Dear Editor,

The government has proffered its own best excuse for not treating the Portland disaster in a special way. It is not only a lame claim, but a clear indication of what ails this country, keeps our house divided and causes persistent decline in economic and social standards over the past 40 years. What is good in the eyes of one party is automatically found to be evil in the sight of the other. It is what the Mighty Sparrow calls Lying Excuses.

To say that a declaration of a disaster zone in eastern Jamaica would adversely affect the tourist industry is false, foolish and unworthy of people who have been elected on a promise to look after the best interests of the people, especially the poor and those in dire circumstances over which they have little control. This publicly stated excuse is an assault upon the intelligence of the Jamaican people and also the good sense of first-world people in search of recreation. The fact is that people are less afraid of natural disasters than they are of man-made disasters such as the 1976 State of Emergency that affected Jamaica’s industry from one end to the other.

New York has been devastated by nature-made Sandy far more than Jamaica as a whole; but this awful condition and the declaration of a state of emergency by the governor did not prevent thousands of people from visiting the city to participate in a marathon.(Sadly for them, it was cancelled at the last minute.) And despite the destruction in the United States the present minister of tourism is telling us: “I am optimistic that the fallout from the impact of Sandy will not depress the demand for travel for too long… though there has been cancellation of flights, most of these flights will be rescheduled in the days to come so we should see our arrivals rebounding.” Yet his Cabinet colleagues believe that trouble in Portland will worry people wishing to visit Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and our other great attractions.

Like it or not, Jamaica is widely known as a country under siege by murderous criminals, yet the tourists keep coming by boat and by plane. We are also regarded as a main player against gay people, but that does not prevent gays from coming here in significant numbers. So what is this nonsense about tourists turning away because of a declaration of disaster in Portland? I daresay the international media has little time, space or interest in what is done in a parish long neglected by our own governments.

By the way, the world did hear of Jamaica’s terrible state following Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Nevertheless, shortly after the disaster our officials were able to report: “…the tourism industry suffered severe dislocation as a result of the perception that the country was a disaster area. Extensive promotional work was done to try and dispel this view. Arrivals figures for the first three months of the winter season appeared to show that the promotional work was effective as the number of visitors climbed each month…” That’s how governments should work – joining hands with the people; not wringing their own and making silly excuses.

Ken Jones

kensjones2002@yahoo.com