标签： Jamaica

NEW ROADS, Westmoreland — On a landmark Friday ceremony, Jamaica’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security and Peace Dr Horace Chang opened a purpose-built digital learning centre at New Roads Primary School, his childhood alma mater, tying the expansion of rural educational access directly to the nation’s ongoing push for lasting community peace and poverty reduction.

The new facility, a fully fitted 20-seat computer laboratory, fulfils a pledge Chang first made back in 2007. Equipped with high-speed Starlink Internet connectivity arranged through the Universal Service Fund, the lab is designed to expand educational access for young learners in this rural Westmoreland community, where opportunity gaps between rural and urban areas have long limited student outcomes. Alongside the lab, Chang also donated three laptops for teaching staff and new cricket equipment for the school’s student body, framing the entire initiative as a long-term investment rather than a one-off gesture.

Speaking to an assembled crowd of students, educators, parents and local community leaders, Chang explained that the recent renaming of his portfolio to the Ministry of National Security and Peace signals a policy shift: while investments in law enforcement have delivered tangible progress, building lasting peace requires equal investment in education and youth development. “We can say without hesitation, today, Jamaica is safer than it was three years ago, and I commend the police for the effort,” he noted. “But that leaves space for much more structured activity in our communities, and part of that is our education field.”

Chang emphasized that education remains the single most sustainable path to breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty, reducing social dysfunction, and opening pathways to upward mobility. A graduate of New Roads Primary who went on to attend Cornwall College and the University of the West Indies, the veteran lawmaker drew from his own experience to argue that a student’s starting point in life does not determine their potential. “Education is the gateway to another world, a world of improvement, better quality of life, to achieve your dream and success,” he stated.

The new digital centre, he added, leverages technology to narrow the rural-urban opportunity divide, drawing on positive outcomes from similar computer labs he has previously installed across other constituencies, including Glendevon Primary School in St James North Western, where the technology has driven measurable improvements in literacy, numeracy and overall student performance. “The idea is to demonstrate that with technology we can reach them [students], and provide the teachers with those tools that will help them to get across to the students that will educate them, build them, develop more human resources,” he explained. “This is not only about giving back to my community, which is important, but to also send a message that we’re in a world today where we can use technology to reach anywhere in Jamaica. And we can offer opportunities to everyone, whether it’s sports, academia, development of our students’ talent at any point in Jamaica. We just have to have the commitment and the willingness to invest.”

Local and national education leaders echoed calls for the school community to steward the new facility to maximise its long-term impact. Westmoreland Eastern Member of Parliament Dr Dayton Campbell urged attendees to protect the investment, noting that Chang’s rise from humble local roots to national leadership is proof that students in rural communities can achieve any goal they set. “It means that you can grow wherever you are planted. There is absolutely nothing to invalidate your dreams,” Campbell said.

Rhoda Moy Crawford, Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, thanked Chang for his generous donation and stressed that protecting the facility is a shared responsibility that supports public safety as well as education. “All of us have to put our hands together to protect this investment,” she said.

New Roads Primary Principal Coreen Tennant-James called the digital learning centre a transformative addition for the school, noting that expanding access to digital tools will help both students and educators build the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly digital global economy. “We express heartfelt gratitude to everyone who contributed to making this dream a reality,” she said. “Your investment in education is truly an investment in the future of our children. And, to our students, this laboratory is for you. Use it wisely, allow it to inspire creativity, learning, and excellence.”

Downtown Kingston, Jamaica’s bustling central business district, has seen the rapid spread of an unregulated informal parking practice that has left many motorists frustrated, intimidated, and facing unexpected extortionate charges. An increasingly common sight for drivers navigating the area’s crowded streets is informal actors blocking public legally designated parking spaces—marked by white-painted kerbs—with buckets, plastic containers, or other debris, only moving the obstacles after motorists agree to pay a so-called “drink money” or “blessing” fee for access.

