Decision to move Old Harbour vendors from streets reversed for Christmas jamaicaobserver.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jamaicaobserver.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
As we indicated more than a month ago, this newspaper welcomes the debate that has been triggered by the Government’s move to fulfil its manifesto promise of separating the municipality of Portmore from the parish of St Catherine and establish it as a parish in its own right. The effect would be to make Portmore, a sprawling community with a population of around 200,000, Jamaica’s 15th parish and 14th parochial government.
We appreciated the speed with which the administration moved on this matter after the September election. That ought to be the standard for all policy pledges – at least the good ones – although there is a suspicion that in this case, the urgency has something to do with the municipal elections that were to be held early next year, but have been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Whenever that poll is held, with a spun-off Portmore it would mean that its 12 councillors would not, any longer, sit in the St Catherine Municipal Corporation, pre
In 2020, the percentage of the Jamaican electorate willing to participate in elections fell to its lowest in over 70 years. At the same time, the proportion of our people prepared to justify a military takeover to deal with high crime and corruption reached its highest point [LAPOP Pulse of Democracy 2019].
Across the planet, according to a Cambridge University Study, 2019 represented
“the highest level of democratic discontent on record”. We in Jamaica were therefore not alone. Reason: across the globe there was a “growing sense of inequity and unfairness in the system” [Edelman Trust]. Here at home, our prime minister has not been unaware of this. Four and a half years ago, PM Holness acknowledged in his inaugural speech,
ST CATHERINE:
The annual Linstead Grand Market is raising concerns among stakeholders and citizens in the St Catherine community, who want the day and night Christmas Eve event cancelled this year due to the novel coronavirus pandemic that has been spiking in this and some other parishes.
Since the announcement by chairman of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation and mayor of Spanish Town, Norman Scott, at the general meeting of the corporation held on Thursday, that the event will be staged from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve, it has drawn strong opposition from stakeholders and citizens, but cautious support from some vendors who spoke to
The surge in violent crime plaguing the St Catherine North Police Division is having a crippling effect on business growth and heightening concern about public safety, especially in Bog Walk.
This disclosure was made by councillor Peter Abrahams of the Bog Walk division in the St Catherine Municipal Corporation.
Abrahams said that migrant criminals were creating mayhem in several communities.
“I have gone into places and observed that there are strange faces who are involved in crimes in Bog Walk,” Abrahams told
The Gleaner.
“I am prepared to work with the police to help, and get rid of them.”
There have been several murders in the division in recent weeks, the most chilling being the December 7 killing of Dwayne Excell, otherwise called ‘Cello’, a 26-year-old welder of Shenton district.