Where would the poor swim?

THE EDITOR: Have they the need to make more beaches private, build hotels on them and bar their own people from access, that they must look at the people’s beaches in Tobago, the few that are left, with longing eyes? Or is it an oil thing, again. I had never understood the depth of Eric Williams’ love for his simple people of Trinidad and Tobago, until I went to Barbados to do a Peace Corps training programme in 1968. A New York educator and I hired a car to drive around the island. We saw this beautiful sparkling water and stopped, parked the car and walked through the barest track at the edge of a fence to go to the beach.

A few minutes later a large German Shepherd/ Alsatian dog came bounding at us. He passed Judith and made for me. I stood still. He continued barking at me, but did not attack. A man came out of a house and asked who we were. He then explained that that part of the St James Coast was Noel Coward’s private beach. What he did not explain, but was obvious, was that the dog was trained to stay or attack dark skinned people Judith was white.

Judith did not want to believe that this was possible. This was the Caribbean fantasy land, for her, or free people, who mingled freely without racial tensions. When we got back to the Island Inn where we were staying, the kindly and chatty owner put us straight. The entire beach was privately owned. There were no signs, just attack dogs. Then I understood the import of the Aliens Landholding Act as it applied to the high water mark on the beaches of Trinidad and Tobago. It allowed the poor people — us, who do not own designer swim trunks and suits to go to our beach and have a bath without let or hindrance. So, does Barbados, perhaps see Tobago’s beaches as more in line with their own policy? Or is it something else?

LINDA EDWARDS
Port-Of-Spain