Contents

Forward................................................................................................................... 1
The Legacy Of A Dictatorship!..............................................................................3
The Low Cost Housing Solution For The Poor,.......................................................4
Kingston- Reflections On A City Dying From The Wrath and Arrogance Of
Dictatorship................................................................................................................ 5
Notice...................................................................................................................... 5
Two Pounds Of Rice and A Tin Of Mackerel-Always Be Thankful For The Little You
Have!................................................................................................................... 9
Vultures Feasting on Sonia Feelings Shame and Guilt..........................................11
The Tongues and Eyes of Darkness and Evil:-....................................................12
The Accusations They Make!.............................................................................. 12
Gross income inequality, poverty and the Will of God........................................14
The Rastafarian Example................................................................................... 16
Urban Moral Fatigue and Obligational Tiredness................................................18
The Reconstruction Of The City Of Kingston.......................................................20

Forward
The document, Kingston- Reflections On A City Dying From The Wrath and Arrogance Of Dictatorship
seeks to accomplish two objectives, firstly to pay homage to those our relatives and friends who in their
lives, made great personal sacrifices in paving the road that we can be where we are today. It is important
that while we eat of the bread of life, that we remember those who cleared and plough the fields so that
corn could be planted. In this regard, I want to remember my late grandmother, mother, uncles, brother
and cousins.
The second aim of this document is to encourage us to look at what we now have as the capital of this
country called Jamaica; to critically examine the period 1976 to 1983, a period in which the largest forced
transfer of property and the most blatant trampling of fundamental Human Rights occurred on a scale not
seen in Jamaican history since the coming of the English colonializes.
Finally it is hoped that by reading this document, we ask ourselves not only what the City of Kingston
would have been without that most unfortunate period in our history, but most importantly:- What is to be
done to pick up the pieces and rebuild the city.
Basil Fletcher
22ng. Nov. 2014

A photograph of Down Town Kingston, Jamaica. As can be seen, there is not a single trash bin or garbage
receptacle in sight.

The Legacy Of A Dictatorship!

The Low Cost Housing Solution For The Poor,

Kingston- Reflections On A City Dying From The

Wrath and Arrogance Of Dictatorship

Notice

The Public is hereby advised that the Sir William Grant

Park is temporarily closed until further notice.
Please bear with us as we affect well needed repairs.

By Order of
Robert H.P. Hill J.P.
Town Clerk
October 22, 2014
On the night of 5th. November 2014, at about 8.30 p.m. the sole occupants of the park was a pack
of straw dogs which so how found their way into the park and made full use of the time given.
5

On the morning of the 6th. November 2014, the only type of repairs seen, were the chopping of
the grass by one man, the raking up of leaves by three young men, and the removal of bushes by
another two men- activities which occur daily in any well run park, the Emancipation in New
Kingston, or the Hope Gardens confirm this. There is up to this point in time, no sign or
indication of the needed repairs being under taken or that these repairs will ever be undertaken.
Why was the park closed?
The fact that there is no sign of any activity which could lead a person to conclude that needed
repairs are being under taken in the park or ever will, leads to the question:- why was the park
closed?

Was the Sir William Grant Park closed because one or two Jehovahs Witnesses with
great regularity take their seats at the southern entrance of the park to distribute their
magazines?
Was the park closed because the retired, the unemployed and the under employed take
their seats at the northern entrance of the park to play draughts (checkers)?
Was it closed because the young under fifteen boys from the nearby communities play
football on the concrete court by the western entrance of the park on week ends?
Was the Sir William Grant Park closed because the Rastafarians gather under the large
Banyan or Rubber tree to discuss and at times to beat their drums ?
Was it closed because a Christian man or woman sometimes uses the park as a place of
worship?
Was the park closed because individuals take photographs in the park?
Was the park closed because lovers, straight and gay, meet late in the evenings by the
south east corner of the park?
Was the park closed because many of the passers by and users of the park cannot find or
afford to use the sanitary conveniences provided by the park?

