Laura Tanna
I'VE FOUND it increasingly difficult to write to you when my friends in inner-city communities have over the past year had to sleep on their floors for fear of the gang warfare raging around them. Waking to find a friend shot dead in the street. Not venturing out of their homes at night. It's been going on for years in Jamaica. It's just that it keeps getting closer to those I treasure and harder to believe that one day it may end.
I hesitate even to write about what happens for fear it might further endanger those already in danger and yet I value Mark Wignall's work in writing on garrison communities, though I don't always agree with all else he writes. I value the work Dr. Carolyn Gomes perseveres with, the work of Msgr. Richard Albert, with those politicians who are trying desperately to stop the carnage. And there are decent, caring politicians in this country, despite verandah talk to the contrary.
I know because in 2000 I interviewed Dr. Omar Davies and toured his constituency with him, and in 2003 I interviewed Dr. Peter Phillips, and in 2004 Bruce Golding and in July 2005 I finally met Portia Simpson Miller.
Cecil Baugh had died the week before and Portia had just been to visit his former student, Angella Brown, who cared for him in his final illness. Simpson Miller knew who I was, to my surprise, explaining that Angella had told her of my kindness to Cecil, though to me it was always mutual.
MEMORY BANK INTERVIEW
I took the opportunity to ask Portia if I might interview her, in all fairness, as I had interviewed Omar, Peter and Bruce already, and she said "Yes." An academician at heart, I do the memory bank kind of interview, one for the archives - where you come from, what formed your character, the kind of thing that allows one to get an insight into the human being behind the public persona. I'd left time for what I thought would have been that series on Portia Simpson Miller, but it hasn't yet taken place, another reason you haven't heard from me.
Thinking of Cecil Baugh again, I recently heard from Katrin FitzHerbert. My proofreader 'corrected' her name to Katrina Fitz-Herbert on August 10, 2005, at the time I shared her memories with you of Cecil as a young man living in St. Ives when she was just a child who had left Germany.
It turns out that Katrin FitzHerbert actually worked as a reporter for The Daily Gleaner in 1960/61, first on economics, then local government and after she left, wrote a book entitled Jamaica: The Search for an Identity, published by Oxford University Press in 1962 under her maiden name of Katrin Norris. She then did social research at the Institute of Race Relations in London and wrote another book, West Indian Children in London, published in 1967 by LSE. Her last project before retirement was starting and running an educational charity to promote confidence and motivation in primary age children who were starting to fall by the wayside at school. Sounds like we could use Katrin FitzHerbert back in Jamaica again!
AN ESCAPE
To my astonishment, people still stop and tell me they enjoy my articles. Perhaps they offer an escape to places where violence doesn't dominate life, or because I write about what is good in Jamaica. And lately the experiences haven't been so good. The much-glorified local hotel that was the worst we've stayed at in 10 years because of poor maintenance. Having to spend a month collecting money just to keep our neighbourhood road from collapsing.
My helper not being able to go home for Christmas because the roads in the interior of her parish are so bad and her MP telling me that even in another six months he doesn't know if they'll be any better. People have noticed I haven't been writing so often, but I will, despite the desperate disparities in our many lives.
Oh yes, after 11 years I decided to clean my study - big mistake. Can't find anything now because the job's only half done and there still isn't time to do it all but I shall right one wrong. At the bottom of one heap of papers appeared a notice from the Citizen's Charter on Raising Standards of Service, announcing a public sector customer service competition.
'Which Government Agency Provides the Best Customer Service? Tell Us.' When I called the toll-free number 1-888-991-2752, someone said the competition date had passed, even though no closing date was given on the announcement.
So I'll just vote publicly now for the Fire Prevention Unit, 8-10 Ocean Boulevard, Kingston, CSO. They do a magnificent job of maintaining the fire hydrants wherever possible and responding to calls for assistance, as does the actual fire department. Sorry, I didn't get my vote in on time! But thank you for your good work despite the problems you encounter.
