…the same ole GT BS
As your Eyewitness read the reports on the APNU meeting at Stabroek Market Square last Friday evening, all he could say (to himself) – as he lifted his hands to the heavens like the prophets of yore – was, “How many more times, Jah??!!” Here was the present PNC Mayor of Georgetown – and they go back all the way to Forbes Burnham of the newly formed PNC, who played that role between 1959 and 1964!! – promising to not only assist vendors in general but the ones in Stabroek “Big” Market in particular!!
Under Burnham, of course, Guyana got “independence” to do what he wanted – without the whites interfering. And it would appear that what the PNC wanted was for the city to evolve (devolve?) from the “Garden City” of the Brits to the “Garbage City” of the PNC!! By 1992, when Hoyte handed over power in the Central Government to the PPP, even hardcore GT party members reminisced – in private, of course!! – about the “good old days” under the Brits!! Your Eyewitness remembers listening to then Deputy Mayor Robert Williams – at the same spot where Mentore screamed out his promises – promising to do the very same “renewal” of the Big Market and vending!!
The one blip in PNC control of GT came two years later when Hamilton Green – expelled by Desmond Hoyte from the PNC – formed the Good and Green Party and seized control of the M&CC!! Didn’t change anything about the Garbage City rap though – they were Tweedledum to the PNC’s Tweedledee! In fact, matters got worse as Green intensified his usual rants about vendors getting the short end of the stick – versus store owners whom he claimed were “pampered”! Every M&CC since – all PNC controlled, of course – has promised to straighten out the mess – in and around the Big Market – into which it has been allowed to sink.
So you gotta excuse your Eyewitness when he tells you his eyes started to glaze over before they rolled – when he heard Mentore’s promises. He’s gonna build two additional stories on top of the present structure – and so triple the stall capacity to 3000!! He announced, “So, over time, everybody will not be all over the street. We’ll be able to centralise vending where vendors are supposed to be, and the streets will become freer and easier for the other businesses to also exist.”
So why wasn’t his done before?? Money isn’t the constraint. Didn’t the PPP buy land from Toolsie Persaud back in 2009 for $300 million and hand it over?? It’s now the Vendors Market – which is a bigger eyesore than Big Market Square – and causes even greater congestion and more of a traffic hazard!!
…square pegs
Another third-tier PNC leader (not necessarily “third rate”!!) speaking at The Big Market that attracted some 200 persons – at a spot where usually thousands congregate spontaneously to “buss a lime” – was businessman Terrence Campbell. He owns a number of fast-food joints in GT. He was one of the original middle-class, middle-aged men in the throes of some sorta midlife crisis who’d plunged into dilettante politics. He lasted about a week in his first foray in ANUG.
Five years later, it seems his one-week stint in ANUG qualified him to be floated as a “consensus candidate” for a unified Opposition to take on – and out! – the big, bad PPP. That drowned, and he drifted into the rump-AFC – where he was delegated to broker a deal with the PNC for the AFC leader to replace Norton!! Not ready to commit political suicide, we learnt at Big Market that Norton co-opted and charged him – with no experience in developmental economics – to implement the PNC’s development plans!!
Jokers!!
…Burnham’s superstition
Burnham evidently believed the act of naming something would actually make the thing real. Like his “Feed, House and Clothe the Nation” plan’.
AFC’s followed suit and would rename the Ministry of Agriculture the “Ministry of Food Security”!!
