What the people say… The people of Linden speak about their problems

Photos and interviews by Cathy Richards

20090622barrowDustanni Barrow – Businessman
`One of the main problems in Linden is that certain powers that be that should be managing the town and assisting business persons and those interested in starting up businesses are not doing so. Instead they are looking at every minuscule, insignificant thing that would prevent them from doing so and using that not to give permits and whatever assistance they may need.

But at the end of the day the business people in Linden who would like to expand are doing it because they know that they would be creating better needed jobs, bring more money into the community. So that is one of the biggest issues that need to be looked at very soon. I know that the country is preparing for Local Government elections so we just have to wait and see what would happen then and hope that things make a change for the better.’

20090622morrisonBrenda Morrison – Cosmetologist
`I am most disturbed with GUYWA (GWI) more than anything else in this town. In 2002 they came and put down a meter at my salon and you would be surprised at the fee that they are charging. I don’t use that much water from them. I show them how I use 90% water from my overhead tank.  I went into them and they are still charging me this massive sum of money. In my view they are not taking what the meter reads they are averaging for me because they feel I am not using enough water according to the reading that they get when they read the meter.

I started off by paying the backlog piece by piece but it isn’t making any sense because the cost keeps going up. Recently I told them to come and take out their lines from my property because I am not paying a cent anymore and I will show them how my overhead tanks work for me. Since I told them that they never came back. The thing about GUYWA too is that the quality of water is so poor and sparse.  The water is so contaminated and red and the pressure is usually very low. The government needs to really address the water situation here in Linden.

20090622grantShenera Grant – RN Nurse Asst.

I am living at South Amelia’s Ward, Well Road area for many years and it is a sad situation there. The main road in that area is the only road that takes you to the lone well in Amelia’s Ward and the state of that road leaves much to be desired. That road is badly eroded and has no drainage system. In an attempt to address that problem we formed ourselves into a community group and approached the region. Every year we have been going to them and they just keep pushing us around. We are so willing to do the road as a community project but because of the structure of that road we would have to get the government support. We can’t do it by ourselves.

The other thing is now the taxi drivers are refusing to come in there. When you go shopping you have to either pay the drivers more or walk the distance from the highway to our homes and this is not fair. We are all over the media saying how Amelia’s Ward is the biggest and most beautiful housing scheme in the country, well treat us as if we really are the model of the country.

20090622bourneMerle Bourne – Nail Specialist

I am a resident of Self Help Housing Scheme for over four years and the water situation there is really disturbing. Most times the water would come every two days. We the residents there are really bothered about this because even when it comes after two days it is for a very short time. Before you could full up a tank it is gone. It is time that the Guyana Government addresses this situation once and for all because this has been going on for far too long.

It is so bad that many times the nursery and primary school in the area has to suspend classes because there is no water. Nobody comes to tell us anything.

I understand that they are running new pipelines right now but that would not solve the problem. This is a rapidly developing area and that one well would never be able to service this area. The solution is to get another well and furnish it with modernized equipment so it could provide a good quality service to people. You can’t be running people to pay a bill when you are not giving a good service. I have a business and if a customer is not satisfied with my service I have to fix it before I can take their money. And the government is no exception to this rule of customer service. So I am saying that it is time that GUYWA stop the talking and addresses the problems. We are citizens and we have rights and the government has a responsibility to us.

20090622jonesSabrina Jones – High School Student
With the current state of Linden I am worried about what my peers and I would do after we would have worked so hard at becoming qualified academically. I know of so many qualified youths in this area and all they have to do is lime around because there are no jobs or some of them have to leave their family and go out of town to get a job. In most cases the job they get does not match their qualification and that bothers me a lot.

The other thing is the current state of school in Linden, classes are so overcrowded, furniture is limited and of a very poor standard and it so bad. The state of the sanitary block is atrocious. That kind of environment does not augur well for a proper education. They have dropped the entry level for my school to accommodate other children so you can only imagine the effect this would have on the school as a result of that. I do hope that things get better with time.

20090622latchmanAaron Latchman – Fish vendor
We have the greatest issue with the town council here as it relates to this wharf. We were doing the shed which would protect us and customers from the effects of the weather and they stopped us and said that the contractor that was doing the other section would have looked at it. When the contractor was done with the other area he said that this part is not in his contract. The other day a customer came at the back here and fell because the place is wet and sludgy.

The town council is not keeping up their end of the bargain with us. Water is a major issue on this wharf. We have to dip water from the river with a rope and a bucket and the veterinary and public health is saying that we can’t do that because of health reasons. They say the water is polluted. We have a stand pipe but no water is coming through it. They need to do whatever with GUYWA and get that looked at. We had a meeting about four weeks ago with them, they said that it would have been addressed the Friday. Four Fridays have passed and nothing.

