Hilary Robertson-Hickling

Jamaica and her citizens owe a debt of gratitude to such persons as Olive Senior, who has been the guardian of our heritage through her literary work and her wonderful Encyclopaedia of Jamaican Heritage. I consulted my copy of the book to check about various aspects of our heritage after revealing journey to the north coast to a funeral. We were forced to return via the south coast, where the road surface is much better and congestion is less. I had the opportunity to look at the changing Jamaican landscape where some of our unique landmarks are being destroyed.

The journey from Kingston to Reading, near Montego Bay, took nearly four and a quarter hours, and I realised that I could have flown to Miami in that time and this would allow the extended check in time for the security measures. This might mean that some people are bypassing Jamaica as there is too much congestion and delay in travelling internally. There was a time when the diesel left Kingston at 7.00 a.m. and reached to Montego Bay exactly four hours later at 11.00. The journey took four hours by car in those olden days; I wonder when the new highways are going to be completed and the journey shortened.

I would encouraged all Jamaicans who want to see Fern Gully, which was planted in 1888, to go to see it before it disappears. As a child, I remember that the ferns were so luxuriant that it was difficult to see the sky, today the ferns are fast disappearing and being replaced by shacks with curios and carvings which must be improved to be internationally competitive. I would have expected the guardians of our heritage to declare this a protected area. I also saw that Holland Bamboo was also disappearing and the crayfish at Middle Quarters were now diminutive as a result of overfishing and pollution in the area. The cost is now $1,000 per pound.

Guardians asleep

We cannot live in the past, but where that heritage is the only thing that distinguishes us from many other places with whom we are competing, I would have expected us to take loving care of what we have. I would not be surprised if some enterprising person in Florida would develop an area which would reproduce many of Jamaica's attractions at a theme park.

As my youthful idealism matures, I now recognise why some Jamaicans discarded their family heirlooms and antique furniture to replace them with Formica in the 1960s. I realise why we are allowing our Georgian architecture to fall apart while we try to copy what Miami has to offer. That is indeed an impossible mission, but the guardians seem to be asleep. I now understand why Bodles is falling apart, while the world-famous work of Dr. Lecky is being forgotten.

Foreign mind

There is so much evidence of self-contempt and 'foreign mind' that we are unable to recognise what is good in ourselves. The recognition of the beautiful and the valuable is often recognised through the eyes of foreigners or awaits our travels overseas. The lesson for me is those who see their heritage as valuable have to raise the funds and purchase and develop the properties them-selves. Many years ago, Beverly Hamilton, Rupert Lewis, Roderick Ebanks and I discussed the future of Garvey's printery in St. Ann's Bay. I do not know what has happened to it; perhaps if we had been more forward thinking we would have formed a company and bought it ourselves. In the 21st century, there will be room for self-reliance and the guardians will have to wake up.