Business sector urged to help rescue troubled areas
Published:Sunday | March 1, 2020 | 12:00 AMCorey Robinson - Senior Staff Reporter
Since January, Clarendon has recorded at least 16 murders, nine shootings and some 26 break-ins and robberies – most of them targeted at business operators in and around the May Pen capital.
The bloodletting has driven fear into many business persons who, outside of normal business hours, steer clear of neighbouring impoverished communities where many gangsters call home.
In fact, this has been the case for several inner-city communities across Jamaica, and according to some commercial operators, for too long, the private sector has been silent as neighbourhoods fall prey to illegal guns and social decay.
“We are only making it worse when we just write off the people them from the communities. We have to try and reach out to them,” a passionate Junior Wilson, operator of Stoplight Wholesale in May Pen, shared with The Sunday Gleaner.
“We have to try to assist the troubled youths in some way. People have it wrong; you have good people from those communities but some people just write off persons from those areas, which is wrong. We don’t have enough of us reaching out. We have a lot of people who just come, make their money and go. That is one of the biggest problems here. We need more of us.”
Believing that Jamaica can get a grip on its crime situation if more business operators play their part, Wilson employs more than 100 workers, most of them from impoverished, war-torn communities around May Pen. He has assisted in feeding the elderly, sending youngsters to school, and has even opened up a shop for an ailing resident, Clement Hewitt, in Effortville.
His actions mirror the benevolence of Stephen Liao, Chinese owner of National Self Serve Wholesale in May Pen, who donated more than $30,000 worth of goods and a stove to another resident in ‘Line’, sections of which were a ghost town last year due to gang violence.
Since 2018, there have been a string of attacks, including the still-unsolved Guinep Tree heist last May, on Chinese business operators across Jamaica. At least two Chinese businessmen have been killed in Clarendon since last year, according to residents.
STRUCTURED INTERVENTIONS
President of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, Keith Duncan, lauded both business owners for their endeavours. He said that such actions demonstrate the spirit he would like to see replicated islandwide.
“We acknowledge and commend these businessmen who have been providing support to these entrepreneurs. This demonstrates the spirit that’s required of all Jamaicans to provide a helping hand to those who need help in developing their economic independence,” Duncan told The Sunday Gleaner.
“There needs to be structured interventions into these marginalised and vulnerable communities that have been negatively impacted by crime and violence. These interventions could be collaborative through public and private sector partnerships.”
Duncan is urging business operators across Jamaica to find ways to help residents of impoverished communities to get training, technical assistance, and access to finance, as well as mentoring support from micro-financial institutions.