Market blues
Published:Saturday | May 29, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Lovelette Brooks, News Editor
THE PLANNED rebuilding and refurbishing exercise for the Coronation Market, downtown Kingston, later this year, becomes even more urgent as the market, regarded as the pivot of trade and commerce in the heart of the city, is almost completely destroyed.
Located in west Kingston in proximity to the Tivoli Gardens war zone, the market took a severe battering from four days of intense battle waged between the island's security forces and gunmen that threatened to rip the city apart.
More than 70 persons, including Jamaica Defence Force personnel, were killed and two police stations burnt.
The largest and most vibrant market in Jamaica, Coronation Market, or 'Curry', accommodates between 6,000 to 8,000 persons per day. Peak days for business are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Despite its deplorable physical and sanitary conditions, the wholesale and retail market is well patronised.
Smouldering cisterns
However, vending stalls that, only a week ago, were piled high with fresh fruits and ground produce, were reduced to smouldering cisterns. Soot, ash, burnt fruits and vegetables litter the ground.
"This is the leading market in Jamaica and it gone, and if it gone, there is no more economy downtown!" shouts Jessica, an angry vendor who says she lost everything, including stock she had in storage.
According to residents who live in the vicinity, the market was firebombed. Several stalls were still burning when The Gleaner visited the market.
Soberly picking their way through the rubble, many vendors were at a loss for words, pondering their next moves.
Rosemarie Hill could not help the tears as she looked at the burnt-out stall. "Me melon, me grape, me ripe bananas gone. Is 30-plus years me selling here and God knows - Him alone - how me going to manage with four kids and two grandchildren," she said.
Picture of grief
Everald Hill, too, is a picture of grief. "They kill one of me nephews. Them tell him to run and kill him in Lizard Town, and now this," he said, pointing to his stall covered with ash.
For Aubery Smith, who journeys to Coronation Market every week from St Ann, the loss is "very great".
"Me not only lose me stock, but I took out a small loan to get business going just the other day. How me going to repay this loan?" he said.
"Curry is no more. Who is going to deliver us? Me never see this in history. Neva! Neva! We market turn war zone," said an elderly vendor, Garfield Wheatherly.
Earlier this year, the local arm of international mobile giant Digicel Jamaica embarked on a multimillion-dollar plan to refurbish the market.
"We see Coronation Market as the focal point of trade in the downtown area. At the same time, we recognise that the facilities there need to be improved," Colm Delves, Digicel Group chief executive officer, told The Gleaner last month.