Looks like it’s “beat up on Georgetown” week. As one who works in our capital city – and therefore spends more than a fair bit of time in its environs – your Eyewitness wonders why all the brickbats all of a sudden. Rome – and Georgetown – weren’t built in a day; and Georgetown certainly falls into frequent flooding in a single day!! Rome, of course, WAS sacked in a day – 24 August 410 AD – by the Visigoths!! The way some folks are carrying on, you’d think they want our fair capital to be sacked by Maduro and his hordes!!
Now, a lot of those who’re whining about – and longing for a return of – our “Garden City” gotta realize that this isn’t how “progress” works!! Let’s look at Georgetown. How many remember it’s made up of a number of coffee (and maybe cotton) plantations that were gradually incorporated into a town, and then into a city. So, like they say, you can take a pig from the gutter and put lipstick on it, but it remains a pig!! Same with Georgetown. No matter how we keep on renaming it, it remains a collection of plantations carved out from land at least FIVE FEET below sea level!! Ain’t NOTHING gonna change THAT!!
As plantations along the Demerara River, the canals irrigating and draining the fields ran at right angles to the river. So, we have the Princess St Canal and other canals, like along Croal Street, running east-west. Separating fields as recent as the 1940s, what we now call East Street had its north-south canal – like Camp, Carmichael, Waterloo etc before – with black water and water lillies!! From Vlissengen, the canals ran north-south. And Punt Trench was used to bring cane to the Ruimveldt Sugar Factory!!
The point about all this (gratuitous?) geography lesson is that, in our drive for “progress”, we’ve blocked up most of these canals, and will continue to do so. We learnt in school that “matter occupies space”, and all the (material) buildings we’re erecting got to be put somewhere!! There go the canals!! Now it’s no use telling whatever powers that be to construct sewers like they have in, say, New York City. New York City was founded by the Dutch on what were hills on Manhattan Island – so the water can flow away by gravity. Unfortunately, those same Dutch started what was to become Georgetown from a swamp!!
Now, with us being assured that – notwithstanding all those reports from the oil majors! – global warming and its consequent rising seas ain’t gonna be reversed, your Eyewitness advises His Excellency that we better have enough land around Silica City to accommodate an abandoned Georgetown!!
Discretion is the better part of valour!!
…home ownership??
Now, our Eyewitness knows he’s been advising (with hands raised to the heavens!) the Opposition to come up with a more attractive programme than the PPP – to be credible. And attract votes!! So, what’s with the new initiative they insist they’ll implement the moment they get back into Government – to subsidise rents!!?? Now, your Eyewitness knows that most of the folks in Georgetown support the PNC – and most of them rent homes.
So, is this just another ‘pie in the sky’ proposal to buy votes?? The question is why do people rent, rather than purchase homes?? For the PNC urban supporters, historically, they were unable to purchase homes, and fell into the pattern of home rentals – starting with those horrendous ranges. To its credit, the PNC under Burnham did also promise to “house” Guyanese. It’s just that he was unable to implement all the grandiose plans he unfurled!
Now, it’s not that house ownership’s impractical in towns – we got condominiums to deal with apartment ownership!! Equity for all!!
…economic democracy??
Locked in a dispute about releasing funds for African- Guyanese to the “umbrella” IDPADA-G, the PPP just decided to release the funds directly to the constituent groups. The latter could always turn over their money to IDPADA–G!!
