Editorial | A clean city should be New Year resolution

Last May, when Tower Street in downtown Kingston was renamed in honour of the 20th-century Indian thinker and humanitarian Bhimrao Ambedkar, we urged the Jamaican authorities to make the gesture more than fleeting symbolism.

Dr Ambedkar had doctorate degrees in sociology and economics, qualified as a lawyer, presided over the commission that wrote India’s Independence Constitution and served as justice minister in Jawaharlal Nehru’s first government. He is, however, best remembered for his work in promoting the rights of India’s dalit (lowest class) community, the country’s underclass.

As The Gleaner noted just after the then Indian president, Ram Nath Kovind, unveiled the name sign for Dr Ambedkar Avenue: “The matters to which Dr Ambedkar committed his life were fundamentally about respect for people’s dignity, including their right to live in decent circumstances. In other words, the basics, or small things, matter.”

The basics meant things like collecting garbage, cleaning drains, and, as was a problem in the Tower Street area at the time of the observation, getting rid of the stench that caused one interviewed worker to bemoan, “Stink! Stink! Stink!”.

For a brief period people, especially residents in the area around Ambedkar Avenue, might have been lulled into believing that things were changing.

DID NOT LAST

For President Kovind’s visit, the road in the vicinity of the naming ceremony was patched and grates over the gutters were repaired or replaced. Garbage was removed. It did not last.

Twice last week, this newspaper published photographs of massive garbage pile-ups along Ambedkar Avenue, with complaints from residents that there has been no removal for a fortnight. The health hazards are obvious.

If it is any consolation to the people of India who revere Dr Ambedkar’s name, this is nothing personal. Dr Ambedkar is not being singled out for a ‘diss’.

The city’s overseers and the national Solid Waste Management people are equally incompetent.

Indeed, as The Gleaner was drawing attention to the problem along Ambedkar Avenue, using it as metaphor for a deeper crisis, a video was circulating on social media of a long mountain of rubbish along Princess Street in the downtown business district. These mounds essentially closed Princess Street to vehicular traffic. It was hellish for pedestrians, too.

There were similar scenes in Parade and Orange Street downtown, and elsewhere in the capital.

Maybe the people whose job it is to keep the place clean have seen so much garbage, for so long, that they have become inured to the stuff. This, though, is not in the sense of being overwhelmed, but more of being callous, and without an ideology that insists upon getting the small things done and doing them right.

The point is, the campaign that Dr Ambedkar maintained on behalf of India’s dalits required not only a vague notion of the inherent equality and value of all humans, but energy and commitment. Declarations and statements were not presumed to be the act. There was no restless chase for the next shiny object. He had persistence.

Kingston’s Mayor Delroy Williams periodically rouses himself from his managerial narcolepsy to talk about creating a smart city or presiding over the cultural and intellectual hub of the Caribbean. But he offers no pathway for doing these things. The statements are the accomplishments.

CLEAN ENVIRONMENT

Jamaicans, and the Kingstonians who would benefit most, would welcome living in smart cities and cultural hubs. But more immediately, they wish to live in a clean environment, rather than having to scramble over mountains of garbage, endure overgrown verges or the stench of muck-filled drains.

Clean environments give citizens a psychological lift, causing them to feel better about their communities, and contribute to a lessening of antisocial behaviour. That helps to reduce crime, which is a major problem in Jamaica.

In other words, removing garbage and maintaining clean communities should be an integral part of the country’s anti-crime plan.

We are aware that the authorities will claim a lack of resources to do these small things and get them right. They will demand more garbage trucks and the outlay of huge amounts of money, which, if granted, they will say, will upend the fiscal accounts and undermine macroeconomic stability. Blah! Blah! Blah! They draw on every excuse.

What, though, is first required is commitment to decency and a belief that Jamaicans are worthy of living in a healthy environment. And the ability to see the connection between this and all other things, including economic growth and the wish for smart cities and cultural capitals.

Then there is the ability to set priorities and to judiciously manage taxpayers’ money so as to get the best value for every dollar spent, rather than the other way around. The latter, too often, for reasons only politicians seem to comprehend, is what happens.

Maybe the Kingston and St Andrew municipal authorities should make a clean city/parish their key priority for 2023, their New Year resolution.