By Petulia Clarke, Staff ReporterTHEY HAVE been stigmatised for a long time. They have been given unflattering labels like ghettos and garrisons, terms that social workers have determined may have wrecked the psyche of those who live there.
Work is in progress to empower them, the social workers say, but it has taken years, as while some residents have risen past the prejudices attached to their communities' names, many are still sinking in the disgrace.
And with tags like 'Back Bush', 'Jungle 12', 'Angola' and 'Vietnam', their fates seem forever predetermined as while most residents ache for change, it's not as easy convincing the wider society.
Take 'Back Bush' or Hamstead Park, the community's proper name.
'Chief' or 'Ernie', a shopkeeper in the community, situated off Mountain View Avenue in East Kingston, says that he has had to sit and watch young people leave high school and waste away, as there are no jobs for them. There is no hiring either, save for the few who use their friends' addresses in 'safer' areas than their own. There are no opportunities either, as no one has invested in the community for years. 'Chief' says that, most times, this is what causes war.
'Back Bush', said 'Chief', is just that narrow strip of road below the Long Mountains, from Mountain View Oval to Bygrave Avenue, so named because it was an alternative route, the back road off Mountain View Avenue.
He says that the 1,400 residents really need a name change, for theirs and their children's sake.
"It's not like the place bad, it's just the name that turn off people," he said. "You have a thing where
youths go to look a job and from them (employers) hear 'Back Bush', the people dem not giving dem the job. And they wonder why the youths dem war. Most times you hear anything is mostly political tension, then you hear bout in the Back Bush area and it's not even us, cause Back Bush don't stretch very far."
The community has been working with the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) to stop the violence, "so Mountain View no longer in the red," 'Chief' said.
They are trying through music and sports for now.
It has been hard, PMI social worker, Berthlyn Plummer, said. "They have been stigmatised for the longest while."
Aston Bell, a senior citizen in August Town, understands the stigma. He said that once employers hear that the youths are from August Town, there are suddenly no vacancies. Give a hint that you're from 'Vietnam', 'Angola' or 'Jungle 12', all off August Town Road, and it's worse.
He said that the names were given in the 1980s elections, when young men in the communities got it in their heads to see who could come off as being "baddest", and show the areas off as strongholds for certain political parties.
'Angola' is Goldsmith Villas and 'Vietnam' is Bottom River. 'Jungle 12', named for 12 young men who had and admired friends in 'Jungle' (Arnett Gardens) is Colour Yellow.
"It's sometimes for protection, when people hear names like these no outsiders don't really come in and try anything," Mr. Bell said. "But then again, in 1957 when I came here you could sleep in the street, you could have your house open at all hours of the night, but from the 1970s everything start to deteriorate, and it was all politics."
'Wappy King', a 'Jungle 12' resident who was sitting atop 'Capitol Hill', said that the news team was at "the calmest most peaceful hill in August Town".
He said that 'Vietnam' or 'Voom Down' was named "because them 'warrify'", and 'Jungle 12' in honour of good alliances with Arnett Gardens. 'Angola' was so named because the people there came from areas like Fletchers Land and McGregor Gully and mimicked the strife of its African counterpart. "It was the only name we could think of for their behaviour," Wappy King said.
On a more sober note, he said that discrimination was rampant, as just recently a friend of his was turned away in England when they heard that he was from August Town.
"From dem hear August Town dem just think Jungle 12," he said. "And it's all downhill from there."
Ms. Plummer said that the PMI has been working in 15 communities, including those off August Town Road and Mountain View Avenue, to quash the stigma and empower the people.
"We have to empower them," she said. "It's the only way to change. We have to change how employers think, when employers are hiring some think that because they live in the areas they are a part of the conflict, and we have to change that," she said.
The PMI, a broad-based group, intervenes in troubled communities to head off conflict. Ms. Plummer said that the PMI also helps the communities rise above the stigma attached to their names by providing training and other facilities. The PMI has assisted dozens of persons so far to access training at colleges like the Excelsior Community College and provides counselling and mediation for the distressed.
"When there are those problems it sorts of hampers movement," she said. "We're trying to see if we can bring community cohesiveness. We are preventing situations from escalating into violence, we have to deal with the psyche of the people affected, we have to help them to access essential services, we're trying to make them aware of the goods and services and agencies available to them to assist in their development, and we hope that on seeing the success, society will change the image they have of these communities."
Norman Douglas said that Arnett Gardens and the little area called 'Concrete Jungle' has risen above discrimination to tremendous development.
"Is years now we don't make the news(negatively)," the resident beamed. "We doing good work."
He said that through sporting and other social activities 'Concrete Jungle' has risen past its name.
"Stigma is a one-time thing; people are aware that these are changing times," he said. "Some still give outside addresses and such, but for 'Jungle', discrimination is a thing of the past. We have risen above that; nowadays it's all based on qualifications and people are getting their work. We have many professionals here and we have only to get better from here."
He said that 'Jungle' was given the name by a female after the area which was "pure bush and dilapidated houses" was built into (concrete) housing schemes in the late 1960s. He said that a female from nearby Wilton Gardens was involved in an altercation with the police during a curfew in the early 1970s and when harassed, asked them to go terrorise 'Concrete Jungle' instead. From there, he said, the name stuck. Since then, rapidly rising schemes have been named 'Havana', after a visit from Cuba's president Fidel Castro, 'Angola', after a visit from one of that country's ministers, 'Pegasus', because of a resemblance to the New Kingston hotel, and 'Brooklyn', 'Texaco', 'Zimbabwe' and 'Mexico'.
And better should be coming for the inner cities, as legislation towards a proposal made two years ago by the National Crime Committee to use an affirmative action-style approach to easing their unemployment is still on the table.
The proposal contemplates using legislation to force employers to hire more persons from the country's depressed communities.
In its report last year, the committee, which was set up to build consensus on fighting crime, stated that although inner-city residents were gaining access to educational opportunities in public schools at nearly the same level as those from middle-income communities, their entry into the job market was much lower. It suggested that a reason for this was that employers discriminated against inner-city residents on the basis of their addresses.
To correct this imbalance in the workforce, the committee recommended that Government seek voluntary compliance by employers and failing that pass the necessary legislation. Since November 2001, the report has been in the hands of Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and Opposition Leader Edward Seaga.
