Sylvan Williams, Chairman, Rockstone Community Develop-ment Council (CDC): `I’m living in Rockstone for twenty four years now and I was elected Chairman on 7 April, 2012. We’re having a lot of problems in Rockstone. The first issue is the division of Rockstone. We have the CDC that formed in Rockstone first and then after you have the Rockstone Village Council, whereby they have a Toshau running it and I think that is not fair. So, we are asking for the CDC to be the sole authority to run the affairs of Rockstone. We don’t want the community to be run under the Amerindian Act because residents of the community, who are farming need leases for our land. You have a lot of residents here apply for land and to this day, they’re getting no feedback.’
Patricia George, single parent resident: ‘I’m a resident of Rockstone for about five to six years. I’m a single parent and because of the segregation I am feeling left out because I am not getting support from whatever coming into the community. My name was taken down to get solar panel. It come in for the children purpose and I don’t have any. My name was on the list of the paper they been checking and I don’t have a solar panel. The other issue is that I have two children – one is seventeen and one is nineteen – that drop out from school because of the segregation (in the community). I am an Amerindian, I got to say, right. But I don’t believe in them racialism thing because my father is a black man from St. Lucia and my mother is an Amerindian from Paruima and I don’t believe in racialism and I think we should unite together.”
Compton Sampson, resident farmer/businessman: `I’ve been coming to this community since 1978. Three years ago, I started living permanently in this community. From the time I’ve been coming, I know it is one where you have a mixed set of people from different races mingling, living together. Yes, the community had its lil, what I would call drunk fight and not an issue where race, in my opinion, used to be. Here of late since I come into this community to live permanently this division start. Many people talk about the division. I don’t want to go down that line but it affecting me. I am not against the Amerindian man fighting for his rights. We’re a country in which everybody has their democratic right. But what I am saying is that this community has been a mixed community for the past how much years, why we want to change it now to cause this division? And it seems like this division is being influenced by somebody else. If you sit down on an afternoon and you look at the little children going home from school you see them mixing and playing.
But the adults creating this division. Why we doing this? When you look at the children going down, you see a set of mixed race children going down and the mixed race children is children where most times you find the father is of African descent and the mother is of Amerindian descent. But still you get this division. Anyway, my thing is that for the three years that I’ve been here, myself and brother, we’re trying to establish a chicken farm along with provision. We apply for a piece of land but the application is sitting inside the forestry office without moving further than the desk of the man in charge. Now, you want to establish, you want to move forward but you’re scared. You don’t want to move forward because you don’t have documents. You want to expand, you don’t know if you should go left or right. These things are directly related to crime because if these things are not straightened out conflicts will erupt. Let every man have his right to his piece of place to do whatsoever he want do with it … despite of what race you be, what colour, what religion, what political background …. Now, if you want go to the bank to go and access a loan, you can’t do it because there is nothing in your hand what the bank is asking for. My thing is, let the authorities come, straighten things out and done this racism. We have a national motto that says one people, one nation, one destiny.”
Jureull Abrams, farmer: `Over three to four year now, I apply for ten acres of land in Rockstone and when I go into Lands and Survey, they say that you got to pay down half of the money first. So, I end up paying five thousand dollar. Up today … nobody never come back foh tell me if it approve, or not. But for the past three to four years, I still cutting and planting my fruit trees and everything pon the land. We go to many meetings and they say they going take people from various agencies and make one body because they stop all applications. But before they stop the application I did done apply – years before – and up to now, I ain’t get me lease for the land. But I still hold on pon the land and planting it and I gon always do that because that is my livelihood. I’m a farmer.’
Kenneth Sampson, farmer: `I’m an elderly person. I lived in this area sometime back. I had to go away and I’ve come back just over a year. I’m a farmer. The main thing that bothers me and I’m pleading to the authorities to do something to settle this dispute is that we had an election here about to two years ago to elect somebody to run this community. Mr. Sylvan (Williams) won that election. Let’s call it a landslide victory. After the election there were some people, who did not agree with the election of Mr. Sylvan. They went and they do something else and they are trying to run this community to become an Amerindian Reservation. Why I am so concerned about this is because I know if it becomes a reservation people that farming will have problems because they will not be able to access the lands that they want. The community as it stands now, has two leaders. In a small community like Rockstone, we have a chairman, who is actually dormant and we have a Toshau, which is actually running the show. And so, I am saying, how on earth can a community like this run in this manner? This is an issue that should be looked at very seriously because it can hurt the community. So, I am asking if there is something that can be done to get the situation under control.’
