Dear Editor,
I refer to a news item in the Stabroek News of Saturday, April 21, in which the Minister of Sport told the press that as far as he knows the Colgrain Swimming Pool is open to the public. He knows fully well that none of the three state-owned swimming facilities is accessible to the general public. The emphasis is on the word “general.”
Here are the facts. Colgrain – only members of swimming clubs; Castellani – only invited guests and those given permission by Office of the President; Aquatic Centre – for competitive swimmers only and invited guests. I live near the Aquatic Centre and I see that the favoured ones make use of it after sundown.
I have to pass that place daily and you should see how they enjoy themselves in the night. No one has mentioned that the Ministry of Sport built a gym with public money inside the National Service Sports Club on Carifesta Avenue.
I go on the seawall every afternoon and that gym is always closed. It is a total shame that APNU abstained in cutting the estimates for the Ministry of Sport.
What needs to be said is that the political elite also swim at two private pools at Pradoville 1. None of the three state-owned swimming facilities has a walk-in privilege the way the National Park, the Botanic Gardens, the Promenade Gardens, etc, do. Why do I have to join a swimming club to attend Colgrain? Why should someone spend money to join a club when all they want to do on a hot day after a torrid day’s work is just walk into one of these facilities and have a swim as it was with the Luckhoo pool in the seventies?
When a group of us (Malcolm Harripaul, Mark Benschop, David Patterson, Gerhard Ramsaroop and Michael Carrington) protested the private operation of these pools our point was unambiguous – make all three into a walk-in place, but on different days.
So from Monday to Wednesday it is Colgrain; from Thursday to Friday it is Castellani; and from Saturday to Sunday, the Aquatic Centre. Alternatively, allocate one of them to function like the Luckhoo pool. We reject outright the edict that the public should not access these structures openly. You can charge a fee to support maintenance but one or all of these pools must have a walk-in privilege because they are owned by the state which acts on behalf of the Guyanese people.
I don’t have to join a gym to exercise in the National Park. I don’t have to belong to a Botanic Society to see the animals in the zoo. Why must I join a club to enjoy Colgrain? I am informing the Minister that all six of us plan to arrive at one of these three pools and just jump in and swim, and will refuse to be ejected. Let them call in the police That is our intention. While we are doing this, APNU which has not pronounced on the issue can join us for a swim. It may clear the heads of the leadership when they go up to Linden to persuade the people there about their role in the electricity affair.
Yours faithfully,
Frederick Kissoon