What is known is that Mr. Robert H.P. Hill J.P., Town Clerk was not and possible still is not in
that mind set which would have caused him to think of the needs of the communities of users
of the park, the needs of those individuals living in the neighborhoods near to the park or the
needs of the residents and visitors of the city. He had the power to close the park and that was
done.
In many ways, the situation surrounding the closure and management of the Sir William Grant
Park is symptomatic of the deeper illness or disease called dictatorship which has taken over the
city from its Six Miles in the West to Port Royal in the east.

Perhaps in order to better understand the nature of this dictatorship one possible need to start by
looking a bit closer at what the Sir William Grant from a community perspective is. One could
look at a park as a type of social infrastructure or as a place where individuals of various
backgrounds and ages meet. The sir William Grant Park in this regard holds a special place in the
history of the Jamaican people, if not for the simple reason that this park gave birth to the two
major political parties which are now in charge of the governing and taking care of the well fare
of the Jamaican people, this park was frequent by none other that Marcus Garvey, Jamaicas first
national hero, this park introduced many to the ideas and principles of the Rastafarian movement
and allowed many to see that they were not the monsters or any other kind of creatures the rulers
of the land tried to paint them as. The Sir William Grant Park could be called the cradle from
which the popular intellectual culture took form and spread north.
The park today continues to be a place where ideas are debated and communities meet. In that it
is a center of defiance and revolt, defiance to the authorities which would want all Jamaica to
think in terms of the Jamaica Labour party and the Peoples National party, defiance to the
authorities which would want all Jamaica to belong to the Christian faith whose no empty
Church building surround the park, defiance to the authorities who seek to deny the average
inner city resident of a place to meet and talk as ordinary citizens without being charged for
loitering or failing to move and keep on moving, defiance of the authorities which seek to
govern, dictate and direct the very thoughts and mind of man. From this perspective the Mr.
Robert H.P. Hill J.P., Town Clerk in closing the park is most normal and was to be expected,
being the selected face of that authority which seek to hold the average Kingstonian under the
burdens of its dictatorship.

A day or two before Mr. Robert H.P. Hill J.P., Town Clerk, decided to close the park, a visitor in
the city found that the bar (pub) closest to the park reported that its washrooms were out of order,
this same visitor discovered that one needs to have a receipt of purchase to use the washroom
facilities of most of the fast food establishment surrounding the park and that the nearest public
washroom facility was at least four hundred meters away from the park, the point of arrival and
dispatch of the state owned buses, in addition even when the park is open, many of the residents
and visitors in the city cannot afford to use them.
The biological needs of the users of the city were of no concern to the selected face of the
authorities of the city Mr. Robert H.P. Hill J.P., Town Clerk. If it is the intention of the authorities
to prove that the residents of the city and local visitors are not deserving of better facilities and
standards of living, there is perhaps no better of doing that, than closing the public bathrooms
and or charging unaffordable fees. The fence of the park and the sidewalks are now stained with
urine and the it is nearly impossible to breathe- a dirty and uncivilized, uncultured people.

There is perhaps also no better way to prove the power of the authorities than closing the public
bathrooms. A visitor to the city, discovered the power of the local authority one morning when he
had to be there in the city at about 7.00 or 7.30 a.m., only to find that the public bathrooms even
at 8.00 a.m. in the mornings were closed and that the restaurants and pubs near to the park were
equally closed. Needing to urine, the visitor found a secluded spot and did urine, only to be met
by the police of the city council who decided that he was to be ticketed and sent to court to pay a
fine. Here the authorities found it just to send out their police to ticket individuals who were
ruining against walls in the city, even before they decided to open the public washroom. The
issue at hand was not one of public order or hygiene, but rather the demonstration of power to
ticket and fine. One only need to imagine the fate of the countless users of the city who are
unable to afford to pay the fees to use the washrooms, cannot afford to buy fast food to get
receipts to use the restrooms of those facilities and or cannot physically go the four hundred
meters distance to use the next alternative public bathroom. Poor women who are pedestrians
should not get pregnant nor should men over forty who might have weaker bladders visit the city
in the early mornings.
There seems also to be a need to show that the residents of the city are unruly and barbaric. It is
known that the inner city communities surrounding the park are very densely populated, with no
social space for relaxation and or recreation. It is also known that the possibility of conflicts
increases with the number of interactions individuals make, especially in close environments.
Close the park and take away that most accessible social and recreational space, then one would
have made his or her case. Mr. Robert H.P. Hill J.P., Town Clerk, did exactly that, closed the
park.
Mr. Robert H.P. Hill J.P., Town Clerk and the Sir William Grant Park , Down Town Kingston
form but one single example and a single dimension of the type of dictatorship which the citizens
of Kingston have to deal with on a continuous basis. the pertinent questions are:- (1) Has this
dictatorship become too deep and entrenched for anything to be done about it? and (2) Is
Kingston worth saving?
This paper will also show, that the Dictatorship in Kingston is but one model, of preserving a
system based on the poverty of many and growing inequality, a model which should not be
allowed to be exported to other developing countries or to any country in the region.
Basil Fletcher