Multiple motorists who frequent the district’s major thoroughfares, including King Street, Harbour Street, Ocean Boulevard, Orange Street, and Princess Street, have shared accounts of repeated run-ins with these unauthorised attendants. One anonymous motorist told Jamaica’s Sunday Observer he has been approached for payment more than 10 times in just three months, with charges ranging as high as JMD $200 per spot. In one incident, his refusal to pay after growing fed up with the practice sparked a heated, hostile argument that left him shaken. Another motorist recounted a March encounter on Ocean Boulevard where an attendant directed him into a spot under the false pretense of offering car washing services, then chased his vehicle down the street demanding payment when he tried to leave without paying. On a separate occasion on King Street, his refusal to pay a $500 request devolved into a public screaming match.

This long-time motorist said repeated interactions with the unauthorised attendants have left him feeling violated, extorted, and constantly on edge. He expressed particular concern for less assertive drivers who may be too intimidated to refuse payment, fearing the confrontation could escalate into violence. “It is traumatic to have to go through this, and then you are basically at the peril of them if you should take actions on your own,” he explained, noting that most ordinary Jamaicans are unwilling to risk personal safety over a parking fee. He has called for urgent intervention from local law enforcement, including increased foot and mobile patrols across downtown Kingston and the immediate removal of all blocking debris from public parking spaces, pointing out that leaving buckets and old oil containers on roadways already violates Jamaica’s litter laws.

A recent on-the-ground investigation by the Sunday Observer confirmed the widespread nature of the practice. During a visit to downtown Kingston, the news team encountered multiple blocked spots along Ocean Boulevard. When the team pulled into a spot marked by a plastic container, a man in a reflective safety vest immediately removed the obstacle and allowed them to park. As the team prepared to leave and started the vehicle, the attendant reappeared, standing in front of the car on the roadway to block exit and request a “blessing” for his service. After clarifying the request was for cash to buy drinks, the team paid $100 before being allowed to leave. The team also observed another attendant demanding $500 from an unsuspecting visiting driver; when the driver refused the exorbitant rate, the attendant became visibly angry and hounded him until a lower fee was negotiated and paid. Similar operations were also observed along Darling Street outside the busy Coronation Market.

The informal attendants, however, frame their work not as extortion, but as a valuable informal service that addresses gaps left by city planning failures. Most operate in plain clothes or cheap reflective vests, appearing seemingly out of nowhere when a driver searching for a parking spot approaches the area. One attendant interviewed near Coronation Market argued that his work protects motorists from predatory tow truck operators that regularly target illegal parking zones—marked by yellow-painted kerbs—across downtown. He claimed tow truck operators often act in bad faith, towing vehicles even when drivers are still nearby, and charge exorbitant retrieval fees that far outpace the small “donation” he requests. He added that on busy market days, the limited number of official government-provided parking spots fills up almost immediately, leaving drivers with few legal options as almost all extra road space is marked no-parking. He insisted that payments are voluntary donations for his service, not mandatory demands, and that he adjusts his expectations based on what drivers can afford. “We nah do nothing wrong,” he stated.

Local law enforcement confirms that the practice has not generated many formal complaints to date, but police acknowledge that a lack of reports does not mean the problem does not exist. Superintendent Mischka Forbes, head of the Kingston Central Police division, told the Sunday Observer no recent formal complaints have been logged, but did not deny that the practice is widespread across the district.

The rise of informal unauthorised parking comes as downtown Kingston has struggled for years with a chronic shortage of legal parking that local authorities have repeatedly tried and failed to fully resolve. Both the Urban Development Corporation and the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) have built public parking lots to ease congestion, but rising traffic volumes have consistently outpaced available capacity. Most recently, KSAMC has announced a series of new parking initiatives to address the crisis, including the rollout of paid parking on Orange Street, a redevelopment partnership for Gold Street with the Jamaica Stock Exchange, and plans to introduce metered parking across 32 streets spanning downtown, New Kingston, and Cross Roads. Even with these planned changes, however, downtown’s parking gap is expected to persist for years, leaving drivers vulnerable to the informal extortion schemes that have become a regular part of navigating the busy commercial district.

As simmering geopolitical tensions in the Middle East push global shipping costs sharply higher and introduce new risks to already strained international supply chains, Jamaica’s core utility providers are taking aggressive, proactive steps to stockpile critical infrastructure equipment and ramp up investment in emergency readiness ahead of the 2026 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Senior industry leaders say hard-won lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and repeated global disruptions have underscored the urgent need for forward planning in an era of unprecedented global uncertainty.

