`…the whole appearance of the village gives a dim view and so people are afraid to come to visit. Even if one is to take a taxi to come home, the taxi drivers refuse to take us home’
Concerned with the decline in their community and how crime has transformed it, a group of concerned Agricola residents intend to change its image from the inside.
The group which calls itself the Agricola Restoration Association (ARA), a registered body, is working to regain the good standing which the community had in the past. The village has been facing stigma for some time now and has been labelled as a safe haven for criminal elements. As such, many are afraid to venture into the community and have lost the confidence that they will be safe, according to Vice President of the body, Welton Clarke.
Clarke who was born and bred in the village along with others started their image repair drive yesterday with a peace march against all criminal activities in the community and aim to replace it with development and respect.
Large pockets of unemployed youths, particularly males who crowd street corners, young mothers and a prevalence of single parent families resulting in a breakdown of morals have plagued the community which was historically a ‘good village’.
Charting a new destiny
ARA also intends to have a ‘Men’s Forum’ and ‘Women’s Gathering’ to discuss ways and means on how the community could influence its own change.
Clarke told Stabroek News that he believes that the activities planned would awake community members to some of the realities which exist and encourage them to come up with ways in which they can chart a new destiny for the youths in the community at large.
Commenting on the more pressing issues which have pushed the group’s eagerness to go this route, he said there continue to be petty robberies and the fumes of marijuana are pungent on street corners. Clarke pointed out too that due to the fact that many of the street lamps are not working there are patches of darkness in some areas which enable robberies.
“So the whole appearance of the village gives a dim view and so people are afraid to come to visit. Even if one is to take a taxi to come home, the taxi drivers refuse to take us home,” he said.
The ARA, he said, has tried to attract youths to football in an effort to take them away from simply idling. That effort he said bore fruit since within the groups of teens are some who are willing to make that change.
He recounted that some have told him of their efforts to find jobs but feel that they are stigmatized because of where they live.
Meanwhile Clarke who said he had a pretty good relationship with the youths in the community has not denied the perception that the community has been a safe haven for criminal elements.
However he explained that many times persons from other communities who may be involved in illicit activities and are the subject of police investigations sometimes go to the community to friends there. As such he said the “strange faces” are spotted and persons sometimes discuss this among themselves.
To this end he pointed out that the Guyana Police Force has a role to play, stating that once the police’s role is executed properly they would retain the respect they deserve.
“We can build the bridge between the police and the community but they will have to show they are human beings too,” he said. According to him, in times past the police would come into the village in vehicles and speed through causing villagers to become afraid and so resistant.
A raw deal
“People say they are afraid to talk to them because when they come in like that the people see them as aggressors. An interfacing programme is needed and this can happen,” he said, adding that this could open the doors for the community and the police to relate to issues and investigate allegations properly.
“Some of the youths are affected and they say ‘they calling us criminals and we didn’t do nothing’” he related. He admitted that while there were some bent in the wrong direction, the community’s youths were being given a raw deal.
From talking with jobless Agricola youths, Clarke said he has sensed a feeling of frustration. As such he has recommended a study of the youths and some outside help for them.
He emphasized too that the older men in the community also had a role since they would have to set the appropriate example and stand out as role models for the youths.
He called for assistance and stressed the need for reconciliation agents to foster the type of cohesion necessary to help repair those critical aspects of the community which have broken down.
Street lighting
To this end he called too for assistance from the bigger institutions and singled out Guyana Power and Light and the Mayor and City Council to assist with the repairs to street lights. “Our youths need to see that concern. A little goes a long way. Some of them just need to be given that opportunity to bring out their ability,” he observed.
He said it was unfair for law abiding citizens to be made to abide by the crime and disorderliness that has come upon the community but stressed that it was not just about speaking to them but ”talking with them.” (Heppilena Ferguson)
Congratulations to all involved.It is the best you can do for your community. The stigma and violence is part of a wider agenda planned by forces bent on controlling communities like yours.Work hard and get the youths solidly behind education and entrepreneurship .
This is a good initiative by the ara group, i support the effort they are making to restore this once peaceful village, it will be alot of work, but don’t give up.
Good luck and best wishes to the members of the Agricola
Restoration Association. I visited Guyana last month and
I was frighten to even pass through the village in car.
This is a commendable effort by the Agricola Restoration Association (ARA), which all peace loving Guyanese should support. This village has always been a victim of those who are bent on committing crimes and so I salute this bold initiative of the ARA. Make no mistake, the task ahead is not an easy one as this is a deep-rooted problem has been allowed to fester for too long. It is therefore important that the ARA be given all the support they need if they are to be successful in their effort. The Government, the Police, the business community, NGOs (e.g. the Lions Club and the Rotary Club) and concerned individuals should all lend a helping hand.
