We live in a declining society

Feb 03, 2013 Features / Columnists, My Column

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By Adam Harris

You know that your country is in decline when houses lapse into various stages of deterioration, when basic services are lacking such as when there is hardly running water and electricity; when the education system is so bad that the bulk of the children who leave school are barely qualified to be labourers; and when garbage piles begin to appear all over the country.
When the western world wanted to depict the abject poverty in places like Africa, their reporters simply photographed the garbage piles and the children rummaging through the garbage. From time to time they would show old ramshackle homes. And to highlight the extent of the social decline, they would focus on the homes of the leaders.
These images never failed to offend me, because I knew that there were better locations in the country, because in no country is there no poverty. The United States with its immense wealth has its poverty-stricken areas. There are places where people still use outhouses and live in clapboard houses. However, such conditions merely highlight the extent of decline in that part of the country.
The capitals are, however, almost always immaculate with their overpowering buildings and high-priced neighbourhoods. We would see people in their fineries and the many open spaces occupied by the hoi polloi as they sip their teas and brandies and the like.
With this knowledge I turned my attention to Guyana and saw how much the society has declined. I saw the decline in pride and morality and I am seeing the descent into apathy at what exists. Georgetown was once considered the Garden City because it had tree-lined streets, clean canals and painted homes that stood out.
One saw motorists who took care on the roads and there was courtesy. In some places people slept with their homes barely secured and they walked the streets at nights in a most uncaring manner. Not so long ago people would remember the crowds on the streets after the late-night cinema shows.
There were garbage bins at every corner and people would keep their trash until they reached these bins. Georgetown was the place to be. The municipal authorities were allowed to run the city and they had real power.
The other day I happened to be driving along Quamina Street and I saw a sign on a house. It read that a certain Mayor lived there. The house was a grand colonial structure, the likes of which are fast disappearing from the landscape, being replaced by concrete monstrosities.
And for the past few years we have been hearing that Georgetown has become the Garbage City. Garbage piles exist everywhere and it seems as though the city council is unable to control the situation. There are excuses. I hear that the government is not giving enough money and that it is controlling the operations of the city.
What I also know is that for an entity without money, there are too many people who have been found to have been stealing millions of dollars. There had to be money for someone to steal.
Then comes the embarrassing part; the international community has begun a programme to put an end to littering. The United States embassy has mounted a programme called ‘Guyana Shines’. No one other than the Ambassador, D. Brent Hardt, is going out there and working with people to keep the environment clean.
The embassy has also mounted a campaign that would see children becoming more aware of their environment. The word is that children are the greatest change agents; they are the ones who could influence their parents to stop littering.
This should have been an effort that the locals should have undertaken. The business places could have undertaken to keep their surroundings clean. Instead, they pay people to take their garbage and dump it any other place except in the vicinity of the business place.
I live in a neighbourhood in which people are very careful with their garbage. You would see no garbage piles because the residents would not tolerate them. It goes to show that all it takes is a community effort to ensure that the community stays environmentally friendly.
The city has announced the presence of an anti-litter committee, but I still see litter. Perhaps the committee is overwhelmed; perhaps the committee members can be bought easily and so accept a small fee from those who litter.
But there is something missing. The United States embassy has started the move to clean up the environment, but other than the other diplomatic missions and the beneficiaries in the individual communities, I see no official involvement. It is as if we have reached the stage where we want the best but we will do nothing to get it. At the same time people seem to welcome the garbage piles and are doing everything to make them bigger. After all, the tallest point in the city was fashioned from garbage—the Le Repentir dump site.

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