Two Pounds Of Rice and A Tin Of Mackerel-Always Be Thankful

For The Little You Have!
In each city, one finds both static and dynamic components; generally individuals are grouped
among the dynamic components of the city. However, in the city of Kingston, particularly Down
Town Kingston, the very large numbers of the destitute and the insane have become a static
feature of the city. In fact it has become nearly impossible to think of the Kingston Public
Hospital, Kings Street and the area around the Sir William Grant Park without at the same time
thinking of the insane and the destitute. The same holds true for Half Way Tree and Cross Roads.
The destitute and the insane are not in the main squares of the city by accident. It is these squares
and at those locations they find a sense of security and get some food. Additionally they play a
very critical role in the maintenance of the citys dictatorship as it is.
Regardless of the levels of hardship families and individuals are faced with, regardless how
many times in a year a persons water and or electricity is disconnected, regardless how difficult
it is to find lunch money or bus fares to send off the children to school, one is always reminded
that things could be much worse.
In a city which seeks to justify the failure of its economy to create the financial resources to meet
the needs of the majority of its residents, in a city which, no provisions have been made to meet
the growing need of its residents for decent housing and acceptable standards of living, the large
number of destitute and insane individuals in the city acts as a weapon against the individual
feelings of discontent and discourages any demand for change-things could be much worse. The
hand cart man in the Coronation market who has bread and sugar and water for his meal, should
feel contented-at least he is not among the destitute and the insane. It is a great reason to give
God thanks for waking up the person with a sane mind and at least some rice and a tin of
mackerel for breakfast and dinner.
9

Then there is the factor of fear- the fear of losing ones job, even if the employer is unreasonable,
even if the employer is not paying what he or she should, even if the children of the boss do not
know their place and have no manners, even if the employer does not want to wash her own
underwear- give God thanks you could be on the streets among the poor and the destitute. If your
boyfriend or husband is abusive, give thanks, you could be on the street among the poor and the
destitute.
The leaders of the citys religious establishment, satisfied with their own positions and their
sense of security and not wanting to upset the apple cart, join forces with their twins in the
political directorate of the city in keeping the insane and the destitute on the streets, in the
squares where they are, where they can be seen by all-Give thanks for the little that you have!
Give thanks for waking up in a sound mind, you could be there on the streets with them!
The dictatorship which rules the city has shown that it has no qualms nor have shown any
remorse in its recruitment of the insane and the destitute in their bid to preserve the grossly high
level of income and social inequality which characterizes the citys scape and will continue to do
so as long as the insane and the destitute serve the purpose of having the citizenry Giving
Thanks For The Little Which They Have!
The most powerful of the slogans of the citys dictatorship is :-Give Thanks For The Little You
Have!.
Basil Fletcher

