Working hard for change...we can help!

[eddiemingus]

I filled out the survey no problem. I live here because I love the people, climate and weather. My first trip was Aug 1973 and have been living here the last 2 years. I have seen it all and still feel very safe living here in red ground district, Negril. But the thing is I get begged from almost every day. I can't help everyone but I help someone out every day almost. It's just being part of the community. Even though everyone knows me I still get harrast a couple times a month. It's just part of daily life in a place I love so much. Thanks for posting the survey Lisa I just hope something positive comes from this.

[HarryS]

I like to stay at new places each trip, at different areas of the beach and cliffs so maybe that's why I'm not recognized and get bothered more. Sometimes we will stay at 3 different hotels in a 10 day trip, and in that respect when we arrive at each hotel we are "fresh meat" and I deal with the same questions over and over... just got here? Where are you staying? How long? When are you leaving? All questions that are being asked to gain very specific information about me, and not to be friendly. I have learned not to give specific answers to these types of questions. We're staying "down the beach" or "on the west end" and I always say we are staying "for a while", never telling locals when we're leaving. I've read stories here of peoples rooms being robbed on their last night, when there just isn't time to do anything about it (like police reports and whatnot) due to having to catch flights. (Yes, I realize this is rare are far from the norm, but why take chances?)

[Accompong]

Looking back at over three decades of travel, I have seen first Kingston then Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and now Negril transform into harassment zones for tourists. Anywhere wealth congregates then you find people who are prone towards easy money harassment techniques instead of taking the time to come on easy and friendly to make an honest dollar.

Sometimes we are our own worst enemies with the way we spread around our money by giving it to people without requiring some "Respect" or some equivalent quid pro quo in exchange. Sometimes we are too casual to bestow the term "friend" to people we casually know and that level of openness can become our Achilles Heel.

I live in and love Jamaica but I have weaned myself away from tourist areas for just this reason. I don't get this harassment problem where I live. When the Jamaican dollar was strong, it was a better place to vacation and harassment was not so common. We can hope that Jamaica will overcome its economic problems and that will result in the pressure being lessened between locals and visitors.

Peace and Guidance

[Crusher]

I am pretty sure that my wife, my best friend and I are well known on the part of the beach that we stay at near the NBCC. We generally don't have much issues and the beach there is set far enough back that you can avoid most of the wandering type sellers. The ones we deal with we deal with all the time. We have our bread guy, we have our juice guy, we have our fruit lady and so on. What I find is that if we want to go down the beach that's when we start getting harassed a bit more. We stayed one year at The Palms and I had a bad experience with a guy. He was pissed off that I was smoking cigars, that I had brought from Canada, and declined to buy smokes or his dried out stogies. He got pretty heated and was going off on me. He didn't think I knew what he said as he figured me for just another tourist. But I understand patois fairly well. I finally had to get up out of my chair and tell him to beat it. We had friends sitting with us and they were getting uncomfortable with his aggressive attitude. For the rest of the week he would come to the edge of the property and say stuff but never directly at me as he would look off down the beach or out into the water. He thought he was so clever lol. I would just ignore him but its a prime example of someone who clearly doesn't understand how to deal with people. We are generous but we are creatures of habit and deal with who we deal with. I own enough Jamaica stuff to start my own store where I live and I refuse to smoke crappy cigars. I love Negril and Jamaica so I won't ever stop going there.

[Crusher]

I look like this and still get hassled! :P

[Bnewb]

Great pic, Crusher...I think it might be your sweet, innocent face though

[Crusher]

lol....maybe!!

I filled out the survey though. Its a cool idea happy to support the research.

[Sam I Am]

Survey done.

[CosmicMoose]

If the harassment gets too bad for your comfort, would a "nah badda mi" or "nah go mas" help or deteriorate the situation?

~Moose

[TAH]

If the harassment gets too bad for your comfort, would a "nah badda mi" or "nah go mas" help or deteriorate the situation?

~Moose

No