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SQUATTER
THE SQUATTER’S CRY
Is long time mi day ‘bout yah
Is forty year mi deh squat
Till it ha` gi’ mi da grey head;
So dey plannin’ fi run mi off !
Dat is a serious thing ; it dread,
Mi no ha no way fi go,
Mi ha stay yah till me dead!
Dere was a man dey ‘bout yah.,
Dey say he was the son of Jah,
But he had no where to lay his head
For him say him no want no lan’ ,
But because him say him own everyt’ing,
Some wicked man did nail him ;
Mi hol’ a little piece fi buil’ mi shack,
Wit dem paper an’ dem bulldozer ,
Dem say dem want it back,
But dey cawnt crucify me!
W’at dem expec’ I man fi do?
After mi no pitcharie or John Crow
Fi go buil’ nes’ inna tree top!
Dem sey me noh ha latrine ;
Mi ha pollute di gully , mi an’ mi princess
An’ mi yout’ dem in dis little town;
But she is mi beauty queen
Though she can’t enter the contes’,
For she have no time fi dat,
She ha ‘ fi look after di youts;
If she stand beside all o’ dem
She wi’ tek di shine offa all a dem,
Fair skin an’ all o’ dat, Queen o’ mi shack;
I sey don’t trouble dem!
Dem say wi ha tek electricity ,
Dem sey das illegality;
But some a wi woulda pay fi it.,
Mi an’ some a di breddas dem,
But dem naw put light inna shack;
Dem mussi grudge mi satellite dish..
Mi fridge an’ mi new bran’ car,
But mi no did get dem fi nutt’n
Mi di work hard fi get it
When dem didda sport an’ sleep;
Dem cawnt crucify me,
Dem fi leave mi alone!
Dem say govament say fi move me,
But is I man mek govament ;
Mi noh ha’ no use fi dem ,
If dem no ha no use fi me!
Dem say mi fi go back a` country
Wey mi have plenty lan’;
But no everybody ca’ plant banana,
Some a wi ha fi do somet’ing else;
Nott’n naw gwaan a country ;
Mi ha fi go wey work deh;
Mi youts want light an’ television,
An mi want dem fi go a good school.
I man have a dangerous weapon,
Di politician call it dives’ment ,
But they better invest in me.
Dey must treat me wit’ PRIDE ,
No man better moles’ or I protest’,
Dem cawnt crucify me!
Is lang time I dey ‘bout yah,
Now dem want fi come tek di lan’,
Want fi come push me out!
But I man will buy it, if dey ‘low me.,
But better still dey better gi’ me
For is long time mi dey squat
An’ mi naw lef’ ‘bout yah.
“Squatting begins with t he first shack,:” said Harvey Willis (Cf. The Gleaner dated October 12, 1997). “Have you ever seen a whole group of squatters capturing an empty lot?”
What is squatting? Webster’s defines a squatter as a person who settles on property without right of title or payment of rent, or one that settles on government –owned land under government regulations with the purpose of acquiring title. It would appear from Webster’s definition that squatting is not a Jamaican phenomenon.
The Jamaican attitude to squatting is ambiguous . According to Willis , nothing is done to prevent it. A shack appears, it is ignored until a whole settlement grows. Margaret Stair writing for the Gleaner ,an article against squatting, captioned, “ The Scourge of Squatting,,” claimed that wherever there is a large scale capturing of public or private property, there is a politician behind it. Stair claimed that political support and political encouragement of squatting , had caused squatting to move from a simple illegitimate capture of land with the erection of shacks that could be moved elsewhere to permanent structures of steel and concrete equipped with satellite dish and other conveniences.
These settlements on captured land have sprung up all over Jamaica, and no sewage,
no roads, no proper water supply, no legal electrical supply. Hundreds of illegal wires
are run on make-shift poles and on the ground endangering the lives of occupants.
There are illegal connections to the National Water Commission, and water is left to
run to waste . In the more abject settlements, pit latrines are few, and plastic bags
called “scandal bags” are used or nearby bushes , gullies , the sea , rivers or canals,
thus posing a serious health hazard not only to the settlements , but to the country at
large.
Criminal find a haven in squatter settlements , hence these settlements tend to be a
seething bed or festering of crime. Ms. Marjorie Stair sees squatting as a scourge by
which law-abiding citizens are with having to pay when public funds are used to provide
infrastructure for illegal settlements ; having to pay for light , water and telephone used
by those who do not or are unable to pay; having to pay for environmental problems
created by improper living; having to pay as crime hide and fester in squatting
communities.
