Pothole woes

THE EDITOR, Sir:

This Government generally speaks against the crash-programme work that was practised in the '70s by the Michael Manley administration. I have noticed a general trend in patching roads these days that is similar to the crash programmes practised back in the day.

A lot of persons use Waterhouse as a means of avoiding traffic. Some weeks ago, when the decision was made to patch the holes on Bay Farm Road, it created a lot of chaos with traffic, because of the unprofessional manner of how it was done. First, they dug and clean the holes to accommodate the patching, which obviously made the holes deeper and wider.

Now if they had planned to patch at the same time, this would be fine, but instead the holes were patched days later after a number of front ends were replaced from falling in these holes.

This is just one example, but it is being done on a lot of roads. The minister speaks highly of his achievements but he needs to experience what it feels like to fall into one of these holes.

Flawed management approach

Based on what I have observed, the whole management approach in repairing roads appears to be flawed. When you look at the amount of labour that is used, one wonders if it's a highway that is being constructed.

We need to take a page out of the books of the foreigners who constructed the highways and the professional manner in which that work was carried out. Are we serious about fixing roads or more serious about securing votes? We need to seriously answer these questions.

Most road repairs are generally done leading up to a general election, and this is a practice by both major political parties as a means of keeping those memories at the forefront of the minds of the voters.

Jamaica should be the star of the Caribbean, but the corruption and self-interest of politicians have been dragging us down for so long, to the point where other Caribbean neighbours with far fewer resources have taken the lead in having more stable economies and cleaner politics.

At this point, we must not criticise Haiti, because if we look carefully at what is happening around us, that country might very well recover while we slowly but surely continue to head down a path of deceit and mistrust by those who claim to be leaders.

Looking at the present Government and the Opposition, what are the options available? It's sad to say, but I personally don't see much. And to make it even worse, thousands of Jamaicans share the same view.

robbie9mm@yahoo.com, R. Dillon, Kingston