Letter: Paradise har***ed - Caribbean Net News

[Anguillan newsboy]

Dear Sir:
Once again, Caribbean Net News carries two timely articles simultaneously that, taken together, are greater than the sum of their parts. I refer to Bryan Miller's "Jamaican Official Vows to Change Tourism's Face," in which the newly-appointed Chairman of Jamaica's Tourism Enhancement Fund, Godfrey Dyer, pledges to clean up Jamaica's image, even if he must sleep in the streets to get the job done; and to the press release entitled, "Jamaica's Tourism Minister Confident of Increased Arrivals from US, Canada, and Europe," in which Jamaica's Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, effuses about recent tourism statistics.

Chirpily quoting government statistics does not address a profound and fundamental problem plaguing Jamaica's tourism industry and national economy. By glossing over the ugly reality, Minister Bartlett does not so much put forth a happy face as come across as dishonest.

Falling into the popular trap of blaming the world's ills on the USA is a disservice to the people of Jamaica. The problem with Jamaica tourism is not the "implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), which invokes a p***port requirement for all United States (US) citizens returning home from the Caribbean, Latin America, and Canada." The problem is the aggressive rabble on your streets, hovering around the exits of your resorts and ports.

I understand that poverty drives people to engage in transactions that they would not engage in, if their socioeconomic conditions were better. Additionally, I do not care what others do -- including getting stoned, negotiating the affections of a local lady, or anything else that falls under the rubric 'adult entertainment' -- so long as the transactions are voluntary and no one initiates violence against anyone else. I do, however, mind being set upon by aggressive drug dealers and prostitutes the moment I step onto the pavement on the way into town and see what the place really looks like.

In Anguilla, Freeport, Nevis, and St. Lucia, the people are delightful. In Antigua, N***au, and St. Martin/Maarten, there is more of a big-city indifference, and little of the aggressiveness so sadly common in Jamaica. It has nothing to do with poverty, population, drugs, prostitution, or any of the other standard excuses. Vancouver has marijuana. Singapore has prostitution. Amsterdam has both. Anguilla is largely poor. Jamaica's problems have nothing to do with any of that. They have everything to do with understanding that "No, thank you" does not mean "Ask me again, only louder."

I wish Mr Dyer great good luck. He has an unenviable task ahead of him. In all sincerity, he really should spend some time on the street. It's enough to make one vow to organize one's next conference on a different island.