Garth Rattray

I'm not a party person so instead, I look forward to every New Year with expectations of positive personal and national changes. I (perhaps naïvely) hope that our people, especially our leaders, will use this time of year to do some reflective thinking, to objectively critique their performance, review their failures and to reinvent themselves for the good of our country.

I must, however, confess to a gnawing feeling of pessimism because many situations are of grave concern to me. The upsurge of crime in Montego Bay is one example. Popular foreign entertainers have written songs about the 'friendly city''; it earns billions of dollars for us every year, yet there are hot spots where poverty, gangsterism and murder have been allowed to take root. This perplexes me because such an important, world-renowned tourist capital should be kept safe for the sake of our visitors and local residents alike. The Government should not wait for the violence to spill over on to the Hip Strip before going all out with social interventions and community policing.

Keeping Jamaica clean and safe

The proceeds of tourism are obviously not percolating down to the poor, grass-roots people living a few kilometres from that bustling Mecca. Drug lords, gangsters and other criminals flourish there because 'sufferers' don't see the benefits of that multi-billion-dollar industry. There needs to be a more direct and obvious injection of capital from tourist dollars into depressed communities so that every citizen (and not just the Ministry of Finance and Planning) can readily see the essentiality of keeping Jamaica clean and safe.

Needless to say, Director-General of Bahamas' Ministry of Tourism, Vincent Vanderpool-Wallis, was right when, about four weeks ago, he warned that countries that depend heavily on tourism must first take care of their own people. In other words, governments must put people first.

Another one of my concerns has to do with the upcoming International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup 2007 (CWC 2007). Preparing for the event slated for March 11 this year represents a calculated risk - a gamble of sorts. Although this expensive investment might earn foreign exchange for the country now and in the future, it may also be the source of massive financial losses. I, however, thank God for the CWC 2007 because at long last the country has acquired several new ambulances equipped with defibrillators. And, the government has made it crystal clear that, in readiness for the upcoming cricket event, we are also to receive three, high-tech, multi-slice computed tomography scanners to be installed at the Kingston Public, Cornwall Public and the University Hospital of the West Indies. The equipment is being financed by our National Health Fund at a cost of J$243.4 million.

More importance to CWC

Because of the imminent cricket event, this administration was forced to identify a source of funding and acquire long overdue, vital, properly-equipped, life-saving ambulances and diagnostic equipment. This gives the impression that the government is assigning more importance to the CWC 2007 than it does to its own people.

This sort of thing (along with poor sanitation, exorbitant or non-existent modern amenities, deficient social programmes and an overwhelming feeling of vulnerability) engenders a lack of confidence in the authorities and diminished self-worth. These ultimately lead to apathy, indiscipline and anti-social behaviour.

I pray that our leaders will make it their New Year's resolution to be far more proactive, forthcoming and to put people first. This would go a far way towards reducing criminality.

By the way, happy New Year!

Dr. Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor wih a family practice.