‘Pretty gate and a dirty house’

WESTERN BUREAU:

Falmouth’s Jam-Iconic Experience sign, which was unveiled last Friday by Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, has not found favour with some residents of Trelawny, who believe it represents a dark period in the seaside town’s history that should not be glorified.

“Dem just dash di slavery remnant inna we face,” said an obviously displeased resident, who questioned why the Tourism Product Development Company Limited (TPDCo), which is responsible for the sign, did not get the input of residents before creating it.

“That ugly sign makes no sense,” she said.

The sign, located at Foreshore Road at the western entrance to the town, was done by sculptor Scheed Cole and features two story boards and several rum barrels, which are said to capture the aspect of the town’s history as it relates to rum and sugar production.

However, while Bartlett described the sign as an expression of Falmouth’s “culture and historical significance”, well-known Falmouth musician John Wheatley, in an explosive social media post, expressed his disappointment.

“The [people] who put up this idiotic monument should have used the money to clean up the filthy town of Falmouth. This sign should be something you see at the slave master’s rum factory gate,” said Wheatley.

Some residents are also questioning why the cost to erect the monument has not been revealed by TPDCo, questioning if it was to escape the backlash the Government faced over the monument at the entrance of the Sangster International Airport, which was initially said to have cost $17 million but was later said to have a price tag of $13.5 million.

ATTRACTIVE SIGN

However, amid the mountain of criticisms of the sign, businesswoman Dawn Allen said she thinks it is quite attractive. However, she agreed that the focus should be on cleaning up Falmouth, which she says is in a deplorable state.

“Nice sign – lovely, beautiful. I even stopped there and took a few pictures, but we can’t have a pretty gate and a dirty house. It is like you clean the house and don’t clean under the bed,” said Allen. “The town is covered in bush, the gutter has dirty water and morass, and the town is stink. It is a disgusting disgrace for a town that is generating so much revenue for the country.”

Another resident, who did not want to be named, said he is “not to hot about the sign”. However, he believes it is hypocritical to condemn the sign as a reminder of slavery when the entire town is covered with Georgian-style buildings and all the streets have the names of colonial masters.

“If we are going to cuss the signs, we should cuss the whole heap a English-looking buildings and the George’s Street, the Trelawny Street, the Duke Street, and the Rodney Street, because they all represent the era of exploitation,” he said. “I would prefer to see a Usain Bolt statue right now, because him represent success, not the era of darkness where sugar and rum and the slavery master whip was the order of the day.”

adrian.frater@gleanerjm.com