THE EDITOR, Sir: IF ONE wanted a perfect metaphor for what obtains in many aspects of Jamaican life, one need look no further than the intersection of Knutsford Boulevard and Trinidad Terrace in New Kingston.
For years maybe 15 years water has flowed from premises on the eastern section of Trinidad Terrace into the aforementioned intersection. Of, course, after a while the water settles in the intersection, erosion begins and a small pothole appears.
As the days go by, with vehicles constantly traversing that section of the roadway, the pothole gradually gets bigger until traffic has to slow down to drive through or to going around it sometimes encroaching on the lane for traffic going in the opposite direction.
This goes on for about two months until the pothole has taken over most of the intersection. Then here comes the road crew from the NWA (or its predecessors, Ministry of Works, the Public Works Department, whatever). Of course they come on a weekday between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. causing the most horrendous dislocation of traffic one can image. And then off they go.
But...it seems no one bothers to try to find the source of the water that is constantly running out on to the road.
And so as soon as the road repair crew has gone the cycle begins anew and you know that soon drivers will again be dodging that pothole and that bi-monthly traffic pile-up will not be far behind.
And I'll take a bet that people in the agency who have the responsibility to fix this will argue that it is things like these that make our country uniquely Jamaican.
I am, etc
ERROL.K. MILLER
Kingston
