THE EDITOR, Sir:
AUDLEE FUNG-CHI wrote from Miami suggesting that high-rise buildings would attract investment to Jamaica. One of the loveliest cities in the United States is its capital, Washington D.C., laid out by Pierre Le 'Enfant, with the assistance of a brilliant black man, Benjamin Bannecker, whose mathematical gifts were remarkable.
Washington's monuments are visible in the city because no building can surmount them, or be more than eight stories high. (The building code in Negril that limits hotels to treetop level has a similar positive effect.) America's Paris, Washington D.C., has a gleaming majesty. Kingston could, too.
A clean environment would attract greater confidence. A skyscraper may afford the penthouse owner a magnificent view, but stepping out onto a dirty street is a reality check. Also, Jamaica sits on the edge of a tectonic plate, making it a risky earthquake zone in which to build toward the sky. During the famous Port Royal earthquake, eyewitnesses reported that the very shape of all the hills were visibly altered. The Spanish built houses as far below the ground as above them, making them less likely to be destroyed by earthquakes which can occur at any time.
The mountains of Jamaica scrape the sky quite beautifully, thank you very much. Investors, be they Jamaican or from abroad, are attracted to stable, functioning societies with legal protections to safeguard their investments. Would that Jamaica's towering sense of justice in relation to the Haitian crisis would translate to a concentration on the justice system in Jamaica, so that an injured investor could receive resolution of disputes in under a quarter century, and complaints to the General Legal Council would not languish for a decade. Dysfunction on the local level delays justice to any higher court. The day that judges need not write every question and answer in longhand, or supplement their salaries by teaching law on the side, do not fall through the floor of their courtroom, can have their files carefully stored and found in time for court dates, are kept safe from explosions, and justice is seen to be done, is the day investors will have confidence in Jamaica that no skyscraper would inspire.
I am, etc.,
HEIDI REIDELL
msrc11@hotmail.com
Malvern
Via Go-Jamaica
