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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Our patrimony in flames</SPAN>
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Wednesday, February 21, 2007
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<P class=StoryText align=justify>Dear Editor,
What a loss! What a waste! What a mess! The historic Morant Bay Courthouse has gone the way of so many other relics of Jamaica's colonial past.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Consigned to the filing tray of neglect and vandalism, its demise demonstrates the serious problems we have with our historic and social infrastructure. We simply don't value them enough, or even understand the value of these places.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The Morant Bay Courthouse was an infamous place, no question. It was the venue for some infamous injustices in our colonial past. Court sittings should have long been relocated to more appropriate and modern accommodation. The Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) has had plans for the site's development, and to use it as a museum. Well, plans are pieces of paper unless we get behind agencies like the JNHT and demand better protection and development of our patrimony.<P class=StoryText align=justify>What was the centrepiece of Morant Bay's historic infrastructure, has been lost to, of all things, fire. How many of our historic structures have gone this way? Why was the structure not protected by a simple smoke alarm, let alone a proper alarm system and a security guard? How many more of our historic structures will we lose this way?<P class=StoryText align=justify>Look, let's be practical. These places are like bauxite or oil in terms of their resource value. This building alone has had the potential to earn for Morant Bay millions in tourism revenue, not just revenue from foreign and local visitors, but from future films based on the events of the Morant Bay Rebellion, from its use as a marketing symbol for the town, from the provision of jobs in every sector, from maintenance to food to clothing to craft.<P class=StoryText align=justify>We have to learn locally, not just at the central government level, how to use our historic infrastructure to put our history in context and provide avenues for the development of our tourism.<P class=StoryText align=justify>I hope the minister of tourism will seal the site, and put tourism enhancement funds in place to restore this important building, and immediately develop the site for the enjoyment and understanding of this chapter in our past.<P class=StoryText align=justify>There is a bridge called the Spanish Town Ironbridge, erected 205 years ago, famous internationally for its engineering, that is similarly undergoing the same process of slow death unless we get urgent repairs started now!<P class=StoryText align=justify>These monuments can pay their own way and provide jobs and resources for our country. Let us not keep losing them to neglect and complacency, and with them our memories and our bread and butter.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Peter Francis
pjfjamaica@gmail.com
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Wednesday, February 21, 2007
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<P class=StoryText align=justify>Dear Editor,
What a loss! What a waste! What a mess! The historic Morant Bay Courthouse has gone the way of so many other relics of Jamaica's colonial past.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Consigned to the filing tray of neglect and vandalism, its demise demonstrates the serious problems we have with our historic and social infrastructure. We simply don't value them enough, or even understand the value of these places.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The Morant Bay Courthouse was an infamous place, no question. It was the venue for some infamous injustices in our colonial past. Court sittings should have long been relocated to more appropriate and modern accommodation. The Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) has had plans for the site's development, and to use it as a museum. Well, plans are pieces of paper unless we get behind agencies like the JNHT and demand better protection and development of our patrimony.<P class=StoryText align=justify>What was the centrepiece of Morant Bay's historic infrastructure, has been lost to, of all things, fire. How many of our historic structures have gone this way? Why was the structure not protected by a simple smoke alarm, let alone a proper alarm system and a security guard? How many more of our historic structures will we lose this way?<P class=StoryText align=justify>Look, let's be practical. These places are like bauxite or oil in terms of their resource value. This building alone has had the potential to earn for Morant Bay millions in tourism revenue, not just revenue from foreign and local visitors, but from future films based on the events of the Morant Bay Rebellion, from its use as a marketing symbol for the town, from the provision of jobs in every sector, from maintenance to food to clothing to craft.<P class=StoryText align=justify>We have to learn locally, not just at the central government level, how to use our historic infrastructure to put our history in context and provide avenues for the development of our tourism.<P class=StoryText align=justify>I hope the minister of tourism will seal the site, and put tourism enhancement funds in place to restore this important building, and immediately develop the site for the enjoyment and understanding of this chapter in our past.<P class=StoryText align=justify>There is a bridge called the Spanish Town Ironbridge, erected 205 years ago, famous internationally for its engineering, that is similarly undergoing the same process of slow death unless we get urgent repairs started now!<P class=StoryText align=justify>These monuments can pay their own way and provide jobs and resources for our country. Let us not keep losing them to neglect and complacency, and with them our memories and our bread and butter.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Peter Francis
pjfjamaica@gmail.com