Orville W. TaylorI WANTED to say this last week but is it better late than never? Two weeks ago, President Bush, reputed to be the man who never admits a mistake, took responsibility for the atrocious handling of the calamity in New Orleans. In his own words, "I as president am responsible for the problem, and for the solution." Unquestionably, that is squarely taking the blame. However, he had earlier commended embattled Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Michael Brown on September 2, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
Well he obviously was a 'Brownie' because he showed less competence than a boy scout. So justifiably he was booted. Did you notice that the man who was Brown was removed but the lady who is the governor, and whose name is Blanco which means white in Spanish was not sanctioned. Well these matters are generally complicated and are not always in 'black and white'.
BITTERLY DIVIDED
Yet, the American public is bitterly divided over the federal government's handling of the matter. A Washington Post article by Dan Balz, whose name suggests a lot of courage, reports that 70 per cent of African Americans believe that the poor response was racially motivated and a similar percentage of whites thought otherwise.
Nevertheless, the 'Prez' committed $200 billion to rebuild New Orleans, the costliest reconstruction effort in U.S. history. However, is it too late? Even if the city is rebuilt to its former glory, who is going to live there? Maybe some of the illegal immigrants who have gone underground to avoid deportation.
Interestingly, a study among 'evacuees' (finally no longer 'refugees'), indicates that less than 50 per cent of them want to return to New Orleans. They prefer to be like the deeply religious and build their hope on the rock. Of course, this is quite different from Whitney and Bobby's assertion that "the 'rock' is my Lord".
Even with 'Rita', do the reasons that they are unwilling to return to New Orleans have only to do with the hurricane threat? After all many of them lived in abject poverty and Louisiana's poverty rate among blacks ranks 48 out of the 50 states. Therefore, it is excusable that the President's mother in her sweet grandmotherly innocence could allegedly remark about the displaced citizens living in shelters, "many of the people in the arena here, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."
As irksome as Mother Bush's comments may be, they ring true. A main reason why blacks suffered so much in New Orleans was that they are poor. If this is to be avoided again then a concerted effort must be made to eradicate poverty there and not just making the poor leave.
Whether Bush's current initiative is too late, only history will tell. In an MSNBC poll, 72 per cent of Americans felt that the efforts were too late to make up for the initial mishap.
Another hurricane, 'Rita' is threatening New Orleans again. She has ripped through the recently-patched levees and flooded the Ninth Ward, repeating the events of last month. Although some 1.3 million persons in Texas and Louisiana were evacuated, it appears that again the preparation was inadequate. Stores and gas stations have run out of supplies and persons have been stuck in traffic lines longer than a "donkey cooper," for as many as 14 hours.
Timing is everything! In disaster preparedness as in driving, one must be capable of thinking quickly and stopping and turning on a dime. Of course, it makes a difference if the dime is in someone's pocket.
Switching back to the local 'currency' for 20 years, the Jamaican Government with employers and trade unions in full tow, dragged its feet in enacting legislation to allow non-unionised workers the right to take their cases to the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) for settlement. The IDT is a unique creature of statute which has the power to reinstate unjustifiably dismissed workers, a right non-existent in any ordinary court including the Court of Appeal.
Since 1985, the case of West Indies Yeast v. Ministry of Labour has made it clear that the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act (LRIDA) was not designed to handle individual disputes. Of course, employers liked this since it meant that they could end a dispute without taking it to its logical and just conclusion. However, it is reproachable that the trade unions have not been more assertive on this matter given that large numbers of their members were dismissed either prior to becoming unionised or were retrenched then rehired as non-unionised workers, making them extremely vulnerable to frivolous dismissal.
LONG OVERDUE AMENDMENT
The amendment is long overdue given that the annual number of complaints by dismissed non-unionised workers increased from 275 in 1989 to more than 10 times that figure in 2004. Nonetheless, any cursory observer or 'gleaner' of data could tell that with an increasing pool of unemployed persons with no access to justice, social tensions would increase. In 1996 when the inner circle of the Cabinet unilaterally developed the social contract, I tried to warn of this. Then everyone acts surprised that the violent crime rate is already more than 150 per cent of last year's total.
We have a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Government and the unions. Yet, the MOU is a minority agreement covering 12 per cent of the employed labour force and is strictly for unionised workers. The parties may stroke themselves on the back but unless there is a nation-wide accord applicable to all workers, it will all be like a hallucinogenic heroin fix: 'All in vein'.
Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona.
