The plan by a group of evangelical Christians to mobilise members of their community for a major clean-up of the island later this month is to be welcomed by all Jamaicans.

But the venture should be a matter of great embarrassment to the Government, including the municipal authorities, whose failures there will be an attempt to cure. Or, perhaps to put it rather more crudely, this effort by Errol Rattray and Percival Palmer, is to, as the saying goes, take shame out of the eyes of Jamaicans.

For no matter how Mr. Rattray and his team in HOPE 2007 (Hospitality, Outreach and Prayer for Empowerment) posit their effort as Christian witness, the fact is that they are embarrassed by the state of Jamaica's physical environment. It is not what they want to have on show when Jamaica hosts matches in the Cricket World Cup and the attention of a significant part of the world is on the island.

In that sense the initiative is highly laudable, displaying sensitivity about the image of the country, and an effort to invoke a sense of community to get some of it right. But while having 10,000 or more volunteers will help to provide the country with a psychological lift, it really shouldn't have to come to this. And it certainly shouldn't have been forced upon us because of embarrassment over how we were likely to present ourselves to the world.

Indeed, keeping the physical environment clean is part of government responsibility. Unfortunately, during its long existence, this administration, our exhortations notwithstanding, has been singularly incapable of doing the job either through central or local authority. It appears not to have the stamina or constituency for the little things which are often the ones that demand sustained effort.

Yet, as we have argued before, swept streets, trimmed verges and relatively clean drains help to lift the self-esteem of communities and the people who live in them; and people who feel good about themselves are less likely to engage in antisocial behaviour. Give people ramshackled surroundings and you make a statement about your sense of their worth.

Periodically, the idea seeps through and there is a rush to do things. So in 1999, the former Prime Minister Patterson launched a campaign to clean up Jamaica, and he did so again in 2002. Both efforts soon fizzled. At the same time, the places where we pay homage to declared heroes or specially recognised persons are allowed to fall into dereliction and squalor, as is the case with St. William Grant Park in downtown Kingston.

The fact is, contrary to the assumptions of those in authority, such maintenance need not be outrageously expensive, especially if they are not sources of political pork and other forms of corruption. But it takes effort. Hopefully, the witness by the evangelicals will begin to pave a new road to Damascus for those responsible for these things.