Jamaica Burning

BILLOWING clouds of acrid black smoke hung over the Riverton City landfill and nearby communities yesterday from fires believed to have been set by dismissed garbage collectors and the authorities warned of the likelihood of worsening problem of solid waste disposal in Kingston and nearby towns.That's the situation here in Jamaica. As beautiful as this island is, the majority of the population has little or no concern with the environment, until the consequences of their constant littering and arbitrary dumping affects them. For example, Jamaica has natural and man-made gullies that assist in leading storm-water to the sea. People who live near these throw, without second thought, all sorts of refuse into them. The storms come, the waters overflow the gullies and property is damaged. It is then one hears cries of "the government!" to fix the problem.

The problem, of course, is us. There is a distinct lack of recycling habits and facilities. There is an even greater lack of awareness of our impact on the environment, and on ourselves.

Help and organization tends to come from outside sources:

The Riverton City site has in recent years been transformed from an unruly and open city dump where fires burned almost continuously, to a structured and organised landfill, established with substantial funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

But the old sight of fires, thick and drifting black smoke and low visibility in the areas close to Riverton returned yesterday in the face of a NSWMA's firing of a trucking and garbage co-operative set up by people who used to work on the old dump, including scavenging for things to sell.
My brother once said to me that Jamaicans only can have a knee-jerk response...after the fact. It is only when something has reached almost terrible levels, that we start to think about what there is to do.

-Source Article: from the Jamaica Observer

So Far...So Far

I had completely abandoned this blog because I thought it was unimportant. I know now it isn't. It's just that I have a lot of them to keep up.

I have been working in my post as Architect(ural Designer) since November, and I find myself at the end point of everyone's questions and requests. I haven't really had a chance to do some true design, because most of the projects are of a refurbishment nature. Some communities already have a clear idea of what they require.

My biggest concern is the design of school environments. A lot of the schools in this island are very poorly lit, whether through a miscalculation of the amount of windows and fixtures needed for a particular sized space, or the lack of budget during construction. In any case, there must be a way to create brightly lit work area under a steep budget. One option is that translucent sheeting, but this tends to get dingy if not upkept, and is susceptible to cracking.

I am currently looking at this site to brush up on ideas.

A New Job

Starting next week Monday, I will be in the post of architect at the Urban Development Coorporation, specifically under the Lift-Up Jamaica Programme. You could describe the programme as one of social development, and for that reason, I may find mysef all over the island, and in the inner city. Learning all around.
Now if Tropical Storm Beta would give us a break.

Water, Water Everywhere

Katrina. Rita. Wilma. The Weather Channel is practically screeching that this is the first season with three major hurricanes. I drove through a section of Clarendon on Monday, and saw houses and schools with water up to the windows. Jamaica, while not hit directly by any of the Big Three, has experienced continuous rain for maybe about two straight weeks and flooding for one week due to Wilma. It is actually raining right now.
I was asked if builders and planners do not consider these aspects when building and constructing, even laying out large schemes (some of these are in the low-lying regions of Portmore and are now simply under water). To tell the truth, I think that most of us do not.

Tropical Design and Life

A lot of Caribbean architects have one concern or the other about designing for the tropics; but ne of the things that I have always liked to consider is not simply the physical reaction to tropicality (I'm sure this is a word), but the thinking process of a tropical person who will live in a particular place. Not just tropical building, but tropical thinking. A lot of our Caribbean style (arguments still fester over this one) is said to be just mutations of colonial influence; but the hot winds, the flaming sunsets, the sudden tamtrums of rain, this affects how a person thinks and affects their environment.