Byron Blake | An independence gift for western Jamaica?

July 28, nine months after the vicious left-right uppercuts of the record-breaking Hurricane Melissa, the people of western Jamaica remain in shock.

As they look to Emancipation and Independence, they must be wondering: Will Emancipation bring recognition to the reality of their pain and suffering? Will Independence stir recognition of their right to equal treatment as full-blooded Jamaicans with responsibilities, including care for children, retired parents and grandparents, and commitments to banks, credit unions, other financial institutions and even suppliers, including utility providers? Will it trigger the memory that they are emancipated, independent people, no longer pawns on a chessboard to be moved strategically or sold?

NINE MONTHS LATER

Nine months is the gestation period for humans. Should it be the same for western Jamaica? Should there be signs of new and vibrant life? Several realities provide answers to anyone who drives casually from, say, Santa Cruz westward through Black River to Westmoreland, Hanover and on to Trelawny.

Miles of new electric poles, a grim testament to the destructive force of Hurricane Melissa.

Nature doing what nature does: grass, small trees, and even leaves and branches on some bigger trees. But even Nature cannot bring life back to the countless giant trees that were uprooted or died standing firm.

An absence of the usual cultivated fields or lands prepared for cultivation.

Churches, houses and business places without roofs, with only partial roofs, or under tattered tarpaulins. There are few temporary housing solutions.

Roads, main and side roads, abounding in potholes and trenches, forcing motorists to drive at their peril.

Schools with significant sections roofless, under tarpaulins, or in need of significant repairs.

And, if one makes periodic stops along the roadsides or in small bars, even without training in psychology, one will discover persons: (a) broken and fast losing hope; (b) starved for information and confused about what will happen next; and (c) despondent, their businesses closed for nine months while still meeting obligations to employees with families, including school-age children to support.

Jamaica is in the third month of the 2026 hurricane season and one month away from the start of the 2026 school year. Residents now know, from their experience of 2024 and 2025, that the adage that “lightning does not strike twice in the same place” is not true.

Yet, there is a lack of urgency, information or a campaign to prepare people psychologically, and the natural environment physically, for even a tropical storm. There is no flurry of activity to repair schools, many of which double as hurricane shelters, for the new school year. Nor are there special budgetary allocations for disaster or school preparedness.

There is an eerie sense of calm in western Jamaica.

This, even as people in the west hear and those fortunate enough to have Internet services:

• Glowing statements by policymakers and business leaders about Jamaica’s historic economic recovery from Hurricane Melissa and the unprecedented levels of financing mobilised to build back a stronger and more resilient Jamaica.

• Policymakers in the House and Senate, and their committees, meeting on the same leisurely schedule, bantering, and getting worked up over nothing and beating desks over vacuous statements, followed by equally empty or self-promoting announcements. There is no committee or subcommittee of Parliament responsible for monitoring the national response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa. Nine months later, there are no emergency container houses and no questions raised or calls for accountability. Debris remains abundant in several urban and rural areas despite announcements of new trucks and highly publicised visits by the minister of local government and strategic appearances by the prime minister.

• Large and spectacular government-sponsored celebratory and cultural activities to mark Emancipation and Independence.

• Announcements of major highways and even airports, and plans to move settled communities, without consultations with the affected people or their local political representatives.

AVOIDANCE OF THOSE RESPONSIBLE

In any major accident or disaster, a priority is to establish cause and culpability. Fortunately for Jamaica, two independent studies in the immediate aftermath concluded that excessive warming of the seas, or global warming, was responsible for the strength and destructive force of the Category 5 Hurricane Melissa. Further, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion in June 2025 to the effect that culpable countries, that is, major polluters, could be held liable for damage caused by climate-induced activities and be required to make reparations.

Three of Jamaica’s and the Caribbean’s leading international legal experts have opined that Jamaica has a case worthy of pursuit. They have volunteered that Jamaica and the Caribbean have the legal and technical expertise to prepare and advise their political representatives in litigation.

In those circumstances, people in western Jamaica, many with properties that were uninsured or underinsured, entertained hope that, unlike after Hurricane Beryl the year before, there was evidence and legal support to pursue justice. They should not have to bear the cost of the loss of their most valuable and, in some cases, generational assets. They recognised that their interests had to be pursued by their government.

In that context, they are puzzled, perhaps perplexed, that Jamaica and its CARICOM counterparts have met twice, in full session at the level of the Conference of Heads of Government, and there has been no public information that their vital interest was discussed.

THE INDEPENDENCE GIFT

Many in western Jamaica are descendants of people who emancipated themselves, many are descendants of Africans emancipated from official enslavement in 1838. Fiercely independent-minded, they invested in land, shelter and agriculture. Others are descendants of later arrivals to the island who invested in other areas of business.

Many of these Jamaicans have been upended by Hurricane Melissa. Is their Independence gift in 2026 the surrender of all that they and their forebears accumulated over decades, if not centuries? Will they become slaves to a new set of imperialists?

Ambassador Byron Blake is the former deputy permanent representative to the United Nations and former assistant secretary general of CARICOM. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com