Dear Editor,
Don't question, don't change, don't' speak unless you are spoken to, don't ask any official why he did whatever he did.
Shots ring out as automatic weapons load and reload in a peaceful place. This small place knows no such weaponry, according to the government.
Bang, bang, bang, more shots and more shots ring out in the night air, covered by darkness, except for street lamps shining over ghetto roads, that are not so ghetto, except when compared to the luxury shine of the tourist town. Compared to that glitz and glamour, the imagined paradise, we are all poor, we all inhabit ghettos and we are all here for their pleasure.
Plog (1974) notes that "tourism contains the seeds of its own destruction, tourism can kill tourism, destroying the very environmental attractions which visitors come to a location to experience". Yet this is what our government wants. They sell us to the same devil who is busy, and then blame him when things go awry.
According to the leader, our economy is improving. The economy is growing. We are all doing better. Yet people cannot find money to pay BEC. Bang, bang, bang the bullets rain over our heads, the devil is busy!
Oliviera (2003) underlines that "the environment that attracts tourism and tourism investment can be destroyed by tourism and consequently, the loss of environmental quality can ultimately destroy tourism itself." As the automatic weapons spray bullets into the night sky on a quiet Friday evening in this wonderful small place, no one questions our culture of tourism and that tourism is our culture.
As the death toll rises and the bells ring out in the church yard, the undertakers rub their fat hands together, enjoying their spoils... the lights go off, the audits come in and they show that thousands of dollars are missing from public projects, the devil is busy! No one challenges when they say it's all the work of the devil.
Tourism is our savior. Sell your bounded loins to the almighty wrecking ball, and we shall all be freed from the Garden of Eden, this is all because the devil is busy and the government is not responsible for any bad, only the improvement of the economy, the increase in jobs and the better access to bank loans and mortgages as banks threaten to leave our sandy, sunshine-kissed shores and head to safer grounds. The devil is busy!
Silence is golden, said the government... seek not and you shall be led into the promised land of debt and starvation. The gunshots shall be your reward for your submission. Tranquility shall prevail once the criminals have shot through the peace of this small place, with fear and hatred. Color only hides the truth as we hide behind colors. But ask for guidance and you shall be told, the devil is busy creating chaos for good Christian servants who believe in only promoting the poor and downtrodden, and encouraging the youth -- just not to be journalists.
Silence... not a police siren wafting over the dark-night sky, yet the high-powered assault rifles blast that very same night sky, in my little corner of paradise. My little piece of rock is no enclave to tourism and prosperity. The weapons only pass through those gates and shoot only when they hit my ghetto, my youth, my people.
The economy is booming, says the leader, and the devil is busy, say the people in charge as the audit says money put on shoes, pants and a hat, and walked out of the public purse, directly through the darn front door.
What a time! The devil is busy...
Silence is golden and the devil is now busy among us. Yet we are told, the devil is busy. Why audit a company or organization run by the self-saving, people-protecting government? Why question the government? They are put here to serve and protect us. As the bullets fly through the night sky in my ghetto, police cars remain parked at a safe, far distance from the shots and I lay in my bed feeling the earth shake of the peace crumbling around me.
Tourism destroys, say the scholars. Tourism kills tourism, write the researchers. Money does not stay in the local community, the case of the Dominican Republic shows, as the poor people are pushed out of their fishing communities and further into poverty because they can no longer afford to buy or rent near the public fishing grounds - now property of the resort.
They can no longer fish, unless they can take their boats on their backs up the coast and set them in the water. Bahamians say, the devil is busy, is the only answer. These people just too damn ungrateful as they malign and berate the hard work of the government, say the people in charge of the missing money. The leader says the economy is stronger than before, yet the people can't eat. The people can't pay their bills to keep their light on. More people everyday claiming social welfare, yet the leader says we are better off. Amen!
Do not question, says the leader. Lucifer was an angel once and talked better than everyone, yet how busy is the devil!
As we lose paradise to the self-destructive fangs of tourism, the economy is improving, our culture is packed in a suitcase, hidden behind a shiny window empty of soul but filled with glitz, in that window there are no natives, only those dressed like natives and performing our role in the musical of the year. The devil is busy!
The economy is healthy and the people can't pay their BEC bills. Never mind, the sound of machine gun fire filling that night air, this too shall pass as the rich sell you into the bowels of 40 more years of a very busy devil who is the answer to every ill. Our culture is packed in a suitcase and we are set sail on a rough sea of financial hell and violent suffering, but thy savior shall come in the name of development and therefore go thou as the savior destroys your environment and kills your culture. It's only that the devil is busy!
Close your ears to the shots fired from the high-powered assault weapon in the night streets of the east and open them to the silent police sirens that follow the din of bullets issuing from guns bigger than police pistols and more powerful than the poor devil who will always be busy dancing calypso under and around the greasy pole but who will never get caught because he is simply too busy... And we stand for that!
But that devil will never tell you that the fish he is selling stink...
Wake up to the sound of guns shots and you will know the if the smell of stink fish is real as the devil is busy dancing away your national insurance money in rum and caviar, and tellin you, hush, the economy is stronger than it has been in years, it's only the haters sowing seeds of discontent and the devil bein' busy, pay no mind...
Bang bang bang, the devil is busy... and you believe that!?
- Ian Bethell-Bennett
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