10

Vultures Feasting on Sonia Feelings Shame and Guilt

Sonia just could not take it any longer, every day when the bus let her off Down Town, and she
has to walk up East Queens street, passing the old broken down Church building, passing the
scrapped buildings and turning up the lane near to the old cinema, to get to her home, her head
hurts.
When Sonia thinks of her three fatherless children, whose fathers disappeared much faster than
they came, her belly pained. She just could not take it any more.
It was that weight on her shoulders, the pain in her belly and the throbbing in her head which
caused Sonia to go to Church. It the politicians forget about her, if the men to whom she gave her
sweetness have all jumped fences and disappeared, if the men on the road only thought of her as
being fit and ready and she has no family to call on, then God must be the answer, God must
be the solution and where does one go to find God? In the Church of course, that is where God
lives, that is where he has his breakfast, lunch and dinner. That is where he spreads his bed.
The shame the memory of not listening to her mother and starting to share out her sweetness
even before she was sixteen years of age brought tears to her eyes, the shame of not
remembering the number of men she slept with caused her to moan, the shame of the memory of
stealing washing soap, some cooking oil, flour and some sugar from her employers house
caused tears to flow like memories, the guilt of her being unable to take care of her children
caused her to collapse.
The Pastor looked down from the rostrum, fighting back the smile, fighting back the urge to
shout Yes, another idiot has fell at my feet. He was a happy man; his heart pumped with the
joy of victor, another soul has been surrendered to him. Once again the Devil has been defeated.
For the entire ceremonies, not a single word said about the poverty which caused Sonia to be in
the position that she is, was mentioned. Not a single word about the increasing prices and
hardships facing the poor was mentioned. Not a word muttered about the need for men to take
care of their children was muttered. Jesus Saves. Jesus Saves! Wash Your Sins away! But not the
11

hardships and poverty which caused Sonias knees to give way. That Should Never Be Washed
Away. A Vulture Feasting on Sonia Feelings Shame and Guilt
From the little Church off East Queens Street, his ceremonies are being recorded an placed on
CD disks to be distributed to the poor in the United States, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago,
Guyana and of course the United Kingdom.
Basil Fletcher

The Tongues and Eyes of Darkness and Evil:The Accusations They Make!
Matthew 7:5
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to
cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

The dictatorship and the religious establishment which rule over the City of Kingston would like
the country to believe that young women and girls are unsafe in the city, that if they should go
out alone or by themselves they are very likely to be raped; that ones a girl has reached the age of
puberty and has begun to push out breasts she becomes the target of older men.
Last week Sunday, having no money I decided to sit out a part of my day by Ocean Boulevard,
Down Town and to do some writing on one of the benches DegiCell , the cellular phone
company has provided the public with in the history park by their headquarters. Unfortunately
this did not happen because a security guard employed by the company, decided to take on to
himself the position of CEO of the company and forbid any writing on the benches provided on
Sundays- an agent of the religious establishment.
Having failed to secure a place to write in the DegiCell history park , I decided that I would go
by the seawalls and do my writing there. By the sea walls I say a girl of about fourteen years of
age, swimming in the sea with a group of teenage males, none tried to rape her, none tried to
sexually assault her. She later came ashore and went with another group of teenage boys and subteen boys to pick coconuts from the trees which grow by the water front. None of the teenage
12

boys or sub teen age boys made any moves on her, in fact it was as if she was one of the
boys. I sat and observed these individuals for the better part of two hours.
In how many of the swimming pools of the members of the dictatorship and the religious
establishment could this have occurred without the young lady going under the most serious of
sexual assaults or moves? How many young ladies have been forced to disappear from the
benches of the Church because of the moves which come their way? How many overnight
weddings have the members of the religious establishment have been forced to organized
because their sons do not know how to keep their penises in their pants? How many of the
daughters of both the dictatorship and the religious establishment have been forced to have
abortions? The truth be told, the call for the legalization of abortion is loudest in the ranks of the
dictatorship and the members of the religious establishment.
Last nigh at the bar by the Pink lane and Charles street intersection, there was a party which
seemed in the main to be organized by the young women of that part of the community, while at
Ashleys shop which is not more than twenty steps away; a group of about five men of ages
between twenty five to sixty, including men who drove the best of cars, men who know there
way around, sat. The music played came from the late 1960s to the present and were from all
genres, including Boy George If You Really Want To Hurt Me, to a song about Mi Pussy
Sweet. Not a single man at Ashleys shop made an inappropriate move at any of the young
women who were going to that party- girls were dressed in the tightest of shorts (pussy printers
or whatever they are called) , Batty Riders and in all manner of clothing. Ashleys shop was
closed at about 11.30 p.m. and the party went on until about 1.00 a.m. . This party I observed
until about 12 mid night. No rapes were reported to have taken place, no sexual assault was
reported to have occurred or could have occurred.
On the corner of East Queen Street not far from, the Mothers fast food outlet, I have seen young
women vending items on the sidewalk and women boarding buses for St. Thomas up until 9.00
p.m. in the nights, I have not had as yet the opportunity to make later observations in those areas.
Where sexual assaults are made on women in many parts of the inner city, it is made by deviants
and perverts who are not encouraged by the community. Many a times, these deviants and
perverts are forced to flee the communities. Rapers are not encouraged in any inner city
community that I know of. The same cannot be said for the communities of those of the
dictatorship and the leaders of the religious establishment, where and among whom, rape is not
rape, an even the most innocent of victim can be in one night be rechristened a whore. This
says nothing about the buy offs which takes place. The truth be told, not even the daughters of
the dictatorship which rule over the city and the members of the religious establishments are safe
from the sexual predatorial attention of their fathers and their uncles. That is the truth!
Basil Fletcher
13

