Dear Editor,
In 1891, according to James Rodway in The Story of Georgetown (1920), the “650 private lamps and 50 street lamps” that had been ordered the previous year were formally launched by Governor and Lady Gormanston on “the 17th January 1891, when crowds of people filled the street to look at the new lights. Since that time electric light slowly but surely replaced gas, until the Gas Company was compelled to discontinue its operations, and gas lighting came to an end.”
On October 11 2009, the Stabroek News cited the Guyana Power & Light (GPL) chairman as informing the public that the blackout situation “is about to get a little worse before it actually gets better.”
Since modern denizens of Georgetown have heard that before, and know, after more than thirty years experience through two administrations, that this is a subliminal acceptance by the GPL’s latest managerial messenger that blackouts will get “worser”, should we compel the company to discontinue its operations so that gas will replace electricity and retain its lost historical place?
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Westmaas
