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So near to tourist resort, but jobs, water, roads elude residents
St James East Central
BY INGRID BROWN Sunday Observer senior reporter [email protected]
Sunday, August 09, 2009
It's a sunny Wednesday afternoon and pockets of young men are lazing about all along the roadside in Barrett Town, a community high in the hills overlooking the sea and the many luxury hotels dotting the Rose Hall main road in the St James East Central constituency.
But the young men said it is not by choice they have nothing to do in the middle of the work week. It is simply a case that they can no longer earn from the 'all mighty' tourism dollar.
In fact, throughout the constituency, with its close proximity to the resort city of Montego Bay, residents say they are no longer benefiting from a sector which has been the mainstay in that part of the parish for decades.
Ian Smith, a Barrett Town resident, opened this cook shop when he could find no employment but it has had to be closed since he cannot find the money for repairs.
One young man, who identified himself only as Sean, said with no response to numerous applications to hotels, he has all but given up hope of ever getting another job in the sector.
"The other day me friend had to tell a lie say him did have an appointment with the personnel for him to get past the security at a hotel gate and ah so him get fi go up there go get a work," he said.
Another young man, Karrinton Lyons, is convinced he will never get a job at the hotel when he is forced to give up mechanical spear gun fishing next year, following the Government's announcement last month that a ban has been placed on the practice effective next March.
"Me two eardrums burst and doctor stop me from diving, but me still have to do it because me nuh want go teck up no gun, but right now me really nuh know what me going to do," Lyons said.
These young men seen hanging out in Barrett Town say they have no choice as they are tired of looking for work without success.
Barrett Town residents said in the good old days when tourism was beneficial to their community almost all the young men knew how to make wooden carvings, which they would sell to tourists.
"Every little youth could just look pon you and carve you out in no time because that is how them skill, but now that nuh happen no more because they can't get them things fi sell no more," explained Sean, who said he was a skilled artist and designer.
Tourists, they said, visited the community regularly to enjoy the breathtaking view and would spend money at the local businesses.
"Now them full up them head about crime and discourage them from coming here," one youth complained.
They said there are many illiterate youths in the community who would readily attend a literacy class or a skills training programme, but none is available.
Roy Edwards (right) and Calvin Reid make a living from selling ground produce along the main road in their Spring Mount community.
Skills training facilities like HEART/NTA, they said, are out of reach for the unemployed who cannot afford the daily transportation cost to get there.
They argued also that these training programmes are designed for the already educated and not the illiterate.
"They need to have a JAMAL class or something because them know you can't even get a job in construction if you nuh educated," Lyons said.
Contrary to popular belief, Sean said young people are not contented with just hanging out on the streets, but are in need of motivation.
"Right now, if the youths dem hear say a little work a buss them gone to it long time 'cause we no lazy," he said.
The young men say Barrett Town is one of the calmest communities in Montego Bay, but questioned how long it can remain that way if there is no employment.
The residents also lament not having a community centre, as the current one is in disrepair.
Before it was closed, regular corner league matches were held there and persons made a "few dollars" selling refreshments. But now, even those who create their own means of livelihood are affected.
Ian Smith opened a small cook shop in Barrett Town when he found work hard to come by, but even that is now in jeopardy as business is slow, what with many of his customers no longer earning a living.
The cook shop is in need of repair, but Smith said he cannot afford to repair it, so he has to forfeit the day's sale when it rains.
His son passing GSAT for Cornwall College was the happiest news he could have received, but with the new school year about to begin, he is at his wits end as to how he will afford to send him.
He, too, has tried tirelessly to get a job in the tourism sector, but without success.
"Me walk a look work sometimes so till me get sick when me think say me youth dem a cry fi food," said Smith.
The residents said they are particularly disappointed, given that their member of parliament, Edmund Bartlett, is also minister of tourism and should see to it that his constituents benefit from that sector.
Instead, they said they cannot even get jobs on the many construction sites which have mushroomed in and around the constituency in recent times.
Many residents told the Sunday Observer that although they are certified and experienced they cannot compete with the foreigners who are given preferences.
They complained that while they are paid $1,500 a day, foreigners are given free accommodation and travelling allowances in addition to a higher salary.
The claims are many in relation to the Montego Bay Conference Centre where many construction workers said they were hoping to get work.
Some said they were informed that a list would be coming from the Ministry of Labour offices in Kingston stating who the successful candidates were who had signed up earlier.
"See them start put on steel, which is something local people could be doing, and all now we can't hear nothing," said a man who identified himself as Ellis.
In the Rose Hall division, residents said that unlike other rural areas, they have no other mainstay but tourism. As such, men and women who do not work at hotels and attractions earn a living from construction.
