Beebe,
Thanks for understanding the point of my posts.
Suzen,
I came up with the idea for Negril.com back in 1993 aand created it to provide visitors to Jamaica with honest, accurate and truthful information which would allow them to have the best time possible on their vacation. But while I did create it, it is not simply "my travel board", but the town of Negril's as there other interests involved in Negril.com including the Negril Chamber of Commerce.
You are correct about my passion to correct misinformation about Negril and Jamaica. Misinformation helps no visitor to the island, nor do rumor, speculation and mistaking opinion for fact. The "darkside" as you called it can be discussed as long as it is done within the guidelines above. As I have stated many times Jamaica is a real place with real people who have real problems. It was not created as a tourist attraction. There has never been any confusion about this point on Negril.com. But with human nature, when some people start to discuss and focus on certain topics, it can often become a feeding ground for rumor (my friend called me and told me they heard that xyz happened to....) or speculation (I bet that xyz was the cause of this problem) or opinion as fact (Jamaica has the highest xyz in the world). On the other hand, it is never wrong for people to offer feel good, or as you call it "polly-anna" information. After all, vacations are about feeling good, otherwise no one would ever take one.
The book is a different take on Jamaica and not a very good read as a book. It presents some basic facts. But it is not a complete or accurate view of Jamaica. There are others, including myself, who find this indulgence of one man's skewed opinion of a place he has visited just a few times rather limited in scope and not at all representative of the Jamaica we live in or visit. Those that think it is somehow the "gospel" on Jamaica need to know that there are other more valid/credible views and most are more complete than the one presented by this book. And one of them just happen to be the credible resource known as the New York Times.
