Dear Editor,
The Demerara Waves article titled, “Georgetown upgrade, modernization, being planned – President Ali” (September 10, 2024) is well-received. SN employed ‘restore’. I will take delayed than discarded on any given day. The place and the people need that upgrade, modernization. The country needs its capital city to be the showcase of the legendary horticultural grandeur that it once quietly and serenely, but proudly, owned. I heard from the president about cutting edge infrastructure technology, modernity, beauty, history, and cosmopolitan city all being integral aspects of plans about to move from the drawing board to the work board of the streets, and I say why not. Why not, bring it all on. It would be welcome here.
I like President Ali’s choice of “enhance” to encompass what is in mind for Georgetown. I caution it cannot be a plaster here and a patch there, for there is too much that needs to be addressed from the bottom up. A key component of all these plans is that central government and city government must put aside their longstanding grievances and make a start at working together for the benefit of the area and its inhabitants. Can they work together? Can they find it in themselves to trust each other? Can they overcome the bad blood and the baggage of history? The answers to these questions are what I think will result in the quality of the modernization that Guyanese get.
President Ali spoke of tourism. I hear him, but there is also that strain called business tourism. Or in the lingo of this grand era of oil, investors. They come by the streams. Airports have been improved. Infrastructure has followed suit. So, it makes perfect sense for the capital city of the most hailed country in the galaxy (anyone of them) not to be left behind. Georgetown has been neglected too long, and that cannot be allowed to go on. Too many feet pass through its cratered streets, too many noses are too close to its offensive odors, too many eyes are glazed and jaded by what assaults the already strained and edged optic nerves. The feet and noses and eyes of locals may not count for much. But those of the roaring contingents of foreigners with ideas in their heads and millions at their fingertips about how to make the best of Guyana (and take it out of here), well, that’s another consideration that holds too much in its palm to be overlooked or ignored.
All that I read, as coming from President Ali, have much merit. My hope is that the proper energy, the necessary will, will be unflagging on his side, as well as that of the partners with whom there must be the kind of working relationship, even reciprocal respect, to make this upgrade cum modernization cum enhancement the reality that should have been begun a little before yesterday. The expectation is that both the president’s side and those from the other side will avoid the pitched battles that have dogged and clogged local existence on issues large and small. We have talked often and in depth about sharing this space and leading the way together. It is my belief that the enhancement of Georgetown to a state of matchless splendor offers the type of project, brings the kind of demanding opportunity, and involves the quantum of money, that tests the honesty and resolve of everyone who says that sharing is the way to make this country work. Better than it was. Better than it is. Better than it can be, when done together and not alone.
Where this is taken next, how this develops and concludes will be a testimony to what Guyana can be. Or where it will forever be stuck. I say, I think that we can do it. Delivering for Georgetown is delivering on the promise of Guyana, even enlightening with a glimpse into the future.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
