Dear Editor,

On August 1, 2010, my family and I paid homage to Damon at that truly inspiring monument in Essequibo.  It had taken us seven hours to eventually get to Adventure, counting from the time we joined the queue at Parika.  Some other people, truck drivers in particular, had been waiting for days, but we got ahead of them because the limit for trucks had been reached and our car was allocated a place by a gracious, efficient gentleman.

On our return trip, it took me twelve hours to get from Adventure to Parika on August 2.  My car was sandwiched between two larger, heavier vehicles for the duration of the journey, with no more than three inches on either side.  I shall not forget crawling under trucks to get to my family on the upper deck.

I truly wonder if the Cabinet members with responsibility for transportation would ever have a fraction of the courage of a Damon, who so courageously took on the apprenticeship system some 175 years ago, to demand an improved ferry service between Parika and Adventure, which now reduces commuters to animals whose survival/competitiveness depends on their ability to get on a boat.

The answer is, of course, a resounding ‘no.’ They might happily participate however in an unveiling ceremony for busts in their honour near the Damon monument. But be assured, they wouldn’t take the ferry; they would fly to the Cinderella County!

Yours faithfully,
Thomas B. Singh