The idea of a cemetery as a place to visit in the course of a vacation, may not exactly resound with Jamaican sensitivities, but Mayor of Kingston, Desmond McKenzie, has raised an interesting idea: making the May Pen Cemetery a tourist attraction.

The fact is we're not a 'cemetery people', despite our penchant for elaborate funerals and mourning rituals. There are, however, other places where cemeteries do attract tourists, particularly if they are the final resting place of celebrities.

One of the famous sightseeing spots of Europe, for instance, is the Pére Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, wherein lie some of the world's most celebrated artists and artistes, from centuries past up to contemporary times.

In other places, where celebrities are interred also, some tourists do find it interesting to visit the site as part of the experience of another culture.

But is our May Pen Cemetery ready for that? Most Jamaicans associate the area with inner-city neglect which we seem unable to put right.

It has been said that members of some of Jamaica's older families were interred at May Pen in the days when it was the major site for burials in Kingston.

It is posited also that the history of such families and the context of the times in which they lived could be presented in a way to attract visitors who like that sort of thing. Would that be enough of an incentive, however?

There are practical considerations which would have to be dealt with. It is not just the physical state of the cemetery which has to be improved, but the environs which surround it.

Mayor McKenzie is no stranger to the condition of the Spanish Town Road and adjacent communities. He knows, even more than most, the extent of the urban decay and blight which will require more than wishful thinking to reclaim and bring it to a standard which would make visitors, as well as locals, feel enough at ease to go in the cemetery. Perhaps, with time and effort, such an idea could bear fruit, but it certainly is not a short-term fix.

The current effort to clean up and attract public support for May Pen is but one of many in a series of several such drives. It has been tried before.

As he makes yet another go at it, this time using prisoner labour, Mayor McKenzie would do well to use his considerable leverage to put in place systems for continuity in the ongoing maintenance of the cemetery.

It is only when the facility can be accorded respect by our own people that we will have the confidence to indicate to others that we regard it as an important part of our national heritage and thus worthy of being an attraction.

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