Hyacinth Bennett is shortsighted
Bennett labels Christian volunteers hypocrites and Pharisees – JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM
Hyacinth Bennett is shortsighted. Of course, this depends on whether the article
in the Jamaica Observer is a true reflection of statements made by Bennett at
the youth forum on crime in Spanish Town on Saturday. Insteadof chastising Christian volunteers, Bennett should be encouraging them to keepup the momentum after the end of the ICC Cricket World Cup.
As usual, most politicians usually chose the wrong moment to ’steal the limelight’. This is the wrong time to make any statements that could dampen the spirit of the volunteers both Christians and otherwise.
The publicity that Jamaica will get in March will go far beyond the Cricket World Cup. The coverage will
involve all media and we will be well advised to continue our preparation for it. Bennett could have shown a little restraint by delaying those types of pronouncements until April 1st by which time the Cricket World Cup would have ‘history’.
Jamaica is becoming increasingly dependent on Tourism. If fact the word ‘Tourism’ has
taken on new meanings as people are now talking about ‘medical tourism’ cricket
tourism and so on. Embrace it as we will be getting a lot of free publicity.
The ultimate success of this World Cup will not be judged only on the hundreds
of jobs that were created prior to the World Cup in repairing and constructing
new venues, the spike in the number of visitors to the island during March as a
result of the Cricket World Cup etc. but on whether it will encourage new
visitors to the island after showcasing Jamaica for a month.
I have been living outside of Jamaica for the last few years and
frankly I have become weary of the ‘negative press’. The ICC Cricket World Cup
is giving us another opportunity to ‘resell’ Jamaica as an ideal destination for
tourists. Spend all you can, roll out the ‘red carpet’ to the visitors,
continue your cleanup, and do everything possible to make sure that we get this
opportunity again in the future.
The challenge is not whether we should have done this cleanup a long time ago; it is that we are doing it NOW and whether we are prepared to continue in going forward.
The ‘typical’ Jamaican
There is an urgent need to ‘correct’ the image that is portrayed of the ‘typical’ Jamaican.If we do not move now, we will find it increasingly difficult to attract overseas visitors, businesses, friends and even family living overseas back to our beautiful island. The typical Jamaican may not be Veronica Campbell or Asafa Powell (they are EXCEPTIONAL Jamaicans) but they emulate all the traits of the typical Jamaican such as BEING hard working, ambitious, dedicated and responsible to name a few. If this was the current image that we portrayed abroad I believe that the recent changes (for example) to the Visa requirements for the U.K. and Cayman might not have been necessary. This is my opinion …I may be wrong.
I cannot say that I have seen the world as I have spent all of my life in JA. but the little that I have seen of a ‘first world’ country indicates to me that we do not celebrate the successes of our citizen enough… we allow the party to stop too quick. It is very easy to remember the ‘bad news’, the ’shock and awe’, the accident, the murder but good news dissipates too easily.
We have a lot to be proud of and we should make every effort to keep this in the front of our minds.