Gross income inequality, poverty and the Will of God

One of the arguments put forward by the staunchest defenders of the current state of the gross income
inequality and poverty which characterizes, if not defines, the city of Kingston in particular the Down Town
Kingston, is that it is the Will of God. If five criminal gun men barges into the home of sleeping residents in
the dead of night killing them, we are being led to believe that:-Such is the Will of God, if a single mother of
four children is unable to put food on the dinner table:-Such is the will of God.
In other words the dictatorship made up of the political directorate and there friends and company who
currently rule over the lives of the long suffering people of the city, do not need to put forward a single word in
their own defense, the religious establishment has taken on to itself the duty of covering the flanks of the
oppressors, possible with the hope of being rewarded for carrying out their dirty work. If this was not so, , not
only would the religious establishment not be telling people that gross income inequality, poverty and crime
and violence are all a result of the Will of God; rather this establishment which is so highly organized and so
rich in membership would be in the forefront of the struggle for a significant reduction in the gross inequality
in the distribution of incomes and leading the fight against poverty.
When a person passes on Orange Street and see the damage, pillage and the destruction done to the entire
stretch where the old JPS main office was once located, when a person comes by the Salvation Army building
there on Orange Street and heads towards the York Park Fire Station and fells that sense of desolation and look
at the destruction done to property through vandalism, criminality and as a result of calculations and
miscalculations made by the political directorate; is one to conclude that Such is the Will of God. If such is
the Will of God, a will which has created destruction, poverty and hardship on a scale never before experience
by the city of Kingston; then perhaps there is a need for God to be banned from the city of Kingston and that
he takes himself and his influence elsewhere in the world.
Fortunately we know that man has a will of his own and not everything man does is in keeping with the
expressed will of God. Given that knowledge, it is clear that the religious establishment is less concerned about
enlightening the people, cares little or none at all about their living conditions or the hardships they face on a
daily basis and are by far more concerned about the feathering of their own beds, the stuffing of their pillows
and buttering their bed and to do that they have no other choice but to support the dictatorship.
Below are given quotations of the Bible which speak directly to the will of man even as it speaks to the will of
God. A person without will cannot disobey and cannot sin; a person without will has no use for the knowledge
of right and wrong, a person without will cannot be fooled, a person without will needs not to be convinced of

14

anything.
What is perhaps most dangerous, is that the religious establishment, not contented with its work in Jamaica and
specifically in Kingston, is now actively seeking to take steps to export this doctrine of poison to the inner
cities of North America, to countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and elsewhere in the region. A
doctrine of doom, darkness and hopelessness.
See Bible Quotations Below.
Basil Fletcher
Does man have a free will:Genesis Chapter 2
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the
LORD God commanded the man, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.
Genesis Chapter 3
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORDGod had made. He said to the
woman, Did God really say, You must not eat from any tree in the garden?
2 The woman said to the serpent, We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, You must
not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.
4 You will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman. 5 For God knows that when you eat from it your
eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable
for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate
it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves
together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of
the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
17 To Adam he said, Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded
you, You must not eat from it,
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God
said, The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out
his hand and and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.

