THE EDITOR, Sir: THIS IS in response to a recent letter to the Editor titled 'Street People in the Corporate Area.'
The streets of the Corporate Area, particularly the hip strip along Knutsford Boulevard, on any day of the week are teeming with persons homeless, drug-addicted and begging and who most of the time are hostile.
The atmosphere created by these street persons, which include the many children and young men who wipe car windows at the traffic lights, is one of misery coupled for the most part with trepidation.
I recently had an orange thrown violently against my windscreen by a street person who had only seconds before thrown the same orange at point blank range into the driver's window in the car immediately ahead of mine. Thank God it wasn't a stone thrown instead.
There are countless women in our island who have been particularly abused either mentally or physically or both by these street persons.
What exactly is the role and function of the Ambassador for children, Marjorie Taylor? I had thought, given all the fanfare of the Government and media at the time of her appointment, that it was to spearhead social programmes specifically designed and geared to place street children so that they can be nurtured in a healthy and productive environment.
The amount of street persons I see on the roads of the Corporate Area suggests clearly to me that either social programmes specifically designed and geared for street children are either non-existent or are run on an extremely small scale.
If this Ambassador for children is being paid by us taxpayers then once again we see hard-earned tax dollars being wasted by this Government which they seem to have the propensity for doing.
The Government Ministers being driven around in highly expensive motor vehicles paid for with our tax money would never encounter the abuse the rest of us are subjected to by these street persons as they are sped through traffic lights with police outriders and so hardly, if ever, come in contact with these street persons.
I am imploring the Ambassador for Children and the relevant Government Ministries so inclined to formulate and provide sustainable opportunities for street persons to live and work in a healthy and nurturing environment so as to channel their energies into useful and productive ends.
May God bless our island.
I am etc.,
KENT P. GAMMON
kent@kasnet.com'
2 Hopeglade Mews
Kingston 6
