Peter EspeutI HAVE written before about how hopelessly land-locked our minds are. Hurricane Charley recently passed south of Jamaica and did tremendous damage, and yet there has been criticism of the Met Office and the ODPEM for a 'false alarm'. This call has mostly come from Kingston and its surroundings; in other words, if it hasn't hit Kingston it hasn't hit Jamaica.
Others rejoiced that it had "turned away" and that Jamaica had been spared, and prayers of thanks went up. But later we were told that it actually passed quite close to Jamaica by St. Elizabeth and there was a rush to assess damage to the highly productive farming area often called the 'breadbasket' of Jamaica. The Minister of Agriculture (whose constituency is in St. Elizabeth) has already announced some compensation for this damage, even though the people of southern St. Elizabeth still complain that they have been ignored.
But it is much worse. The archipelagic state of Jamaica stretches some 100-plus miles south of the island of Jamaica, incorporating the Pedro Cays inhabited by some 1,500-2,500 Jamaicans, and then a dozen miles south of that. Our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) stretches dozens of miles again south of that.
ARCHIPELAGIC STATE
The fact is that the archipelagic state of Jamaica received a direct hit from Hurricane Charley. The eye of Hurricane Charley drove right through Jamaica and did substantial damage to the marine environment and to traps belonging to Jamaican fishers; and those traps which weren't destroyed were shifted by the turbulence such that their owners will never be able to find them. The loss to the fishers is severe, but those traps will continue to catch fish until they disintegrate (about six months); the fish caught will die in them and rot, since they will never be landed and sold and eaten.
I am still waiting for the Minister responsible for fisheries (the same Minister from St. Elizabeth responsible for agriculture) to announce that he is aware of the damage the fisheries sector has suffered, never mind announcing even the smallest token of compensation. Why is it that farmers are entitled to compensation while fishers are not? And they both fall under the same Ministry? It seems that fishers live behind God's back, where no-one can see them! In the Jamaican status hierarchy, fishers fall much lower than farmers. At Independence, the fishing industry fell under the 'Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries'. Later, as a sign of their decreasing importance, 'and Fisheries' was dropped from the name of the Ministry. In many ways, fishers and their concerns fall behind the back of the Government, and the fact that in their grievous distress they have been totally ignored, is further evidence.
ONE-ISLAND STATE
Although we are an archipelagic state a nation consisting of several inhabited islands we still operate as if we are a one-island state. The residents of the Pedro and Morant Cays have no Member of Parliament or Parish Councillor to represent their interests. The marine space between the Jamaican mainland and our national boundary does not fall under the jurisdiction of any Member of Parliament or Parish Councillor. Jamaica has no Ministry with responsibility for the marine environment; the government of Trinidad and Tobago which celebrated its 42nd anniversary of Independence yesterday, just like us, created some decades ago the 'Institute of Marine Affairs'.
The 'National Council on Oceans' which co-ordinates Jamaica's maritime matters falls under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs! Imagine: the vast majority of Jamaica's statutory area falls under the government ministry responsible for foreign relations? I have never understood it! No wonder people said that Hurricane Charley missed Jamaica; it hit foreign parts! The residents of the Pedro and Morant Cays have a right to representation in Jamaica's parliament. I suggest that the Morant Cays be attached to Western St. Thomas, and that the Pedro Cays be attached to South-East Clarendon in both cases the nearest landfall. In the next Cabinet reshuffle, I suggest that the gaping lacuna be filled by the creation of a 'Ministry of the Environment, Fisheries, Forestry and Marine Affairs'.
These portfolios always suffer from being the Cinderella of any ministry they fall under. Very few ministers of the environment or fisheries, or forestry or permanent secretaries have any special training or experience in these matters, and they always fall through the cracks. Is it any wonder we have a rapidly deteriorating natural environment, and have been rated with the most overfished waters in the Caribbean and the highest rate of deforestation in the world? And in fairness, what about some compensation for the hurricane-damaged fishers?
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.
