Dear Editor,

Recently I went to spend a weekend in Negril, a place where I worked for years, only to discover that all the bathing spots at which I used to hang out are no longer accessible to none all-inclusive tourists.

It is utterly alarming and outrageous that Jamaicans are barred or banned from using and enjoying the turquoise waters of the land of their birth. How can the Jamaican Government sit back passively and allow the Jamaica people to be so disenfranchised?

We pride ourselves on the fact that we are the land of water, surrounded by the Caribbean Sea. We advertise that we are a land of sun, sea, and sand, and yet we have no littoral right to the sea. It seems that very soon we will be sold out to a multinational corporation.

I remember very well when my school, and even my church, during the summer holidays, would take trips to the beach for picnicking. Favourite places for outings would include Bluefields, Negril, Doctor’s Cave, and Cornwall beach in Montego Bay and Puerto Seco beach and Dunn’s River Falls in St Ann. These days, if citizens want to go on beach trips there are few options, and I am even made to understand that there are beaches where nationals are prohibited, and the few places that oblige entry do so by imposing exorbitant entry fees, some even quoted in American dollars.

Jamaica seems not to belong to Jamaicans any more. The country is either “Chinaised” or “foreignised”. The monopolisation of prime beaches in Jamaica solely for tourists is abhorrent.

Consider places like The Bahamas and Grenada that attract a lot of tourists. When tourists go there they have to share the beach with nationals, such should be the situation here in Jamaica. The powers that be need to address and correct this anomaly. Prime Minister Andrew Holness needs to put Jamaicans’ interest first, and Jamaicans should stand up for their rights.

During this summer heat we should be turning up in droves at beaches to cool off, but this can’t happen as the average Jamaican is hard-pressed to find a free beach.

As a son of the soil, a born Jamaican, beach access is very important to me, and I think it’s so for all Jamaicans.

Most of us cannot afford expensive hotel rates in order to access the sea. Seems to me that all the coastline from Ocho Rios to Negril is off limits to nationals. This is what one would call a sell-out.

Burnett Robinson

blpprob@aol.com