Coda

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READERS BEWARE – Omniscience abounds within (as if).
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I have long believed that my principal professional responsibility is to the Health, Safety and Welfare of the Public. This demigodly accountability could explain why enrollments are down at most Civil Engineering Schools (or maybe it is because we are not exactly the best paid branch of the sciences). Regardless, public obligation in this instance tends to outweigh massive personal gain. There are fiscal success stories, to be sure, but I would surmise that the majority of us typically care more for the work than for the pecuniary rewards. So, as my influence with this project winds down (as with any past project, successful or no), I review it in light of these primary professional principles.

Improved public Safety is probably the easiest of the three to examine. For this project, I think safety is a slight positive. The new highway is wider and smoother than the old. We worked to eliminate blind corners and major roadside obstacles and to develop our facility to First World design standards. I fought to establish as much of a clear zone as possible, to develop traversable sideslopes, and protect the motorist from hazard (although the squatters are already moving in immediately adjacent to the roadway in some areas, and lack of funds may prohibit the completion of all of the foreslope grading in the eastern third).

Sadly, the minimal to non-existent enforcement of traffic laws results in no limits to the speed of the motorist (beyond the physical limitations of the conveyance), so the accidents that are becoming commonplace will trend far away from the death-defying end of the bedlam spectrum. This is evidenced by the half dozen fatalities in the past few weeks, all a result of loss of control while driving at excessive speed. Fortunately, only the idiot operators have been buried so far.

Improved public Health is marginally positive. In light of the above, the quality of the gene pool has been enhanced. For the cows, it is a definite improvement. Most of the project is fenced now, and if we can get gates constructed, and the entire length maintained, local livestock should remain in good health safely away from the road…. provided someone bothers to move the cattle back into the pastures before closing the gate.

Improved public Welfare is the tough one. The trip to Negril that previously took more than two hours can now be done in less than one. The tourist saves lots of time. For them, this is time better spent on the beach getting a second degree sunburn and buying trinkets. However, the construction cost of this facility is over one hundred million borrowed dollars, monies that could have been borrowed to build schools, or sewers, or goatherd training institutes.

During the extended construction period, labor surely benefited, especially since this two year job has taken five years to complete. In a land of high unemployment, any work is appreciated, especially long term, low skill positions. Elsewhere on the planet, the money spent on highway work is said to benefit the community three to six times over, as wages and material costs get spent and respent locally. This benefit will be much smaller here, due to the large volume of imported materials, but there will still be some residual advantage.

At the end of the day, improvements in Health, Safety, and Welfare boil down to a better Quality of Life.

The primary planned effect of this highway was increasingly safe and speedy travel for tourist traffic between Negril and Montego Bay. If this pleases the tourist, she may have less to complain about once she gets home, and may actually recommend Jamaica as an agreeable destination. If her friends are so convinced, they may decide to vacation here and spend some dollars, which might result in a few more jobs. The money from these jobs can be used to support local economic activity and maybe pay a tax or two. Should this continue, a stronger local economy will go far towards reducing poverty and crime, which can translate into further gains in the tourist sector.

Sadly, marginal gains in this sector can be easily wiped away by one successful terrorist plot, one journalist kidnapping, or one posse killing in the States. Any bad press at all shoves the tourist industry further away from success. Yet the government relies more and more heavily upon the success of the tourism product to save the entire island. Mining and agricultural sectors are hobbled by inefficiency and increased global competition, so they are little help. The only real and consistent local money maker is cocaine transshipment, but those profits appear to leave the island.

Certainly, saving Jamaica from herself can be a complex matter, but one that I can easily solve with a few bashes on this here laptop.

Education is critical to the success of this island. An educated population will be more attractive to outside investors, can be more self disciplined, and may refuse to put up with the antics of this government. Unfortunately, I fear that this establishment, like so many others, already knows these truths, and conspires to maintain current levels of illiteracy, ignorance, and ignominy.

Mon, if I were king of Jamaica,…

T’ings be different, fi sure. The hundred megabucks spent on this road could have built 1,000 rural schools, or could have paid annual salaries for 10,000 teachers, or could have purchased 100,000 hybrid uber-goats to advance the scattered herds and develop Jamaica into the Dairy State of the Greater Antilles.

Instead, Frat-boy Tommy and ten thousand of his drunken friends save some time on the bus ride to Negril and get two more hours to chug beer in the foam pit at Margaritaville.

In the few short hours that I would have as king (before the CIA took care of me shortly after lunch that first day), I would decree the bah-jesus out of this place. I would default on all foreign debt, thereby raising the funds required for the rest of my program. I would provide class space to every child to age sixteen, reconstruct and maintain every school and grounds, reduce class sizes, pay teachers more and demand results, expand the libraries, increase public information campaigns, increase skills training and adult education, and encourage literacy. I would make corruption by any government employee a treasonable (i.e hanging) offence and force them to be regularly audited by offshore entities. I would legalize marijuana. I would enforce a quality based national development standard, promote environmental issues and develop renewable energy resources. I would ban spear fishing. I would encourage sustainable development, family gardens, and the consumption of local produce. I would put a deposit on plastic bottles, ban Styrofoam lunch boxes and recycle the junked cars. I would give every voter JA $500 at the polls, distribute a plethora of free condoms, develop more public spaces, and enforce property rights. First thing, though, I would build a moat of jerk stands around the castle.

Immediately, everything would be better.

Well,… lunch would be better.

If the CIA (or JLP, by extension) were on their toes, and I only had the morning to rule, I would have to limit my decree-lations; default on the debt, educate the masses, legalize ganga and kill the corrupt.

BA and I used to play a little game in the food service line at Friley. We would identify the contemptible and sentence them to ten seconds on a tropical paradise, followed by instantaneous transport to the bottom of the sea - a benign and peaceful respite followed by a most heinous crushing (we never solved the instantaneous transport problem, so droves of the unworthy are still out there). From what I understand, transporters are still Beta devices, so I bet they have their share of bugs, plus a real high cost of operation. However, if used locally, the cost of this anti-corruption scheme would be halved, as the locally corrupt have already had their tropical paradise, lacking only the painful crushing. Yet, even those dollars are not available, so I can add this proposal to the overwhelming list of funding shortfalls.

Jamaica’s success is a poser to be sure - one I no longer have the time to figure out. You see, the road has achieved practical completion. I am going elsewhere. Someone else will have to be king.

Hell.

It would be nice if I could wrap up the past three years in some poignant paragraph. One that would make you all feel a little weepy-eyed about the hardships that will continue to face Jamaicans for a very long time to come.

Heck.

Maybe some sarcastic statement would do the trick. One you can write off with the rest of this saga. Just a wave of the hand and a, “well, that’s the Third World for ya.”

Hommina hommina.

I would probably prefer the wry comic closing. Maybe find that one little joke to express the bizarre delight that the gods must take in thrusting me into the world at large. “Okay. A lama, a mullah, and an engineer walk into a bar,…”

Hmmm.

All told, the bottom line is quality of life. As for mine, the commute that once took over an hour now takes but twenty-three minutes.

My work here is done. Read More......