Dear Editor,
I was reading a newspaper and I saw an article captioned ‘Linden Monuments’ with photographs of two locomotive shells, among others. Where are the engines for this equipment and the wagons which the locomotives used to haul bauxite from the mines to the bauxite plant? The engines are somewhere working as gold dredges in the interior, while the wagons have been cut up and sold as scrap metal. And speaking of scrap metal, I would like to know who gave the OK to cut up the 1300 and the 1260 walking draglines and also the bucket and wheel of the excavator?
Editor, these two draglines were two of the largest in the world, and I can’t think that somebody would do something so stupid and outrageous as to cut up that equipment and sell it as scrap metal. I am wondering if the individual was watching a movie titled For a few dollars more? Those machines should have been placed in a special location and protected; they could be used for display in a mining museum, especially for tourists and schoolchildren around the country.
The person who did such a wicked thing was destroying the heritage of bauxite workers. For example, I was in a barber’s shop talking to some friends while another guy was reading his paper when the topic of the 1300 dragline came up, and this guy literally burst into tears because he was an ex-employee on the dragline, and lots of other people share the same sentiment.
We cannot allow people to destroy our heritage just to fill their pockets and hurt people in the process.
Yours faithfully,
Derrick Bacchus
