The touching tableau of six slender bronze statues with their simple ship bundles, envisioned by two of Guyana’s leading artists should have been standing in all of its shining glory a week ago to commemorate the historic May 5 1838 arrival of the first East Indian indentured immigrants. Instead, in a clear case of “Touch and then GO!” the compromised circular concrete pedestal that was to have borne the massive masterpiece has crumbled while “85 per cent complete” into a towering pile of rumbling rubble, leaving behind clouds of coughing grey dust and yet another ignominious search through the heap of dirt for awkward answers casually blowing in the winds that crisscross the cane of the Ancient County from Plantation Highbury to Palmyra.