End

15

The Rastafarian Example

If the period between the mid 1970s and the early 1980s could be defined as a period defined as
one in which the largest forced and violent transfer of property from small home and business
owners in the city of Kingston took place since the British conquest and subsequent
colonialisation of Jamaica, It could also be characterized as a period in which the Rastafarian
movement not only grew in strength and numbers but also showed the strength and value of
unity in times of turmoil.
The Rastafarians in Jones Town, in particular those on Myers Street by the Salvation Army
Church in the mid 1970s, when many individuals were living either in fair of violence or the fear
of unemployment caused by small employers leaving the country, recognized that they could
make a living by selling watches, tams, Rasta belts and pants lengths (the length of cloth required
to make pants) and other small items. As a group, they set up vending stations in Half Way Tree
at the corner of South Odeon Avenue. Remnants of that group are still to be found there today.
In Allman Town on Wild Street, when the children of war were taking over the town, the
Rastafarians realized that as a group at Dads shoe making shop, they were safe from the ebbs
and flows of the violence which sought to rule the town. IN Waterhouse, the Rastafarians who
lived near and around Balcome Drive came to the same conclusion.
In this same period, the Twelve Tribe Rastafarian movement, showed that it was possible to
live within a society and not become a part of the darkness which sought to engulf that society,
their regular dances at the Students Union building campus at the University of the West
Indies, Mona Campus, provided on a regular basis alternative entertainment, free from violence,
sexism and negativity. The Bubo Dreads in the hills of in Bull Bay in the south eastern corner of
St. Andrew were well advance in developing their own co-operative type of commune.
It was also the era of Bob Marley and the Wailers, who were not only chanting against the
system, but also putting forward a viable alternative.

16

In this period of time, many member of the Jamaican Chinese community and many of the
Brown community who decided to give up their group identity and group approach to life,
found that the members of their communities were taken apart and soundly flogged by the
dictatorship which ruled the city. The Chinese community as an ethnic group end up being the
single largest loser of property, their cemetery on Waltam Park Road today stands in ruin, their
business along North street, Orange Street, Princess Street and elsewhere down town Kingston
abandoned.
The vast majority of Black home owners, who formed the largest single contingent of small
property owners in the city, failed to see themselves as a group and failed to recognize their own
interests and stake in the city as being different from all other classes, were decimated, many
forced to flee leaving their property, many had their properties destroyed in the flames of war
and their communities such as Allman Town, Jones Town, Kingston Gardens, Vineyard Town,
Rae Town and elsewhere reduced to either shadows of what once was or to rubble as in the case
of Rose Town.
The lessons to be drawn from these groups in that period, in particular from the Rastafarian
movement, are of tremendous importance for the Fletchers and Manakers of New York, Florida,
California and elsewhere in the United States and in London, England, where the desire of many
to fit in the wider society, to assimilate, have led many to forget not only family but also their
own community, rendering them open to be taken apart and literally brought to their knees by the
united and the strong.
Basil Fletcher

17

Kings Street In Front Of The Supreme Court

Urban Moral Fatigue and Obligational Tiredness

For real improvements to occur in the conditions of the lives of the poor and the destitute in any
city, all stakeholders must accept and play their respective roles and accept their obligations to
improving conditions of the poor and the destitute. This is sadly not so in the City of Kingston.
In the mid 1960s, if not from before, the St. Annes Catholic Church in Hannah Town, from the
premises of the St. Annes Infant School on Percy Street, on a monthly or bi-monthly basis gave
out tins of oil and packages of food to the poor from the neighboring Denham Town community.
Today the Roman Catholic Church through Food For The Poor has to provide from time to time
housing units in addition to the regular food aid though various Churches in both Hannah Town
and Denham Town on a much wider scale.
The Salvation Army through its own outlets and Churches, has for decades been providing food
and clothing for the homeless and the destitute, and toys to the children of the poor. Today, the
18

Salvation Army is called on to do the same on a much wider scale.