When they were putting on this wharf it was understood that there would have been no vending on the road. They moved us and did the river corner very beautiful. I commend them for that the place looks very nice with the benches and so on. But now there are people going right back on the road and vending and taking away the markets from us. We are doing the right thing by being in here and others who are not paying stall rentals are coming to the entrance and selling and going back to town with all the money. Many days we at the back here don’t sell a proper $2,000. They ID stalls which would sell fish only and those that would sell chicken only. Now everybody selling everything and this can’t be fair. The town council needs to start doing their jobs right.

20090622websterGladwin Webster – Vendor

One of the things that are bothering us in Linden is the situation of unemployment. It is very heart- rending to see young people finish school, come out with good grades and no jobs but then we still talking about the crime situation in this country. I feel the government must do much more to get the youths involved because there is nothing for them to do. The old saying is that the devil finds work for idle hands and brains and that’s what fuelling the crime situation in this country.

I want to say something about the town council here in Linden. I feel they are barefaced to us vendors on the wharf. We are paying the council for certain services and we are not receiving any. We have written the council, we have spoken to the council concerning the many things that bothering us. 90% of the things that the council promised, I can’t say commit because they don’t believe in commitment, they are not fulfilling, but they want us as vendors to comply with the rules and regulations they set out for us. The council is very callous to our people on this wharf and we would have to take much more strenuous actions against them. It is one week now that we decided that we are not going to pay stall rentals and they see us taking this form of protest and not one of the leaders of the council has come to us to see why we are not paying the rent and what they can do to alleviate the problem that is causing us to take the action. To me this council is redundant I can’t find a better work to describe them.

20090622seecharanNj-Jay Seecharan – Taxi driver
Roads in the Linden town are a sore issue. Take for example that sore-eye road at Watooka. That road is very disgusting every now and then all they do is scrape it and before they are even finished it is back to its old state. Many times you would hear this body and that body saying on the TV that they are going to fix it and it’s all talk and no action.

If we decide that we are going to charge extra for that area it’s going to be another problem and more-so it would be unfair to persons using our service because they are not responsible for the road the leaders of this town are. We have to be replacing and repairing parts so often sometime the dealers want to know if we are working in the jungle. I really don’t know what more it would take to have this town looked at properly, I really don’t know. But we are in a very sad state here in Linden.

What I don’t understand is that the worst part of that road is at the entrance of the Watooka Club where from the president right down has to pass whenever they come to Linden. I guess is because the money for their vehicle maintenance don’t come from their own pockets. It comes from us as taxpayers so all the effects are felt strictly by us. This can’t be right.

20090622archibaldEmanuel Archibald – Businessman
I believe that there needs to be some more banks in this town. We only have one bank here and it is a major run-a-round to get loans. They put you through so much stress and in the end tell you, you can’t get the loan. I have been trying for years with this bank and no success. Thank God for Linden Economic Advance-ment Fund.

LEAF has come to the rescue of many businessmen in this town. I see them putting up two and three banks in other areas, what about us here? It is that our money doesn’t have value or is it something else? Having one bank in Linden is like putting a diver at the bottom of the river with a small oxygen tank and expect him to stay there for a very long time. They are only stifling business development in Linden.

20090622baljitBaljit – Farmer
The moral fabric of this community has gone to the gutters. It hurts me so much to hear how young persons speak to one another and more so senior ones in this area. They have no respect at all. They seem not to care who is around and what they say when.

The way they talk to people it is not nice they don’t care who is around they have to be vulgar and using very graphic language. What bothers me the most is that this is happening among every age group even the very little ones. It’s so sad to hear them speak.

Some group or somebody should develop some kind of programme to address this sore. It must be designed in such a way that it would target the defaulting persons. You would not get to them if you set a programme for them to come and sit in a room you would have to meet them in their space at their times and let’s bring back some morals among our youths.

20090622williamsCandist Williams – Teacher
One of the problems hampering the proper development in our town is that of poor parenting interventions. I am a teacher in the school system and it is very sad to note the problem our children are facing at the home level. They are left to fend for themselves more
often than not. Parents don’t even come to the school to see what is going on with their child. When you sit and talk to some of them you see that the root of their problem is parental guidance. We try our best but we can do so much and no more as teachers.

The other thing is that the education system does not cater for slow learners. I am a teacher attached to the Wisburg Secondary. That school is attended by children who gained very low grades at common entrance yet, they have to work at the same pace as those attending the more senior secondary school. This cannot work. We have been calling on the Ministry of Education to work on a syllabus that would allow us to work in objective way with these children. But no one seems to be listening and no one seems to care. I have witnessed children repeating and remaining in the same grade year after year. Many of them stay in one grade for a full four or five years and then just leave the system. This is not a very caring situation. We as teachers want to help. We know that they can be helped only if we are given that opportunity. So I am appealing to the authorities to listen to us because we care and we want the best for our children. Please we can do better.