Last Wednesday, as Jamaica marked its 46th anniversary of Independence, close to 30,000 people packed into the National Stadium in Kingston to watch a variety show and parade, put on by the Government as part of the celebration.

Several thousand more who could not get into the stadium piled into the National Indoor Sports Centre next door to watch the event via closed-circuit television.

By all accounts, most people had a good time and the event passed without incident. Or, none that was significant. That is good.

But had there been an emergency at either of these venues, there is no certainty that either facility could have coped. We do not know whether they have safety regimes in place, or if they do, what is their state of readiness. At least, that is what is implied by the Mayor of Kingston, Desmond McKenzie, who has good cause for concern.

But the problem, as Mr McKenzie pointed out last week, is not confined to the National Stadium complex. It is common at public facilities and places across the city. Most of these places, Mr McKenzie told reporters, either do not meet, or have failed to show that they meet the safety, insurance and licensing requirements of the city's local government, the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation. They do not show, for example, that they meet city fire safety requirements.

It is bad enough that any public facility fails to meet safety standards. The problem is more egregious, though, when such a facility is state-owned, like the National Stadium, which is under the management of a government agency, Independence Park Limited.

Safety breaches

Indeed, Mr McKenzie pointed out that the fire department has identified at least 22 safety breaches at their last inspection. Those breaches were there when thousands of people packed into the stadium last week. We hope they are gone when Jamaica hosts Mexico in football on September 6 in a World Cup qualifying match.

Should that not happen, we believe that Mr McKenzie should go through with his threat to put the shutters on the National Stadium and other sporting and public facilities that fail to meet safety standards. Football matches, sports generally, and more broadly, entertainment, are important to national life. But not more so than people's safety.