Neglect of public cemeteries reflects disrespect for Jamaicans

WE are not so naïve as to believe it is easy or cheap to maintain Jamaica’s many public cemeteries.

In the case of the sprawling, 200-acre May Pen Cemetery on Spanish Town Road in west Kingston, the degree of difficulty is multiplied. Ultimately, though, respect for the departed — more especially ancestors — largely reflects respect for self, which we suspect explains why all over rural Jamaica people still bury their dead at home with tombs meticulously kept. To those people it matters little that a cemetery in their yard immediately reduces the monetary value of the property.

More reason then for the State, as well as its agents and departments, to show similar respect as custodians of public cemeteries.

Sadly, as outlined in yesterday’s Sunday Observer, this is far from the case in relation to May Pen Cemetery and the inactive No 5 Cemetery on Wellington Street in Spanish Town.

Famous Jamaicans, including West Indies cricketer of the late 1950s Mr O G “Collie” Smith and the legendary trombonist Mr Don Drummond are buried at May Pen Cemetery which, we hear, dates back to the 16th century.

So too the 1940s bandit Mr Vincent Ivanhoe Martin, “Rhygin”, whose life partly inspired the 1972 film The Harder They Come, starring Mr Jimmy Cliff.

It’s a reminder that as efforts continue to make Kingston a place to visit — not least by those with ancestral links — the claims of historic May Pen Cemetery can’t be ignored.

Yet we are told, and indeed as any casual passer-by can see for himself, the place is in a disgraceful state.

Our reporter says “overgrown bushes” cover the graves… “animals roam the grounds, homeless people seek shelter in old mausoleums, and garbage line the walkways…”

The story of a family searching in vain for six years to locate the final resting place of a great grandmother tugs at the heart.

Workers at May Pen Cemetery say they are too few, overworked, woefully under-resourced, and consequentially incapable of satisfactorily doing their jobs.

At the public cemetery in Spanish Town which, we are told, reached capacity 20 years ago, gross neglect has apparently influenced locals to use it as a garbage dump.

We are appalled by the reported dismissive response of chairman of St Catherine Municipal Corporation and mayor of Spanish Town Mr Norman Scott when quizzed by this newspaper about the garbage-littered cemetery.

And we are told that efforts to get a response from Mr Audley Gordon, head of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), failed.

Mr Dramaine Jones, the NSWMA’S regional operations manager for St Catherine, gave our reporter the assurance that plans are in place for an enforcement and public education drive to help residents and businesses properly dispose of waste. Let’s give thanks for small mercies.

And Local Government Minister Mr Desmond Mckenzie has been speaking of a $200-million project to clean all 39 public cemeteries across the island. A project, we hope, will actually happen, be expanded and sustained.

At bottom line, though, the State, its departments and agents, must do much better if it is ever to command the respect of Jamaicans.

Except for the views expressed in the column above, the articles published on this page do not necessarily represent the views of the Jamaica Observer.