Glenda SimmsIN THE March 31 edition of The Gleaner, the inhumane and squalid conditions under which significant members of Jamaican citizens live were clearly described.
These conditions, obtained in the Bartley Building on Maiden Lane, were defined as "subhuman and hazardous".
The Jamaican society was forced to learn that 200 women, men and children have lived for years amongst mounds of garbage and human waste.
These citizens, the article says, had no sanitary facilities and, as a result, they defecate in scandal bags which they dispose of within their living space.
Dr. Herbert Elliot, the Medical Officer of Health for Kingston and St. Andrew, described the Bartley Building as 'unsuitable for human occupation'.
Such inhumane conditions are the feature of many communities in the Corporate Area and indeed in many urban centres in other Third World countries. These communities make up what can best be described as the Fifth World.
The late Grand Chief George Manuel, a distinguished leader of Canada's First Nations, assessed the situation of his people and came to the conclusion that the aboriginal peoples of the world represent the Fourth World.
Manuel's analysis took into account the forces of colonialism, neo-colonialism, imperialism and racism. His observations pointed to the sub-human treatment of his people and the resultant social ills of alcoholism, drug abuse, ill health, mis-education and under-education.
But, in spite of these ills, Manuel knew that hope for his people laid in the fact that they have land bases, treaties with the coloniser and a deep sense of spirituality which link the First Nations to Mother Earth, the Great Spirit and to a sense of peoplehood.
The concept of the Fourth World was, therefore, one that located the First Nations in the global economic division of the first, second and third worlds.
Jamaica is defined as a Third World country. Within this definition, First World lifestyles and developmental yardsticks are juxtaposed beside Third World conditions. The Jamaican citizens of the Bartley Building and other such spaces are people of the Fifth World.
Fifth World people have no land base, they have no legal rights to demand redress from any identifiable group. No one will take the responsibility for the sub-human conditions under which they are forced to live. In fact, those elected to represent them are constantly being shocked by the sight of such degrading squalor.
WHAT SETS THE
FIFTH WORLD APART?
Let us be clear. The Fifth World is not a definition of the inner city or the so-called ghettos of the urban centres.
The Fifth World is set apart by the fact that human beings within this zone have no sanitary facilities and very little clean water. Fifth World people must face their wastes in a very intimate way. They cannot dislocate from their faeces by flushing it into septic tanks.
Oh no! They must constantly be involved with their bodily wastes. They must ensure that they have a supply of plastic bags and they no doubt, must learn quick ways of tying the bags and slinging them to the nearest pile of garbage that might not disappear in a short time.
What is even more frightening about Fifth World people is the fact that the conditions under which they live are so inhumane that they themselves behave in ways that are less than human.
Within their forced space of inhumanity there is no space for a deep spiritual core that is needed to direct positive human response to other human beings. Within this space, life is brutal and harsh. Such space is particularly harsh on women and children.
A woman within the Fifth World loses a sense of her womanhood, her dignity and her spirituality. She does not even have the luxury of privacy when she makes love, menstruate or go through menopausal changes.
"No woman nuh cry" is not about these women in the Bartley Houses of the Fifth World. Within these confines a woman cries out for dignity. How can she be dignified without running water and access to toilet facilities?
How can she keep herself and her children clean and safe?
Where is her privacy? She need not have a room of her own like her Third World sisters. She cries out from a deep cavern of despair. She cries for her man-child who will most likely end up in jail or in the morgue. She cries out for her pubescent daughter who has no choice but to be enslaved to reproduction.
'NAMELESS MALAISE'
In the 70s, feminist thinkers articulated the impact of the "nameless malaise" a mental and emotional state of deprivation and discontent, the stale air and lack of horizons that appeared to infuse the world they inherited
This state of mental dislocation was attributed to the impact of Patriarchy. The middle and upper class women who led the 'The Third Wave of Feminism" had found a language to state their case. Ironically, this language is also descriptive of the mental state of the women of the Fifth World. They, too, are in a state of "nameless malaise". They live in deprived and depraved communities. They are also discontented.
Their stale air is no metaphor for patriarchal hegemony. Indeed, their stale air results from the accumulation of plastic bags which contain the faeces of men, women and children.
These women see no horizons of hope. How can they, when their spirits are broken, their dignity eroded and their hope for the future obliterated by the sheer horror of violence, unemployment, illiteracy and a lack of social justice for them, their men and their children?
Now that the conditions of the Fifth World have been brought so vividly to our attention, will the women and men who have benefited from the social, educational and political advances of Jamaica do something that will make a difference?
Yes, now that we know that these conditions are real, we will quickly clean up the garbage piles, place some johnnies-on-the-spot at strategic points, and refurbish living spaces. We might even provide food, clothing and medicine for those in need of such items.
These are the easy solutions. More difficult and challenging will be the therapeutic approaches to heal the broken spirit and the damaged psyche and dislocation that result from living in inhumane, sub-human and violent environment.
The challenge is for all of us to take responsibility for the least amongst us. We need a common will to take the moral steps towards true emancipation of all our citizens. In short, every generation must be held responsible for its own phase and those of us who are benefiting from what other women and men have achieved for us must face all our contemporary challenges with renewed vigour, with empathy, with compassion and with love.
Dr. Glenda Simms is the
executive director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs.
