Hartley Neita, Contributor
JAMAICANS BEGAN to enjoy the pleasures of electric power long before residents in many major cities of the world, including New York, did.
Many of our sugar cane estates used steam to generate electricity to run their factories from the latter part of the 19th century. Before then, they used water and animals to operate these factories. The water wheel at Tryall in Hanover is a remnant of that period. And by the way, too, this newspaper was being printed on a steam-driven press from as far back as 1875,
By 1890, there was an hydro-electric plant on the banks of the Rio Cobre in St. Catherine which generated electricity to operate the tram cars which linked downtown Kingston with Rockfort, Cross Roads, Half-Way Tree, Constant Spring and Papine,
So, we are really not a hurry-come-up country. We have been in the modern age for a long time.
By the beginning of the 20th century we were using oil to generate electricity for our homes, offices and factories. Gradually, during the early 1900s, our parish capitals and other major towns began to enjoy electricity from electric plants commissioned from a firm, Abraham, Henriques and Joy, in particular. We were a comfortable, tropic-hot country enjoying facilities such as fans, stoves, radios, record players, irons, sewing machines, and other electrical appliances.
World War 1 (1914-1918) and World War 2 (1939-1945) should have warned us how precarious electric pleasure was. Oil was necessary for operating tanks, planes and warships, and very little was available for countries such as ours. In any case, German submarines in the Atlantic Ocean sunk many oil tankers sailing to the Caribbean, even though armed escorts protected them from the torpedoes of these U-Boats.
The results were restrictions in the use of motor cars, for example. Streetlights, which had become fashionable in some districts of Kingston and lower St. Andrew, were not turned on during full moon nights. Neon-light advertising signs were not allowed to be on all night. Buggies replaced motor vehicles and almost everybody walked, used the train, rode bicycles or were passengers on public transport vehicles.
INGENUITY
This was a time of great ingenuity by Jamaicans. Every village had bicycle repair shops, wheelwrights, blacksmiths, and saddlers. All made money, and many of these men branched into other businesses after the last war ended. The war years, too, saw scores of suggestions on how to make lamps using coconut and castor oil.
After the war life returned to what Jamaicans considered normal we began to splurge. American-made eight-cylinder Chevrolets, Buicks, Dodges, Studebakers, Plymouths, Fords, Cadillacs and other gas-guzzlers became the cars of preference. Taxi operators had to use these cars for locals and tourists. John Brown air conditioned his house because John Jones next door did his. Architects designed buildings with sealed windows. It was whispered they got a commission from the air conditioning firms!
We got a wake-up call during the 1970s. Oil-producing countries formed a cartel and raised their prices. Our light bills doubled. Gasolene prices increased. So, too, did taxi and bus fares. The cost of production went through the roof. Many international companies, which had established factories in Jamaica, found the cost of production prohibitive and began to close them.
One by one. Two by two. Then three by three. Until there was none left to be closed. Four-seater Ladas became the popular household car. They were even used as taxis!
And from two shillings per gallon for gasolene, the price began to rise, week after week until today when we no longer measure gasolene by gallons but by litres, which makes the price seem less.
The Government of the 1970s, and succeeding ones have talked the talk excellently well about finding alternative sources of energy. We tried peat. Thousands of tons were in Westmoreland just waiting to be harnessed. There was talk about using the power of the waves which rolled in and out off the coast of St. Thomas. Surfers are glad this has been forgotten. We were and are a small island and the wind blows all across it, so we were going to build wind farms. Only one is in place. Casual mention has been made from time to time about solar energy; other countries reduce the import duty on these appliances. We have not.
BIGGER IS BETTER
As to motor vehicles, once again, the bigger the better. Stretch limousines which get longer and longer, and SUVs, which grow larger and larger are the normal means of transport. Parking spaces in the plazas, residential complexes and business places are now too narrow for them,
What is the answer? Perhaps we will find oil. A former director of geological surveys, Howard Versey, was convinced that evidence showed there were pools of oil under the land or offshore Jamaica. If you draw a line from Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad, Cuba, the U.S.A. Gulf Coast and Mexico, all oil-producing centres, there was logic to Versey's view. We have been searching from time to time and maybe we will. In the meanwhile, we have been mortgaging our future with these oil deals we have made with Colombia, Venezuela and now Trinidad. Maybe we should find a Moses to use his rod to strike a rock from which oil will flow.
But do not hold your breath. The short answer is conservation, and cutting our clothes from the cloth we have. That of course, is never. We too show off. Too 'boasie!' Too 'nuff!'
