| The Story within the Story…By Leonard Gildarie I can say that my generation has always heard of Georgetown being called the ‘Garden City’ – we know and have an understanding of what a garden city should look like.Leonard GildarieI was not able to visually remove all the unsightly obstacles that surrounded me in Georgetown. I just could not see Georgetown as the beautiful city that it is supposed to be.It seems that many Guyanese had started to accept all the obstacles, like the garbage,Bobby Orr Jersey, the derelict vehicles at the side of the roads, food boxes floating in the canals and sometimes, yes sometimes, even dead animals in the middle of the road.It had become a norm. We became numb over time. We resigned ourselves.There was a heap of garbage opposite Ashmin’s on High Street. I just could not comprehend how we allowed this on one of the main roads in Georgetown.Surely our city workers and the managers would have passed it thousands of times.Everyone, I mean everyone,Cheap Jerseys Online, complained about the garbage in Georgetown, to the point that I was beginning to wonder who exactly was responsible for the littering. Why did we not take action before?And let us be honest, we are the dirty ones, we are the ones littering…or at least responsible.The litter situation has been so revolting that after the last election, it was a welcoming sight to see the clean-up of the city happening.Credit should be given to the administration. Canals were dug out,Jerseys Cheap NFL, garbage was being collected, public places were being painted,Jerseys NFL Wholesale, everyone welcomed it and did not complain, even though it meant in some instances the re-routing of traffic.Georgetown has started to feel lighter. Of course, one has to wonder why none of this was done before, considering that the last government was allocating millions of dollars to the clean-up.The clean-up has now turned to the iconic Stabroek Market.In my view, the Mayor and City Council has applied the same logic to the Stabroek Market square as it did to cleaning the streets and gutters. That is, the city managers are holistically having garbage moved and now are moving people to make the place clean, but without taking account of the human impact of their actions.There can be a debate as to whether vendors should be selling at the square. We have passed that stage.The fact is that scores were selling at the square and they were making a living,http://www.theworldsoccersshop.com/Argentina-Facundo-Roncaglia-Jersey.html, depending on their own entrepreneurship to survive, not depending on the government to find employment for them.It allowed them to pay their bills,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, send their children to school and survive. Many of the people who sold there were single parents, especially mothers. The location was ideal, because of the traffic and the nearby bus parks and speedboat operations.From what I know, the city council did not just one day decide that they were going to clear the area… it was something that appeared in the works for a while.And herein lies the problem. If the city knew that they wanted to clear the area, why was there not more consultation and planning for the relocation of these people?From indications, it appears that days before the move, the Mayor and her team called a meeting and informed vendors of the planned clean-up and their new location.This is not how democratic processes work. People affected should have some say in decisions. Maybe that is why we call them stakeholders.Initial reports were that the vendors agreed to the move. Then we heard that no such thing happened and that they objected to the new location. Then came reports that the owner of the earmarked land on Lombard Street had never agreed to what was promised to the vendors.It is clear that not only was there no actual and meaningful consultation with the vendors, but that there was actually no forward planning. It seems to me that the city was just going to ‘shove’ these people out of sight.I say charity begins at home. We cannot cater to foreigners and visitors without looking out for our own.The Mayor and City Council, and the Government in general, must begin to realise that their actions have far-reaching repercussions and will affect areas that may not have been thought of. It cannot be disputed how great the Stabroek Market area looks.But the actions of the Mayor and Councillors have serious social consequences.Let us face the facts. The economy does not appear to be doing well. Everyone is complaining all around. Vendors who claim that they were already barely getting any sales are being moved to an area with low foot traffic.The ripple effects will of course impact heavily on the lives of the vendors and their families.Unemployment is linked to crime. We can extrapolate a little more. However, this is a very simplistic way of putting it. The point is that it is irresponsible to decide on an action without thinking of the likely effects of that action.This, however, appears to be the way of world here in beloved Guyana.Decisions are made, like the closing of the sugar estates, without proper consultations with the people; without proper succession planning, without thinking of the social and economic consequence of the actions.To be fair to the present administration, it is the same thing that had happened to the sugar workers at Diamond estate a few years ago.We continue to err without thinking. Of course, one will argue that tough decisions will be unpopular.I can guarantee that sugar workers are watching and internalizing that there is a scramble and a focus on the vendors, yet no one is doing anything for them. The government must show that it is a government that can rise above the mistakes that are made.We should not be afraid to say we erred. Or that we are sorry.The government, is after all, supposed to be the government for all Guyana.We have asked for a change. Let us also change the way we do things. |
