BA,Originally Posted by BethAnn38
A great and complicated question. I am generally not given to present my "thoughts" about things as facts tend to be the true measure of something, but your question is not about facts as much as it is my observations.
Dream Weekend has given Negril a chance to be "Negril" again, even if for only a short period of time. For around 300 metres from the entrance of each event you can see vendors working - the money may not be there, but for the first time in about 18 months they are once again seen smiling and concentrating on what they are able to provide, be it a jerk pan or drink stand.
Notice I said see them smiling. That is because the masking level is maybe 50%... with more locals wearing masks than the partiers at Dream. Interestingly, the police, who are all masked, may be right next to if not engaging with the vendors, who may or may not be masked - and there was not a perceptible demand to strictly follow the Covid protocols.
While this may sound alarming to some, there is a growing sense, in Negril anyways, that we are going to have to learn to live with the Covid virus. It seems that the true reality of starvation outweighs the possibility of getting the virus and then possibly having a severe reaction. Not having food on the table is reality that most everyone in Negril has faced in the past year and half. An empty belly trumps a potential virus.
To see the vendors for even that 300 metre area along the beach road making Negril once again look like Negril was a stark contrast to driving the West End with every business shuttered and closed at curfew. And the reason for the contrast was the fact that there was no way for the beach road vendors to close for curfew, it was a cluster $#%^ that no amount of police would have been able to contain. To try to close all the vendors down at curfew would have led to even longer delays to an already near two mile Norman Manley Blvd parking lot which is normally flowing traffic. But to see Negril trying once again to be Negril was an amazing thing to see after all these months, even if for only a few hundred metres.
I think just seeing the hopeful looks of the vendors' faces helped alleviate the seemingly never ending looks of despair of the last 18 months. Talking with the vendors afterwards still left a sense of despair since no Dreamers were really buying much of anything, but there was a noticeable sense that things will get better for the first time.
The Covid vs Livelihood debate can generate many emotions and it is not my intent to cause any ill will. I am simply trying to give you a first hand account based on 30 some years living here and how it is effecting the locals, businesses and people. But the past few days are giving our friends the first glimmers of hope that they haven't had in way too long.
Just thoughts on a Covid Sunday....
