WHAT IS EDUCATION DOING TO HELP?
Without education, property owners can't see the value in their broken down wooden buildings. The buildings are broken down because they cost a lot to repair, and the people who know how to repair them conventionally are now few and far between.
In society we seem to follow programs. Slavery was a program, and was once widely seen as the way it was. British colonialism was a program, and once seen as normal. Since colonialism, a new program took over: It was an American system of consumerism and "modernism" based on concrete construction. That seems to still be the acceptable program in SAB. There are no end of supermarkets, it seems. Lot's of white concrete buildings with air condition. The ones I saw sold foreign products that were cheaper than Jamaican ones. The air conditioning was soothing on a hot day. The food was tasty, no matter if it was loaded with empty calories. It might have spiked diabetes, but I lack specific information.
But it doesn't have to be that way forever. Things do change when they're not working.
The foreign Chinese supermarkets are tearing out SAB heritage buildings. And SAB is supposed to be a historic city, right? Jamaica's first capital, correct? Something is clearly wrong with this picture. Tourists don't go to Jamaica to see what looks like Miami or Phoenix.
So where is the education program that trains people to repair and maintain the wooden buildings? Those wooden buildings are part of the heritage of my family and thousands of other SAB families. We don't have a tourist attraction if we tear that heritage down. We don't have a historic city if we tear those buildings down. We lose reference to the place Marcus was born and grew up in. But who is training the young people to value and maintain this heritage?
My thoughts run to the Marcus Garvey Technical High School. Does their program support the material heritage of Marcus Garvey's birthplace? If not, why not? What does their program support instead? The principal, Steven Golding, is also the local head of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which was created by the greatest son of SAB, Marcus Garvey. Does the SAB branch of the UNIA support preserving the material heritage of the UNIA? If not, why not? What does it support instead?
Does Mr. Golding support the preservation of Marcus Garvey's birth home? If he does, why does he not support the preservation of Garvey's hometown? If I didn't get it wrong, Garvey was taught early on through a program associated with 6 Bravo, recently torn down to build a Chinese supermarket. Is Mr. Golding aware of the Garvey and UNIA heritage that SAB is losing? Where is he? What is he up to? Does anybody know?
Posts
