Miss Kitty, Star Writer

BWOy it funny how just last week wi country was celebrating the many golden moments in Beijing courtesy of our athletes and as wi wink wi had to start run up and down like Veronica and Usain because Gustav was in our midst.

Watching and reading much of the coverage about Gustav a nuff people get a beaten. It seem to me though that most of the essential services in our country were on top of most things. What was shocking though was that the gully sides took a harsh battering leaving many homeless and pondering their next move.

A wonder if the Gully God will organise a relief effort since the gully a fi him and afta all him no gane no weh?

I am very sympathetic towards those who have lost their homes because fi start from scratch no easy. I'm also very concerned that some Jamaicans are putting themselves unnecessarily in harms way and making a bad thing worst.

No match for nature

The human being is no match for the wrath of mother nature who has no fear or care for anyone in her path. To build an elaborate concrete structure in the path of a river course is plainly suicidal. Even if someone is seeking temporary housing, to take root on the banks of the gully is like playing Russian roulette with your life.

General complaint

The general complaint is that government should clean gully and drains more often to avert the catastrophe which hurricanes can leave in their wake. Of course the government can always and should do more, however, as citizens it is imperative that civic pride returns to our veins. It cannot be that as the government clean it, the people dem dutty it up. The gully should not be used as a receptacle fi ole fridge, mattress, stove, and all sort of carcasses which are also detrimental to their health.

Mandatory evacuation

The one thing I would recommend is that the authorities look into the idea of mandatory evacuation as is practiced in Cuba and recently employed in New Orleans. When an evacuation warning is given it should not be negotiable as to whether or not citizens will leave. Once the people dem fi lef, yuh fi jus lef.

Not only will this save meagre resources but it will more importantly protect lives. If persons refuse to leave, they should be held accountable if they endanger the lives of the men and women who are sent to rescue them. It is time we get proactive instead of reactive which sometimes is too late.

There is a set of people who refuse to buy the essentials and the little necessities and then when the storm hit them a walk and a beg a tin a mackerel. Why should I shorten my family's share of food for someone who was nonchalant about the arrival of the storm from the get go.

I always seh when rain a fall and breeze a blow belly fi full! When Gustav a rage and gwaan the 'mount a corn pork wid ackee and fry dumplings wid some cornmeal porridge me put weh (laugh).

But fi real though as a country wi have to start promote some more civic pride and consciousness in the way we treat our country and our environs so that in the face of hurricane disaster, casualties will be minimal. A no jus' when wi win gold a Beijing we fi be the proud Jamaicans, wi fi be proud all the while.