So grave has the situation facing the poor and the destitute become in the city of Kingston and so
large have their numbers grown, that the Roman Catholic Church in Jamaica has found it
necessary to set up an new Order-Missionaries For The Poor.
Within this same period of time, roughly fifty years, many individuals and some of the smaller
Churches, have seen the need to play their role in assisting the poor and the destitute in the citybut Alas ! Despite the most valiant and self sacrificing efforts made by so many, the ranks of the
army of the poor and the destitute continue to swell as a direct result of the continuous decrease
in real per capita GDP and the accelerated widening in the inequality in the distribution of
income.
What does this mean in real terms for those directly involved in the act and process of giving to
the poor and the destitute? It means in real terms that the City of Kingston has become an ever
widening and deepening pi or Black Hole, sucking and sucking ever increasing quantities of
resources and efforts from those who are prepared to give. No longer is one speaking about
Market Failure and Frictional Unemployment, but rather about what appears to be , from all
possible angles or directions , the result of deliberately planned and implemented policies and
plans , aimed at excluding an increasing percentage of the citys population from the economic
life of the city and the creation of an ever increasing number of enclaves of dire poverty and
want.
Even within these enclaves of dire poverty and want, they who rule the city seem bent on
frustrating the best efforts of the donors and givers of resources, time and effort. The cellular
phone company DegiCell, it was reported, made significant efforts to refurbish a childrens park
in the Denham Town community, some years ago, a much needed facility in that community.
Sadly however, after all the effort and resources which went into that project, they who rule the
city, did not think that they had a duty, responsibility or obligation to maintain the refurbished
park-the park as a result is once again in need of refurbishing.
The citizens of the ever increasing numbers of enclaves of dire poverty and want are by no
means angels and in many instances, carry out activities which worsen their own standards of
living and the communities within which they live, thus adding even more weight to the backs of
an already burdened donor and volunteer community. Here a large part of the blame for these
misguided actions, must be laid squarely and firmly at the feet of the political directorate which
taught individuals of my parents generation and of my generation in the mid 1970s and early
1980s , that it was correct and desirable to burn, scrap and loot both private and public property.
The cases of individuals who were given less than a day to leave their homes are too many to
recount, the number of private dwellings scraped in communities such as Jones Town, in
communities off Maxfield Avenue, Mountain View Avenue, off East Queens street and elsewhere
are too many to count-that self destructive attitude and disrespect for life and property which was
taught and encourage in those parents and their children is not easily overcome.
The combined factors of an ever continuing decline in peal per capita GDP, acceleration in the
inequality in the distribution of income, neglect by and freedom from responsibility of the
political directorate and state officials coupled with incidents of self destructive behavior of
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many residents in the enclaves of poverty and destitution have served to create an ever increasing
sense of urban moral fatigue and obligational tiredness.
Basil Fletcher

The Reconstruction Of The City Of Kingston

A
The reconstruction of the City of Kingston assumes the following:

Respect of property rights.

Timely and correct wages for work done.
Respect for contractual agreements.
Respect for the rights of the individual.
An efficient and functioning justice system.
The right to make a profit on any or all activities, production, distribution and
or sale of goods and services within the law.
B

