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Maxwell, tourism, Belinfanti
By Michael Burke
Thursday, December 16, 2010
I concur with the many tributes which have poured in for historian, environmentalist, journalist and former People's National Party candidate John Maxwell. But many seem to have avoided mention of the fight that Maxwell waged on behalf of the environment. I suspect that this is because both major political parties while in office did not escape the wrath of Maxwell in their treatment of the environment.
Maxwell's death came five days before the start of the current winter tourist season - December 15. <span style="font-weight: bold">He was very concerned that many beaches are today off-limits to the public, which is illegal. He found it incredible that a government of the People's National Party could sanction such a thing. The PNP's first president Norman Manley set up the Beach Control Authority when he was chief minister in 1955.</span>
Jamaica's tourism industry is centred mainly on sun, sand and sea. Ideas about health-tourism, sports-tourism, eco-tourism and history-tourism that have been written and voiced for years have been ignored. But it is quite possible that the presence of lionfish in the sea around Jamaica might cause the authorities to revisit some of these ideas.
True, there is a lot that can be done with lionfish. We can have lionfish tournaments and lionfish cookouts as they do in Grand Cayman. Hoteliers might cordon off beaches from lionfish. But all of that might not be enough if lionfish advisories are issued by governments of countries to their citizens.
So we need other types of tourism and today I return to the idea of history-tourism, which could be profitable, if marketed properly. I was in discussion with Jamaica Observer entertainment reporter Basil "Ras Bas" Walters about this idea. He said that tourists in Barbados are not allowed to forget that the first United States president George Washington spent a few days in Barbados. Ras Bas knows this from his annual visits to Barbados to cover the crop-over and jazz festivals.
Here in Jamaica, Christopher Columbus was shipwrecked in Jamaica for a whole year. There are tourists who will come here just for that. And the people of many nations would want to see Port Royal where the pirate Henry Morgan lived. It is also possible to flood Jamaica with Israelis and Jews in general who wish to see the grave of George William Gordon.
In 1989 shortly before his death, the late Professor George Beckford was honoured with a symposium at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies and I attended. In the tea break, some Israelis who worked on the Spring Plains farm in Clarendon told me that because George William Gordon's father was a Jew, they learnt as children about the Jew's son who died for Jamaicans in the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion.
Revolutionary soldier and Roman Catholic priest Father Manuel "Santa Cruz" y Loydi (1843 and 1927) is a folk hero in Spain. Father Loydi fought for the king of Spain but the Republicans overthrew him. He was captured and sentenced to die by firing squad and escaped an hour before he was to be shot.
Father Santa Cruz fled to France and then to Jamaica where he worked as a missionary for 14 years before moving to Colombia where he died. That part of his life might not be known to the Spanish ambassador, let alone the Spanish hoteliers in Jamaica. Many Spanish tourists would come here just to visit the churches where Santa Cruz pastored, especially in St Catherine, St Mary and St Ann.
Patrick Belinfanti died on November 30. This former assistant vice president of the Port Authority and former communications consultant for the PNP was head boy of Jamaica College for one year during my time there (two years after Bruce Golding held the position). With Peter Phillips and the late John Davis, Belinfanti was a joint editor of the Jamaica College Magazine of 1967.
Belinfanti was also Sergeant Major for the JC unit of the Jamaica Combined Cadet Force and I recall being on cadet camp with him at Folly, Port Antonio. Speaking of JC, I join in the glory of the historic triple victory in football. Although JC has won both the Manning Cup and the Olivier Shield many times before, this is only the second hold on the Walker Cup (the first time being just last year, 2009).
There are many who say that JC's rule as the "most times winner" of Manning Cup is because JC was in the competition before certain schools existed. Sometimes this is true but not this time around with respect to the Olivier Shield. Rusea's High School in Hanover is older than JC, having been founded in 1773, some 22 years before JC opened its doors in 1795 (not 1789 as written in some materials).
Both John Maxwell and Patrick Belinfanti hailed from Trelawny and both their fathers served in the legislature as representatives for Trelawny or part thereof. Both Maxwell and Belinfanti served Jamaica well. May their souls rest in peace.
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