DR the Honourable Olive Lewin was given a memorable farewell last Saturday deserving of her contribution to the preservation and advancement of Jamaica’s folk heritage over her many years of dedicated service. Her funeral service was rich with music, song and heartfelt tributes in an extensive programme at the UWI Chapel, Mona. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.”

One issue which her passing reignited was the status of the Heroes Park burying place for cultural icons. Some persons believe she should have been interred there. Opposition spokesperson for culture Ms. Olivia “Babsy” Grange had raised the matter in Parliament, but permission for burial was not granted although she was given an official funeral. Miss Lewin was laid to rest in the cemetery of St James Anglican Church at Hayes, Clarendon, where her parents gave many years of dedicated service to church and community. Those formative years in a rural Jamaica of another time, were frequently spoken of by Miss Lewin who used them as incentive to give back the best to Jamaica.

Her family is to be applauded for stepping away from any burial ground controversy, and instead sent their loved one home with the respect she deserved. This leaves behind room to consider what really is the status of the burying place which occupies a corner of the extensive acreage which is National Heroes Park, in the centre of Kingston, a site which should be a place of landscaped beauty instead of a dust bowl.

What is the history of the cemetery for cultural icons? Persons to whom I spoke have little or no recollection of how this shrine came about. Others vaguely recall it as coming to the fore in the reign of Mr Michael Manley. Most associate it with reggae icon Dennis Brown, and the heated reaction of his supporters who responded angrily when it was decreed that he couldn’t be buried there. A backhoe was brought into play to dig the grave. It took a lot of reasoning and coercion for directions to be changed and tensions eased. His mortal remains were eventually interred there, leaving the burial of Dennis Brown to become a Kingston legend.

Other interments followed, but the real meaning of the spot has never been fully understood by the public. Who qualifies for this honour? What are the criteria for selection? For how long will the area be maintained as a cemetery? Is there a limit to how many burials may be facilitated there? Considering that the designation of cultural icon abounds, who and who will be accommodated? Taken to its logical conclusion, the cultural cemetery could occupy the whole park.

It has been said that the families of some persons to whom the honour had been offered, quietly refused, preferring a more private ceremony. This week, I set out to find the real history of the area. I came to realise that it was often confused with the shrines of the National Heroes, which is a different area. Never mind what you see on Google. Then there was the question of who has responsibility for the site. I’ve learned that its maintenance is shared jointly by the National Heritage Trust and the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation. Neither has the final authority to decide who is permitted to “get a spot” there.

It is said that the status of the entire park is currently under review. Recently the much-debated, nothing-happened proposal to relocate the Parliament building to the park was once again under discussion – at a time when money shortage is on. So much for dreams. The place of the heroes is the best-kept section, with JDF soldiers carrying out the daily ritual of changing of the guard and ensuring that the shrines of the National Heroes are protected and respected.

Many Jamaicans have never set foot there or anywhere else in the park, although there is strong public opinion about a section at the eastern side which has been turned into a parking lot to serve the Ministry of Finance.

To residents of Allman Town and adjacent communities, “Race Course” is how the park has been known for years, especially to elders, because in times past, it was a race track. Today, for the most part, it is a community playground. A common sight is boys kicking football in one corner, stirring up clouds of dust, while they rejoice in the freedom of open space. In another section, there’s a play area for younger children – who are always mysteriously absent whenever I’m passing. The sad-sad memorial to the victims of the Eventide Home fire of 1980 is there to remind us that when we decide to be wicked, nobody can outdo us. All of these elements are pointers to who we are – from lofty symbols in tribute to the past, to dusty struggles with the present – spread across forty acres.

If Heroes Park is not to continue as a hodge-podge of ideas, a more structured approach has to be taken with a proper vision for the place of cultural heroes (my title) and the rest of this valuable property. In retrospect, it would have made better sense from the very beginning to honour the cultural icons by the creation of a memorial wall on which names could be etched as necessary, leaving the disposal of mortal remains for elsewhere. I would hope if there really is a committee currently reviewing the situation, it would approach the task in a spirit of enhancing the overall status of Kingston, turning a dry wasteland into an oasis.

Child Month nightmares

When did our children become cyber stars for all the wrong reasons? See Youtube’s headline: “School stabbing in Jamaica”. See images of schoolboys and schoolgirls gone crazy. Hear them uttering obscenities you never even knew existed, while one boy’s ‘lifeblood’ is staining the floor and no adults come forward to stop the mayhem. (Intervene at your own risk!) What about schoolboys who inflicted stab wounds on the bus driver who dared to reprimand them for mashing up the very bus which takes them to school?

Question: Were there any adults on the bus that day? (Self-protection, man!) Who would ever, in their worst nightmare, imagine a child accused of attacking his school, armed with a poisonous substance, which he was prepared to use and add to the murder statistics? His age? Seven…Yes, you heard right. S-E-V-E-N, and it happened right here in J-A. Remember what you were like at that age and ask what has happened since. Mr Bunting’s plea for divine intervention is not so comical after all.

What’s in a name?

Should the Cornwall Regional Hospital be renamed to honour the late Dr Herbert Eldemire? I understand the emotions because he was a respected physician and should have been honoured long ago. So, why my reservation about the current proposal? I sincerely believe that rather than just putting a name on the building, retro-fit a wing at the hospital -like the overworked Accident and Emergency Department – dedicate it to the goodly doctor’s memory and enable the institution to serve the suffering public more effectively. What greater honour could there be?

gloudonb@yahoo.com