Executives from four of Jamaica’s largest utility and infrastructure providers — Digicel, Flow Jamaica, Jamaica Public Service (JPS), and the National Water Commission (NWC) — outlined their updated preparedness strategies during a public forum held last Thursday at the Jamaica Observer Press Club. They emphasized that modern hurricane preparation now extends far beyond traditional weather tracking, with transnational conflicts, persistent supply chain bottlenecks, and soaring transportation costs reshaping every part of emergency planning.

For Digicel Chief Executive Officer Stephen Murad, the adjusted strategy is straightforward: secure essential supplies early, and stock more than historical protocols recommend. “COVID taught us to plan multiple years in advance, so we’ve been purchasing all critical equipment years ahead of need. We’re not willing to take any unnecessary risks at this point,” Murad explained. He noted that this approach was forged not just by the pandemic, but by more recent geopolitical shocks, including the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and escalating tensions across the Middle East. To mitigate supply chain disruption risks, Digicel has overhauled its long-standing procurement framework, allocating larger upfront budgets and accelerating purchase timelines for all key network and recovery equipment.

Stephen Price, Vice-President and General Manager of Flow Jamaica, echoed Murad’s observations, noting that constant uncertainty has become the default operating environment for Caribbean utility providers. “From COVID onward, we’ve recognized we operate in a world defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity,” Price said. “We have to plan with this reality front of mind, because any unforeseen crisis can emerge at any time.”

Price added that the financial ripple effects of global instability are already being felt across Jamaica’s utility sector, with dramatic cost increases hitting operational budgets. “We have to buy ahead and account for all the supply chain challenges Stephen outlined, but right now this preparedness comes with a huge price tag. We’ve seen shipping costs for some equipment double, and the cost of key products has also risen 100 percent in some cases,” he said.

The renewed focus on preparedness comes as Jamaica enters the lead-up to another hurricane season, less than a year after Hurricane Melissa swept across parts of the island in October 2025, leaving widespread damage to public and private infrastructure and placing massive strain on the country’s critical service providers.

At the NWC, the country’s state-owned water utility, preparations have centered on expanding inventories of core recovery equipment including generators, water pumps, and replacement pipes, while locking in pre-emergency service agreements with private water trucking operators. “One detail we’ve had to prioritize much more heavily is strengthening our partnerships with trucking operators ahead of any storm, because their rates skyrocket once water supply shortages hit after a disaster,” explained NWC Corporate Public Relations Manager Delano Williams.

JPS Chief Operating Officer Lance Becca noted that the power utility has also expanded cross-border partnership networks with international utilities and suppliers to guarantee fast access to critical materials in the aftermath of major storms. “A key lesson we’ve taken away is the importance of diversifying our supply and support portfolio,” Becca explained. “We’ve built formal partnerships with other key industry players across the globe, and when Hurricane Melissa hit, that relationship allowed us to quickly source emergency supplies from peer utilities when we needed them.”

Across all four companies, leaders agreed that 21st-century hurricane preparedness can no longer be approached as a purely local challenge. Events occurring thousands of miles from Jamaica’s borders now directly impact how quickly emergency supplies can reach the island, how much critical equipment costs, and ultimately how effectively the country can recover after a storm makes landfall.

Seven months after Category 5 Hurricane Melissa tore through Jamaica’s southwestern coast, leaving widespread destruction of homes and local livelihoods in its wake, three small business owners in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth are slowly rebuilding their operations, bracing for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season and holding out hope for a calm, storm-free year.

Denever “Floyd” Forbes, owner of the world-famous Pelican Bar, Dennis Abrahams, founder of Captain Dennis Boat Tours, and Ridge Harvey, operator of Captain Ridge Boat Tours, have collectively rehired 16 local workers, breathing much-needed life back into the region’s community tourism sector, the backbone of the local economy. For Forbes, this rebuild marks the second time he has restored his iconic floating bar after severe hurricane damage.

