The Wakenaam airstrip will be a great blessing

Dear Editor,   

People condemn institutions and infrastructure created for the nation, because they lack the wisdom, the vision and the capacity to see beyond their noses. The airpstrip in Wakenaam will be a great blessing, and the detractors, those without wisdom and foresight, will see the results in time.

Wakenaam is set to be a breadbasket for Guyana and the Caribbean; planes may take off directly  loaded with food and vendors to Venezuela and other parts of South America, and the Caribbean.  People will start hopping over to Wakenaam in special charters for business and private visits ‒ many fear travelling on the river. Government of Guyana obviously saw great potential for the development of the air transport system, which will aid the sick and the entrepreneur, and people could start travelling in groups in charters to get to Georgetown and back.  It takes some vision, some marketing and human dynamism.  Soon Air Services and Roraima Airways will offer regular flights as they do to areas in the interior.

The Chairman and CEO of the Roraima Group of Companies, Mr Gerald (Gerry) Gouveia has already indicated his ambition to construct a resort in Wakenaam.  From what I know, it is already in the pipeline.  This will send real estate spiraling. Thank God, my children listened to me and now own two lots of land there.  Here is a visionary and investor, using all his mental and financial resources, with support from financial institutions to invest in Guyana and Guyana’s people. But then you have the critics, the failed minds, which can make nothing good of anything.  Nature tourism will get a boost in Guyana, and more money will circulate around that now declining island, and our country and people will prosper. Many will migrate to their former homes, and build new structures, including those living overseas.  Youths will not have to leave the island for opportunities.  I see private medical centres and hospitals being constructed; I see proper entertainment centres, with lights and glamour, people flocking for just an evening or a major show.  I see new modern cinemas and a stadium being built there. I see enormous opportunities and growth for the island.

Wakenaam produced some great intellectuals in Guyana, who are serving now in many disciplines in Guyana, and live in numerous countries in the European and North American countries.  Wakenaam will sizzle and grow with this investment, and many more will follow.  People will enclose their bottom houses and turn them into temporary rented flats.  There is so much we can do in Guyana.  Will the naysayers, the visionless, please rest.

Yours faithfully,
Roshan Khan