The Editor, Sir:

Going, going, gone is the cry at the auction block. Today, we are witnessing another sale of our freedom with the dredging scheduled for the Falmouth harbour to create a cruise ship pier 15 to 20 minutes drive from the ones in Montego Bay.

This dredging, this pier, this waste of our money, will also destroy one of the two phosphorescent lagoons in the Caribbean, a gift of nature which we now spurn in the name of what, tourism.

Is it too late to reverse this and have the Hampden wharves become the bus park for the cruise ship passengers from the piers in Montego Bay?

No it is not if we act NOW. After all it was our money that built the north coast highway to open up the coast to tourism. The highway was also to make these attractions easily available to tourists, so save the lagoon, it is one of the attractions.

So, too, is Falmouth, built in the 19th century on the backs of our enslaved people with the wealth created from sugar.

Are we going to hide this icon of our heritage behind 8-10-storied cruise ships or revere it as a living museum of our past, our recognition of from whence we have come?

It seems that we have to be very vigilant as the price we pay to bring the tourist to our shores may be at a greater cost than the benefits we gain.

I am, etc.,

AINSLEY HENRIQUES

ainsley@cwjamaica.com

Heritage consultant