THE doctors’ living quarters located at Quamina and Waterloo Streets is slowly but surely becoming an ‘eye sore,’ according to observers.
At present, the deteriorating condition of the building is causing serious inconvenience for the doctors, as many have had to contend with a leaking roof apart from other problems.
‘Water gushes into some of the quarters whenever it rains heavily and almost floods the entire flat,’ one source stated.
“TERMITES”
Another source feels the building should be demolished and rebuilt. since termites have destroyed most of the quarters.
It was reported that repairs to the building had started about three months ago but has been halted due to insufficient finance.
The compound is also in a very insanitary state, because the garbage is hardly ever collected; the vegetation is overgrown and many stray animals roam the compound, a source said.
During recent weeks, thieves have broken into two of the quarters and it was confirmed that doctors lost several valuable articles.
Sources have linked the thefts to an inefficient security system and to the easy access persons have to the compound. ‘The fences at the back have been broken for some time now,’ one source said.
Most of the foreign doctors who reside at the quarters are unable to cope with the unhygienic conditions. Despite several reports about the matter, nothing has been done to relieve the inconveniences. (NK)
Roma Having Forex Problems
THE only mosquito coil manufacturing company in Guyana, Roma, is striving to maintain standards acceptable to consumers.
Many consumers have begun to complain, however, about having to purchase mosquito coils that were too cold to light because of poor packaging. Others are dissatisfied over the lack of stands in the packets, necessary to hold lighted coils in place.
But Roma which has been manufacturing mosquito coils since 1965, says it has had severe problems.
“Production target of 120,000 coils per day has been reduced by nearly twenty-five per cent,” Mr. Joseph Kartick, the Production Manager said.
“This is due to our inability to acquire most of the raw materials needed and this has created a limit of only three working days per week,” Kartick disclosed.
The company faces difficulties in importing pynamin emulsion, the insecticide used in the production of coils and manachite green, which gives the coil its colour.
Obtaining local materials like coconut shells, cassava starch and saw-dust is also posing a serious problem for Roma.
However, the drug pynamin emulsion is the main ingredient which the company needs to continue production, but foreign exchange is not readily obtained, the manager explained.
According to Mr. Kartick, the boxes used and the stands previously supplied were discontinued because of the high cost.
As a result of reduced production, export markets in the Caribbean have been neglected. Roma started manufacturing coils under franchise from a company in Japan which was Guyana’s mosquito coil supplier.
— (N. K.)
Who’s To Blame? Cuthbert Monchoir asks
IT NEVER happened before, if it did I don’t remember, but when the West Indies take the field during the First Test at Bourda it would be the first time in living memory that no Guyanese will be among the final eleven at that famous ground.
For those who will want to read some insular motive into this piece forgive me, my intentions are anything but insular.
No Guyanese in a West Indies team playing at Bourda!!! Surely, that is “Eyepass with the capital ‘E’,”
Let me get to the point. I think that we are to be blamed for the absence of Guyanese cricketers, umpires and whatever else from the First Test.
I have heard old “country people” say, and I honestly believe that “you mek you own eyepass.” It is only you who determines the degree of respect or conversely, disrespect that is bestowed on you.
Let’s chronicle some of the early signs which led to this final position.
Basil Butcher in 1983, no Guyanese has been a West Indies selector on either the senior or the hastily put together junior panels.
Eyebrows should certainly have been raised when a selection panel was nominated in 1985 to select a youth team for Australia after the Northern Telecom Youth tournament played here. Every other team manager was on that panel but Guyana’s.
Then no Guyanese was selected for the Youth tour of Australia last year but we are advised that Barrington Browne was omitted because of some silly excusable misdemeanour.
Again there was no Guyanese on the panel.
So what? Let’s not be simplistic, when you are locked in conversation with some of these gentlemen you get the drift.
But then whose fault is it that we have no one on the panels. Is it that we do not have persons who are necessarily qualified to be on the panels? Is it one of the questions that the Guyana Cricket Board of Control (GCBC) must carefully research and come up with viable answers.
Which brings me to the point of umpires. The flow to the umpiring fraternity has been slow to the point of being almost non-existent.
In these austere times no young responsible man will spend a total of approximately 24 hours at cricket for the meagre hand-me-down which is received by our umpires for standing in weekend games.
The older chaps with lesser opportunities and perhaps greater dedication have stuck with it, but age has its drawbacks.
It is yet another area that the local cricket administration will have to address. The mouthing of the local cricket development programme has become a cliche, but the closest the GCBC has come to action is false starts, and if you know track and field rules, after three you are disqualified.
That’s the suggestion. Disqualify the present cricket and take a model from Antigua which undoubtedly has the best programme. So when we develop players for the future they will have sound foundations.
The GCBC must also look into itself. Our representatives must certainly be more forceful than diplomatic since we are now looked upon as a poor underdeveloped cousin of the West Indies.
The Board must seek to tidy up its act both locally and regionally.
I wonder when another Guyanese will make the Selection Panel,…I suppose Clive Lloyd is our only hope in the foreseeable future.
So the fact is, we are weak and in no position to negotiate therefore we have to live with the ‘eyepass.’
But there is some solace.
At least it will be our boys who will push the water cart onto the field and the stands in which we’ll sit is made of local wood like the commentary box that will have at least one Guyanese voice “crying in the wilderness.”
But perhaps we will not have to suffer after all, the merciful and unmerciful weather may come to our aid.
