Dear Editor,
First I must say, hats off to the Guyana government in attempting to host one of the largest sporting events in the world, also in trying to spruce up Guyana for this event. The burning question remains, however, that in trying to spruce up Guyana, and in particular, Georgetown and the East Bank and East Coast of Demerara, the government is attempting to present a colossal fa?e to the throngs of expected visitors to Guyana for the Cricket World Cup.
Only this morning on opening the Stabroek News on the Internet, it was observed that the CWC had taken away management of the World Cup event in Guyana from the LOC and had placed it in the hands of a French company, citing the inability of the local people designated to handle such matters to manage it effectively. That is the first embarrassment for Guyana. Next, some time before President Bharrat Jagdeo had said that everything would be in place for the opening, or long before the opening. Yet workers are still in the process of trying to hurriedly push the completion of the road approaches to the stadium and other infrastructure.
Also in this morning’s paper, it was noted that Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, maybe believing that the Guyanese population are flibbertigibbets, (silly, empty-headed people), said that they should spruce up their neighborhoods, (paint, weed, etc) and also be engaged in entertainment, when that would only be asking them to be a part of the government’s hypocritical fa?e.
It is known for a fact that many persons in Guyana, are living below the poverty line, involved in the daily struggle of providing shelter and food for themselves and family, so it was really ironic that one was able to open the newspaper and see Dr Luncheon requesting that Guyanese from all walks of life become a part of the spruce-up campaign. I would like to suggest Dr Luncheon try his best to go to one of the music stores and acquire a copy of Buju Banton’s famous song, ‘Tell Me Now,’ in which he said, “The rich man get the meat, ah feed the dog them, while the woman nah get no food, for feed she kids them.”
I am always appalled when I hear that song and I look at the Guyana situation, whereby the majority of the proletariat have no solid means of providing for themselves and family, because I feel for my brothers and sisters who have to live in the demeaning conditions in Guyana.
Can Mr Jagdeo and Dr Luncheon say why the people of Guyana, especially in Georgetown and the East Coast and East Bank of Demerara, were not granted tax-free loans if the government is so interested in presenting a fa?e to the foreign visitors? Maybe the powers-that-be forgot to remember that before, during and after the World Cup, the people of Guyana will still be faced with the enormous task of proving shelter, food and security for themselves and family. One can only imagine what a relief it would have been for the masses of suffering Guyanese if the government had used half of the money which was lent to Mr Shivraj and invested it in the impoverished areas; what a more productive return it would have gained for the benefit of all, instead of the benefit of one person.
In closing, I would like to briefly comment on another issue involving the Government of Guyana in conjunction with the Mayor and City Council, and that is the purging of vendors from outside Stabroek Market. First I must say that what these people are doing is performing a total ‘hysterectomy’ on these vendors and still asking them to produce. If you blatantly take away the productive tools from these people without replacing them with some other productive tools, how in heaven’s name can they produce?
Town Clerk Beulah Williams and the powers-that-be within the government should come up to New York and go to places like Canal Street in China Town, and see the hundreds of vendors who encumber the sidewalks and who make shopping in China Town so wonderful. Also, there is hardly any metropolitan city in the United States, where there is no sidewalk vending; that helps to make up the city’s landscape.
As I close, I do hope that the Government of Guyana and all concerned, have looked at the consequences of sustainable development or lack of it, before they invested such a huge amount of finances and human resources and I do wish Guyana, the land of my birth and the land of my burial place, all the best in their quest to host the Cricket World Cup.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Aubrey Gill