Most squatters dream of owning “piece of capture’ lan’ legitimately. Miss X at
Portmore in St. Catherine with her common-law husband dreams of owning the land
she illegally occupies. She is unemployed and has seven dependent children. Her
husband is a hustler and labourer on construction sites. She is threatened with
eviction , from time to time, by officers of OPERATION PRIDE ,a government
organization whose function is to settle squatters legitimately. Every Jamaican has a
right to legitimate shelter, therefore whatever OPERATION PRIDE do about
assisting squatters to acquire land, is significant to the welfare of the entire nation. If
Miss X doesn’t remove , sooner or later her shack will be demolished by the
authorities. She has no potable water supply, no electricity , no road. Garbage is
everywhere. Her settlement , dubbed “ Lesser Portmore,” is characteristic of many
squatter schemes on captured lands. People from the ghetto of Kingston , many fleeing
from violence and from elsewhere moved in. There is a belief that once the land is
captured, the squatter has first option to purchase it
Miss X is hoping that Government will come to her rescue. Another case to be noted is
squatting along the railway line. Hundreds of families live near the railway lines. Quit
notices are served on the squatters in Portmore, from time to time, Mr. P is in no
better plight. He lives among hundreds of families who have captured and built shacks
on eithr side of the track. He has been living near the Railway Corporation’s rails for
over 40 years. He declares that he has nowhere else to go. For sevara1 miles both sides
of rails are flanked with crude structures of boards and rusty zinc. “To come push off
the people just so is dread,” remarked Mr. P . “A right yah so ,mi bawn an’ right yah
so mi grow. Mi ha noway else fi go! Dem cawn get mi fi move! Mi naw lef’ yah. Not all
the squatters are as defiant as Mr. P , however. Many are hopeful that the bulldozers
won’t come , until they find somewhere else to squat.
Residents in legitimate communities are suspicious and fearful of squatters. Residents
(of a certain community )were hopping mad, the media once reported, over what they
said was a shanty settlement named.. . . ,which had been for some time springing up near
their homes. The squatter settlement was located across a gully which runs parallel to
the main road of their community. Residents claimed that the settlement had been
spawning for some time, but was only visible when the overgrown vegetation in the
nearby gully was partially removed. They said that apart from having no sewage system
and posing a health hazard, they were fearful that the squatter settlement would bring an
escalation of criminal elements ,and lead to a drop in the value of their properties.
“ Programme of Resettlement and Integrated Development Enterprises, called
Operation Pride ,for short, ,( created by Prime Minister P.J. Patterson in 1995) , has
arrested the pervasive problem of squatting in Jamaican in just over two years,” Rt, Hon
P.J. Patterson said before an enthusiastic audience at the recent handing over function
of 6,ooo sales agreements at the National Arena, in 1997. (Cf. The Gleaner July 20,
1997). Some critics contend ,up to the present time, that what PRIDE has done was
legitimize some existing squatter communities, but the root of squatting goes deeper
than that , inadequate provision of shelter and urban migration are at the centre of the
problem . It is felt that PRIDE have the opposite effect of increasing squatting ,as people
ght capture land with the hope that tenure would be secured legitimately at some time
n the future. The problem of squatting has been brewing for a long time. Almost every
up-scale community has a squatter settlement near to it. A feeling is that some
politicians even encourage it in order to secure pockets of votes. some extent. It was
hoped , however, that Operation Pride would steer clear of political partisanship,
referential bias and corruptions in order to be fair and effective
Operation Pride or any other organization , however, given the task of ameliorating
squatting in Jamaica has a formidable task of cleaning the Augean stables. At this early
stage in the 21st century, there are six major squatter areas along the St. Ann coast—
Shaw Park , Roaring River, Mammee Bay South, Windsor, Seville and Mount
Edgcombe also in Salem, stretching from Ocho Rios to Runaway Bay. The UDC cleared
the Belmont property, as well as attempts to squat at Mansfield Heights, but squatters
are moving on to other locations , Roaring River, for instance. At this location, many of
the squatters are offsprings of squatters relocated from Green Bay and Falklands in
Ocho Rios. At Seville, the UDC is confronted with almost unsurmountable difficulties.
There are several squatter settlements; the Jamaica National Heritage which owns
most of Seville property is unwilling to accede land to the UDC ,in the mean time the
number of squatters on the property are increasing, while the Heritage Trust appears to
be helpless to stop them. There is also a persistent complaint that people, who desire to
settle appears to be confronted with too many obstacles, while squatting is on the
increase, with the Jamaican population growing at an alarming rate and gravely
stretching the resources of the country.
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