacles in and around the city and yet we litter the place with cur garbage.
Look at the gully as soon as it's cleaned we see fit to dump our garbage in it and once again the council or the politicians have to pay out money each month to do the same job over and over again. Is it Mr. Mullings or Dr. Chang or Mr. Bartlett’s job to go around and tell us that it is better to dispose of the garbage in the receptacles rather than throwing it on the ground or in the gully?
Look at the manhole covers and the guard rails on the highways-a number of these are stolen week after week and sold to the scrap metal trade. Who pays to replace these cover?
The monies that we pay to replace these items could be used for more meaningful projects in the city. Why do individuals use the areas around the civic center in downtown Montego Bay as toilets? It is our PM’s fault? We all lack that something which should tell us that things like these are not right. Most of these young men on the street corner does not want a meaningful job-they prefer to ‘hustle’.
It is about time that we stop blaming politicians and look at our own selves how selfish we are. At the end of every school year the facilities at most schools are in a reasonable condition; however as soon as the holidays are over, and the children are ready to return to school you find things like toilet seats, wash basin, and other school furniture are missing.
These have been stolen by persons in the same community-then we blame the Ministry of Education for not providing the basic amenities for our children. So another vast amount of money is spent replacing these stolen items. Are we to blame the JLP or PNP? No blame our own selves. It is about time we all wake up to the fact that most of us are just too selfish and stop blaming others for our short comings.
A lot of us still cannot come to grips that there is a major economic recession in the world today. Only here in Jamaica that some of us feel it is business as usual. Look at the United States, look at England their economy is in such a bad state yet we feel it is business as usual.
We cannot go on living like this; the, day we stop blaming the politicians and we stand up and do something for ourselves and our country and make a meaningful contribution to the society the better citizen we will be. When these gentlemen put themselves up to serve as Members of Parliament they take the job and they try their best. No one goes and sets out to be a failure.
Why can’t we in Jamaica be more mature and look at countries like the Unites States and Britain where once an election is over we allow the elected party to govern instead of clamoring for them to get out of office? I am not hearing this from John McCain after he lost to Obama? As the eminent statesman JFK once declared "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
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