Dear Editor,
By accident or design this world has changed since Mr Barack Obama acceded to the presidency of the United States of America. Citizens in various countries around the world are extremely frustrated and are adamant that the status quo is no longer acceptable; the electorate must and will be accounted to. Mother Nature is wreaking havoc in many countries across the globe, and those who govern with dictatorial tendencies are beginning to realise too late how vulnerable they really are, given the economic woes of the people.
Having said that, if we looked at the Garden City of Georgetown, not with a myopic lens or partisan interests, then we would recognize what a festering sore the Stabroek Market Square really was. The political will which was so obviously in short supply apart, those who worked or were stationed there over the past three decades and more, would certainly be au fait with the noise, filth and stench emanating from the area I always referred to as Sodom and Gomorrah.
One does not have to be a soothsayer to predict that 2011 will bring profound change not only to Georgetown as we knew it, but to its environs as well. Stories from the tarmac and its periphery should have been a journalist’s delight, but this unfortunately was never appreciated. Last but not least, I have always wondered how our esteemed parliamentarians for so many years tolerated all that transpired in such close proximity outside Parliament Building.
I will unapologetically say to Mr Robeson Benn that he should take a bow. The end justifies the means sometimes. Now let me be very clear when I say that many persons who are condemning Minister Benn, are far removed from the activities of the area surrounding the market and do not have a clue, not a clue, as to what really transpires. Apart from some of the vendors and others who presumed permanence the mere fact of their conducting business for decades notwithstanding change was imminent. Could the demolition and removal exercises have been conducted in a more civilized fashion? Certainly, but are Guyanese capable of this given the extent of atrocities endured over the past decades? I wonder. Civility and docility are eons apart.
Yours faithfully,
Lloyd W Davidson
