Election Observer missions will soon begin to arrive in Guyana in a steady flow over the next week or two. The APNU+AFC Coalition extends a warm welcome to every observer from the Caribbean, North America, Europe and elsewhere in the world. A free, safe and uneventful National and Regional election is what we are striving for despite the malodorous circumstances extant in Guyana’s political milieu and its recent physical appearance.
Did you know that the capital city of Georgetown used to be called “The Garden City”? Yes, the main roads that criss-cross the city used to be lined with brightly flowering trees that were regularly trimmed and the parapets they sat on were beautifully landscaped and decorated according to national and religious celebrations. The drainage canals were also well maintained and regularly desilted to sustain their prescribed depths. Those canals were built in a box pattern 3 centuries ago by the Dutch to drain rainfall off the land which lies about six feet below sea level along the Atlantic coastline.
What you will find today are the effects of almost criminal neglect. These canals have been left to re-silt up to street level, the flowers are gone and the decorative trees lining the streets of downtown Georgetown are now anemic.
There used to be flowers everywhere, not only in the Botanical Gardens. This Garden you will find in relatively good condition with a variety of imported and indigenous blooms. It is now upkept with direct sponsorship from an expatriate company. Most of Guyana’s indigenous flora could only grow in the moisture of our once densely forested regions that were a haven for international ecologists and researchers. The forests were dense and they remained a pristine home to the widest range of tropical flora and fauna in this part of the world, arguably. That was up to approximately five (5) years ago though.
Without word or warning, our indigenous peoples who have mostly lived off the land that was theirs by title, found their villages surrounded and invaded by gold miners and prospectors of diamonds and other minerals. Their lives changed dramatically in these last few years as their sole water supply, the rivers, are polluted with the tailings from gold mining operations, sludge laced with mercury and other dangerous toxins. Their food supply (fish, animals, plants) is dwindling as the miners, some Guyanese, others Brazilian, Venezuelan, Chinese, Malaysian and Indian, hunt in the same areas which in turn threatens the extinction of a few species. The authorities’ failure to police the mining ventures for compliance with forestry, environmental, customs and other regulations will surely cost this nation the resources bequeathed to us if Guyanese do not make this most vital change on 11th May.
Add to the foregoing the alarming proliferation of excavators, heavy duty trucks and log harvesting equipment and you would better appreciate the steadily diminution of Guyana’s once pristine forests. What faces Guyanese today is a real fear of the consequences of deforestation which we know has destroyed the economic and social livelihoods of whole communities in the Brazilian Amazon and the South Pacific islands. This fear can only be alleviated with drastic changes to investment policies which will satisfy in real terms the lucrative agreement this country signed with Norway to preserve our forests and protect the low-lying coastland from rising sea levels.
“SIGHT’ SEEING
We hope that the observers are afforded a sight-seeing drive around (not a flight over) the capital city of Georgetown during their stay in Guyana. They should be afforded the opportunity to see the Stabroek Market that used to be a staple on tourists’ agenda. This market was designed by American Engineer Nathaniel McKay and constructed (1880-1881) mostly of iron and steel by the Edgemoor Iron Company of Delaware, USA. It may be the oldest structure still in use in the city covering an area of about 80,000 square feet (7,000 m2). Though the architectural style is elusive, the iron structure and the prominent clock tower are reminiscent of the Victorian era of Great Britain.
The Stabroek Market area is the busiest in the city, constantly bustling with people and activity. The northern side is a hub for taxis and minibuses and the western riverside is a ‘terminal’ for ferries and passenger boats that transport people and goods to and from villages and settlements along the Demerara River. Unfortunately this architectural masterpiece has been allowed to decay. In truth, it is being sacrificed on the altar of brinkmanship. It is at the centre of a thinly-veiled political power struggle between the custodians of the City and the government Ministry responsible for Local Government. It’s a must-see as an example of power that a government abrogates unto itself in order to minimize the importance of local governance.
Suffering a similar fate just a stone’s throw away is the Georgetown City Hall that houses the offices of the Mayor, the City Council and Administrators. The design of this once breath-taking building is Nineteenth Century Gothic Revival, first committed to paper by architect Reverend Ignatius Scoles in 1887. Construction was completed two years later. The Georgetown City Hall used to be described as “the most picturesque structure”, “the most handsome building in Georgetown”, and “one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in the Caribbean”. The incumbent government proposed City Hall as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 but 10 years later it is still on the body’s “tentative listing”. Whatever the requirements (which the incumbent government failed to implement), a Coalition Government owes it to Guyana to immediately rehabilitate this historic structure that is literally falling apart each passing day.
By no means least is our revered Parliament Building which was designed by Joseph Hadfield after whom the street on the southern side of the House was named. It was first built on a foundation of greenheart logs, one of Guyana’s most enduring hardwoods which is currently at serious risk as the result of over-harvesting. One of only two domed buildings in the city, the House of Parliament remains an excellent example of 19th Century Renaissance architecture. Parliament House underwent extensive repairs in the recent past, but its surroundings on at least 3 sides have become an ecologically aesthetic nightmare. The western side fronts the environs of the decrepit Stabroek Market.
Yes, we do have a National Trust, a Department of the Ministry of Culture, but our monuments and statues and their surroundings are cleaned and painted on rare occasions, our ancestral buildings not at all. Where have our class and culture gone, Guyana? When did we become ashamed to have our visitors see the deep chasms of physical and psychological refuse that confront us each day? National pride is not a collectable item. It does not come or leave overnight. Like a jigsaw puzzle, pride in self and nation is the glad result of the meeting of social, political and economic macrocosms.
This is the sum of the task ahead of us as a nation. Huge 6-storeyed buildings that do not subscribe even to the art deco genre, or poorly constructed roads that break in three months, are not signs of progress. Guyana must be rebuilt and our people re-socialized to expect and demand every right that is theirs, including the right to pristine physical environments in which they and their children could thrive.
