http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100413/letters/letters5.html

And the roads are good.

Sad state of affairs in Negril turey. Maybe we're better of as is in TB. I for one prefer goats roaming the street, compared to motor vehicles, congestion, and smog.

Yes OE, we have not reached there and I hope TB never will.

Then it will just be T Beach.

The Treasure of silence will be overwhelmed, beauty paved over and the sea air will be flavoured with burned hydrocarbons.

So, why is it that so many residents of Treasure Beach seem to gripe about the roads? Paved roads mean just what Turey says they mean: goodbye silence, goodbye drainage, hello insufferable noise and polluted air. Keep the roads rough; keep away what is ruining Negril. And then, goodbye to TB from all of us who go there now because it ISN'T Negril. Sigh...

Like so many others who love Jamaica, we started there in 2001, when it was still pretty quiet. In subsequent years we noticed the uptick in traffic on the roads, the ungodly noise from bands all along the beach, and the jetskis roaring back and forth. So: traffic on the road, traffic on the beach. I wish there were a way to ban jetskis in Treasure Beach.

In his much praised and well-received book of environmental essays, WALKING THE DEAD DIAMOND RIVER, writer William Hoaglund, commenting on the invasion of snowmobiles in the woods and fields and silence of the New England winter (this was in the early 70s) said, "The less you have between the ears, the more hardware you need to amuse yourself."

Better cash flow needed therefore more people encouraged to come to spend time and $.

More people discover the Treasure, more traffic.

More traffic ....

More is not always best.

What is best?

As in Real Estate; location, location, location. That we have.

What we should encourage is: Quality, quality, quality.



More will follow.

I can't see any other way?

Let me know if there is?

Hear you on all, Turey, and agree mightily.

I think eco-tourism is something much neglected and highly desirable for TB. Tried to interest a group of fishermen in giving early-morning, noiseless rowboat tours along bits of coast, since they were not getting any fish when they cast their nets, over and over again. (I finally concluded that fishing is in menfolks' bones, whether they catch fish or not). Even worked up a reasonable plan for how they could set up such an eco-tourism gig. Perhaps out of politeness to me, they seemed enthused when i suggested the plan, but then, the next year, when I got to TB armed with a detailed but simple plan, nothing came of it. So I don't know.

One thing i wish boatmen who take people up the River would do is stop in the mangroves along the way, and cut their motors entirely, and let their tourists just look and listen for a while. I suppose if tourists ask...

Yes, quality, quality, quality is all. But i fear the worst is soon to come for TB, given the way things are going: canal, stadium, planes landing, jetskis, out-of-scale mansion-piles being built. Sad sad sad.