Your July 7 edition carried a report with a damning headline: 'Major
cruise lines pull out of Falmouth Port'. The report went on to detail
that three ships had decided to omit Falmouth from their itineraries in
the upcoming season and that this would cost the town $5 million per
month in lost revenues. Tourist harassment was cited as a major factor
in their decision to leave us out. The mayor of Falmouth has said that
he is working closely with stakeholders to address the issue.
I imagine that the harassment is along the lines of taxi drivers and
tour operators and vendors trying to woo visitors off the ships to spend
their money with them. Imagine that you are a visitor to this island.
This wooing is likely to take the form of a relentless verbal assault,
as it were, cajoling you to look and buy in an environment unfamiliar to
you. Perhaps you don't even understand what is being said, but the tone
and body language and posturing have now converted what should have
been a leisurely stroll into an excursion into hell, where all you want
to do is get back to the relative safety of your cabin.
Now put yourself in the place of the average citizen who resides here
driving to work in the morning. You stop at the red light, and one or
two or even three windscreen wipers swoop down on you. They yank up your
wiper blades before you cyaan even mouth a polite "no thanks" and
insist on cleaning your windscreen, turning abusive when you indicate
helplessly that you have no money to give them. The abuse is verbal
("Yuh too mean, Mummy!" or "Yuh a gwaan like yuh betta dan people!) and
is sometimes physical, damage being inflicted directly to your car.
Or let's say you commute using public transport. You enter the bus park
(pick any one), and immediately, the ubiquitous loader man approaches
you, verbally assaulting you with a running commentary on how nice you
look, and he knows where you are going, and this is the bus you must
take, all the while holding your arm and dragging you to his' bus,
literally shoving you into the vehicle.
The emotional and physical strain and the ever-present possibility of
personal danger associated with anticipating and dealing with the
harassment meted out by windscreen wipers and loader men are not
insignificant, and many of us choose our routes specifically to avoid
this sort of trauma. I understand the cruise ships' decision. Too easy.
It is important to understand why this harassment happens in order to
eradicate it. There will never be enough police to arrest every single
harasser and keep would-be harassers in check. The craft vendors, tour
operators and guides, windscreen wipers, and loader men all do what they
do out of need. They are grabbing on desperately to the only chance
they have identified to provide for themselves and their dependents.
SELECTIVE BENEVOLENCE
Their relentless assault, though, that aggressive push and
determination to make you accept and pay for a service/product that you
do not need, is directly linked to the culture of patronage that
political leaders have fostered. This practice of selective benevolence,
meted out to some of the many existing in a state of depravity instead
of creating the environment that allows the collective to level up, has
perpetuated the fight for scarce benefits and spoils.
Recipients of the largesse are envied by the overlooked, and the
resulting resentment feeds a sense of entitlement. "Why not me?" I
imagine that the harassers don't see themselves as harassing, per se. I
imagine that this is how they process the situation: "I need. You have. I
ought to have. Take what I am offering you and give me some of your
money in return." The harasser's need trumps any other variable in the
dynamic.
Where development plans are crafted and executed, excluding and
ignoring the very real need that exists in communities, rest assured
that the justification that I have just outlined will prevail. Until
patronage is replaced with enabling, until observing and craving are
replaced by real participation, tour operators, vendors, windscreen
wipers, and loader men will continue to do the only thing they feel they
can do to survive.
It is late in the day to halt, and then reverse, these dysfunctional
cultural paradigms that have formed and become entrenched through the
years of our national development. But to give up now is to accept
defeat. We need our leaders to craft and enact developmental plans in
harmony with local communities. It can be done.
- Kelly McIntosh is a procurement manager. Email feedback to
columns@gleanerjm.com and
kkmac218@gmail.com.