Shortly before the start of the recently concluded 13th Caribbean Sustainable Tourism Development Conference the Government Information Agency (GINA) issued a media release in which it announced that government was partnering with the private sector to ‘spruce up’ the city so that our visitors could experience a more wholesome capital than that which those of us who live here must live with, day in, day out.
A similar initiative had been announced prior to Cricket World Cup five years ago, the assumption being, it seems, that a selective, superficial tidying up of parts of the city is enough to alter the impression gleaned not only by foreigners who live and work here for extended periods, but people from the Caribbean who visit and travel around in our city and who certainly take with them a more realistic impression of the state of the city when they leave. It is, to say the least, an absurd notion.
The most recent ‘grand plan’ to “enhance the general appearance of Georgetown” was, according to GINA, ‘fleshed out’ at a meeting at which at least three Cabinet ministers and representatives of about half a dozen private sector entities were present, though “the spirit of togetherness” in which, again according to GINA, the sprucing up plan was conceived, appeared to find no room for City Hall. The release, though, found room to make reference to the “many occasions” on which government and the private sector had “bailed out” City Hall, a comment, while altogether unrelated to the substantive purpose of the media release, that reflected what GINA clearly regards as its real role – propagating the views of the administration, in this case its loathing of the City Hall administration.
GINA considered it pertinent too to make reference to Acting Tourism Minister Irfaan Ali’s remark that “the city has been an embarrassment to the business community” without troubling itself to mention that such embarrassment as the business community allegedly feels is, in large measure, a function of its own considerable delinquency both in the matter of, in some cases, the payment of its rates and taxes and, again in some cases, garbage disposal habits that reflect nothing but contempt for the city that facilitates their trading and other commercial activities.
The point about all this of course is that the GINA release is guilty of, at the very least, insinuating that City Hall is the sole culprit when it comes to the state of the city. That, to put it bluntly, is simply a gross misrepresentation of the truth. Neither the government nor the private sector are paragons of virtue when it comes to the state of the city.
The particular undertaking given was that the pre-conference sprucing up exercise was to have affected the city and the route leading from “the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Timehri to the Guyana International Conference Centre” where the Sustainable Tourism Conference was held, though there was no really persuasive evidence of any transformation in the state of the city, a circumstance that raises the question as to whether the GINA release did not in fact amount to ‘much ado about nothing.’ After all, have we now not grown used to various grandiose pronouncements to address the problems of the city, all of which blossom with much fuss and fanfare then wither and die at the speed of light?
Interestingly, the GINA release informs us about a new “plan” drafted by the Central Housing and Planning Authority which envisages “a permanent collaboration” between the government and the private sector to create of “a map of the city trail comprising historical sites, and streets where tourists normally traverse” and an initiative to have the trails on the map “always in an accessible and pleasant state.”
It is unclear whether or not that plan will ever be placed in the public domain, and while its effective implementation would be welcome since several of our urban historical sites – including the 1763 monument and the nearby Independence Arch – languish in a condition of seeming abandonment, that still leaves the rest the city unaccounted for. Is there some other plan, for example, to address the unsightly state of the Stabroek Market area and the shopping areas of Regent and Water streets which is where the unsightliness of the city is most apparent, and is there a role for City Hall in such an exercise?
These days, whenever the issue of the state of the city arises, the matter of local government elections is thrown into the mix, the marrying of the two sometimes leaving the impression that restoring the capital to something resembling a state of order must await the outcome of the local government poll. While we are told that local government elections will be held this year, the fact that the year is already four months old and given the uncertainties associated with GECOM’s readiness to hold such elections over the next three to four months, the likelihood that next year might find us with the same administration at City Hall cannot be ruled out entirely.
The other problem with the GINA release is that it traverses what is now well-worn territory and those of us who have waited for years for the return of our Garden City now hold firmly to the view that seeing is believing. Nor are we taken in by the view of Junior Local Government Minister Norman Whittaker that “hopefully, new attitudes and admiration for an enhanced environment” will make us want to sustain whatever efforts the government and the private sector make to render the city “more pleasant and more attractive.”
It is a welcome and presumably sincere sentiment, though there is no persuasive evidence to suggest that those in authority, whether they be government or city officials or the business community are sufficiently seized of the importance of truly restoring the city to a condition that allows us to be truly proud of it. So that inasmuch as it can be argued that the indifference and ingrained bad habits of sections of the citizenry are, to large extent, responsible for the state in which the city finds itself, it has to be said as well that turning things around does not appear to be at the top of the agenda of those who share responsibility for restoring Georgetown. Indeed, when account is taken of the magnitude of the effort that will be required to transform the city, one is inclined the view that what has now become the practice of engaging in superficial cleanups for the sake of appearances will continue for some time yet.
