THE PERISH COUNCIL: Give us vision lest we perish

"Them have sight, but lacking vision..."
Junior X a.k.a. "Tash Kent"


"Visionless fools, DUNCE..."
Tickle Puss

"Give us vision lest we perish,
Knowledge send us Heavenly Father,
Grant true wisdom from above,"
Jamaica National Anthem

I've been thinking a lot lately about humanity as a whole, of the city as a whole and communities, and critically the role of the individual in the giant machine, how do you, we, I, Us as little cogs and screws and motor function in the big machine of mankind we call society. I've also wondered about the great men of ages gone by, and the ones that are going by right now as we speak. Is this the world they imagined, is this the world Columbus envisioned on his voyage, is this the India Ghandi imagined, the Africa Selassie dreamed of, the Jamaica Marcus wanted, the Montego Bay Sam Sharpe and September fought for? I highly doubt it. But they wanted something, they envisioned something, something that propelled us here, that brought us here to this moment, at an age and stage where the new prophets, Gods and great men are to be established... and I find the people visionless, especially those elected or so they claim to lead, yes... I am referring to the Leprechauns and little green men that have taken the helm of Government locally and centrally. At an age where new things ought to be birthed from the seeds sown long ago I find, the people unimaginative, repetitive, pitiful, and visionless, at a time when Montego Bay seems to have stalled in fundamental areas of development, I find the Perish Council, fumbling to find an idea, unique singularity of vision to take to the future, the idea of what we are to become or imagine we can or may become. We have stagnated in stale plastic airport signs of welcome to a long passed friendly city. That illusion has long passed, that isn't what we are... so I ask everyone now... you at the Perish Council, you at the JTB, you at the Chamber of Commerce, you at TPDco, you at Flankers, and you out by Freezone and you out on the corner, you in Paradise, you out by Ironshore, you up by Salem, you round by Lane deh so, what is to become of us, what are we to become, what will we move towards, not just as individuals but as communities and a city.... What is your vision?

I honestly believe the Perish Council has lost its sense of direction and worse sense of sight. They are lacking vision and so the Council will inevitably lead us to Perish. For I fail to see or have failed to notice where they have considered Montego Bay's place in the holistic sense of the word, our place, as city amongst 3 in the island, being second chronologically doesn't equate to second in viability, finance or "live-ability". I fail to see where they have considered our place internationally beyond being a tourist facility, we have no museums, no grand civic projects, no grand civic symbols, no monuments to any significant achievement, I see no crucial plan to address the layout planning and charted and coursed development of this city, all I see is ad hoc, wild, rampant untamed concrete sprawl. I have failed to hear the Council address the impending threat of closing Dead End Beach (by some greedy self interest, who lacks the vision to see how the beach impacts the city) a significant local icon, a free beach that in essence symbolizes there tourist advertisements, a place where people had the freedom to venture, to vent, to escape the brutality of everyday life and so it is and so it goes, that those who are elected to serve the people serve their own interests and allow those that have their own interest at heart to do as they please in the interest of personal wealth accumulation. And so maybe Dead End Beach will be a story I tell my children about eh.

Many times I wonder if the Councillors who are allowing us to Perish ever said the National Anthem with any meaning, any heart felt honesty that maybe just maybe once, the would feel like sticking by it, acting in the interest of the people, in the interest of the city, in the interest of the nation. I'm sure they even recited that song "I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,/ Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love... And there's another country, I've heard of long ago,/ Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know; /We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;" Imagine I took these words seriously as a child and only to discover that those that taught me them, obviously didn't. How could they... if they did we wouldn't be caught at this crossroad, without a real plan of action, without a vision of the way things ought to be, or where we ought to be going.

To show you that those who lead have been caught flat footed, without vision. We live in a city where the creeks and gullies flood ever so often, an yet into the onset of global warming, more severe weather, rising sea levels, no one has come forward to address the future in light of these things. Nope we the people are going to wait until the hurricane of all hurricanes comes in August and we have monumental disasters and loss of life before these things cross our worried minds. And what of the coastline, with every hurricane the amount of sand that gets dumped on to the hipstrip is alarming, a sure sign the tide is rising, so in the words of Bob Dylan who sang "The times they are-a-changing" , "Come gather 'round people/ Wherever you roam/ And admit that the waters/ Around you have grown/ And accept it that soon/ You'll be drenched to the bone./ If your time to you/ Is worth savin'/ Then you better start swimmin'/ Or you'll sink like a stone/ For the times they are a-changin'./ --Come writers and critics/ Who prophesize with your pen/ And keep your eyes wide/ The chance won't come again/ And don't speak too soon/ For the wheel's still in spin/ And there's no tellin' who/ That it's namin'./ For the loser now/ Will be later to win/ For the times they are a-changin'./--Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call/ Don't stand in the doorway/ Don't block up the hall/ For he that gets hurt/ Will be he who has stalled/ There's a battle outside/ And it is ragin'./ It'll soon shake your windows/ And rattle your walls/ For the times they are a-changin'./--Come mothers and fathers/ Throughout the land/ And don't criticize/ What you can't understand/ Your sons and your daughters/ Are beyond your command/ Your old road is/ Rapidly agin'./ Please get out of the new one/ If you can't lend your hand/ For the times they are a-changin'./--The line it is drawn/ The curse it is cast/ The slow one now/ Will later be fast/ As the present now/ Will later be past/ The order is/ Rapidly fadin'./ And the first one now/ Will later be last/ For the times they are a-changin'."

Till Next Week!

Yannick Nesta Pessoa
http://yahnyk.blogspot.com
yannickpessoa@yahoo.com