Last October, Hurricane Melissa scattered the broken wooden frames of Pelican Bar across the entire coastline, but Forbes managed to reconstruct the popular destination in just two months. The rebuild was far more than a personal win: boat tour operators across the region depend on Pelican Bar as a core stop for their visitors, making its restoration critical to the entire local tourism ecosystem.

The new iteration of the bar is smaller than its predecessor, so Forbes currently rotates his six-member team on a biweekly three-by-three schedule to accommodate slower business. Still, he remains grateful for any progress. “Things are not bright like before, but we still give thanks, we have something working with,” he shared in a recent interview. Reflecting on his experience with 2024’s Hurricane Beryl, which spared his bar but destroyed other local properties, and 2025’s devastating Melissa, which impacted every community across the southwestern coast reaching into Westmoreland, Forbes said he is hopeful the 2026 season will bring no major storms. “I am hoping for the best…I wouldn’t want it to come as terrible as last year and the year before,” he added.

Pelican Bar has recently drawn a high-profile visitor: American actress and entrepreneur Ayesha Curry, who has Jamaican heritage. Forbes frames his business as an inclusive space for everyone, from A-list celebrities to everyday tourists and local residents. “It is everyone’s home away from home. I am not too surprised for anyone who comes here, because I provide it as everyone’s home away from home, it is a throne, and as long as anyone enters they wear the crown, whether male or female,” he explained. Boat tours to the bar depart from multiple launch points across the region: Treasure Beach, Black River, and Parottee Bay.

Abrahams, a Treasure Beach native who has operated coastal boat tours for 30 years, has weathered four major hurricanes along Jamaica’s south coast. He says Hurricane Melissa was unlike any storm he has ever experienced. “Melissa is one of them that devastated the coastal area all the way from Treasure Beach right back to Westmoreland and beyond, because it came off the water it took a different approach than the rest that I have experienced. Coming off the sea then, there is nothing to shelter us, so everything was exposed,” he said. The storm completely wiped out all of Abrahams’ assets, but within three weeks, he had cleared debris and started rebuilding, determined to be open in time for the December winter tourist season. Today, his business employs eight local workers and offers a diverse range of experiences, from coastal excursions and snorkeling on calm days to trips to Pelican Bar and the Black River Safari. It was Abrahams who transported Curry to Pelican Bar during her recent visit, and he says she was impressed with the warm, laid-back service his team provides.

Abrahams credits local social media influencers with helping grow his business and market Jamaica as a tourist destination to international visitors, saying he is deeply grateful for their support. Like Forbes, he is praying for a quiet 2026 hurricane season, noting that small businesses are still recovering and are in no position to absorb another major disaster. Beyond his own hopes, he is urging residents and local leaders to prioritize storm preparedness education, drawing on his recent experience with Melissa to help other Jamaicans stay safe. He says preparedness goes far beyond stocking up on food, water, and flashlights: residents need to physically reinforce their homes by adding extra screws to roofs and boarding up windows, and those in low-lying coastal areas must evacuate inland immediately when storm warnings are issued, without ignoring evacuation orders. “The more people are educated, more lives will be saved, fewer injuries will be reported, and post-hurricane spend will be less,” he explained, calling on the government and storm survivors to lead public preparedness workshops across the island.

For Harvey, who operates his boat tours out of Parottee Bay, business has slowly restarted, but the broader community of Parottee still faces significant ongoing challenges seven months after the storm. Harvey currently employs two people, and he says tours are running, but increased visitor numbers are critical to full economic recovery for the entire region. While power has been restored to most of Parottee, a community where most residents are independent small business owners working in tourism or fishing, access to consistent potable running water remains a major unmet need. “The storm was an earthquake and tornado, so everything mash up. We nah get nuh water. Trucks do come, but as they go up the road and come back they say they don’t have water, and for a big, long water truck, how you don’t have water, or is some favouritism?” Harvey asked. He added that while some residents still lack permanent housing, many have received government disaster assistance, a small bright spot amid ongoing recovery. Across all three businesses, the message is clear: resilience has carried the community this far, but a calm 2026 hurricane season is critical to building back better for southwestern Jamaica’s tourism economy.