Dear Editor,
Mr. Samuel Wright’s innuendos and verbal attacks have been noted. I do not know why he is behaving like this over a very straightforward and factual letter I sent to the press in response to his. It must have rankled somewhat but if you jump into the arena throwing barbs at people, expect they may return the favour.
My reason here is to correct the misconceptions and half-truths. In this latest missive he has exposed overtly his penchant for being head honcho and any failure to achieve this results in petulance.
Let me start with his failure to observe that my letter was not meant to have an intellectual discourse. That was not necessary in light of the issues and the condemnation in his letters. If he wants to have that find someone who can sponsor a one hour on NCN and we can go at it. But before that, he quotes from emails we exchanged. Everything I said in that mail took place and what my thinking on the matter was. He wrote that first letter and besmirched the entire IMC; “fire half now and three months later fire the rest” was his conclusion. I allowed that one to go. He tried the same thing this time but had sent the letter to the press as he was sending the mail. I was not going to allow this latest one to pass. As leader my training does not permit me to accept credit when things
are good and throw blame when things are awry.
The business of Community Develop-ment deals with observing trends, analyzing and planning to take care of these and implementing. In this part of the world do not mention the lack of resources because people do not want to hear that, they want results. That is unfair but that is the game. In all of this you make every effort to engage but times dictate that as leaders, you are in a lonely place and ‘carry the can’ whether you want to or not. One young man met me recently and engaged for one hour asking why the Community cannot get fly-overs, a new bridge, paved road from Linden to Lethem, a walkway separate from the road from WISROC to Bamia, Boardwalk along the riverfront, river sentries for traffic going north-south as much as east to west, employment for all out-of-school youth and land for all to build houses with easy credit among several other dreams he has.
As a leader, what legacy you will leave is what concerned him. That will be a matter for discussion at another time.
The fundamental difference between us is really not what Mr. Wright states but that one has much work to get done and the other sees everything not of his liking or thinking in a negative light.
I laughed when I saw the comment that he was asked to speak to me about the EBECC construction since it is impossible to get past Mr. Gordon. I have given full support to Mr. Wright on several projects of his as only recently he performed as consultant on the water project in Linden and the municipality assented to preserving the watershed as one of his benchmarks.
When he head butted with Linden Fund USA (LFU), I added my presence and made a presentation at his Forum. I supported his media fora ideas and made presentations. When he was consultant with Caribbean Environmental Health Institute and problems started, I reassured CEHI that the project would be completed as support would be given and the National Action Plan was produced with a lot of fanfare. A few LFU people wanted to know how it was taking so long for the head butting to start between us. The reason he was sent by LEAP’s PM was my very vocal and militant positions at Advisory and other committee meetings I attended. He became a casualty and was removed from the
Wisroc/Amelia’s Park project by the same LEAP. Others castigated him for that project and Mortimer Mingo and I came to his rescue. That project was one in a long list presented to LEAP for upgrade by the Town Council.
On the $18M rip rap/walk way; I mentioned in my first letter that Mr. Trotman first presented that idea along with a garden type facility by Mr. Fredericks for the Bandstand. So, if Mr. Wright is claiming brand for the things he has been associated with after refashioning he should at least acknowledge the intellectual work of Trotman and Fredericks.
He said that the boardwalk was priced at $60M, but only got approval for $18M with the rip rap. Well, the poor Council contributed two loads of stone (boulders) to that project as well.
In all this the LEAP’s PM obtained my agreement on the projects and despite what is said, Mr. Wright was advised by me about the divide and rule tactic which I saw straight through.
His lengthy explanation of what constitutes riverfront development needs lots of space to discuss. I just need to add that in keeping our eyes on that, the community is expanding by at least 3,000 acres of housing, as such we need some level of decentralization. The centre is already congested and people are forcing the issue to further compound the congestion. Bold efforts must be made to decentralize and strong leadership is required.
What is interesting though is that Mr. Wright insists that he was responsible for the Republic Avenue drainage project. The community knows that the project was not done to its satisfaction and flooding is still prevalent in high rainfall intensity. In fact such a mess was left at the Bandstand area where the drains were prefabricated, the EBECC lost $360,000 in projected revenue from hosting a LIRA Conference and spent over $150,000 dollars to get rid of the material(stone and steel) removed from the drains. This occurred after Mr. Fredericks who worked very hard on putting EBECC on firm footing was hounded out of the chairmanship.
I need not say what the new chairman did when confronted with this madness.
There are councillors on the IMC who are giving so much to the community that I would not allow their efforts to be trashed so wantonly.
Yours faithfully,
Orrin Gordon