Davia Hines, a single mother of a three-year-old, now works in construction since she cannot get employment at the many hotels to which she has applied.
On the day the Sunday Observer visited, Hines was taking a break from mixing cement at a private residence, now under construction.
"Me is a hustler, and so me do anything me can get," she said, adding proudly that she does almost everything in construction.
She shyly admitted that she does not read "so well" but said this never prevented her from being certified in climbing utility poles.
"When I went to the five-day training course I was the only woman with 10 men and is only three of us pass leave all those who were contractors," she quipped.
But Hines is hoping that her days of 'hustling' will be over since she has been promised a job at the Conference Centre when it opens.
She is, however, not pinning her hopes too much on it, like she did when the housing scheme in her Spot Valley community was being constructed.
"We did have high hopes that we woulda did get jobs at the housing scheme, but all now we nuh get no work," she said.
Residents are already questioning that if things are so tough with construction ongoing in the constituency, what will happen when that area is completely built up.
"We won't be able to go to another area to get work because those people won't allow it, so is here we should get work," said one man.
In Spring Mount, a deep rural area of the constituency where residents do small-scale farming, some unable to find employment in the tourism sector sell whatever they grow along the mainroad.
"So whatever is ready we come with it on the street to sell," said Roy Edwards as he made a quick sale of breadfruit and mangoes.
He said there was a time buyers would come in to buy breadfruit for export but that no longer happens.
The cry of bad roads and lack of piped water is dominant throughout the constituency, with the need greater in some areas than others.
In Canaan, Herbert Hewitt said that his home is constantly flooded out when it rains as there is no water table along what is left of the roadway.
"I am very concerned, now that I am in the hurricane season, because every time it rains I get scared," said the returning resident.
In Cornwall and Mt Zion the complaints are similar as residents pointed to roads in need of repairs.
The road from Cornwall to Somerton via Paisley, for instance, is reduced to a pile of rubble.
Were it not that a portion of the road at one end of the community was recently repaired, residents said they would still have to be trekking with loads on their heads for miles, since taxis would not venture into the area.
"Me nuh think the rest of the road is going to be fixed anytime soon because me hear say there is no more money," said one resident.
The complaint of not seeing the MP is heard almost throughout the constituency.
"Me don't see the MP come back here even once from him win," said Cornwall resident Tony.
"<span style="font-weight: bold">We only see fi we MP on TV because is only tourists him looking about," said another man from Paisley.</span>
St James East Central
BY INGRID BROWN Sunday Observer senior reporter [email protected]
Sunday, August 09, 2009
It's a sunny Wednesday afternoon and pockets of young men are lazing about all along the roadside in Barrett Town, a community high in the hills overlooking the sea and the many luxury hotels dotting the Rose Hall main road in the St James East Central constituency.
But the young men said it is not by choice they have nothing to do in the middle of the work week. It is simply a case that they can no longer earn from the 'all mighty' tourism dollar.
In fact, throughout the constituency, with its close proximity to the resort city of Montego Bay, residents say they are no longer benefiting from a sector which has been the mainstay in that part of the parish for decades.
Ian Smith, a Barrett Town resident, opened this cook shop when he could find no employment but it has had to be closed since he cannot find the money for repairs.
One young man, who identified himself only as Sean, said with no response to numerous applications to hotels, he has all but given up hope of ever getting another job in the sector.
"The other day me friend had to tell a lie say him did have an appointment with the personnel for him to get past the security at a hotel gate and ah so him get fi go up there go get a work," he said.
Another young man, Karrinton Lyons, is convinced he will never get a job at the hotel when he is forced to give up mechanical spear gun fishing next year, following the Government's announcement last month that a ban has been placed on the practice effective next March.
"Me two eardrums burst and doctor stop me from diving, but me still have to do it because me nuh want go teck up no gun, but right now me really nuh know what me going to do," Lyons said.
These young men seen hanging out in Barrett Town say they have no choice as they are tired of looking for work without success.
Barrett Town residents said in the good old days when tourism was beneficial to their community almost all the young men knew how to make wooden carvings, which they would sell to tourists.
"Every little youth could just look pon you and carve you out in no time because that is how them skill, but now that nuh happen no more because they can't get them things fi sell no more," explained Sean, who said he was a skilled artist and designer.
Tourists, they said, visited the community regularly to enjoy the breathtaking view and would spend money at the local businesses.
"Now them full up them head about crime and discourage them from coming here," one youth complained.
They said there are many illiterate youths in the community who would readily attend a literacy class or a skills training programme, but none is available.
Roy Edwards (right) and Calvin Reid make a living from selling ground produce along the main road in their Spring Mount community.
Skills training facilities like HEART/NTA, they said, are out of reach for the unemployed who cannot afford the daily transportation cost to get there.
