Dear Editor,
I read recently in the print media about a small group of pensioners protesting the deplorable conditions they are made to live in in their community of South Vryheid’s Lust, ECD.
That is a community I know very well having spent the last of my childhood days there. In 1978 when the southern carriage way of the East Coast highway was being built, we were given a plot of land in what was then known as the Green Pasture. The new road passed through our lot at the corner of Prince William Street and the old Public Road at Plaisance.
Even before that took place though, I used to visit Vryheid’s Lust with the Bible Missionary Church to conduct Revival Crusades. I ended up being in charge of the Sunday School that was set up under the home of Mr And Mrs Price. In those days the community, which was known as the Joint Service Scheme, had homes in various stages of completion, but the infrastructure was already in place. The roads were paved, the drains were concreted, there was electricity and water to the homes. The area was as clean as a community should be.
While still a young man, I enjoyed every moment spent in Vryheid’s Lust. We had regular cricket and football matches pitching teams from Vryheid’s Lust Scheme, Green Pasture and neigbouring South Better Hope. Plaisance teams sometimes took part in those games.
I never went to primary school on the East Coast, having moved to Plaisance in the mid-seventies; I was already enrolled at West Demerara Secondary where I completed Form 1 before my transfer to Cummings Lodge Secondary. In those days we walked to school along the then old railway embankment. We would sometimes hitch a ride on one of the many horse-drawn carts that were a regular fixture in those days.
I remember 1978, the year of the referendum with slogans of “Vote for the house, and kill the mouse.” At that age we were extremely limited in our knowledge of politics. So what happened during that time had us both baffled and terrified. Out of school youths would come running through the school corridors during school hours, most times in the after-lunch sessions and pointing at students whom they threatened to beat up. That was all the signal we needed. Just as school was over, we banded ourselves together and made a mad dash down the road, never stopping until we reached the safety of Goedverwagting.
There were boys like myself, Paul DeSouza, Garfield and Rawle Wills, Randolph Paton, Selwyn Williams, Joseph Barnwell and, yes, Anthony Edghill, now Bishop Juan Edghill. We had to run for our lives.
Back at Vryheid’s Lust, I got my Lay-Preacher’s licence and was given another Sunday school to teach in Central Vryheid’s Lust. This one was kept at the home of the Baldeo’s, a famous hire car driver at the time.
I got my first job at the Royal Bank of Canada while living there. I got married there, and my first two children were born there. When I joined the army I was still living at Vryheid’s Lust. All this time the community was a peaceful, clean one.
Then came 1992. The government changed hands and a large number of people came to the Green Pasture to set up a squatter settlement. There was a confrontation between legitimate residents and the would-be squatters. The riot squad of the Guyana Police Force was summoned and they attempted to take the side of the squatters. That was when the womenfolk of Vryheid’s Lust demonstrated what stuff they were made of. They brought out their babies and young children and lined them up on the very bridge that is at the centre of the residents’ protest currently. This unorthodox tactic caused the police to retreat. Needless to say, the squatters were discouraged and they withdrew as well.
On this day, Vryheid’s Lust is being punished for the stand they took to preserve land that was identified for the expansion of the scheme. The roads deterioated while communities around them were getting new roads regularly.
The NDC tractor stopped visiting to collect garbage. What we saw recently was frustration from long years of neglect.
The only thing I did not appreciate was the fact that it took pensioners to highlight this issue. What has become of the young men and women of this once proud community? I hope they are not so beaten down that they can’t differentiate garbage from a clean environment. The regional officials too should be ashamed at not knowing what is happening in communities, especially those that would have voted for them. The Regional Chairman needs to get officers in the villages. Remember elections are in the air.
Yours faithfully,
Carl A Parker Sr
Regional Councillor
Region 9
