Dear Editor,
As we enter into the new year of 2014 we are aware that the Cooperative Republic of Guyana has a number of challenges which must be overcome if the citizenry is to be productive and contribute to growth and development across the country. No one I think will argue with the concept that health is central to Guyana’s development, and yet one has to ask the burning question as to why our cities, our local communities are all are in the main filthy places where our young and old citizens have to live, work, pray and study.
For more than twenty years, the Healthy Municipality Initiative has been a powerful strategy of participatory health promotion at the local level in Latin America. The movement arose from the need to effectively address the economic, social, and political determinants of health. The focus is on empowering and mobilizing the local level to improve the health of communities. The movement implies the support of local government in the establishment of healthy public policies, active community participation, the creation of supportive environments, the reorientation of health services, and the promotion of healthy lifestyles.
To be considered as healthy, a municipality, city or community must go beyond attaining certain levels of health indicators to continually create and improve the physical and social environments and expand community resources to help people support each other in developing to their maximum potential.
I am sure if I were to ask the President and cabinet, the Opposition Leader, the leaders of all political, labour and religious organizations, all parliamentarians and councillors and all citizens they would embrace the concept of our cities, towns and communities being healthy places. Then why are these places so dirty? I have travelled throughout the Caribbean and if one removes
Port-au-Prince from the discussion because of all of the disasters Haiti has experienced, Georgetown, the capital of Guyana and the seat of the Caricom Secretariat, can be described as the dirtiest city within the Caribbean.
Georgetown is no longer the Garden City. Of course this is how I see it. So am I wrong? Is it that the leaders of Guyana, as they drive and walk through our cities and towns have a visual reality that is different from mine? Has the environment which I see become the reality, the norm for our leaders that they are unable to discern the filth which adorns the roads, the walkways, the drains, etc? What about the multilateral and bilateral agencies ‒ are they also numb? Or are they burnt out from calling on our authorities to remedy the situation? The owners of businesses small and large must observe the decay in which our citizenry live, work, play and pray.
The associated incidence and prevalence of filaria, dengue, leptospirosis, diarrhoeal disease, etc, with the solid waste neglect must be addressed with urgency. The Ministry of Health must provide the leadership now in halting the decay. As one reads the newspapers, the paralysis which seems to have overtaken everyone is unexplainable. I say paralysis and would hope that it is not vindictiveness, the lack of political will or pure ignorance of the impact which this environment has on health and development. Some have opined that there is no action because Georgetown is not the constituency of the government. But even if that were so ‒ and let me say I would hate if it is so ‒ this does not absolve all of the other social and political forces, viz, the Christian, Hindu and Muslim bodies, the political forces and leaders, specifically Messrs Granger and Ramjattan, in bringing about change for the social and economic development of Guyana. But most of all I expect the President and his cabinet to reflect on the state of affairs.
Yes, there are many problems to be solved such as local government elections, etc, but the decay cannot be left until some solution is arrived at. Additionally, clean-up campaigns are unsustainable band aid solutions and represent an inefficient allocation of resources.
You would no doubt note that I have not mentioned the Mayor and Councillors of Georgetown. This is due to the fact that I believe they have chosen a route of pathological bureaucracy and inaction. They have opted to have their destiny determined by external forces at the expense of the health of the citizenry. I am not too sure that they understand their role and responsibility in defence of the citizenry.
Let us arise and come together in defence of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
Let’s save the lives of our young citizenry.
Yours faithfully,
Richard Van West Charles
