Dear Editor,
An invitation issued to all artists and designers operating in the city — to meet with the Town Clerk of Georgetown in the Promenade Gardens, to solicit ideas for improving the aesthetics of our capital to make it comparable with the great cities of the world — could only be one of two things:
This is either another artless attempt to divert the citizens’ attention from the realities of the backwardness and squalour that they are forced to exist in, thanks to the Georgetown Municipality; or this gentleman has completely lost touch with reality and is merely lifting unashamedly, or as we would say locally, ‘pirating’ concepts and models that are employed by cities that are advanced, well managed, and clean.
How could he even consider creating such a façade — consisting of murals, art pieces, fabrics, etc — while the drains are filled with unmentionables; the roads are pot-holed; hardly any street lighting exists; minibus touts harass passers-by; mosquitoes are everywhere; the parapets are overgrown with weeds and bushes; almost all of the municipal buildings are in a ruinous state; the slaughterhouse, where animals are infamously bludgeoned to death, is in a grubby state; and the cemetery is a national disgrace?
Surely, he could not be serious? That would be putting the cart before the horse.
I don’t understand why this Council seems interested only in cosmetic and outrageously expensive projects, such as constructing the Presidential Park, deploying a road sweeper to sweep roads filled with craters, and installing the scandalous parking meters.
Why don’t they get involved in some necessary and worthwhile projects, like constructing a modern recreational centre, inclusive of a municipal swimming pool; like repairing and replacing all defective street lights; like building modern shopping plazas that would accommodate all of our vendors; like putting CCTV cameras in and around municipal markets, and have the Constabulary effectively monitor them etc, etc?
Is it that they have no vision and competence at City Hall to conceptualise and effect such necessary and basic schemes? Or is it that such projects would not benefit them?
Sincerely,
James Mc Onnell
