Mark Wignall | JPS and the Beryl fix

One reader rightly suggested that Beryl was not as devastating as Hurricane Gilbert, but for the people of Manchester, St Elizabeth, and Clarendon, well, they were hit very hard. I know Beryl could have been worse. But overall, many have suffered, and will suffer, and it will be a horrid summer for many.

He pointed out that my column of July 7 touched on it. “I wonder if history will repeat itself. Gilbert devastated Jamaica in 1988. Mr. Seaga was PM then. Despite significant help from the US, Mr. Seaga lost the general election held in February 1989.

“A general election is due in 2025. Will Mr. Holness suffer the same fate as Mr. Seaga? Truth be told, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) were not in good shape before Beryl hit Jamaica. If Mr. Holness is worth his salt, he can try to change the dynamic and use the rebuilding effort to show the JLP should be given another term. So far it is early days, and no fair assessment can be made of the government’s efforts to date. But history is not on Mr. Holness side.”

Another reader who lives abroad stated, “Frequently, I have power cuts in my district in Miami due to lightning and bad weather. Nearly every time Florida Power and Light, our electricity provider, sends repair crews to fix the problem. The crews are mostly Jamaicans who have migrated to the US for a variety of reasons from running for their life to economic reasons. I always engage with them, and they all say the same thing. Management at JPS is terrible, inept and lazy. I suspect foreign crews will be needed to help with the major damage to the electricity grid in the worst-affected areas.”

The Gleaner editorials have promoted the buildout of an underground electric power system. That is long overdue, and Jamaica should have learned from the horrors of Hurricane Gilbert and the sight of just about every light pole in Jamaica flat on the roadways and transmission wires twisted all over. Maybe if we were forced to pony up the costs of repair we would be far ahead in our thinking of an underground system.

GETTING CLOSER, PM

The news is that our prime minister is closer to completing the matters of his Integrity Commission filings. Indeed, I’m quite OK with Andrew Holness bringing his filings to where they should have been instead of ‘the illicit six,’ whether they be the truth, damn lies, or political concoctions.

The prime minister is the first among equals and should lead in all matters of integrity in this country. A few years ago, I wrote that the PM should gather his Cabinet members in a room, add to that key elected members, and ask all of them if they had any outstanding matters of corruption that he did not suspect they had.

The fact is that there are the JLP politicians who are closer to the PM than others. The prime minister will trust those more than others and will give a listen to them. Others are just plain chatterboxes.

The PM would have this meeting mainly for one reason. If after attempting to clear the air and not a single one of his elected representatives admit anything, any reports of corruption via the media would free the PM’s conscience and allow him to give them up to the Integrity Commission (IC) without the need for any other meeting. Of course it would help if the prime minister had nothing outstanding with the IC.

SAYING ALL RIGHT THINGS

Whenever a constituency of people are in ‘political malice’ with each other, the standard retort is “Mi nuh wan hear nutten. If you can do nutten, shut yu mout.”

But the fact is, all action begins with words, and the prime minister struck the right chord when he said, “It is a rough time, and for the areas that I have toured, I want to say to the people there, I see your pain. I feel your pain, and I’m working as hard as I can to make your recovery as quick and as sustainable as possible.”

In commending the NCB Foundation, the prime minister said the Build Jamaica Better Fund is a step in a direction towards quick and sustainable recovery. The foundation has pledged an initial $20 million and said it will match every donation made. Which means that it is time for the other big men in the private sector to step up like the NCB Foundation.

“It is all about mindset. You may not have electricity, you may not have water, but don’t let that create a mindset of doom and gloom. Let us take a positive attitude. Let us take an attitude of hope and an attitude of resilience that we will recover from this stronger,” said the prime minister as he singled out key areas badly damaged on the south coast and made special mention of Michael Lee Chin, head of NCB.

HURRICANE SEASON HAS JUST BEGUN

It is important to take note of action that must never be done during the passage of a hurricane.

During the ‘first blow’ of Hurricane Gilbert, I watched a man trying to disconnect a satellite dish from his rooftop. Bad idea. The dish took off while the man was still hanging on to it. Luckily he let go just in time and suffered only a skin wound.

We saw where a person attempted to fix a telecoms cable on a roof and lost her life when a tree fell on her. There are utilities that will fail to work during the passage of a hurricane. Accept that and never, ever go outside.

It is more than likely that other hurricanes will move off the African coast and drift across not just to our region, but close to Jamaica, The possibilities exist, and we must bear this in mind. The thought is scary, but the more we put into preparation, the better able we will be to face the beasts.

Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com.