…carpenters
Your Eyewitness gotta admit that he sometimes gets carried away. Maybe it’s because he’s one of those “seeing the glass half-full” kinda guy, who hopes for the best. Take the house-building boom that we’re presently in the throes of. It’s so massive it has baptised every person who ever held a hammer as a carpenter,_and even as a “contractor”; and sucked them into a Black Hole, so ordinary mortals like him can’t even get his fence fixed for a year. Even the influx of those 60,000 Venezuelan infiltrators who’re said to be working for peanuts – according to one of the PNC’s Presidential aspirants – hasn’t helped. And with the way his better half is carrying on, your Eyewitness might be forced – horror of horrors!! – to pick up a hammer himself.
So how did he get carried away? Well, two years ago, he showed up at the “International Building Expo 2022 at the National Stadium”, and saw the future of building homes: a 3-D PRINTER that actually printed homes!! Now, he’d read about these printers that went beyond extruding inks of different colours on instructions from a computer – they could now basically extrude plastics and other liquified stuff in 3-D to build parts for machines and such. But houses??
The brochure that he was handed into his sweaty palms informed him: “The 3-D system combines the agility and complexity of traditional home building with the precision and speed of robotic “inkjet” technology, producing complex design-driven homes faster, stronger and smarter. The system, which includes a highly manoeuvrable mobile platform outfitted with a proprietary printer head, “prints” entire houses with hydrophobic, self-binding geopolymer cement, eliminating the need for in-demand subcontracting crews that often contribute to extensive labour costs and delays. The system constructs homes in a matter of days, without the need for specialists such as brick layers, drywall installers, roofers, carpenters, and their colleagues.” How about them apples, eh??
Your Eyewitness was not only intrigued by the futuristic application of “ink jets”, but the part that promised “eliminating the need for in-demand subcontracting crews that often contribute to extensive labour costs and delays”! So, his question is: whatever happened to those 3-D building systems?? The Government has commendably gone beyond handing out house lots, and has sponsored all sorts of housing projects across Mudland. For instance, those “Young Professional” communities on the East Bank and East Coast Demerara. Couldn’t they have arranged for at least one scheme to be built with 3-D printers?? And freed up some craftsmen to fix your Eyewitness’s fence??
Meanwhile, your Eyewitness is brushing up on his Bengalese in case we have to bring in some to fill this manpower gap? The Bengali word for fence is “bera”!!
…Houston
In 1969, the US mission to the moon was controlled from Houston, Texas – and we can all remember where we were when Neil Armstrong sent back this message: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” Yes, it was one small step for man, but a giant step for mankind!! Well, while the recent news that United Airlines – which coined the slogan “Fly the friendly skies” not long before the moon mission – has landed in Guyana might not have resounded across the world, it’s certainly big news for us.
What it means is the traffic between Houston and Guyana is expected to be quite heavy for quite a bit. And since there ain’t no big Guyanese community there – like, say, New York – but just Exxon with its headquarters, it means they’re digging in their heels here. And in effect telling Mad Maduro – who decreed they should leave! – to go take a hike!!
So, in the meantime, maybe Guyanese should begin checking out Houston as a tourist destination via United??
…Mayday!!
Your Eyewitness is quite disheartened that Norton is “throwin’ talk” at PNC members who’ve thrown their hats in the ring to challenge him for the leadership at Congress. Hadn’t he boasted – when he was elected – about the PNC’s superior “democratic culture”??
