Housing and You…Wamara – an exotic wood in high demand

Aug 10, 2014 News

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By Leonard Gildarie

This week I learnt a little about a wood called wamara. I love purpleheart and crabwood for their beauty. I like greenheart for its resistance to water conditions. All these beautiful types of wood are found in Guyana. But wamara is in a class by itself. It is an exotic wood in high demand for its beauty for making floors and walls. A hardwood, some of the furniture pieces I have seen are simply unbelievable.
Wamara, also called Guyana Rosewood, is found a lot here and in a few other countries.

There are questions now over the harvesting of this wood, as one Asian company is now under intense scrutiny for questionable practices and allegations that it is involved in illegal logging activities.
I am fiercely protective of this dear land of ours. I do believe we can move this country to a level comparable to Singapore and other successful countries. It will call for strong leadership, the will to succeed and honesty.
We do have many, many resources here that are in high demand worldwide. Our bauxite, gold, sugar, and lumber. Then how do we remain poor? I see farmers dumping produce because or little market or poor prices. For relevance to this series of articles, the point is that we must value, and value highly, what we have in this country. I do hope that we think deeply and maybe push more aggressively to set this country on a firmer course than it is right now.
For the remainder of the column, I will divert a little from our usual fare of housing, but it is something I think I should share, because it could be of importance to many of our readers, especially those living in Guyana.
A few years ago while on a working trip to Kwakwani, located in the Upper Berbice River area, I fell ill. The area, like what happens so very often, had suffered from overflowing banks, from heavy rains.
There were lots of flood waters. For a few days I suffered from a strong fever, not paying much mind. Another case of flu, I thought. It became progressively worse and I ended up at Woodlands. The doctor admitted me right away for one week. It was severe case of dengue. He warned me that it will never leave the system and that I had to take care. That even the whiff of flu was enough. He was right.
A journalist’s work is no child’s play. It calls for long hours – painstaking work that can take you to ungodly hours. So it was no big deal when less than two weeks ago, I came down with the fever. I thought again that it was the flu. For a few days I went to work with the ‘chills’, feeling cold one moment and hot the next. Last Saturday, I almost fell asleep at the wheel of the car. The problem was that it was in the morning. After driving into my neighbour’s driveway and breaking a piece of the wall, I knew it was serious.
I went to Woodlands again. The emergency room was filled with persons, some of them crying. It soon became clear that they were suffering from what I had…severe joint pains, fever, swollen ankles and a several red spots. For that one day, at least 90 cases with symptoms similar to what I had experienced had been to the emergency section.
I spoke to the doctor, like a good reporter, and what I learnt was worrying. For a few days, patients had been coming in droves. Doctors suspected Chikungunya, an illness that has been making its rounds in the region. Similar to dengue, the flu also comes with severe joint pains and fever.
I didn’t have dengue, but my case was also suspected to be one of Chikungunya.
I decided to raise this issue here as there has been no word from the Government over the past week as to how severe the problem is. At GPHC, officials have been reporting a dramatic increase in the number of suspected cases at both its emergency and out-patient departments.
The Guyana Watch team on Friday said that its outreach programme had stumbled on several suspected cases. I received a call from a top Government functionary Friday night asking us to check on the Berbice situation where an outbreak is occurring.
While Chikungunya is not deadly, it can lead to long term problems if left untreated.
I am extremely upset over the silence of the Health Ministry on this problem. A lot of the folks didn’t even know what it is… which meant that not enough is being done to educate our people who remain at risk.
How could this be in this day and age? I can’t for any reason understand the silence. In any other countries, the Health Ministry or its equivalent would have been under flak. Not here. We have a cowboy society.
Please do continue to send those comments [email protected] or call weekdays on 2258491.
May God bless Guyana!

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