Readers should perhaps be invited, instead, to have a look on the main photograph on the front page of Monday's edition of this newspaper. It was of the buildings or, rather, the shacks, on the Hellshire beach.

The picture substantially makes the case for Keith Hinds, the chairman of the Portmore Municipal Council, in whose jurisdictional boundaries the Hellshire/Half Moon Bay beach falls. Some context is useful. The Half Moon/Hellshire beach is among the leading recreational spots for people who live in Kingston and its suburbs, as well as parts of St Catherine. And not just because of its wide, sandy beach.

Years ago, a few enterprising people started selling fried fish and festival on the beach. Festival is a sweetish and soft, fried dumpling that is a Jamaican favourite.

Special atmosphere

The rustic huts from which these vendors operate, coupled with the fresh catch they offered from the beach's fishermen gave Hellshire a special atmosphere. The crowds wanting their fare grew. So, too, did a number of vendors, with an ever-lengthening menu.

The beach at Hellshire has, as Monday's picture tells, been transformed into something of a slum. Some of the 'restaurants', though, remain decent and their food good.

The police, however, say that it is not only the fishermen, food-sellers and other itinerant vendors who jostle for space on the beach.

According to Deputy Superintendent Clive Blair of the St Catherine South Police Division, the beach is an important staging point in the drugs-for-guns trade; narcotics from Jamaica are exchanged for guns in nearby Haiti. People in the area, the police say, are, however, too frightened to help the law bring the traffickers to justice.

Now, Mr Hinds would like to take over the beach and clean up the place. He wants to make it into what he, unfortunately, characterised "a serious tourist destination" - unfortunate because some people will choose to infer the intent as to structure the Hellshire/Half Moon Bay beach as an environment that excludes 'ordinary' Jamaicans. We do not believe that that was Mr Hinds' intent, although his mis-speak will be used a point of resistance.

A deeper slummish decay

Mr Hinds is not the first person with the idea to clean up Hellshire beach and put in decent facilities. Early in the decade, the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) had a similar plan. The UDC was resisted by a fishermen's co-operative, which has a pre-existing legal hold on the area. With the UDC having been stalled, the Hellshire/Half Moon beach has fallen into a deeper slummish decay.

We believe that the fishermen's co-op and the Social Development Commission, the agency that helps in their organisation and holds the land in trust for them, must be partners in any development of the beach. However, they can't be allowed to impede the clean-up and development of the place.

All Jamaicans have a stake in the Hellshire/Half Moon beach as a place of recreation and because of, as the police claim, its potential for compromising national security.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.