Burning problem in MoBay!

With the absence of a fireboat, shortage of protective gear, limited personnel and the absence of a refilling plant breathing apparatus the St. James Fire Department is having a difficulty meeting its obligations.

 

Serving a population of just over 184,854 in St. James, the fire department continues operate with a meager contingent of just 174 personnel. In addition, only eight of 13 fire-fighting unit are in working condition.

 

With their proposed new home at Barnett Street still an empty lot, and its other locations below par frustration and discomfort is arguably the primary features facing the parish’s firefighters.

 

“We are really having some challenges,” said a despondent Dolfin Doeman, the acting superintendent in charge of the St. James Fire Department.

 

“We just have to looked at each problem and work through it”.

 

As it relates to the shortage of staff, “what we have had to do is to rotate staff, giving persons additional hours to work” Doeman revealed.

 

In a bid to address the lack of a breathing apparatus refilling plant, the fire department have had to solicit the services of private companies which is proven to be quite expensive.

 

Following the April 2 (Good Friday) fire, which destroyed a section of the Barnett Street Police Station, Montego Bay’s Mayor Councillor, Charles Sinclair lashed out at the shortcomings of a fire station for the city.

 

“The absence of a fire station in Montego Bay right now the fire department operates from different locations which is unfair to the persons who have respond to fires. You can’t have a part of the fire department on Fort Street and one at Freeport, that don’t mek any sense. I’m calling on the Minister Robert Montague and the prime minister to honour the reconstruction of a fire station for Montego Bay,” the mayor stressed.

 

According to deputy commissioner Neil Findlay with responsibility for administration at the Jamaica Fire Brigade it will cost over $200 million to construct the proposed new fire headquarters on Barnett Street.   Money from the Tourism Enhancement Fund was earmarked for the purchase of a fireboat to protect the tourism capital’s marine coast however there is still no fireboat.

Clean up the filth of crime in Jamaica

“We are going to clean up the crime in Jamaica” Finance Minister Audley Shaw stated which continues to stifle the prospects of new investment in Jamaica.

The recent stand off between the police and armed criminals in West Kingston some three weeks ago that reaped havoc on the country’s image internationally, is the not the kind of portrait which readily attracts investors and the Minister of Finance is well aware of this.

“In recent days we have sent a signal, that we are going to be totally intolerable with the levels of crime that has be going on for far too long” Shaw said at the official opening of the 30 th annual Caribbean Insurance Conference at Ritz Carlton Golf and Spa Resort in Montego Bay.

“It’s going to be a multifaceted approach,” the minister charged, “so that no community is left behind and that self-appointed crime lords do not set up themselves as mayors and prime ministers within communities. That can’t work …regardless of the political consequences!”

The formal and informal commerce in downtown Kingston suffered heavily in the aftermath of the May 24 raid into Tivoli Gardens to served an arrest warrant to Michael Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke for his extradition. Coke, the reputed 'area don' for West Kingston, is wanted by the United States for drug running and gun smuggling.

“We are country that have far too much potential, we have too much capacity for success for growth to allow a few hundred misguided people to hold the country to ransom. The time has come for the change!” Shaw stated unapologetically to the group of business professionals.

The Insurance Association of the Caribbean is hosting its 30th annual Caribbean Insurance Conference, which is the platform for professionals in the insurance industry. Operating under the theme “What Lies Ahead” the conference will run from June 13-15. Approximately 500 delegates from Europe and North America and other territories in South America and the Caribbean were present at the conference.

Tourism stakeholders fuming

 “We are too small and too poor a country” Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association president Wayne Cummings said in reference to the continued practice of government dividing the Jamaica’s tourism product across  various state agencies.

Addressing hoteliers and other stakeholders within the hospitality industry at the JHTA’s 49^th annual general meeting at the Half Moon Conference Centre, Cumming discussed the dismal figures of cruise ship arrivals which was partly due to the Port Authority of Jamaica’s ability to package and market this aspect of tourism.

“I said it before and I will say it again, we are too small and too poor a country to be splitting the tourism product across ministries and agencies. With the best will in the world the Port Authority does   not have the machinery to leverage the tourism marketing spend to convert it sufficiently for it to make sense”, the JHTA president echoed.

He has therefore summoned the government to place cruise tourism back into the Ministry of Tourism and for it to be marketed by the Jamaica Tourist Board. As there has been no policy statement from the Ministry of Transport and Works that “convinces us that Jamaica is anytime soon going to speak directly to cruise vacationers, convincing them that we love them as much as stop over guests”.

On the other hand, Montego Bay and Jamaica at large’s continued surge in criminal activities and improprieties did not escape the wrath of the JHTA president.

"While Jamaica has had major challenges with crime and violence through its independent
history, the last 30 years have provided the most prolific example of what not to do
when the State unofficially provides support for criminal enterprise for political gains"

As the tourism capital of Jamaica and the second city, Montego Bay has recorded over 100 murders since the start of the year. The city is also the epicenter of the notorious lottery scam.

"Sadly we are nor faced with independently powerful camps that are exacting dominance and
jungle justice as show of force to protect their ill-gotten gains" Cummings continued,
the JHTA reiterates that the continued growth of the sector and other legal productive ventures
are at real risk".