As a resident of Lodge I would like to respond to Mr Balwant Persaud whose letter was published in the Stabroek News on June 7, 2012 under the caption ‘The job of maintaining a clean city lies with the city council, the government and citizens, not foreign diplomats.’ In it he commented on the diplomatic community seeking publicity rather than making a difference in communities in Georgetown. He employs the same rhetoric that many of the politicians in Guyana use to discredit the work of anyone who tries to make a difference – “give us the money and we will do it” – but nothing ever gets done. I personally do not support the position of Mr Persaud; the Guyanese community is growing short of role models, and so what if those role models in Guyana happen to be diplomats and people from the community. I believe that it is the responsibility of every citizen to meaningfully contribute to the care of our environment and we can visibly see that the task of caring for the city is undermined by the thinking of people like Mr Persaud who simply want to sit and criticize everything someone else tries to do but show no evidence of what they themselves have done to improve this country. Instead of attacking people who are trying to make a difference, Mr Persaud should find a place where he can volunteer and use his scholastic talent to enrich the lives of other Guyanese. He can write about the growing trend of violence against women so it does not increase before foreigners try to do something with the community to reduce it – or maybe he thinks that this is the job for the government too.
Yours faithfully,
Dmitri Nicholson
