OUR VISION

For all the discussions of economic globalization, monetary liberalization, privatization, floating dollars and shifting paradigms, one thing has been made unequivocally clear: the total reliance on government to meet increasing needs of people has become a thing of the past.

What does all this mean?  This means that the responsibility of ensuring that the needs of the St. James Community are met must be ours.  It is a collective responsibility that we cannot and must not shirk.  It does not mean that government should do nothing; far from it.  In areas where they either unable or unwilling to meet our needs, we must take the "bull by the horns" so that St. James could realize its fullest potential.

So now, we take stock.  What do we possess in ST. James?  We have many resources, both human and natural, that can be harnessed and placed at the disposal of all.  We still have a harmonious racial mixture that has come to symbolize the area.

In St. James, racial unity is more than an idea, it is a reality that must be jealously and steadfastly guarded.

We are a highly literate population with skills in almost every human endeavor.  Culturally, we are as rich and diverse as any other in Trinidad & Tobago, possessing much with which to enrich the world.  We are well known as gracious hosts.

The area has a sound infrastructure for residential and business purposes and provide a safe community in which to raise a family.  Thankfully, we are not inundated with many of the environmental problems that plague so much of the world.  In a phrase, we have much on which to build.

What do we lack?  While our literacy is high, it is unacceptable that some of us remain illiterate.  We also are not keeping up with the world-wide trends in education and information technology.  The absence of a proper theatre in which to showcase the talents of our residents is felt.  We lack a comprehensive plan to deal with the problems of drug and alcohol abuse in our  community.

We lack uplifting activities for our senior citizens, which we all one day will become, God willing.  Even if we wish to be selfish, planning for the seniors is tantamount to planning for ourselves.  The disabled face a similar plight.  Again, this is akin to planning for ourselves, for as we go about our daily routines, we too can unwittingly join that group as a result of an unforeseen accident.

First we must accept our collective responsibility, because only then will we be able to adequately fashion programs and policies that seek to accentuate the positive, while at the same time eradicating the negative.

TWINNING

We have a lot to offer, culturally and otherwise.  We should seek to twin St. James with a like-minded foreign city which would assist us as we simultaneously enrich lives with our culture.

EDUCATION

We must inspire our youth to avail themselves of the educational opportunities available to them.  We are serviced by three primary schools and three secondary schools.  Beginning with the primary level, we should introduce computers into these schools, making the students computer-literate and linking them with the rest of the world.  We should adopt literacy programs aimed at achieving 100 percent literacy in the community.  We should firmly plant in the  minds of our people the ideas that education is the means of ensuring a productive life.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

We should jettison the archaic view that this country is so blessed that no natural disaster would ever occur here.  Such thinking leads to a false sense of security and it is better to be prepared for something that never happens than to be unprepared and afflicted with a natural disaster.

ELDERLY AND DISABLED

We must enhance the quality of life for the elderly and disabled by improving their access to available social services, public spaces and increasing public awareness of the challenges that they face.  We should assist them with transportation, as well as provide companionship, health care and other human services through volunteer programs. The elderly are a great repository of knowledge, and we should treat them like the treasure that they are.

YOUTH

The cliché is that the youth are the future of the nation.  Some would consider them and say our future is hopeless (except for our own children of course).  We have to take a different view.  We must support and encourage activities that foster the growth of our youth into well balanced and responsible citizens, equipped with the skills to ensure a viable social and economic existence for themselves and their community.

HEALTH

We must advocate greater public awareness of health issues and develop programs for diagnostic, preventative and curative care. We must focus public attention on critical areas of public and private health care, for example AIDS, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy and vagrancy.  We should seek to work with our health services the same way we seek to work with our protective services.

SOCIETY

With increasing public activities, the need for public vigilance also increases in tandem.  We need to develop programs with our Police Service to ensure that this continues to be a safe place to live, relax and conduct business.

WOMEN

The difficulties the female population faces now demands increased attention.  We should therefore not subsume them under the headings Elderly, Disabled and Youth, but pay them special attention.  Therefore, we should develop programs that address issues such as battery, sexual harassment and workplace discrimination.

CULTURE

We must recognize, support and encourage the multi-cultural heritage of St. James.  We should develop a cultural facility that would serve a variety of purposes: Identify and promote successful role models who would provide positive inspiration for the youth, e.g. Mannie Dookie, Anthony Williams, Pelham Goddard, Beryl McBurnie and Allyson Browne.  The list is endless.  We should promote recreation and culture as vehicles for building skills in leadership, good citizenship and community awareness.

PAN

St. James used to be a major spawning ground for steelbands, numbering as many as 13 at one time.  Today, to appreciate the national instrument in the raw, outside of Carnival, residents have to travel as far away as Point Fortin.  We must identify at least one day in the year where steelband could be paraded in the streets of St. James entertaining residents, as well as local and foreign guests.  This will also serve to increase the revenue of resident businesses.  A proposal for this is already in the works.

TASSA

Tassa faces the same fate.  There are at least five tassa groups in the area, but these are heard mainly at hosay time.  We can possibly have tassa drumming on the same day that is set aside for pan.  However, we must be careful, for we have the happy situation of panmen playing in tassa groups and tassamen in steelbands.

SPORT

Sport not only builds strong bodies, it increases the mind's capacity to absorb knowledge.  St. James has produced many excellent athletes who have made significant contributions to sports in Trinidad and Tobago.  However, too often this has been the result of tireless work of only one or two organizers.  As a community, we must organize and promote sport in our quest for building a health and intelligent population.

ENVIRONMENTAL BEAUTIFICATION

It is said that clothes make the man.  Whether true or false, it is a fact that the physical beauty and cleanliness of a community says a lot about its residents.  We must be eternally vigilant of those businesses which, in their legitimate pursuit of profit, seek to endanger this community with their indiscriminate disposal of garbage, irresponsible release of gases and other substances into the atmosphere and untoward behavior of their employees during daylight hours.

CONCLUSION

What brought members of this organization together was the St. James Renaissance Project.  For that we should be eternally grateful to TIDCO.  They were able to bring together several different organizations and individuals who might not have otherwise worked together.  However, while we must see the project through to completion and maintenance, we must not limit ourselves.  There are many other needs crying out to be met in this community.  We have the human resources, let us build structures in this organization that would encourage people to work and serve together for the benefit of the entire St. James community.