A missed opportunity

Jul 19, 2008 Editorial

Some four decades ago when there was talk about moving the capital to the North West, people laughed. The North West District was in the country and besides, any thought of shifting the capital was a recipe for extensive spending.

Besides, who would want to live in a location that was not readily accessible to their relatives and friends who lived primarily along the coastal plain?

There were no cinemas and no major infrastructure in the North West; no major government offices and certainly, very little people.

The various embassies and high commissions were all rooted in the city and it was not going to be easy to access the international airport and the main shipping port. People saw life in the proposed capital as being nothing more than life in a jungle community.

At the time the proponents of the capital shift were making their case; Brazil was gearing to shift its capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia, a move that has proven to be costly but extremely rewarding.

Shifting the capital would not have meant shifting the entire population. Rather, it would have meant shifting the seat of administration and conducting the business of state from that corner of the world.

It would have meant developing a road link with neighbouring Venezuela which, at that time, was attracting many Guyanese who found it easier to trade with the neighbouring country than with the city.

Back then, when there was no talk about global warming and when we did not believe that the coastal area would have experienced floods, the likes of which we saw in 2005 and again in 2006, the prospect of shifting the capital was considered a pipe dream.

Today, had we made that shift, things would have been so much easier for the people of this country. By now we would have been realising our continental destiny.

The road link with our neighbours would have been developed to the extent that travel between the countries would have been so much easier and by now we might have even changed our driving habits.

Nearly every other country on the mainland drives on the other side of the road. We would have confirmed to what operates in the other countries.

But more importantly, now that global warming and the threat of floods are realities, we would not have been wondering about the fate of what is now our capital.

In the coming years, we would have to spend millions of dollars to keep out the Atlantic Ocean which, according to the experts, is rising at an alarming rate as the polar caps melt.

It is not that the Atlantic Ocean is the only large body of water that is affected by the melting polar caps but in our corner of the world, it is the source of the threat to our very existence.

Almost all of Guyana’s food comes from this narrow coastal strip and this strip also accounts for the bulk of our export earnings.

The floods of 2005 made us realize just how tenuous our existence is. The waters wiped out the bulk of the crops and impacted negatively on rice and sugar production.

We would not have been able to plant rice as we do on the coast but many countries, not blessed with our conditions, plant what is called hill rice ad the Americans have done wonders with this crop.

But that apart, would we have been spending the vast sums that we now do on sea defence? Perhaps not.

However, the time will come when we will have to move. In some parts of the world, particularly in the South Pacific, some islands have been evacuated and others have been placed on an evacuation watch.

It would seem that doomsday is closer than we thought nearly three decades ago.

Moving the capital is certainly not an option at this stage of our development. In the first instance, we simply do not have the money and of even greater significance, our population is declining.

The international community is not as accommodating as it once was because far too many countries have been afflicted by poverty and they are making even greater demands on the financing from these institutions.

In the absence of being able to shift the capital, we seem to be attempting to halt the effects of climate change by seeking to preserve the forests which have been described as the lungs of the earth.

However, one should not scoff at the idea of shifting the capital. Whatever threat there may be may not affect most of us in our lifetime, but unless we do something we may actually condemn the future generation to a life of hardship.

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A missed opportunity

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A missed opportunity

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