Prime Minister Golding, quite appropriately, is considering ways to honour the athletes who, as a collective, have done Jamaica proud at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Important, too, the prime minister is searching for initiatives through which these athletes can engage other young people in addressing what is, by far, Jamaica's biggest problem - criminal violence.

Mr Golding's effort is deserving of support and it is in this regard that we have already highlighted a number of possibilities for leveraging the success of Beijing for Jamaica's economic and social gain.

Enhancing the Trelawny stadium, using our muscle to have Jamaica placed on the Grand Prix circuit, can't be far-fetched.

But there is something that would go some way towards celebrating the athletes while helping the communities. Important, it is a project that, properly managed, need not cost too much money. The idea: clean up our communities, starting with the gritty inner-city areas where so many people, including athletes, who offer much to Jamaica, reside.

Society revamping

We have long argued that a major part of the problem of Jamaica, which mushrooms into major failings, and sometimes dysfunctional behaviour, is our seeming inability to do the little things; or, to do them consistently and consistently well.

It is our view, for which there is sociological evidence, that when people live in a clean, decent and well-ordered environment, they are less likely to engage in antisocial behaviour. Whole communities need not be defined solely by their poverty.

So, while we think it is a good to name streets after, say, Shelly-Ann Fraser, Melaine Walker, Kerron Stewart, or any of the Beijing heroes, it dishonours the intent - and their names - if it is merely the erection of new signposts; if roads remain rutted and garbage-strewn, verges remain overgrown, drains uncleaned and derelict buildings abound. This failure to maintain things is not only a feature of inner-city communities. We have had reason to complain about Jamaica's failure to maintain monuments and public spaces which honour important figures in the country's history: National Heroes Park, St William Grant Park, Mandela Park, Michael Manley Boulevard are examples.

Help people to rise

Part of the reason is that those with authority too often assume that nothing can be achieved unless it costs a lot of money. And when the money is allocated, far too much of it goes to waste. Yet, the truth is cleaning the verges and sweeping the streets demand low-wage labour. And it is possible to engage more cost-effective and efficient contractors to remove garbage if people eschew corruption and manage well.

In other words, people and their communities ought to be challenged and helped to rise above their circumstance, starting with the simple things, like a clean physical environment. Indeed, we can use Beijing to begin the reversal of what a former prime minister referred to as the 'uglification' of Jamaica. Part of the post-Beijing project should be the acceleration of the rebirth of downtown Kingston, actively led by the administration.

Agencies like the Planning Institute of Jamaica and the Export and Import Bank should be made to put on the market recently acquired property in New Kingston and head back downtown. So, too, should several ministries and departments. Mr Golding should make Beijing mark a process of recreation.