By Fr. Frank Connon, C.SS.R.

At Sunday Mass Fr. Pat Kelly, is a Canadian Scarboro Missionary, asked the question: ‘when the Rain Forest of San Fernando is cut down, will there still be any future for the children there? The word ‘any future for the children’ struck a sensitive chord in the heart of the small farmers. After all, it was for the sake of the children that they have uprooted themselves from their families and friends in the Island and settled here in San Fernando.

Only July 20th, 1987, then, the farmers put a barricade across the roads and led to the loggers’ campsite to the rain forest. The trucks coming down with logs and the empty trucks and oil tankers taking supplies to the campsite stopped on each side of the PEOPLE POWER PICKET.

On August 1st, the news came that the Department of Natural Resources had suspended the operation of the logging company in their 39,500-hectare concession in San Fernando.

So… the small farmer will be called on time and time again to defend their rain forest and water sources. These are their life systems. For the sake of their children, we hope that they succeed.

Fr. Frank Connon, C.SS.R.