Dear Editor,
I felt compelled to speak on the issue of blackouts in Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), not necessarily in response to those who delight in using print media to masquerade secret agendas. But more specifically because it seems that even us, the beautiful members of my township, have allowed a blurring of facts again on account of political stirring. I am the least to add judgment, but I beg of you to allow me the premise to not add blame, but instead to propose that GPL has added so much frustration that we don’t even know how to assign reason.
Indeed, it seemingly has ‘become’ a heavy burden on the township, but one must also be able to define ‘become’. I would agree to ‘become’, except I recollect that it became quite a long time ago. Of course, I would only ask reasonable citizens, those not shadowed by the need to prove that our Mayor and Councillors aren’t serving to the best of their ability. Even greater, I can only ask level minded citizens to view the progress seen as an indication that sooner as opposed to later, this problem that has existed for decades (irrespective of central government leadership), will soon be rendered not an issue.
Those of us who are spirited, who utilise our time to become informed of all that is being done, would have already known the level of lobbying, proposing and conversations being had between local leadership and GPL. But as I have said before, such citizens cannot be found guilty of having hidden political agendas.
I wish to also point out Editor, that the measure our progress towards establishing ourselves as the “model green town”, cannot simply be in view of the ‘woes of GPL’. Frankly, to do so would again point to an inability to clearly reason. Conversely, one can say that tackling head on a garbage disposal giant of a problem, addressing inherited drainage infrastructure that was problematic to say the least, are better measures of quantifying the level of greening. Balance given, I must at this time, point out that the Mayor and Deputy Mayor must have only been available for a few photo ops, because they were either at our newly transformed dumpsite, or overseeing projects including, but not limited to, building parks and green spaces, overseeing cleaning efforts across constituencies, managing road rehabilitation works, meeting needs for resident consultations of new projects, engaging investors both local and foreign, sourcing funding, supplying water to areas like 5 Miles Housing Scheme and Byderabo Road and beautifying the burial grounds. Again, I would only ask citizens who are level minded to concur that over the short time of being in office, much has been done. Do I think that GPL must do better? Yes. Do I think the leadership here is to be blamed? No. Do we still need a solution? Yes. My question to all citizens then is: What do we do next?
Yours respectfully,
Devon Nedd-Fordyce
