Amina Blackwood-Meeks, Contributor
MY FRIEND, the late great musician and wordsmith, Joe Ruglass, used to be fond of saying, "There can be no community till unity come!". Week before last, as guest speaker at the opening session of a workshop organised by the Women's Outreach and Resource Centre (WORC), Antoinette Haughton, declared, "The salvation of this country lies in revitalising communities."
Neither of them meant to confine their observations to any single geographical location. Both of them would probably agree that the geographical location known as Braeton and all other similar locations that it represents are sadly in need of community. The kind of community which would pursue the greatest good for all its members, including their moral upbringing and physical security.
Patrice Malidoma Some, in Power, Healing and Community, separates a non-functioning community from one that functions. The latter is a place, spiritual and geographical, in which there is trust, openness, love and caring, unity of spirit and a connection with the ancestors. It is a place of being, of finding strength in the supportive presence of the collective.
There is an entire generation of Jamaicans, whole geographical locations, who know nothing else but that communities are also places of great competition, of hostilities rooted in scarce opportunities and the unethical and whimsical distribution of benefits.
In any of these communities the living and the non-living compete, for example, for the limited space. You only have to visit one of them to understand why primary school children find it so difficult to return to the classroom at the sound of the bell. They are making the most of the opportunity to play in an area free of competition from the traffic. They are enjoying the fact that they can run around without running into adult conversation, stumbling upon somebody's privacy, getting into somebody's business in spite of themselves, avoiding the conflict which living in a place with inadequate space is bound to create.
The women who attend the WROC workshop are clear that for these children, as well as for the adults with whom they compete for space, revitalising community is about much more than building a community centre. According to one of the leaders of the Maxfield Avenue community, "If it is only going to be a building for us to sit down and talk we might as well continue to sit down under the light post."
They are clear that it also must be about investing the necessary resources, in spite of "the pressures" of international funding agencies, which will revitalise the spirit of the individuals within the named geographical space and provide them with the human and other resources from which they can access the information and the skills that will empower them to take charge of their future and take care of one another in the spirit of their grandparents.
Spirit
It is this spirit which will enable them to care about what is happening to their neighbours' children, and to sustain the initiative started by one community not so long ago to make all children of school age answerable to any adult in the community for being on the streets or away from school outside of certain designated hours. In other words, revitalising communities also requires us to decide consciously to take lessons from our African origins, without apologies about the nature of the relationship between the youth and the elders. But it is an agreement on a community of ideas, a collective approach that will make any of this possible.
And herein lies the challenge. How do we facilitate the articulating of ideas and an appreciation for the benefits of community in a society so focused on individual salvation and individual success?
Part of the answer is that we have to be seriously committed to providing the resources around which and through which the communities are able to experience success. Is the best kind of health care provided for them where they live? Do their children have access to quality education in the communities? Are houses designed and physically constructed as if we believe that human beings are going to live there and as if we accept that the conditions under which we live are important to the quality social interaction on which wholesome attitudes and values thrive?
Revitalising communities is not so much about resuscitating or bemoaning structures that failed as it is about equipping today's generation with an appreciation for what it means to grow and thrive in communities and allowing them to devise the structures which will create the kinds of communities tailored to their individual and collective needs.
It means providing assistance to our young people who, in spite of what opportunities are presented to them to leave the hostile and competitive environment in which they live, opt to remain to utilise their skills to contribute to human development and the avoidance of human tragedy in their communities. Surely, this must be one of the desired objectives of the revitalised communities: that the gifted and educated remain, so that they can really help to renew other lives even as they shape their own lives rather than leave derelict buildings to be refurbished and dirt patches to be greened.
Revitalising communities must also mean that at the national level, provision is made for giving support to the desires and initiatives of young community leaders in order to ensure that their success is given a chance to manifest at the national level as well.
But all of that requires us to be more concerned about our collective salvation than the agenda or pressure of international lending agencies. It requires us to have the courage, determination and the clarity of the vision of WROC.
Amina Blackwood Meeks is a communications specialist.