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The political dictatorship created a type of serfdom in which:1. Property rights were thrown out through the window; they determined who
they want to be living where and or conducting business in their
constituencies.
2. Oversaw the appropriation of both public and private property with no
compensation in many cases.
3. Created a serf class who are dependent on them for access to the means of
survival place to live, the avoidance of bill payments, access to employment
and or monies to meet basic needs and protection in exchange for
unquestionable and unconditional loyalty.
4. Created a criminal gang caste for the purpose of ensuring loyalty to the
representative or representatives of the dictatorship, for guaranteeing
security of territory and for the intimidation of opponents and for enforcing
order in the area under control.
5. A state which is characterized by collusion with the political dictatorship in
the ignoring of and or violating the basic rights of the individual and property
rights,. The record shows, that the state did nothing to prevent or to stop the
wide scale destruction of both public and private property nor tried to protect
the lives and the well being of the citizens.
People were expelled from their homes in the northern section of Fletchers
Land (year about 1976 or 77), not more than three hundred meters away
from the Fletchers Land Police Station; the housing structure on Orange
Street, where Orange Villa is now located, was put to flames, an infant child
thrown back into the flames and people evicted, less than two minutes away
from both the Fletchers Land and Admiral Town Police stations.
Legal residents who disagreed with the dictatorship in Tivoli Gardens, Arnett
Gardens and other such housing estates removed from their homes; today
many of the residents of these housing estates have no legal rights to
occupancy. Sections of Hannah Town and Denham Town were politically
purged and properties destroyed under the nose of the Hannah Town and
Denham Town police stations.
This is but a very small snap shot of the state of collusion between the state
itself and the political dictatorship, which brought the city to ruins, be it in
Waterhouse, Rae Town, Central Kingston or August Town.
This state of collusion between the state machinery and the political
dictatorship facilitated the trampling of the rights of hundreds of thousands of
the residents of Kingston and effectively denied them of any recourse to
justice and is in many ways responsible for the inability of Kingston as it is to
renew itself. A city returned to a state of serfdom by force of violence and
repression cannot perform or compete and has no place in a capitalist
economy.
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A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

F.

G.

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C
Both the agencies of the state responsible for administering and
managing the city and the representatives of the political dictatorship
must be brought under the direct structured control of the public; the
historic record of both leaves no room for trust and their intentions based
upon past actions and activities , must be questioned and critically
examined.
All occupiers of both public and private property, who have not made legal
contractual arrangements with the legal owners of the properties they
occupy, must regularize their tenure; if a building is good enough to live
in-rent must be paid to live in it.
The National Housing Trust working with the financial institutions in the
City of Kingston and the Jamaica Constabulary Force must set up the
required institutional arrangements as is need for the National Housing
Trust to act as an agent for the property owners and or their heirs who are
unable or unwilling to enter because of the potential threat to their person
into those areas to collect rental for their properties and to carry out
repairs as needed to the same. At present in many communities, most
notable in East Kingston , rent is being illegally collected even from
property owners residing in those communities by criminal gangs for the
funding of their illegal activities and further terrorizing the residents.
Any individual wishing to represent the residents and the business
community in any elected political office must be subjected to a
background security check which must be paid for by the political party
which puts forward the individual, and carried out by an independent
security agency recommended by the business community and the Board
of Bankers.
Residents and the business community has the right to seek to remove
any serving state official or political representative through the Supreme
Court by declaring the individual as either being Unfit To Serve and or
For Acting Against The Best Interests Of The City, on the basis of
positions and or actions taken which can be legally be proven not to be in
the Best Interests of the City of Kingston, Here there is no need for any
new laws.
The police divisions operating in the City of Kingston must be answerable
to both the residents and the business community for their rate in the
solving of crime, actions taken to stamp out extortion in the City, actions
taken or not taken to illuminate the criminal gangs which operates in and
around the City of Kingston and their work in guaranteeing and protecting
the Human Rights of the individual.
The Business Community as is represented by the Kingston Chamber of
Commerce and the Bankers Association shall pass and publish a code of
conduct which will be binding on all formal business operators with
operations in the City. This is to ensure minimum standards in the areas of
customer services, service quality and consumer protection.

H. The Chamber of Commerce and the Bankers Ass have the right through
the Supreme Court to deregister any registered business entity operating
in the City and through the Court order any business entity regardless of
its legal status closed.
D
The relative economic success of the parish of Manchester where
individual farmers and families have secure legal tenure to the land they
occupy and use and where squatting is nearly non-existence compared to
the parish of St. Thomas where the average farmer is still in search for his
or her own square of land and squatting is widespread, is one clear
demonstration of the importance of the respect of Human Rights and
property rights to the economic development of a given area.
The feudal economic system as imposed by the political dictatorship ,
which currently operates in the City where in some communities the
Right To The First Night still exists and permission must be obtained to
date an outsider, cannot be allowed to continue.
Basil Fletcher

End

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