The news that Carnival Cruise Line is to pull out of Ocho Rios should come as no shock to anyone. It certainly has long been coming. Tourism interests, particularly the gift shops and the various government agencies have been repeatedly told by the cruise lines’ principals about harassment and the state of the town. They have seen research and anecdotal testimony about huge negative experiences of visitors to Ocho Rios. In government releases you’ll hear of the harassment, of course, as they consider that to be caused by “others”, but you’ll hear little of their direct responsibility, allowing Ocho Rios to become a slum. There have been public articles written in this newspaper and others, radio and television reports, discussions in the St Ann Chamber and in other organizations about the wanton squatting around Ocho Rios and the decline in quality of public space.
BREACH
Nothing at all has been done about the squatting in Mansfield, Harrison Town, Parry Town, Pimento Walk, Snow Hill, Pineapple and other communities verging on Ocho Rios. Nothing at all. Indeed, one of the fastest spreading squatter settlements is right in the centre of Ocho Rios, to the north of the Development Road or By Pass. Just 200 yards up from the Police station, shops and houses line the front of the illegal settlement where a dense ‘jungling’ of temporary and permanent structures reigns supreme, all the way through to the chaka chaka Pineapple Craft Market. The squatters regularly hold dances, with vans buses and speaker boxes lining the ribbon stretch right there, on the main road. The squatters have also breached the sidewalk, allowing vehicles to drive and park on the pedestrian strip along the front of the squatter settlement.
From where would work, social amenities and proper infrastructure for healthy and sociable living come for these residents? Nobody has bothered to answer the question or provide any means for the squatters to live. They must go toward what appears to be the cash-rich, high exchange rate tourism industry. And they do, with all kinds of aggressive, mendicant, sometimes anti social, behavior.
The Resort Board, Tourism Product Development Company, Tourism Enhancement Fund, Jamaica Tourist Board and the Tourism Ministry all believe that what is required are some people called Tourism Courtesty Corps to chase away the braiders, the informal guides, the trinket sellers and the unofficial taxis operators. Now they believe that CCTV will do the trick.The root problem remains. The squatting and the lack of maintenance of the town of Ocho Rios which remains dirty, with awful sidewalks, congested and unsigned. Let them deal with the symptoms while Carnival takes its capital and its passengers elsewhere. And from what’s apparent even that won’t shake the town enough to make the change.
