Weekends used to be a busy time for fish vendor Dian Banton, but since the passage of Hurricane Melissa last year October, she spends most of her days staring at the river behind the Black River Market, where tourists are given boat rides, as part of the few attractions on offer in the mostly deserted town.
The mood of the tourists differs vastly from Banton’s and the few vendors who show up daily hoping to make a sale. Most of those who still utilise the market, left roofless since Hurricane Melissa, are feeling abandoned and are clueless about their next step.
Banton who has been a fish vendor for more than 30 years has watched as other vendors relocate elsewhere, mostly to the neighbouring Santa Cruz market. It’s just her and her nephew who have stayed behind, hoping persons will come to purchase fish.
“Everybody gone to Santa Cruz, so I have to sit and look out here so like a Brother Hog, until Father God say alright, you know this woman must get a bly today and send few little customers come give me,” she said, with her back to the market and her eyes looking out to the river where the mostly white tourists were enjoying their boat ride.
“Me always believe and trust in father God. I have faith. I am one of those faithful. I’m not leaving here to go anywhere, because this is where mi born and grow. I don’t know Santa Cruz, I don’t know Mandeville; I don’t know nowhere else, but Black River, so this is where I have to stay and get my little bread,” she insisted.
Some social commentators and residents feel the government is hoping to frustrate those who sell in the market to leave, so that the land will become available for deep pocketed investors to develop. According to Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Black River, which is situated along the coastline in St. Elizabeth, is poised for major development. He wants the area to be more economically productive and resilient.
“The idea is not to abandon the area. The idea is to develop the area, but in a different economic model,” he stated during a groundbreaking ceremony for the National Water Commission’s Black River-to-Arlington pipeline project earlier this month.
Even before Melissa struck, the government had announced a grand plan to establish St. Elizabeth as Jamaica’s third city.
Banton and others who sell in the market are skeptical about promises made by the prime minister, that the planned re-development will benefit them. The groundbreaking for the pipeline project and a grand ribbon cutting ceremony for the Black River Hospital, are evidence that the process to make the area attractive has started. But instead of feeling included in this process, the vendors feel that they are unwanted bystanders. They all lamented the lack of communication with government officials.
“We believed that the market was going to be fixed up, so that the people them could come back in there, but that’s how they put them in the market, like hog a go in a pen,” said Banton.
Maurice Vassel who has been selling at the market for many years said they were occupying the parking lot of a business place after the passage of Melissa, but then government officials told them to go back into the market. There has not been any meaningful dialogue since, regarding the redevelopment of the area. With no roof above their heads, they have purchased tarpaulin to shield themselves and their goods from the elements.
“When rain come and breeze come, we have to change tarpaulin very regular. There is no help, nobody to go to,” he said.
“No big man don’t come and talk to nobody. They just driving through or they come in helicopter. See they cut ribbon at the hospital the other day and then is helicopter they come in and all of a sudden, everybody gone over the bridge. I don’t know what they go over there to do,” Vassel observed.
Banton explained that promised relief for hurricane Melissa victims have not been forthcoming either. The board house where she resides with her 29-year-old son was flattened during the Hurricane, and a business she operates was badly damaged. Relatives from Clarendon has helped her to rebuild her house, and kind strangers have been providing her with food. When asked, what she has gotten from the government, her response was blunt.
“I don’t get not even as much as a piece of lath from them. But you see the people them who were walking around, giving away things. I can lift my hand to God and say thank you. Them let mi eat food. Until today, I have food from those people,” she said.
Photo by Anthony Henry