- IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Delegates for the Jamaica Diaspora Conference gave all their attention to three-year-old Kanice Anderson of the Cecil Boswell Basic School on Collie Smith Drive, St. Andrew, yesterday. Delegates are Dennis Hawthorne (right), of Dennis Shipping Company Incorporated, Ambassador Dr. Basil K. Bryan (second left), Jamaica Consul-General to New York, and Robert DeSouza (left), chief executive officer of Trans Continental Shipping. They toured the basic school where they pledged their support to the school and the community.

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

AS THEY packed their bags for last week's Jamaica Diaspora Conference in Kingston, Lisa Narcisse and Stanley Rose had different thoughts about the latest visit to their homeland.

For 52-year-old Rose, a trained teacher who lives in Staten Island, New York City, it was just another visit to 'yard'. But, for Narcisse, in her mid-40s, frightening crime in Jamaica makes each trip here stressful.

"When I came to this conference two years ago I said I would bring my children with me if I was invited back as a delegate," she told The Sunday Gleaner.

"Unfortunately, I've had to educate them that if we walk on the streets you need to keep your eyes all around you. That disheartens me."

Mr. Rose, who works in the construction sector, says he emigrated to the United States in 1989. Unlike many of the almost-500 delegates who attended the two-day conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre, he is not overly worried about Jamaica's well-documented homicides which rose to a record 1,671 in 2005.

"I have a little house that I trying fi done an' as soon as it done mi a go dey a yard," he said. "Listen, one of my scariest moments is when I haffi travel pon the subway (in New York City). To me, yuh have more crime inna New York than here."

The crime situation session on opening day of the conference was packed.

According to Senator Delano Franklyn, delegates from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada wanted to know what strategy the Government has in place to make Jamaica safer, and lure them home.

"All the sessions were engaging but the issue of crime moreso. We know that the problem won't go away overnight but we all agreed that the country needs to be friendly not only to persons living here but those who want to visit," he said.

GENESIS OF CRIME

Minister of National Security, Dr. Peter Phillips, was the main speaker at the session. Senator Franklyn says Dr. Phillips gave an analysis of the genesis of crime in Jamaica, and assured delegates that Government's Crime Strategy, launched in 2005, is working.

"The delegates also outlined the problems they had in their own communities. It was a very open and fruitful discussion," he said.

Ms. Narcisse, who emigrated to Florida in 1979, was a delegate for an organisation that represents the Southern United States. She says crime is preventing many Jamaicans from Florida to Virginia and Texas, from returning home permanently.

"They want to know what steps are being taken (to control crime) ... it scares them," she said.

Although there have been several police reports of returning residents being robbed, and murdered, Stanley Rose says Jamaicans coming back to settle should do so quietly and sensibly.

"They need to know that yuh leave here long time, yuh cyaan jus' come back an' model inna yuh gold chain pon the corner," he said. "You need to have up your guard."