Group protests TCNs, NaRRA spend, police shootings

A group of people wearing T-shirts labelled Stand Up for Jamaica staged a protest on Duke Street in downtown Kingston, Tuesday, expressing frustration over a number of issues relating to Government action. The arrival of third-country nationals (TCNs) from the United States under a deal signed between Kingston and Washington, the rent being paid to Digicel for National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) office space, as well as the high number of fatal shootings by the police since the start of the year, were top of their agenda. “We decided that enough is enough, that’s why we took it upon ourselves to come out to show Jamaica that we are tired and upset as to what is taking place here,” said one member of the group who gave her name only as Charlotte. “The TCNs can be coming here today or this week sometime but yet still, people who were affected by the hurricane are still sleeping under trees,” she said in reference to one of the after-effects of Hurricane Melissa which severely damaged sections of the island last October.. The protest was staged hours before Parliament convened and ahead of the arrival of the foreign nationals transiting through Jamaica after being sent home by the US under its third-country nationals programme. In a post on her social media account yesterday, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Kamina Johnson Smith reiterated that the Government had negotiated the transit agreement with protection of Jamaica and the Jamaican people in mind. She also said the programme is being implemented in accordance with the principles of safe and orderly migration, consistent with domestic and international law. But Charlotte told the Jamaica Observer that the arrival of the TCNs was not the only thing fuelling her anger. “I am upset about the $40- million wage that [NaRRA CEO] Anthony Anderson will be getting. NaRRA building is $115 million yet still the Government revenue is short by $31.1 billion. There are people out there with disabilities that are begging on the streets. Yes, the people voted, but at the end of the day our voices need to be heard and we have been muted. Your vote is your voice,” she added. These sentiments were shared by another protester who gave her name as Ms Hutchinson. “Our hospitals are in a deplorable state. I lost my husband last year on my birthday and our first anniversary at the St Ann’s Bay Hospital — a place that don’t even have a defibrillator to restart somebody’s heart, that’s the type of hospital. So at what point do we stand up? In the same breath you turn around and you pay the CEO of NaRRA almost $50 million, then you want to put him into a building that costs $115 million, and your excuse is that it’s earthquake- and hurricane- resilient as if Jamaica just suddenly landed in an earthquake and a hurricane zone?” she questioned. “They also said that the money that they collected from donations for Hurricane Melissa, they made a decision not to spend it quickly because they want to use it for modular homes and the foundation for modular homes. So while our people suffer, live under tarpaulin, get wet, can’t afford food, dying in hospitals, our children are learning under bamboo trees, you’re paying someone this excessive amount of money? We are here because if we don’t stand up, if we don’t speak out, if we don’t bring awareness, we are going to find ourselves back in the chains,” she argued. One woman who gave her name as Maroon Queen expressed concern about the number of fatal police shootings seen recently. “I’m here to stand up for the young, innocent youth that’s been ‘unalived’ by the police. We have criminals in our society that is attacking the country, and then we have criminals in uniform too. That is just too much. We have to stand and do something. We are also calling for body-worn cameras because now we don’t know who is actually the criminal and who is innocent, so we need cameras. A police should not have anything to do with any civilian if they do not have a camera,” she said.