WOW! I WISH MORE BARBADIANS could be like the residents of St Philip – resilient and forthright – and that more commercial land developers could be as gracious as the businessmen behind the proposed multimillion-dollar tourism resort and restaurant at White Haven and Skeete’s Bay.
I wish when Gabby sang the words “dah beach is mine” back in 1982 that the tourism developers then could have been gracious enough to halt their high-rise apartments and condominiums; but work continued apace and hurtled Barbados headlong into the all-inclusive domain. Truly, the horse had already bolted, and up to this day beach access continues to be a futile sore point that raises tempers and sparks discussion but, in the end, money talks and developers have their merry way.
Sometimes the hapless residents are promised that these huge, and oft-times ugly, resort developments will enrich their lives and bring commercial advantages to their districts.
But I’m sure if one had to do a quick survey among mature West Coast residents, the culturally rich way of life which they grew up with has been eroded to a narrow beach path on which it is almost impossible for two friends to walk abreast.
Or, grassy pathways through which they trekked for generations have overnight become gated and padlocked driveways.
That memorable line from the chorus of Gabby’s immortal song Jack, though a rallying cry, often rings hollow when matched with the tinkling of so many pieces of silver. For how could dah beach be mine when Barbadians have lost most of their beautiful bathing areas, sandy fishing spots, coconut walks and other balmy social spaces to the cold concrete maze along the island’s west Coast and south coast?
The people of St Philip have already felt such loss at Long Bay, where a breathtaking view of Shark Hole Beach was possible two decades ago, and they have decided enough is enough.
If tourism continues on the south-east coast, surely Harrismith, Bottom Bay and Peat Bay will soon be swallowed up as well.
The clannish nature of St Philip people has often been viewed derisively, and lamented by me personally, since there was a time when I felt uncomfortable driving through the parish for some time after a particular Crop-Over season.
Actually, I recall feeling a bit scared even walking through Bridgetown back then – but I won’t let the cat out of the bag on that story!
But this ability of St Philip folk to speak with one forceful, unwavering voice! I am yet to see anything like it across Barbados.
Perhaps entertainer and former teacher Mac Fingall put it best when he described the plight of Barbadians who grow up in neighbourhoods, play cricket in the roads, run on the beaches, go fishing, raise children and nurture lifelong friendships, only to wake up one morning and find that their districts are gone forever, trampled under the march of “development”.
“Rich for these [developers] means money. Rich for we means the way we live . . . . We always used to live a rich life but we didn’t know. We thought we were poor,” Fingall was quoted as saying last Wednesday night at the St Catherine’s club.
But it seems as though the developers in this case are quite decent, to have gone into the heart of Bayfield last Wednesday for what would have been a foregone conclusion among residents. Most people living in the area and its environs are the progeny of fisherfolk and others who made their living from the sea, so who would want to lose Skeete’s Bay, their virtual breadbasket?
Were this the West Coast wherein lie plots of the most expensive real estate in the Caribbean, I am certain residents would by now have been abruptly shut out by a large wooden barricade fence emblazoned with the names of the resort and its architects, and within months, the restaurant and resort would be set to open; replete with the blessing of the Town Planning Department and several wealthy developers with “big, long foreign names”, according to another St Philip resident John King.
The question now is whether the town hall meetings will be all talk or will lead to a compromise between the united folk of St Philip and the owners of the historic Crane Beach Resort, which is over a century old and is in its own way an icon of the parish.
If Skeete’s Bay is left in its pristine condition with unlimited public access, one might be tempted to suggest that the gracious Mr Doyle invest in Sam Lord’s Castle or the controversial Four Seasons Resort where, though the lovely Paradise beach has already been disfigured, that project is almost finished and is likely to employ a few hundred Barbadians.
If only dah beach at Paradise was “mine”!
