Independent Senator the Reverend Canon Dr John Rogers has urged caution and foresight as the government moves forward with plans to relocate the Holetown Civic Centre in St James to accommodate tourism development, stressing that the present administration must not relinquish the island’s uniqueness in the name of tourism development.
Speaking in the Upper Chamber on Wednesday, he warned that large-scale tourism projects must not come at the expense of Barbados’ cultural and historical identity, adding that there are places in the region which have had to learn from developing unsustainable tourism projects.
He said: “If the intention is to erect large buildings in that area, let us remember that we are 166 square miles…there are lots of players in this industry, and if we lose what is unique to us, we’ll just be building monuments. I visited a place last year, Grand Bahama in the Bahamas, what used to be known as ‘Magic City’ when it was going. Everything was flowing [but] it’s now an empty shell [and] empty hotels. It’s eerie.”
Drawing on regional influence, Reverend Rogers invoked a calypso that paints a vivid picture of what can happen in a place of unsustainable development.
“Lord Kitchener in 1978 sang a calypso that I don’t believe many people in the Caribbean have ever paid attention to, but it’s one of the most beautiful pieces of work in the genre. It’s called The Carnival is Over. It is the imagery that is painted, that after everyone is finished jumping up and everything, the stands are empty, they are a wreck, broken bottles and nothingness. I believe on a macro level we can listen to that song and consider very carefully what our development trajectory would be where tourism is concerned.”
Independent Senator Andrew Mallalieu, an estate agent by profession, supported the relocation of the Holetown Civic Centre but called on the government to act more transparently when it comes to compulsorily acquiring land.
He said: “I think that it needs to be clear as a good responsible government, that when you compulsorily acquire someone’s land, you pay them for it. You do not use it until you pay for it. It is unreasonable that we have significant tracts of land which have been compulsorily acquired in years gone by under past governments and present governments perhaps, and no compensation has been paid, and the land is being treated as if it belongs to the state.
“I believe that is fundamentally a problem.”
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