Excerpt from the Jamaica Observer column published on Monday, January 24, 2022
By Jean Lowrie-Chin
As I listened to the list of areas which were declared zones of special operations (ZOSO) in Westmoreland at last week’s press briefing, my mind went back to my childhood days in Savanna-la-Mar. Dalling Street was a place where zinnia gardens flourished in front of quaint country cottages. Great George Street was the lovely road on which we walked from our mother’s house and shop at 2 Rose Street down to the fort by the seaside where we would watch magnificent sunsets. My mom would lend tables and chairs to both political parties when they had meetings at the fountain.
We attended St Mary’s Academy, run by the Sisters of Mercy, with its walkway of swaying palms and the St Joseph’s Catholic Church at Hendon Circle. We were fixtures in the Savanna-la-Mar library and we knew we should say good morning or good afternoon to everyone we met, and this was always returned with a smile.
Fast-forward to 2014 when there was news of the shooting of a couple on Dalling Street, who were survived by several children, and Food For the Poor Jamaica decided to build a house for them. When I arrived as part of the handover team I could hardly believe my eyes. The location of the house was in a tenement yard, and all the lovely cottages along the street were gone.
The following year, with the sad eyes of the bereaved children still on my mind, I prepared an Easter package for them and went to Dalling Street to deliver it. At the entrance a man on a bicycle growled, “Whey yu want?” I told him that I had brought a bag for the children. “Gi mi, mi will gi dem,” he said menacingly. I must confess that I became very afraid of being attacked so I gave him the bag and quickly got back into the car.
This is just one of many areas in Jamaica, land we love, where you must seek permission from a thug to enter a yard, a street, or a community. They have decent citizens under their thumbs who must “see and blind” to stay alive.
As usual, the police are being blamed for the upsurge of crime because this takes the heat off those who are bringing in expensive weapons to arm our unattached youth, and those who could do more to heal their communities but hide behind profiling and puffery.
So here is what every Jamaican can do. We can mentor a child; make a weekly call to just listen and point them in the right direction.
Richard Lawrence, who created the Adopt A Youth Foundation, held a webinar last week to assist young people in finding and applying for scholarships. He is active in the Apostolic Worship Centre.
Racquel Simpson, a public relations executive, mentors primary school children and holds extra classes for them.
Through our churches, we can start these groups, using those spaces that are locked all week to create oases of peace and productivity. The Government and the security forces alone cannot do it; we must also do our part to save our beloved Jamaica.
Jamaica Highlights 