Gov't must respect Jamaicans first

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I write in response to an article in The Gleaner of Thursday, January 3, 2019, regarding the disgraceful state of the Montego Bay market. It speaks to the state of depravity that afflicts our leaders in government, the private sector and municipal corporationss. Montego Bay is a city of many remarkable ironies, and while the Opposition and Government haggle regarding what is the best way to address crime, I am not hopeful that they understand how their own negligence of basic things have robbed many Jamaicans of a sense of dignity that would have led to a different and better country.

How can people in Montego Bay, who are deprived and poor but who seek to make a life in Charles Gordon Market love their country when the leaders, who oversee a sign being built to impress the world that Jamaica is a welcoming place, cannot even provide basic public spaces for them, who are only good for voting? How do Montegonians and many in western Jamaica feel when towns like Lucea and Charles Gordon Market in Montego Bay are in such perpetual and disgraceful states of abject nastiness, while Negril and Gloucester Avenue, where sex, gambling, and the most nauseating activities insulting to our national moral social aspirations, are cleaned up daily?

Many did not like Wilmot Perkins, but I refer to him to make a point to those in charge. He used to say that if our government cannot effectively clean up garbage, what else can they do well? I have known no government that has managed to clean up the garbage in our country. Is there any hope for crime, corruption, the economy, youth or health? Maybe we believe that public relations can substitute for caring and responsive governance that respects our Jamaican people first!

Linvern Wright

Lucea, Hanover