Dear Editor,
Congratulations to yourself and staff for giving us overseas-based Guyanese a wonderful opportunity to be able to access your newspapers via the internet almost anywhere in the world. Please continue to use your press freedom to keep us reliably informed and entertained. I also wish to take this opportunity to express a happy Easter to fellow Guyanese both at home at abroad.
The general news can sometimes make me feel dispirited especially when I read about the crime wave that seems to have overrun our beloved country. I really hope that external law enforcers working in collaboration with the locals can and will be effective when using their expertise to combat the criminals.
My main concern is the issue of the sea defence along our Atlantic coastline. According to recent reports, it has once again been breached by the ocean. I am worried that not much has been done since I last visited. In my early years, I recall picking up seashells along the sands behind Kingston and the then Pegasus Hotel at low tide. Now I’ve received a phone call that the roads along the coast were almost impassable because the weakened sea defence had once more been unable to withstand the high tide. As many people will know, the full moon exerts its influence on the tidal motion. Compounded by the effects of global warming, the Atlantic Ocean is a natural reservoir for the excess water from other seas and oceans.
In February 2005, I was on holiday in Canada. Weeks before there had been a huge outcry about the Tsunami, which had struck the holiday resort in Bali. There was worldwide coverage and lots of charity aid given. While in either Ontario or Toronto, I sat in my nice, warm hotel room, switched on the TV and began to ‘channel hop’. Suddenly I saw someone a man dressed in the traditional Guyanese Dhoti and pleading with viewers for help for Guyana. I was flabbergasted. He sounded Guyanese, was sitting in a plush Hindu temple and appealing to people to put aside their differences and prejudices and send donations to Guyana. I stared transfixed as I saw the stark and frightening images of my own country with its cars, minibuses and houses being submerged by dirty, muddy, contaminated water. I could not believe that this had been happening and I was unaware of it.
Now that things have been somewhat restored, the threat of flooding looms once more. The city of New Orleans drowned before I’d had chance to see it in its glory. Why?
The levy/concrete defences broke and the floods came in. Just like New Orleans, we too are under threat if nothing is done to rapidly reinforce our sea defences.
People dancing on the grass mound or partying there is not the causative factor for cracks and breakages. Where else can they go in safety to de-stress after a hellish week at home or work? The defence has been badly constructed and in some areas it is inadequate. I’ve seen the coast from an aerial view via helicopter; therefore I know its vulnerability.
We as locals were never good dam builders. It was the Dutch who built our infrastructure; from kokers, culverts to dams. Can someone reading this seek their collaboration to implement decent dams/dykes or sea defences to protect lives? The locals can also be a part of the project and become gainfully employed and feel valued as human beings.
It floods in Holland too; I’ve been there. They showed us how a special team operates to gauge the water levels in the polders (lands reclaimed from the sea) and the regular, systematic checks made for crevices in the dykes/dams. Amsterdam is as flat as a pancake, gets flooded periodically but the government not only manage to give early warnings to citizens, but whenever flooding occurs, the people are given prompt financial help to rebuild their lives. Yes, they are richer, but what are we doing with the foreign aid given to us by other governments?
In the UK, it floods as soon as the rain falls for a day or two. Houses and cars are submerged when rivers and lakes overflow. I guess many people back home don’t know this. The trains stop, (because the lines run on electricity), cars are stranded. Yet some places escape this disaster because they are not built on flood plains but on hilly areas like Wismar in Linden.
Another difference is that people earn enough in order to insure their homes, and the contents. Therefore, house contents’ insurance covers wrecked TVs, stoves, fridges, beds, chairs, toilets and everything else. Guyanese do not have this option, as they are too poor and harassed by bureaucrats as well as bandits who never seem to let up on people who wish to make a decent and happy living for themselves.
The advent of VAT really made me angry. I paid VAT on items in Canada and North America but Guyana cannot be compared with either of those countries. We have a larger underclass of people who struggle to survive on a daily basis on minimum wage.
Many have become migrant workers and have to accept contemptuous treatment from their sometimes reluctant and hostile host countries. I call this VAT nothing but a daring daylight robbery of ordinary citizens. It’s an injustice! Get Guyanese rich first before bullying them into paying that infernal VAT.
It’s a good idea to build cities in the hilly areas; at least it would be away from the flood plains but the bandits worry me. There must be something such as added security, educational or financial incentive which can be offered to Guyanese in order to entice them to live away from what they know as vibrant, established cities and towns. Encourage foreigners; our neighbours to take up residence in Mazaruni, Lethem and other far reaching areas which remain vastly under populated.
Of course resources must be provided but encourage an ethnic mix and soon people will not only wish to visit Guyana but return to live with the freedom to travel without fear. We need tourists; but they would not come in huge numbers after being mugged or intimidated when they try to take pictures of Parliament buildings.
Yours faithfully,
G Helena Bishop
