The Editor, Sir:

Indeed, Jamaica is indisputably the most hospitable Caribbean tourism destination. There is nothing we wouldn't do, including closing schools and re-routing traffic, to make our visitors to the island feel very welcomed. It is not just a tourism thing - it is a Jamaican thing and, mark my words, it is a good thing, if we know how to strike the balance.

What is being done on a macro scale for visitors during this period of methodical madness is what the ordinary rural Jamaican does when we 'owna' relatives come from foreign to visit at Christmas. We give them the best room and the best bed in the house and then we all bungle up in the other room on a double bed or on the floor. The foreign relatives expect this courtesy and we expect that all their valuables, including the green ones, would be left with us when they depart and continue to be remitted long after they are gone.

In the same way, the rest of the world expects to jump on a plane without a visa and walk into the island just so. They can't be bothered with the minor inconvenience of having to get a visa for security reasons - after all they have something that our hoteliers and merchants want!

The last time I listened, out of the mouth of Parliament I heard that we will not be able to calculate the returns on our investment in hosting the ICC World Cup Cricket. In terms of monetary gains we are putting in far more than we will receive. In fact, I believe the pitch was, "It is a small price to pay for the whole heap o' publicity that we going to get from hosting the world's third largest sporting event."

Foreign 'paparazzi'

You tell me: Are we calculating the amount of bad mouth that we may be opening our doors to from the foreign 'paparazzi' who no doubt, if they are any good at their craft, will want to dig up more than just the dirt on the cricket mound? Publicity indeed but at what and whose cost?

And don't get me wrong, I do believe in the principle of 'give and take' and I am all for hosting anything that may further serve to secure firmly, our position on the global tourism map. At the micro level, I may consider sharing the twin-sized bed now, if it means that in the future, I can afford a queen-sized bed on my salary. Somehow, it seems Jamaicans are doing all the giving and the visitors are doing all the taking.

With all of that said, if I didn't know the thinking of the rural mind on how to treat foreigners, I would have said that the great conceptualisers at the National Works Agency must have been out of their cotton-picking minds when they dished out the half-baked proposal to convert the Bog Walk Gorge into one-way traffic as another measure of giving our visitors hassle-free movement at the expense of our children's schooling. But you know me; I am a good comrade, so I won''t even think it!

I am. etc.,

DORRETT R. CAMPBELL

dcomrade@yahoo.com

Dunrobin Acres

Kingston 10

Via Go-Jamaica