– And Mr Chapman’s Training in Tracing
Frankly Speaking
Two preliminary/introductory points: no matter how determined and steadfast one used or wants to be with respect to an issue, sheer attrition and frustration can drive one to just give up. Even after years of trying to influence positive behavioural change, for example. This has become my position in terms of attempting to persuade citizens to be cleaner, more disciplined where garbage management and disposal and just plain personal sanitation are concerned. You want to give up but still hope you can influence say, ten out of a hundred of today’s Guyanese. So you continue.
Secondly, the more popular usage is “Crimes against the Environment,” though today, I wanted a more “personal” description including “cleanliness”.
All this today was inspired by an editorial of lament in last Friday’s Stabroek Business titled “City of shame: Environmental Anarchy”. How I concur with both the facts and sentiments of the editorial! And how appalled I am at the stink, decrepit, infected eyesore the garbage city of Georgetown has become!
So even in the context of my temptation to give up the despair that all might be lost, I never-the-less share my earlier views on sanitation, cleanliness and solid waste management. In the capital and elsewhere.
Our lame local authority
Yes, I agree with you: the less said or written about what passes for a Georgetown City Council – the actual, or assumed (?), municipal “authority” to govern and manage Georgetown – the better.
For all frequently–announced reasons, that group has become ineffectual, almost redundant. The evident, obvious, visible fact is that, where the clearing and cleaning of Georgetown is concerned, the municipality is hamstrung. Consider just three elements. One, the laws on littering are ignored and enforcement is routinely compromised. Two, even when and if citizens try not to litter, public refuse bins are either non-existent or overflowing because of municipal challenges. Thirdly, the Guyanese citizenry, this generation , by and large, from ten-year-old school child to store-owner, has evidently, lost all sense of civic consciousness and cleanliness. Little is now wrong with dumping and littering. “So it go”, now!
My own wonderful,
wasted experience
The Great Floods of January 2005 ensured that what was to be a one-year Pilot Project turned into virtually two years.
Yes I’m referring to that solid waste public awareness and education pilot programme for Lodge and Regent Street, funded in 2004 by the government and the Inter-American Development Bank. I was part of the team headed by the still youthful Dr Paloma Mohammed, all operating out of the Guyenterprise Ad Agency. What a personal, eye-opening, rewarding experience! Alas, our expertise embarrassed the poor city council. For even though their two top solid waste officials were savvy and capable, their resources and responses were laughable.
For myself, I became immersed in the ramifications of waste management and disposal. Our project team both learnt and facilitated. Consider this list: types of waste, re-using and re-cycling, composting, dumps and landfills, pitfalls of incineration, old laws, necessary legislation, public health challenges, training city constables, prosecution, use of technology to catch littering and those who dump, the range of municipal (garbage) violations, offences and penalties and , yes, a special effective municipal court. All of the above Dr Mohammed’s team delved into.
We entered nursery and other schools; we discussed filaria in Lodge and provided bins; we created education-friendly characters and television plays, books and eco-friendly exhibitions; we spoke to the Director of Public Prosecutions and to almost all residents and businesses in the two areas selected; we showed how to remove derelict vehicles and to set up solid-waste-disposal hotlines. Oh, but the City Council had little capacity!
Education, crime, enforcement
After the Carrot comes the Stick. Impressed as he had to be with that most comprehensive programme, the beleaguered Mayor Green no doubt felt inadequate. He preached enforcement and penalties, after our widespread education outreach. But behavioural change – after a generation of lawlessness and the ignorance of just not knowing or caring – takes a long time. Try changing the very young. Penalize the adults.
But what are these crimes against the environment besides littering and dumping? Besides the more “modern” Environmental Protection Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act, under which charges relating to Solid Waste and Environmental degradation can be brought, there is a long list of offences contained in the ages-old Municipal and District Council Act 28:01.
Here are a few: Erecting stables or byres under dwelling houses, throwing, scattering, placing or depositing any waste in any “council” street, sidewalk, parapet, alleyway, public place or private property – and not using a receptacle provided for that purpose, throwing carcasses or excrement in alleyways, acting as a barber in or upon any public street, or council road or way.
Believe me, there are many more violations already on the law and by-law books. How incongruous and laughable even the above short list seems, when you just walk around stink, chaotic Georgetown. Vendors and children eat, laugh, work and play near to smelly gutters for a whole day. They have been conditioned. Dirt, grime and garbage are just a part of their lives. Alas, I grieve for them and their minds. You tell me, friends, what should be done? Especially when some senior folks rail against enforcement.
Tracing Mr Chapman
Perhaps by the time you read this it will be done, as this was written early in this week.
I agree with an interesting, obvious (?) aspect of this Sunday’s Editorial (Sunday Stabroek, 2nd Aug. 09). That is, if Mr Carl Chapman a consultant-trainer to Smith Myers, the company that manufactures these tracing devices used by the convicted Mr Khan, came to Guyana to train Khan and others to use the equipment, could not Chapman’s arrival, movements and departure be easily traced? When did he arrive? Where did he stay? Who hosted him? Is that not a vital part of the seeming puzzle?
Ponder…
The evidence from Mr Vaughn in the Brooklyn court is compelling. However, and frankly speaking, he seems to be leaving out some elements. You know… the involvement of the other side, some other officers and officials. Sing, Mr Vaughn, Sing. The whole truth!
Why are the anti-government forces trying to re-write the political past with respect to the frequency and severity of torture in times past? These days the society is more open, so more is known more quickly. I know of horror stories under past regimes. But what good will be served…
Is Forbes resting in peace, 24 years after?
Thank you Mr Justin De Freitas, whoever you are
‘Til next week!
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