Dear Editor,
It was less than 2 years since I had visited the Essequibo Coast. So I prepared for my recent travel there by looking up the destination in Google Maps. To my astonishment what I knew as the Anna Regina Public Road was named Ave. 100 Bolivar and a main street was named Calle 100 Guayana. See
https://www.google.com/maps/@7.2671241,-58.4800784,404m/ data=!3m1!1e3 or https://www. google.com/maps/@7.2671241,-58.4800784,17.94z if you do not believe me.
On my arrival at Supenaam, I heard folks joking (!?) about being in Venezuela, and I remembered Shakespeare’s Juliet:
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet.”
So I resolved to ask some upstanding citizens who lived there from birth the name of the road I knew as the Anna Regina Public Road, and they without exception said “the … Public Road.” What got me more alarmed was that when I showed one of them the map he said it must have been from when the Spanish were here. I can’t say whether Columbus or some Spanish sailor stopped over for a peep, but that road was certainly not made and named by the Spanish. Historians will have to correct me if I am wrong.
I went to the Anna Regina Town Council office, met Town Clerk Ms Diane Critchlow, and explained the gravity of the situation to her. Google must have gotten that information from somewhere, because when on the Google map I clicked on roads in Suddie a box popped up and said, “Unnamed road”.
Google is big and only big countries like the USA or China can shift its policies. But it is also a business that is subject to popularity pressure. We must enlist all our many friends to get Google to change those names. But to what?
We have neglected to name our roads, so they must first be named, muy pronto. And please don’t delay by squabbling. Let those living there become involved in naming their own streets, put their names and addresses to the agreement, and send it to the town and village councils to send copies to Google.
We can’t afford to wait, not even for local government elections. The internet is increasingly influencing and creating opportunities (and even reality) for the younger generation in the world.
Surely our CXC students of history and geography can be assigned SBAs that will be relevant to this purpose.
All human knowledge is built by 3 principles: existence, relation, and change. The first one is identified and communicated by chosen name. Delay, and before we know it a majority in the increasingly technological and democratic world will swear on Google Maps for their authority.
So my present local response to Juliet would be:
“But when ʼtwas not of th’ ancestors who chose,
in the case of naming Guyana Street
and Bolivar Avenue to impose
on the Essequibo Coast, us to cheat,
then must we rise, the claimer to defeat.”
Here is where the Guyana Press Association and its member media can assist in relating the names to people and places (perhaps Stabroek News’ weekly ‘World beyond Georgetown’ can add a new dimension to its Essequibo outreaches) to effect a change in Google Maps before Ave. 100 Bolivar comes to be regarded by the growing googling world as the eastern frontier of our western Bolivarian Republic neighbour. Their Ministry of Propaganda is certainly working. Again I urge, speed.
Yours faithfully,
Alfred Bhulai
Born Berbician living in Demerara, looking at Essequibo, Cooperative Republic of Guyana