Of course to a great extent these problems are the symptoms of bigger problems, which are poverty and government’s failure to provide opportunities for our young people.
I wish the ARA every success and meanwhile my heart goes out to all those parents and families who have to suffer the pain of losing their child to crime.
To help repair those critical aspects of the community which have broken down you must first treat those who harbor the outside criminal elements and who enjoyed the loot.Those are the ones to be taken care of from the start.
Long before the Buxton thing happened my brother who used to transport feed stock to his friend in Buxton lets call his friend Rasta.He warned Rasta that it is getting very scary to come there seeing all the youth men hanging out at street corners smoking up their joints in full view.
Before he knew it,criminal elements took over Buxton and what happened next is very sad.
My brother got robbed twice trying to take feed stock for his friend.
He warned Rasta of the implications this will have on his (Rasta) business but no one paid attention at that time.
My brother could no longer transport feed stock for his friend to Buxton.
Because they were friends my brother never really charged his friend full transport price.
In the end to make a long story short.
No one wanted to go into Buxton.
Rasta had to sell his live stock for little to nothing.
Today Rasta has nothing because he eventually had to sell his house and leave Buxton with his family because he was being harassed for being a traitor when he spoke to some people there about what would happen.
My brother consulted with his wife to help his friend and she agreed to let Rasta and his family stayed at their home.
My brother helped Rasta to get back on his feet for a year and helped him to buy his own transport truck and today Rasta and his family own their own home and is happy to be alive and well and out of Buxton.
Not even Rasta would deliver anything to Buxton these days.
Those who harbor feed housed support criminals are themselves criminals.
If you don’t see it that way and go after those then its doomed to fail…….
Evileyes your brother is a good man with a good heart and i am sure you can learn something from him. This is probably the most touching thing you have wrote in these blogs.
This is a good start by these villagers.
Evileyes: After reading this touching story I think someone should recommend your brother for the Nobel Peace prize.
pep & bora im even better than my brother ehehehehehehe….
noble prizes fuh de evil one always..my brother learn lots from me .ehehehehehe..he goes to church i dont…i gamble he dont.now and then i would drink a banks bear he dont..having a lil pigtail cook up right now he dont eat pig and beef..
lost me shirt at de races yesterday…..hahahahahahaha….
come on down to camp st sometimes ahd lets have a blast there..
thanks guys….happy thanks giving….
evileyes, this is one subject, that we will never disagree on, in a million years.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in Canada. Time to put the duck in the oven.
evil camp st. gt. or toronto.
SOESDYKE you en me agree on most things here most of the time but its only we dont know it.see how gudd you know me? you know i dont like turkey since my chinese gf cooked turkey with salt an sugar and since then its duck for me..i know the duck in the woss red meat but not real bad a few times a year
ehehehehe.happy thanks giving to your family and you:
Freespeech…camp st georgetown..far from the big house though..ehehehehe happy thanks giving giving:::::::::
Evileyes; this is a wonderful story and kudos to your brother!
Guyana, with its politically driven racial problems, needs, more of these ‘heart-warming’ stories; of brothers reaching out to brothers, irrespective, of their race, ethnicity, hair texture, skin colour, religion etc.
Your brother, by practice showed he is truly a ‘brother’ by reaching out to someone needing help. If all of us should emulate the actions of your brother, then, there will be harmony and progress in Guyana.
Your story; shows how much good we have in common, despite, our differences.
Maybe, some of us in the diaspora can help members of the Agricola community get Skills training, or establish a Non Profit Fund For Micro and Medium Business Development – managed accountably and transparently, with a weekly donation of G100.00 (about US.50 cents), to help buy equipments, tools, livestocks., chicken, ducks, goats, pigs, sheep etc., to help trained members of the community set up entrepreneural businesses, particularly, agro businesses.
Groups and Co op businesses in livestock and crop farming, or the establishment of a bakery, hair dressing parlour, restaurant, food catering, building of concrete blocks, furniture manufacture, sewing shop etc., should be promoted.
Wind and solar energy/electricity, should also be explored to facilitate the above activities. The help of the British and US governments, and international agencies and organisations, should be pursued.
The help of NARI, The Private Sector Commission and other NGOS, should also be pursued.
The government, should also be asked to help by providing, land (maybe in the interior areas of the country), finance, loans, infrastructure etc.
Members of the diaspora, can also donate Computers, books, needed equipments etc.
