Sports complex – Considered to be unsightly by many
by Man from Baker Hill
Sports complex up-close
Should right thinking Montserratians be BEATEN with many strikes, simply because we have not done nearly enough to question the building of the dessert tent at Little Bay? Maybe! In fact, some of us should be flogged for being silent on the matter.
Where did that thing come from? Who is responsible for the sports complex? Who designed it? Why place it at Little Bay? Little Bay, the virgin landscape on which Britain spent $50 million so that Montserratians could build the most modern city in the West Indies; now look what we have built there, a mere dessert tent, and on the best site in the town. Oh we built Marine Village which is supposed to wait for the influx of tourists for them to be serviceable and of course the elephant strip which is obviously costing far more than expected and not done yet.
What an insult to the many young Montserratians who, since the volcanic eruption, have gone abroad to study architecture and engineering. What a disgrace to Montserrations past who tolerated plywood city in Salem and tent city at Gerald’s with great expectation for a city at Little Bay with buildings of glass and marble. What a shame for Montserratians present who held on, expecting to see three-storey glass clad buildings dotting the Little Bay landscape. What an embarrassment to Montserratians’ future who will … just wonder what went wrong.
So I shout, flog us! Bring back the Cat-O-Nine; and I will be the first in line to be beaten. I should have protested the dessert sports complex tent before. Give me nine strokes. I am the self professed social critic. I should have thrown critical stones at the foundation stage, not now!
There were so many consultations and designs for Little Bay, paid by the British Government. But somehow we never wanted to move from Brades Road Town. And you know what? The destruction of Little Bay started with the cricket grounds, a long time ago. How could there be cricket grounds without car park and pavilions?
Sometimes I just keep wondering. And today I wonder if the British should have left the development of Little Bay up to Montserratians. The British had excellent plans for volcano Montserrat. In fact I have in front of me, right now, one of the first plans for the proposed new capital Little Bay and Cars Bay drawn up by a firm of architects, Landbase International Ltd. I wonder how many active politicians have seen those architectural plans for the proposed and the one just before it for the new capital at Little Bay and Cars Bay And, oh! The one before included Rendezvous Bay. It had everything that is expected in a capital city. It was futuristic!
I also have in my possession another architectural design by GIBB Ltd for a Gerald’s Park Sports Complex. That design dazzles the mind. It makes allowance for cricket and football grounds, car parks and pavilions, technical college and a 400 meter running tract. It was modern! How did Montserrat manage to turn it down?
So what went wrong with the plans that the British had for volcano Montserrat? Hey, if you are like me, just keep wondering.
In the mean time, let us put aside this Cat-O- Nine thing for the time being. Let us be serious. What happened to our dreams for rebuilding Montserrat? Are Montserratians capable of rebuilding a modern day Montserrat? Have we begun to doubt ourselves? Or are we still afraid of the volcano?
Personally, I do not believe that we are afraid of the volcano. But we are afraid of something! For sure, it must be fear that causes Montserrat to bungle all over itself at every opportunity to surge ahead. It might be fear of not getting enough, or as much as the other guy, or fear of losing just a little of what we think we have. Fear, just Fear! But fear of who or what else?
Fear is a terrible thing; it is the forerunner of many negative outcomes. It causes people to be locked into desire and selfishness, so much so that they will blind themselves to sincere help given to them by others. For example, the $75 million infrastructure at Little Bay is a sincere gift given to Montserrat by Britain; and if today’s ‘supposed to be right thinking’ Montserratians cannot appreciate that gift from Great Britain, then, we should admit it. And rather than make the place nasty, we should ask Britain to safe keep Little Bay for tomorrow’s Montserratians. We are obliged to give the youths the chance to design their town. Montserrat will never need a dessert tent, and certainly, not in the capital. Is this Dessert Tent the White Golden Elephant curse of Claire Short?
By the way, just in case you got lost along the way, this article is about the disrespect for little Bay, the $100 million gift from Britain. We seem to be hell bent on destroying everything that Little Bay is all about. But Little Bay is about a futuristic capital, social and commercial, for the people of Montserrat. And we are making ‘record speed losing our way’ by constructing a Dessert Tent on a choice lot suitable only for the signature Parliament Building befitting a real capital.
Clearly, it is time to boldly address Little Bay, its architecture, its land use and its purpose for Montserrat’s future before it is too late or before ‘de kinpan sumbady assagofeelum’ for sheepishly disrupting de white man’s plans.
And that’s why I write to forewarn today’s and yesterday’s that tomorrow’s political leaders will seek jail term plus the Cat-O-Nine tails for the destruction of Little Bay, the British Government’s futuristic capital for the people of Montserrat.