Lynette Benn, President, Rockstone Tourism Association and Organizing Secretary for the CDC Management Committee, Region Ten: `I have been living in Rockstone for over twenty five years. What is actually going on at the level of the community now is a few PPP political activists, who tell themselves they can speak to people anyhow. As recently as
two Sundays ago, we had some visitors at the guest house from the Office of the President and one resident stand up and tell us that they got to get things because them is PPP and we don’t have nothing to get… All of this was reported to the police. The Village Council recently moved to take over land owned by one of the oldest residents of the community. A high ranking official … took away a building that was occupied by the Tourism Association since 2006 and handed it over to the Village Council. That matter is to be addressed.’
Patricia Hinds, Coordinator of the Region Ten CDC Management Committee: `I want to say a little experience I had about three Sundays back, me and one, Mr. Brown, came in here to do some visitation in relation to the Rockstone Tourism Association. And lo and behold when we came, we met people with hammer and cursing. So, I spoke to the Toshau, Mr. Simon and I asked him what was going on and he said to me plainly that there are two factions but he is the Toshau and he really can’t do anything about it. I am the representative for the Community Development Council. My boss is Ms. Philomena Sahoye-Shury under the Office of the President and we run what you call Community Development Councils in which we bring people together of different backgrounds, or race. Whether you’re Amerindian, whether you’re Chinese – what – we want people together for the common good. We hold these councils, we have the chairman, the secretary and all the executives along with the entire membership. They are legal groups. They have their registration and they also do government contracts. They, themselves put up proposals and projects for their community’s benefit of which they go through us…. But what has been happening for some time, is that we understand that there is a council and there is a community group that have a pulling and tugging and whenever the community gets any project, they are claiming that it has to go through the council and the council blocks it. Now, we come to understand a couple Sundays ago that (a person) took away a building that the tourism association have been using eight years now for their office and store house. It’s not a secret … that this fish industry brings a lot of financial benefits with other things to this community. People sell their craft. They sell all their stuff. The community groups benefit because they does have the ladies sew up all the nice things and sell. This building, it seems to me, wilI bring some conflict. These are people and they need some respect whether you’re in authority or not. ‘
Margaret Sampson, housewife: `I came here four years ago. When I first came my daughter used to attend Rockstone Primary School and one of the teachers’ daughter told her why she don’t go back to (other) school and she was annoyed and she came and she cried and she said mommy, she want go back home because where we come from, Soesdyke, is a mixed community – we get black, we get East Indian, Amerindian and Chinese, we mixed – and she never really experienced racism until she come to Rockstone. But to me, Rockstone is a nice place. It’s a mixed community. You have Amerindian. You have East Indian and you have African – it’s mixed. So, why is it they are fighting to turn it into an Amerindian Reservation? Why they don’t continue to let it be run by a chairman? Whosoever run, we don’t have a problem. But the Toshau thing causing a lot of segregation and racism. Everybody should come together and live as one. We want the place to develop. If it becomes an Amerindian Reservation the place would become stagnant. You won’t be able to borrow money at the bank, or build a fancy house because the bank won’t lend you money.’
Peggy Simeon, resident, D & I worker: `Right now, they take off my panel and I want my panel back. We make a report about it already. I go and tell the Toshau and he say he
ain’t know nothing ‘bout it. Right now, I don’t have electricity. I come in here over thirty years and I would like to see people live good. But these people here is sheer backbiting and fighting. If they continue like this, nobody will never go good.’
Shloomiel Israel, farmer: `I’m a member of the Hebrew Israelite family in Guyana, which is a farming group within the community of Rockstone. We are in the community over thirty seven to thirty eight years. We have some farm land. We’re doing vegetarian farming. We’re doing organic farming. And up to now, we only have two leases that have come out. What we’d like to ask is why the processing of our legal papers for the land is taking so long? In that time, the land was given by the late President Burnham and he say you can get how much land you need and that time we applied for thirty five acres each. We have about thirty five to thirty six members in the brotherhood. We’re supposed to be building a community in which we dwell together and live together. So, we need to get our lease so that we can get help from the bank or whoever it is. We’re getting personal help. But it is not enough for the kind of pace we would like to move within development. Right now, things are a
bit slow because of not having our lease. The next thing in this area is the racial discrimination to our organization. I’m here eight years now. Earlier, people used to be dwelling together, Amerindians and black people. At that time, everybody was dwelling together under the CDC. About seven years ago, I hear Mr. Rance Allicock and Donald Williams and a few others suddenly change and said they want a Toshau. So, eventually, now, we end up having a set of people saying they want Toshau and a set of people saying they want a CDC. We the Israelites are looking forward to have a CDC because we are a democratic people. We want thing for all, everybody. We don’t want no one sided business. We don’t want no segregation and separation. We’re just looking for everybody coming together and live in unity, peace and love.’