Jamaica Civic Space

Rightfully

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Introduction

In Jamaican culture and especially through reggae music, the country is known for the struggle to protect peoples’ rights. Jamaica has always been a pioneer for freedom, having fought to rid South Africa of apartheid. The term Civics is said to have derived from the Latin word ‘civicus’ which means ‘relating to a citizen’. In the Jamaican space, it’s perceived as unwritten moral guidelines which teach persons how to navigate the social space. Civics focuses on imparting knowledge about rights – human and fundamental – personal responsibility, acceptable behaviour and mores, national awareness, the duties of the citizen and the functioning of the democratic nation.

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Jamaica Civic Space

Bucknor – A Volatile Clarendon Community Transitions From Violent Past

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From the heart of the Bucknor community, the echoes of a turbulent past linger. Once notorious for violence and discrimination, the streets that were shrouded in fear are now the stage for a remarkable transformation. Residents’ voices carry stories of resilience, testaments of a collective struggle to break free from a cycle of despair and a determination to reclaim their community. “This community was pure bush. Only two of us lived here, now houses being are being built and people looking for land to buy,” shares resident of Bucknor for over 40 years, Lynford Thomas.

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Jamaica Civic Space

“Not an easy Road!”- Jamaica’s Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project

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Jamaica’s Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project, SCHIP, is being touted as the country’s largest integrated road infrastructure project. The multi-billion dollar investment is being implemented by the Andrew Holness-led government, under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation with co-funding from the China Exim Bank. 

The project commenced in January 2017, and is slated to be completed in the first quarter of 2025. 

The flagship project is being executed in three tranches: Part A – May Pen to Williamsfield; Part B (ii) – Harbour View to Yallahs Bridge; and Part B (iii and iv) – Yallahs Bridge to Port Antonio and Morant Bay to Cedar Valley. The objective is to enhance the alignment and capacity of the existing southern coastal main arterial road, making it safer and more efficient for motorists to traverse. However, Part B (ii) – Harbour View to Yallahs Bridge of the project has been characterized by inordinate delays, poor community relations and a dust nuisance that has made life almost unbearable for residents of several communities, especially those living closest to the work site. Residents have been angered by the poor state and maintenance of the temporary roadway created to facilitate commuting.

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2023 Special Reports

Pandemic-era Dip in Childhood Vax Rates Sparks Concern

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Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, the Caribbean had a vaccination problem. About 10 years ago, childhood immunisation rates began to slip below the World Health Organisation’s recommended 95 percent, leaving the region vulnerable to a potential re-emergence of deadly diseases like polio, measles or mumps. When the pandemic hit, those rates plummeted further in many countries. “If you look at the Caribbean as a whole, we find that of the more than 11,000 children younger than one year who live in the Caribbean, almost one in ten did not receive all of their vaccine doses,” Dr. Margherita Ghiselli, an immunisation advisor with the Pan American Health Organisation, told the Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network during a virtual PAHO media briefing in April. Much of the rest of the Americas faces a similar predicament, which health officials often blame on a Covid double-whammy: First, movement restrictions during the pandemic limited access to routine medical care; and second, misinformation associated with the Covid shot has made people more reluctant to trust any vaccine.

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2023 Special Reports

The Impact Of Climate Change On Children With Disabilities

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Children with Disabilities (CWD) continue to struggle for inclusion in a modern society that is facing global challenges. The lack of finance, the lack of empathy and compassion by the general public, and the lack of willpower and policy enforcement by public officers and some private sector entities are some of the main factors that have led to the systematic sidelining of Children With Disabilities in Dominica. However, the problem in all of this is Climate Change. It has exacerbated the issues that affect CWDs. In many cases, Children With Disabilities in Dominica suffered and were further marginalised because of Tropical Storm Erika in 2015 and Hurricane Maria in 2017.

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Caribbean's War on Guns

Will New Legislation be Enough? 

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Georgetown, Guyana – Like many of its Caribbean counterparts, Guyana has struggled to effectively combat the illegal gun trade/trafficking market. A large part of the problem stems from the country’s inability to deploy adequate resources to police its expansive land borders stretching 2933 kilometers and shared with Brazil, Venezuela, and Suriname. 

The Global Organized Crime Index notes that the country’s porous borders make it a virtual paradise for black market dealers seeking an easy transit point for illegal weapons. Over the years, Guyana has seen a flow of illegal firearms from France, Brazil and Venezuela. 

For those weapons which manage to settle into the hands of domestic criminal networks, statistics from the country’s Criminal Investigation Department show that there is a preference for arms manufactured in Brazil and the USA. From 2012 to 2022, it was found that the Guyana Police Force removed over 1,097 illegal firearms, many of which were manufactured in those two territories. 

Specifically, between the period of 2008 and 2012, an average of 100 illegal guns was being removed from the streets with this trend continuing until 2018. Though there has been a noticeable decline from 2020 to 2022, with an average of 70 guns being seized annually, authorities say they are not the least bit satisfied with this. 

To truly increase its gains, Guyana’s attorney general and minister of legal affairs, Anil Nandlall says a new law is in the making that will modernize the nation’s approach to crime fighting.

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Caribbean's War on Guns

The US Gun Route to Death

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Kingston, Jamaica – On March 1, 2017, a Glock 19 pistol was sold to a Haitian man in the American State of Pennsylvania. Thirty-six days later, and over 2,500 kilometres away, a bullet from that same Glock pistol ended the life of Wyatt Maxwell in the western Jamaican resort city of St James, local police confirmed, citing ballistics testing. “A time to crime of 36 days,” said one Jamaican law enforcement operative, referring to the period between the murder and the purchase of the gun. The weapon was seized by the St James Police in a parking lot on June 11, 2017. No one has been charged for Maxwell’s murder, but a man is awaiting trial for illegally possessing the weapon.

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Caribbean's War on Guns

The Tropical Journey of a Firearm

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Bridgetown, Barbados – The popular Barbadian dancehall and soca artiste ‘Lil Rick stares into the camera, warning all “informers” while gunfire and images of firearms punctuate the beat.

The over sixteen-minute popular “Trojan Riddim” video features several popular Barbadian chanters, dancehall artists, and rappers. Their explicit lyrics, though fictitious, often become actual newspaper headlines leaving several Barbadians demanding answers on how illegal firearms end up in Barbados in the first place.

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Caribbean's War on Guns

Gun Crime Grows Slowly, but Greater Priority Urged

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St George’s, Grenada – The year 2023 appears to be a record-breaking year for illegal firearm possession in Grenada. In the process the Police have confiscated almost double the number of guns impounded for the first six months of 2022 than those seized in all of 2023. 

“Statistics show that in 2022 for the first six months 16 firearms were confiscated while for 2023 that number for the same period is 31,” said Dickon Mitchell who is not only prime minister but also the minister for national security. “This points to a dangerous trend of increasing firearms in our communities,” he said, while announcing that the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) has adopted a “zero tolerance” approach to illegal firearm possession. “Zero tolerance” says Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell

“We don’t only intend to strengthen community policing and community engagement, but we are interested in getting to the root issues that are being manifested in violence in our communities,” he told CIJN. Possession of illegal guns or firearms has been rising over the years, according to police records, but at the same time, there is not a significant increase in guns being used as the weapon of choice to kill and assault citizens or to commit other violent crimes.

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