Esther Figueroa | Government of Jamaica vs people of Jamaica

On February 20, The Gleaner published an article titled, “Mining injunction ‘death knell’ for New Day, Noranda”. The article states: “Two bauxite companies have appealed a court order blocking them from mining lands in St Ann and Trelawny, arguing that their survival is under threat and the Jamaican economy faces major upheaval.”

An expedited hearing in the Court of Appeal against the injunction is set for March 20 and 21, 2023. The first application for an injunction against mining in SML 173 was filed on March 29, 2022 and was refused on July 22, 2022. The second application for an injunction was filed on July 29, 2022, and was not heard until January 20, 2023. The first constitutional claim filed on January 20, 2021 and the second constitutional claim filed on July 29, 2022 will be heard together November 20 to December 15, 2023.The reason the trial of the first constitutional claim is taking almost two years, and the second constitutional case almost a year and a half, is partly because of Noranda’s legal tactics which led to postponements.

Other legal cases cannot find judges, and documents keep mysteriously disappearing, yet this appeal miraculously proves that the Jamaican judicial system can be very speedy indeed. Given the government’s overwhelming interest in the injunction being overturned and overarching influence, will there be any chance of independence on the part of the judiciary?

JUDGE ERRED

The appeal by the bauxite companies and the Government of Jamaica, in the form of the attorney general, argues that the judge erred in considering the well-being of the people of Jamaica over the interests of a foreign corporation and the foreign exchange earnings of the Government of Jamaica. The judge was supposed to have “considered ‘the real prospect of closure of their operations and that their business would be irreparably ruined”. While at the same time completely ignoring the claimants concerns that bauxite mining is leading to early death and to chronic illnesses, that their basic human rights such as their right to life, to choose where they live, to be properly consulted, informed and to make decisions over their lives and futures, their right to food, clean air and clean water have been abridged. That bauxite mining damages their crops, dispossesses them of their lands, their way of life, their well-being.

The judge’s finding that the residents, “stand to lose their way of life and livelihoods, face deterioration in the quality of their health … losses for which money cannot really compensate”, was contemptuously dismissed by Noranda as based on mere “speculation or unconvincing evidence”, yet we are asked to care deeply about the survival of their corporation, but not care about the well-being of our fellow Jamaicans and our beloved island? As someone who has been intimately documenting the bauxite-alumina industry in Jamaica for over 16 years, I have absolute proof that what the claimants say about the devastation of their communities, the ruination of the ecologies they depend upon, the disruption of their lives, their livelihoods, their heart break, their material poverty, the bullying and intimidation they face, the lies they have been told, the manipulation and corruption, is absolutely true. I believe them because I am a witness to their truth.

The Gleaner article states: “The attorney general has been named as a defendant and is vigorously opposing the claim, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke has confirmed.” No surprise that the Government of Jamaica has chosen to side with foreign corporations rather than its own citizens, because that is what extractivist governance always does. Rural Jamaicans are sacrificed and we are supposed to diminish their pain and suffering for the good of The Nation. We are supposed to believe that they are of less value. Much talk about the value of the workers in the bauxite industry. No talk about the value of everyone else, farmers, teachers, students, mothers, fathers, grandparents, children. Just as was done to the Infant and All Age School in Gibraltar, St Ann, right now in Alva, St Ann, bauxite mining is taking place right beside the Alva Primary and Infant School. Yet we are to believe the industry propaganda that they do not mine near homes and schools.

Take a tour through any area being mined and you will see homes precariously perched on the precipices of bauxite pits. Yes, some are abandoned because people have had to relocate, but many are still homes to people whose lives are made a living hell because of the extraction of bauxite, day and night. Let us protect Jamaican lives, livelihoods and future over the profits of foreign corporations and a political economy that sacrifices the majority of Jamaicans for the benefit of the few.

- Esther Figueroa, PhD, is a Jamaican filmmaker, writer and linguist. Send feedback to mediavagabond@gmail.com or columns@gleanerjm.com