THE EDITOR, Sir:
I WAS a bit surprised, but not totally taken back, by the findings of a recent University of the West Indies final-year research done on the marginalised communities in the KMA. So practical were the recommendations coming from the people in these communities that I had to share some of it.
The essence of the conclusion drawn and recommendations made is embodied in these few paragraphs. Members of three inner-city communities studied, in outlining their plight, at all times showed an awareness of their physical, social, and economic marginalisation but saw this as secondary. They were always advocating for a legal recognition of their settlement. Allowance of this would logically give them more incentive to take care of and improve their living space.
In addition, it would provide them with a greater sense of security. The economic strain on the meagre resources of these people is evidently great but this, as well as the high illiteracy rate among the youths in the area, according to the respondents, may be alleviated by the construction of institutions of learning or skills training.
Such institutions, as the inner-city residents state, must be impartial in their admission policies. With the skills acquired in such training institutions and with improved literacy the residents, quite rightly, think that the next logical step should be to allow them access to jobs that are based on the skills acquired.
I am, etc.,
MILTON SAUNDERS
msaundy@yahoo.com
Moreton Park
Kingston 10
