Improving God's work
published: Wednesday | April 16, 2003
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I CAME to Jamaica in 1974 and have been going to Lime Cay since. The appeal and charm of being there is its naturalness. Even Tony and his team, who provide delicious Jamaican food, have created a 'restaurant' which blends in. They also do an excellent job of keeping the island clean. People who use the island lie on towels on the sand or bring their own chairs. Please, please, please, don't fill it up with permanent plastic chairs. We can go to North Coast resorts if we want that.
Also, I see a pier is slated - don't we learn from others' mistakes? Look at the disaster of Turtle Beach in Ocho Rios, where the pier disrupted the outflow of water and later they had to make holes in it. I haven't been in the sea there for years, since I got a skin rash. I could see the oil and detergent foam, from the boats anchored at the pier, floating on the surface.
Again, for years I used to enjoy going to the fisherman's beach at Oracabessa, and I specially loved a little bay, which was thick with exquisite tiny baby shells. Well, once they built the bar there for the James Bond Beach, the shells completely disappeared. Lime Cay is also teeming with baby shells for those who stop to look and the reef is one of the last ones, undamaged by humans, in Jamaica. What will happen to that when Lime Cays Enterprises converts it into a "proper beach"?
It is time to put a stop to 'improving' God's work, and to charging Jamaicans for appreciating it. I'm not happy either about the changes in Hollywell Park, for which we now have to pay. The new walk, quite frankly, resembles something out of a Theme Park. I appreciate that it is helpful for people who cannot walk well, but I'll always use the other more natural trails.