They argued also that these training programmes are designed for the already educated and not the illiterate.
"They need to have a JAMAL class or something because them know you can't even get a job in construction if you nuh educated," Lyons said.
Contrary to popular belief, Sean said young people are not contented with just hanging out on the streets, but are in need of motivation.
"Right now, if the youths dem hear say a little work a buss them gone to it long time 'cause we no lazy," he said.
The young men say Barrett Town is one of the calmest communities in Montego Bay, but questioned how long it can remain that way if there is no employment.
The residents also lament not having a community centre, as the current one is in disrepair.
Before it was closed, regular corner league matches were held there and persons made a "few dollars" selling refreshments. But now, even those who create their own means of livelihood are affected.
Ian Smith opened a small cook shop in Barrett Town when he found work hard to come by, but even that is now in jeopardy as business is slow, what with many of his customers no longer earning a living.
The cook shop is in need of repair, but Smith said he cannot afford to repair it, so he has to forfeit the day's sale when it rains.
His son passing GSAT for Cornwall College was the happiest news he could have received, but with the new school year about to begin, he is at his wits end as to how he will afford to send him.
He, too, has tried tirelessly to get a job in the tourism sector, but without success.
"Me walk a look work sometimes so till me get sick when me think say me youth dem a cry fi food," said Smith.
The residents said they are particularly disappointed, given that their member of parliament, Edmund Bartlett, is also minister of tourism and should see to it that his constituents benefit from that sector.
Instead, they said they cannot even get jobs on the many construction sites which have mushroomed in and around the constituency in recent times.
Many residents told the Sunday Observer that although they are certified and experienced they cannot compete with the foreigners who are given preferences.
They complained that while they are paid $1,500 a day, foreigners are given free accommodation and travelling allowances in addition to a higher salary.
The claims are many in relation to the Montego Bay Conference Centre where many construction workers said they were hoping to get work.
Some said they were informed that a list would be coming from the Ministry of Labour offices in Kingston stating who the successful candidates were who had signed up earlier.
"See them start put on steel, which is something local people could be doing, and all now we can't hear nothing," said a man who identified himself as Ellis.
In the Rose Hall division, residents said that unlike other rural areas, they have no other mainstay but tourism. As such, men and women who do not work at hotels and attractions earn a living from construction.
Davia Hines, a single mother of a three-year-old, now works in construction since she cannot get employment at the many hotels to which she has applied.
On the day the Sunday Observer visited, Hines was taking a break from mixing cement at a private residence, now under construction.
"Me is a hustler, and so me do anything me can get," she said, adding proudly that she does almost everything in construction.
She shyly admitted that she does not read "so well" but said this never prevented her from being certified in climbing utility poles.
"When I went to the five-day training course I was the only woman with 10 men and is only three of us pass leave all those who were contractors," she quipped.
But Hines is hoping that her days of 'hustling' will be over since she has been promised a job at the Conference Centre when it opens.
She is, however, not pinning her hopes too much on it, like she did when the housing scheme in her Spot Valley community was being constructed.
"We did have high hopes that we woulda did get jobs at the housing scheme, but all now we nuh get no work," she said.
Residents are already questioning that if things are so tough with construction ongoing in the constituency, what will happen when that area is completely built up.
"We won't be able to go to another area to get work because those people won't allow it, so is here we should get work," said one man.
In Spring Mount, a deep rural area of the constituency where residents do small-scale farming, some unable to find employment in the tourism sector sell whatever they grow along the mainroad.
"So whatever is ready we come with it on the street to sell," said Roy Edwards as he made a quick sale of breadfruit and mangoes.
He said there was a time buyers would come in to buy breadfruit for export but that no longer happens.
The cry of bad roads and lack of piped water is dominant throughout the constituency, with the need greater in some areas than others.
In Canaan, Herbert Hewitt said that his home is constantly flooded out when it rains as there is no water table along what is left of the roadway.
"I am very concerned, now that I am in the hurricane season, because every time it rains I get scared," said the returning resident.
In Cornwall and Mt Zion the complaints are similar as residents pointed to roads in need of repairs.
The road from Cornwall to Somerton via Paisley, for instance, is reduced to a pile of rubble.
Were it not that a portion of the road at one end of the community was recently repaired, residents said they would still have to be trekking with loads on their heads for miles, since taxis would not venture into the area.
"Me nuh think the rest of the road is going to be fixed anytime soon because me hear say there is no more money," said one resident.
The complaint of not seeing the MP is heard almost throughout the constituency.
"Me don't see the MP come back here even once from him win," said Cornwall resident Tony.
"<span style="font-weight: bold">We only see fi we MP on TV because is only tourists him looking about," said another man from Paisley.</span>
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