HOWARD HAMILTON has proposed the "twinning" of well-off communities with depressed areas in Kingston and St. Andrew as one way of bridging the gap between "uptown" and "downtown".
Speaking at the Annual Fellowship dinner of the St. Luke's Anglican Church's Brotherhood of St. Andrew in Jamaica, Friday night, Mr. Hamilton said that Kingston and St. Andrew could not continue with the kind of chasm that exists and called for uptown communities to make the first move through what he dubbed, "Operation Reach Out."
He said that citizen's groups, among others, from "well-off" communities could take an interest in poorer communities and go there to see what could be done to help inner-city residents better their lives and to give them hope.
He said that he has already contacted five key players to help steer the operation, namely the Custos of Kingston, Canon Weeville Gordon, executive director of the Kingston Restoration Company (KRC), Morin Seymour, president of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, Micheal Ammar, counsellor, social worker and inner-city resident, Ionie Whorms and Power 106 FM's Tony Laing.
"Montego Bay twins with Miami and some other town twins with Atlanta. Why are we twinning with countries abroad and not twinning with our own, right here where the need is great?" he asked, prompting applause from the audience at Pollyana's Caterers and Restaurant, 8 Stanton Terrace, Kingston.
He said that uptown distrusts downtown, while downtown feels hostility and resentment, but what was needed was for both sides of Jamaica to find a common ground. He said that making lives better for children should be that common goal and that there should be change, because "it is unhealthy for any city to live like that."
He said that downtown communities needed expert guidance, counselling and caring more than money.
"Inner city has its wealth of talent. It has talent, initiative and ambition. What it needs and it lacks is managerial skills," he said.
Mr. Hamilton said that his advisory board was made up of five persons, "all with a range of skills and with the right gender balance."
"This board will be expected to meet three or four times a year to help to guide the decision making of the council and to help them with their interfacing with the outside world, as they work at rebuilding their communities," he said.
