Dear Editor,
I pen this letter with profound concern for the treatment of workers, now that 2014 has been designated the ‘Year of Workers’ by APNU.
My community, Pattensen, located in the Sophia area, where approximately 87% of the citizens are in permanent jobs, has been saddled with the indignity of some most deplorable roads over the last three years. This situation (which I wrote about over a year ago) is very unusual in that I’m inclined to think it is only in Sophia where the repairs to or construction of a carriageway have gained the attention of two national budget estimates but to date have not been completed.
Editor, the extent of neglect this community faces boggles the mind when one considers what has transpired over the last year. On February 19, 2013 some machinery, (property of a noted road construction company) graded the totally potholed surface of the road, which some call B Field main road. Then the works team proceeded to place a layer of bricks loosely on the mentioned surface. This is what has been done to date, and with the weather and continued usage of the road it has now become degraded and is in an even worse and more dangerous condition than before, but not a word is being said or any work continued.
During the second half of 2013 a noted member of our community died. He was a former long-serving staff member of the Public Works Ministry, but it was a big surprise when workers from that ministry appeared and started to do some patchwork on the surface of the road, which we later recognized was to accommodate important ‘visitors’ to this individual’s wake and funeral.
This action, Editor, also signalled to us that very important persons know of the plight of our community and refuse to give it any attention. The obvious neglect of this roadway is certainly borderline official abuse to a section of the city populace which lives in one of the largest wards of the city.
In the latter part of 2013, many publications and viewpoints which are of public value, made the news, and so our population was bombarded with reports of community centre upgrades, works completed under CRIPs, local government elections, political grandstanding and power-based governing, and last but not least the 5% per cent increase and 5% economic growth.
Despite the many items of what was considered newsworthy, the residents in our community were never able to identify with the touted progress, prosperity and growth because of a structural defect right on our doorsteps.
One noteworthy news caption did get my attention and it came from one of our ministers (whom I admire) ‒ the Minster of Home Affairs.
In his missive he stated that whenever he passes the cemetery he gets upset at its state, and that he was in awe at how the workers (gravediggers) were able to function in that environment. Well, Editor, our workers from this Sophia community have to hazard their life, safety and their vehicles to traverse a potholed, mass of undulations to get to their places of work, and no one seems to care. As if these taxpayers are of no consequence even as we all represent the human capital of this nation.
Of concern too is the money wasted in the initial works which were started on our main road, because more money will now have to be re-spent to complete the original project. This surely does not mean value for money, which is another term I hear being loosely touted in some corridors of government.
My favourite Minister further stated that Guyanese should not sit back and accept situations that exist like the state of the cemetery.
The power of observation tells me that the Minister was talking about a cemetery filled with dead people, and here in my community we have approximately 40,000 persons who are alive and work across the spectrum of employment in this country and still we are forced to endure this travesty. I dare say that this should be a clarion call for the denizens of the Sophia area to act on the injustice we suffer daily.
After all we are alive and we are capital; when capital is mishandled there are always losses in the end. Someone needs to act and do the decent thing; it’s our human right as workers to enjoy the fruits of our taxes.
Yours faithfully,
Colin Marks