Gleaner Editor-in-Chief Garfield Grandison chats yesterday with March's Silver Pen Award winner Winnie Anderson-Brown at The Gleaner's offices, North Street, central Kingston. Mrs Anderson-Brown won for her letter to the editor titled "Politicians and Rural Jamaica, published on March 20. - Norman Grindley /Staff Photographer WINNIE ANDERSON-BROWN'S irritation at the way rural Jamaica is neglected, prompted her to write a letter to The Gleaner's editor two months ago.
Somewhat peeved that politicians and Jamaicans in general fail to see the link between rural-urban migration and social problems, she penned her thoughts, "because it's important to keep a written record," and earned the March Silver Pen Award for her letter, "Politicians and rural Jamaica".
A, Clarendonian, Mrs. Anderson-Brown has loads of other issues on her mind. The part-time teacher at Northern Caribbean University, Mandeville, Manchester, collected her Silver Pen and plaque at The Gleaner offices yesterday, and told of years of experiences with the problem of the neglect of rural Jamaica, where "the gap is getting wider and wider", with no one seeming to be able to get a hand on the issue.
"When Members of Parliament reach Gordon House, do they forget the people who voted for them, or is it that the interest of the people is secondary to the interest of the party to which they belong?", she wrote.
"What do people who live in rural Jamaica get for their tax dollars? They get no assistance with garbage disposal, they are not provided with recreational facilities, the roads are in a deplorable condition, there is no running water and there is no telephone service".
And when they do leave the rural areas for the confines of the city, "when people realise that things aren't what they thought, they can't go back and will stay at all costs," she said
"To live in rural Jamaica is to be scorned," she said yesterday, "more attention needs to be placed on the people that many seem to forget to the peril of all Jamaicans, as the more neglected people are, the more problems we'll see."
Mrs Anderson-Brown, who works in the Department of English, Modern Languages and Communication at NCU, said that other concerns of hers were the high crime rate and the inefficient justice system.
Solutions for the short term, she said, include that those who represent rural areas need to pay attention and make representation for basic needs like fixing roads, garbage collection and telephones. In the long run the system needs to be changed through central government reform "where we get actual representation".
"No one is asking to make rural areas more urban," she said, "but when rural areas cannot get the same benefits that others are getting, problems happen."
Regarding her letter's effect, Mrs Anderson-Brown said that since the letter, she has had both local and overseas responses with people showing concerns and expressing solidarity.
She is president of the Bagatelle (Clarendon) and Environs Citizens' Association, a body that supports "Project Footprints", a programme that tries to provide meaningful experiences for children by, for example, showing them the value of good customer service by having them meet people who exemplify this.
"We're examining the prints (impressions) people have made and encouraging children to be conscious of those they make too," she said. "The only way to serve God is to serve your fellowman. Despite everything, there's hope."
The Gleaner gives the Silver Pen Award monthly to the person who writes the best of the 'Letters of Day' published daily on its editorial pages.
