Dear Editor,
My grandfather, whose name was Walter Nathaniel Parris, was the uncle of the late George Parris of Linden.
My grandfather came from Lot 6 Bagotstown, East Bank Demerara, and worked for a short period with the Demerara Bauxite Company (Demba). If he was alive today he would have been one hundred and thirteen years old. He and I had frequent conversations on his working days at Mackenzie, as it was called then. The responsibilities of Demba to its employees and their social development was one of the main foci of our discussions, for example, garbage collection, health (Mackenzie hospital), schools, electricity and the list goes on.
After the nationalization of Demba by the Guyana government, some responsibilities were taken over by Guybau, the company that replaced Demba, and the local authority, which became the Linden Mayor and Town Council not so long after. The recreation hall building which houses the Linden Museum is the property of the Mayor and Town Council of Linden, and there are other structures under its control which include the Wismar Boat Landing. That landing was constructed by Demba to transport workers from the Makenzie shore to the Wismar shore. The Mayor and Town Council has given up willingly or unwillingly its responsibility to maintain and preserve it, as well as to collect revenue from the operators of boat services who never maintain the shed because it’s not theirs.
What a shame. Too often, historic sites and structures are left to fall into ruins in Linden Town, for example the Christianburg Waterwheel and the Hamilton Sawmill Boiler standing between two roads on Burnham Drive. Of the bauxite trains and carriages, none has been cleaned and preserved and put on show for historic purposes, and neither has the R.H. Carr or Sprostons Wharf on the Wismar shore.
May I remind our so-called leaders, a people without a history will always be led astray like lost sheep.
Yours faithfully,
Winslow Parris
