I’VE NEVER BEEN COMFORTABLE with the term “neighbourhood watch”. A relatively recent construct as housing developments popped up around the country, the idea took root simultaneous with the rise of the class division between the villages and the heights and terraces—as if heights and terraces are not villages too.
In an ideal world everyone should be his brother’s keeper. But that’s not the reality, so it’s now necessary to draw a cordon sanitaire around these middle income districts. This is unfortunate.
As we continue to cast about for ways to “give back”, it seems to me that the neighbourhood watch is an opportune platform from which such activity can start.
I live in a district on the Rock Dundo ridge overlooking Bridgetown. It’s one of those heights and terraces that Barbadians so love to revile. Rock Dundo Park is predominantly a retirees’ village. There are few young people, so the arrival of baby Kyle eight months ago was a welcome augury for the end of that drought.
In 2000, some residents of Rock Dundo Park decided it was time to form a neighbourhood watch. One thought the nomenclature too ordinary and suggested the “Rock Dundo Park Development Association”. And we were off and running.
Having lived in the district since 1983, I immediately became a member and, attracted by the word “development”, designed a programme and presented it to the group.
Rock Dundo Park is rich in its human resources. It is home to the President of the Senate, a retired Speaker of the House of Assembly, a retired Ombudsman, four UWI professors, three doctors, two attorneys, two accountants, an architect, eight retired nurses, two Girl Guide leaders, retired public relations practitioners and some teachers, including two former principals of secondary schools.
The district is sandwiched between Eden Lodge on the north, Grazettes on the south and Well Gap on the west. A tremendous amount of wholesome human capital resides in several similar districts across Barbados. I suggested that we should share our resources with our neighbours, giving real meaning to the term “give back”.
We could offer a series of training programmes for, say, 12 children at a time. Nine of those children should come from the surrounding districts and three from Rock Dundo Park itself. The rationale of my programme was to reach out to those neighbours.
Courses suggested were, English, Mathematics, Health, Information Technology and Business. There is a church in Rock Dundo Park—Christ the King—with a nearby annexe which would provide excellent facilities for the training sessions.
I envisaged members of the association, drawn from the resource persons mentioned, volunteering to conduct two-hour classes every evening, preparing students for Common Entrance and CXC examinations.
The format would be: Mondays, English; Tuesdays, Maths; Wednesdays, Health, for parents; Thursdays, Information Technology and Fridays, Business.
The programme was warmly accepted, but nothing happened. I tried again six years later. Nothing happened.
Today, the Rock Dundo Park Development Association finds itself among the several non-functioning neighbourhood watches across Barbados. They start with much pomp and circumstance and soon die with a whimper.A senior police officer recently disclosed that only 69 of 151 neighbourhood watches are functioning and called for their revival. There can be no sustained revival without well designed programmes and activities that involve not only the residents by reach out to adjoining districts.
Sylvester Jones knows this very well. As the long-serving and patient president of the Rock Dundo Park Development Association he told me: “I am in touch with some of those that are active and they are all in the parish of St Philip: mainly returning nationals who have some knowledge of London neighbourhood watches. Our main activities are bus rides, once a year, a Christmas party and a few guest speakers.”
It takes more than a name-change, regular picnics and a few lectures—there must be a better reason for being.
•Carl Moore was the first Editor of THE NATION and is a social commentator.