hospitality is an industry has many diverse components that is mandatory for the industry to be accepted as a whole to make a sucess of investment ,,so to begin this plan one must first have EDUCATION ,,, as the rudiments of this highly lucrative commodity — perhaps not at this very moment –when the pending gloom and doom on the planet subsides ,, which gives GY ,, the edge to put in place that which is essentially necessary ,, for the well oiled operation of the components to deliver a flawless service ,,

for the sake of humility ,, i mentioned the need for EDUCATION,, thru the insight of SN ,, my letter to the editor ,, that i had crafted on the woes that will result from the “gambling act” was made public,, it was in this missive ,, where i mentioned ,, abt the need for the curriculum of seconday to university education ,, teaching the intricacies to making a sucesss of selling our natural resources ,, of both,, labour and landscape !,,,,,,,

from all that has been revealed and seems likely to continue to unfold ,,,, from then to now ,, i would have to re – organise my vision of GY making any plan to move the economy in this direction ,, the paradigm required here ,, is for the re – introduction of the doctrine ” CHARITY BEGINS at HOME !

home MUST be the the starting block ,, for all babies now ,, waiting to be born ,,
inherency can be removed from the infant by traing the mind ,, but the parents/s must be taught what is expected of them ,, hence the responsibility of the state and the ministry ,, under whose portfolio this social service is imperative for the
ultimate sucess of GUYANA becoming the best at hospitable services bar none from the c’bean ,, while the paradigm shift is takin hold ,, the city ,, which is now the gateway to the interior ,, — where our strength in eco – tourism lies must be cleaned up ,, starting with the letter-writing-mayor whose claim to fame is his notoriety !…… hamilton green has single handedly made the once world renowned “garden city ” a neolithic entity ……..

One day he brought in two 10 ft wooden colums, it took four men to being it up the stairs. He began singing praises of how inspirational it looks, where he put it, right at the entranceway of my house.

I said yes it does indeed. The minute he left, I called the guys and said “Take this crap out of here and throw it into the junk heap, where it belongs”

You dont want to hire my brother as your interior decorator, or your antiques expert.

Joe.

Restoration work is slow and painstaking, the experts in this area, are few and their services are very expensive. Many of our historical, buildings were adorned with hand carved or hand forged wrought iron embelishments.

True restoration, means replacing the parts using the same processes of old, it must not stand out as a new fitted piece, it must seemlessly blend in, it must be specially prepared to look worn and aged, like the rest of the structure.

I doubt very much if Guyana still have these forgotton skills, moreover these buildings were made with imported pine, the iron and stone work was also imported.

We may be fighing against a lost cause here. Now we can fit in a piece of greenheart, a piece of iron grill, patch up the stone work, but that is repair work and not restoration.

The people who are truly interested in these types of historic architecture will instantly spot the flaws, they will know a damaged, poorly kept Mona Lisa the instant they see it.

I have a brother of mine, who gets totally mixed up between genuine antiques, and pieces of old worthless junk. The two are not the same. It requires the keen eye and knowledge of the expert to discern between the two.

So we need to be cautious and careful here.

Joe.

We have built a window dressing of fancy houses on the main roadside of the villages, but we cannot hide this problem away, we must address it.

There is a real chance of a meaningful turnaround, if we can find jobs for the strong, energetic youths that sit idly in these villages.

That is why I keep saying that someone need to seriously look into rammed earth technology, it does not require a highly skilled work force, just youth strength and energy.

This endeavor will bring us back closely to the spirituality of the earth. We will begin to see new visions and experience a profound sense of creativity.

Here I have included another site with rammed earth buildings, If these structures fail to take your breadth away,if you do not feel a closeness with those who built pyramids and great temples, then you are among the living dead.

After you access the site, click on the Gallery button.

http://www.rammedearthhomes.com/gallery.htm

Joe.

Evan your quote reads: “and an free from rampant crime are not mutually exclusive”… maybe you mean, “and any free form rampant crime are not mutually exclusive”….

Such that a stretagy on tourism alone will not do anything to start to address the problem. A tourism strategy has to be accompanied first by other supporting strategies which define both an economic and a social prosperity frameworks which leads us towards a vision. For example, heritage tourism and an free from rampant crime are not mutually exclusive. Another is that any form of tourism and a health system which is inadequately resourced, unfriendly and the health care providers lack good mannerism are also not mutually exclusive.

I would suggest that a strategic starting point for Guyanese stakeholders is to start an advocacy and lobbying effort to get the government to move in the direction of articulating a strategic vision and an implementation agenda. There is no short cut to the prosperity we seek. For too long we have allowed the PPP under Jagdeo as the economic development czar to run around for 16 years with a begging cup in hand and called debt reduction and new debt accumulation development. Can you imagine we had to use IBD funding to build water closet toilets at our schools and couldn’t do so from our current revenues. Is this the development that we want to pass on to our grand children. To the extent that he has become so embolden to is fight with the EU to provide handouts (he calls developmental aid) for implementing the EPA.

If the current PPP government is nonresponsive to a genuine developmental partnership with the Guyanese people, then the time has come for Guyanese at home and abroad (yes we are part of the problem…supplying cash that we could have used to fund our children’s education here as political party contributions) to try another party and government.