Fantastic Story Cack Eye. Your brother is like most Guyanese he has a heart. Congrats on having such a great person in your family.
Happy thanks giving I might be in toronto I will mail you a lil piglet since you dont like turkey.
Welton kudos to you for initiating this organization.When we were growing up and attending St Anne’s Anglican school together, Agricola village was second to none in Guyana.When and how did it loose its innocense,luminosity and community spirit?
There was a public library and a community center.I vividly recall walking to the library every Saturday to borrow Hardy boys and other books.Where did these enlightening institutions go with the abyss of time?Is this progress?
Every adult, irespective of their race or religion, was a surrogate parent of any child who stepped out of line on the street.Agricola embodied paradise for a child then. Family life was paramount and as you know, Welton, single parent was a rarity.What pleasant memories!!!
Lots of sons and daughters of that PARADISE who migrated in the late sixties have being blessed by the Creator with wonderful professions and sucess through hard work.
There are some of us here who are willing to give back to that community that moulded our values and morality.Consequently i will contact you through R—N.He started a breakfast program at the Methodist school.With the help of others here i would like to resurrect the library but without public fanfare and i do not want my identity reveal.
I was in Guyana for a short r&r last year but you were not home on two occasions i visited.Nontheless i will get your number and speak to you.My only stipulation is that we would need accountablity.Carry on the great work of service my brother.
Good move. Law abiding citizens of Agricola, take back your village from the few who are giving it a bad name.
I have good memories of Agricola I lived there as a boy for a number of years with my mother in the 70s on punt trench dam those were good days going to school there was a mauby shop at the head of the road where I used to stop and buy buns and mauby when I am at home in the afternoon I wait for the punts to pass and pull out the fatest piece of cane in those days the crime was fowl thief, rum drinking , getting blow , or giving blow [smile] you know what I mean any adult could have spoken to you then and you dare not be rude the police never used to carry guns in those days and we had a lot of respect for them so sad to read what is going on these days hope this community group can make some headway it wont be easy, best of luck guys.
Sounds like the Agricola I know!!
If only they could get rid of all dem bandits Agricola will once again rise. Look how dem rab de man at 2nd street de other day. Dem hang out deh every day and still turn back and tek away he day’s earnings.
Keep up the good work ARA.
Happy thanksgiving to all of you Canadians -Bora,Evil,Toucha, Soesdyke and all my brothers in Scarborough,Ont.Soesdyke i will see you on the other side later.Evil we have diametrically opposite political views but share a common heart of compassion.
Keep on sharing and serving, Evil, on this great stage we call mother earth.MY mother always taught me that it is the best way to serve God as we sojourn here.It gives tremendous pleasure, joy and satisfaction to humbly serve quietly.SO just keep that flame burning in your heart.
Bora since you once lived here in the USA i hope you will be visiting next month for our thanksgiving.LOL.Once again a happy thanksgiving to ALL Canadians and as you celebrate this day reflect on the onces not as fortunate as you are.Peace.
Thanks buddy.God’s richest blessings to you.
Thanks bro and same to you and your family always:
Having said that I must say once and for all that I am and will always be Guyanese first and foremost matters not where I spent most of my life which is blessed.
If I were to tell you that I do not have a religious side to me you would think I am nuts.
I do what I do not for blessings or rewards.
Yes its true we all have different political views.
Again let me say this clear,I have never voted, I have never met with,I have never shook the hands of a politician.
Like I said before and will say again.
I could care less what Government in power in any country be it Burnham Mugabe or George Bush or Jagdeo.
They will do whatever they think in their warped minds what they think is right.
Why would I vote for any politician who will tax me when I work when I spend when I save a bit?
They do if for me without my vote anyhow…Dont they?
Right now the mighty America is paying 40cents for every dollar it collects to service debts.
I cant in my right mind condone that and often asked how does that happen.
Our difference is with the past pnc policy.
They were paying 95cents for ever dollar it collects to service debts.
I have never seen anyone run their household on 5cents for ever dollar they worked for let alone run a country.
Happy thanks giving and thanks for your response.Peace:::Always…
Evil i never voted or belong to any political party in Guyana before i migrated in 1968.IN the USA I do exercise my franchise as a democrat.I too, as an adult, do not belong to any religious organization.
However, i do believe that God, the UNiversal Cosmic Being, the force ,the Light or whatever nomenclature you choose to use reside within each and every man and our bodies are the temple of that true LIving GOD.Whenever we separate our selves from each other we separate ourselves from God.All LIFE IS ONE LIFE.PEACE LOVE AND LIGHT TO YOU.