O. Dave Allen, Contributor

O. Dave Allen, chairman of the Community Organisation for Sustainable Development (COMAND).

Granville in St James is a highly textured community, a matriarchal society with a vibrant and rich African cultural tradition, nestled between two estates. It is peopled by peasant farmers, small traders, artisans and skilled workmen who cohabited on rented premises with migrant sugarcane workers from the barracks of Barnett Limited; those migrants hailed from Hanover, Westmoreland and St Elizabeth.

The Granville community is a hot spot according to the police blotter; recently, the community has been the subject of intense media scrutiny, precipitated by the increased level of murders and the allegation that Granville is the epicentre of the notorious Montego Bay lotto scam.

Rich and Happy

There is a motto advanced by an emerging class within the Granville community: "be rich and happy", with the emphasis on rich.

Born in the shadows of the Great House, one can easily discern the source of such ambition. The motive force of indignity, disrespect and an outcast state; living on the periphery of the social order. These children of slaves have no intention of wasting their years on the sugar estate as their forefathers before them had, nor on the low-paying jobs on the new plantations, ending their productive years with nothing to show. For them, this generation, it is death before dishonour.

We are extremely proud of those Granvillians who have taken the long and tedious route of education in order to leap over the treacherous barbed-wire fence of poverty; we celebrate their achievements. Many are successful professionals, teachers, doctors, attorneys-at-law, bankers, engineers and pilots. Yet, we understand well the motive of those left behind, even as we condemn the criminal enterprise that they have methodically woven to be somebody in a society where you are what you have.

Growing a middle class

Ours is now the task of mobilising this latent energy to achieve and direct it towards the useful and the good; to marry these highly trained professionals and the creative energies of the new, vibrant and determined citizenry. Can we? Yes we can.

This system has produced some of us who are irredeemable, and frankly, we may have to, in the process, suspend our sensibilities. We don't have the means and the patience to rehabilitate; they must face the brutal and lethal force of the state.

We must look from within for the solution to our unfortunate state. We cannot expect that our salvation will come from missionaries at home or from abroad. We must grow our own middle class that will engender stability hope and opportunity.

Reaching out to Granvillians in the Diaspora and those professionals within and without is a strategic move in seeking to build a partnership to realise the objective of creating a strong and viable middle class. This will make reality of the mantra, "be rich and happy".

To meet the demand of a progressive, safe, stable, prosperous and healthy community, we will have to advocate dramatic change which must be built on the security of tenure, the promotion of enterprise and continuing education.

There must be some trade-off in this process to achieve the objective of building a stable community and the consequent increase in property values; accordingly, those who are living on rented premises need to be granted security of tenure through land titling.

Pre-planning and redeveloping Granville as a mixed-use district will demand streets with adequate setbacks and sidewalks, as well as open spaces for recreational purposes.

Investment opportunities

Given Granville's proximity to Montego Bay, landowners - particularly those in the Diaspora - along with local investors, can take advantage of development opportunities in real estate; high-density low cost housing solutions, apartment buildings and gated premises are now profitable options for investment.

Most important, the pre-planning of the community will necessitate the acquisition of land from Barnett for the development of a civic centre for the expansion of Granville and to provide opportunities to the emerging players for wealth-generating activities through commercial and industrial enterprises.

Social intervention

The palliative approach toward social intervention will not seriously impact the unacceptable levels of crime and violence and other antisocial behaviour. It is 'the economy stupid'. A radical restructuring of the social and economic order is required. This includes altering the obvious inequities that abound, growing a middle class through enterprises; access to finance and providing land and training for the small business sector, artisans and forward-thinking young people from the community.

Granville was a mutinous community that figured prominently in the 1938 rebellion with men who 'led the troops' against Barnett Sugar Estates; men like 'Man Binns', Sammy Barrett, Uriah Tomlinson, Hugh Barrett and Edward James. There were also the notorious personalities Hebbi Angers, Ishmael Goliath, 'Baba John' and 'Masa Willie'.

The vision of creating a rich and happy people can be achieved through the unity of all, united in face of the common foe.

If we must die, let it not be like hogs hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, while round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, making their mock at our accursed lot. - Claude McKay

O. Dave Allen is a social activist and chairman of the Community Organisation for the Management of Sustainable Development (COMAND).