In 2020, the percentage of the Jamaican electorate willing to participate in elections fell to its lowest in over 70 years. At the same time, the proportion of our people prepared to justify a military takeover to deal with high crime and corruption reached its highest point [LAPOP Pulse of Democracy 2019].
Across the planet, according to a Cambridge University Study, 2019 represented
“the highest level of democratic discontent on record”. We in Jamaica were therefore not alone. Reason: across the globe there was a “growing sense of inequity and unfairness in the system” [Edelman Trust]. Here at home, our prime minister has not been unaware of this. Four and a half years ago, PM Holness acknowledged in his inaugural speech,
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Derrick Banks ponders his next move as he faces eviction from lands he was farming at Bernard Lodge in St Catherine.
Derrick Banks, once one of the harder working and more successful farmers on a section of land across from the Caribbean Estate housing scheme in Greater Portmore, is these days a broken man.
On Tuesday when
The Gleaner caught up with him at the plot of land he had cultivated for over 20 years on a section of the Bernard Lodge Sugar Estate in St Catherine, Banks was dejected and at a loss as to his next move. He was uprooting and assembling some of the irrigation pipes used in his farming venture over the years, with a view to securing them for future use, but could not say when and where that would be.
Bernard Lodge farmer Paul Heny, who now cultivates just a two-acre plot as he awaits relocation, is insisting that the lands are better suited for agriculture and have been producing world-class yields.
Veteran farmer Paul Henry is well aware of the potential of the 26-acre parcel of land he will be forced to give up when the Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ) Holdings Limited takes control of the property on the former Bernard Lodge Sugar Estates in St Catherine.
He has already been forced to scale down operations to a measly two acres on which he has a crop of sweet corns in light of his pending relocation to land yet to be identified and prepared for his occupation by the SCJ.