Dear Editor,
For these August holidays, parents can save themselves a bundle — which they would have had to spend taking their children to fancy zoos overseas, or on a safari in some exotic foreign land, to enjoy a vast array of wildlife and nature — by just taking them to visit the La Penitence Market in Georgetown.
Certainly, the largest, most vicious and audacious rodents and other pests in Guyana call the La Penitence Market home. From their giant size and brawny appearance, one can only assume that these rodents probably sneak over to the nearby pharmacy after hours and gorge themselves on testosterone, as it is logical to assume that that are on anabolic steroids.
And they await neither the cover of darkness nor the quietude of the closed market to move about and seek out food, but can rather be seen on a daily basis nonchalantly sauntering past patrons and vendors.
But witticism aside, the La Penitence Market — if you wish to call it a market — is the grimiest, darkest, and dankest bazaar in this hemisphere. The Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown should be ashamed of themselves for subjecting stall holders and shoppers to the squalid conditions at that market while collecting substantial stall rents and property taxes from the citizens.
It is just unfathomable how the Mayor and Town Clerk — who recurrently tour South, Central and North America, Asia and Europe and see what modern shopping centres, malls, markets and bazaars are like — would be happy to subject the visitors and residents of Georgetown to such grime and insanitary conditions.
Is this a part of the plan to transform Georgetown into a ‘Green City’? Does this constitute their vision for a modern capital?
No attempt should be made to repair or rehabilitate that market. It should instead be torn down, and a completely new facility built in its place.
No sane, sensible or decent person would want to venture into that market to say they are shopping. How are those vendors expected to compete with modern supermarkets, shopping malls and grocery stores? It is just so unfair!
Sincerely,
Anu Bihari
