Description:This was taken in my mother’s house in Clarendon, Jamaica in 1996. My son and I went on a holiday together and this was his first visit to see his grandparents. The view through the railings is of my mothers back garden. She has mango, breadfruit, orange, coconut and other fruit trees.
In my project work I learnt that more than a billion people in the developing world live on less than a dollar a day. DFID is tackling poverty and hunger through its first Millennium Development Goal.
My project theme is about sugar. Years ago in the early fifties, I worked in a sugar plantation in Jamaica called Mony Musk. I was one of the lucky ones who got a job in the factory where the sugar was made. The sugar cane was taken to the factory by rail and road where it was crushed by a machine called Robin. Then it was taken to the mill where it was squeezed and the juice was boiled by steam and turned into sugar and rum. For the people who worked in the field planting and reaping the sugar cane it was hard work and cheap labour. Yet we have to pay a high price for the sugar, not knowing the background facts.
I visited Central library with my group and visited the archives on the 7th floor and saw pictures of workers on the cocoa bean and sugar plantations. I even recognised a plan of a sugar cane carrier, refinery machine made by Boulton and Watt.
I also went to the Back to Backs in Birmingham. The rooms in the houses were very small and the staircase was narrow. There were no toilets in those days and they used buckets which they emptied in the yard. Things have changed for the better in UK with flush systems since those days.
Photograph courtesy of Headley Taylor