Latest update April 24th, 2026 12:40 AM
Latest News
Eburnation
Many, many years ago on this page I did a column on an aberration that has continued unto this day.
Before I come to that let me say that I believe when critics of the Government point to the lack of commonsense in the administration of Guyana, the Government reacts by maintaining the defects.
About three weeks ago, I wrote about the danger of making a right turn off the East Coast highway into Conversation Tree. The space is just not there to have such a direction.
When I wrote that piece, the Conversation Tree was limping. Days after the publication of my observation, I noticed that huge blocks were put around the tree stump making negotiation around the bend even more difficult.
This is a reinforcement of a bad idea. I am convinced in my mind that after reading my article, someone said; “To hell with Freddie Kissoon.” I pass by Conversation Tree maybe twice or thrice each day but definitely once daily.
There was nothing there, just the dying tree. The timing of the placement of the rocks has led me to think that there has been a reaction to that particular column.
One should not be surprised at these things. There are lots of petty-minded people in power in this country and they do irreparable damage to Guyana. Now back to the anomaly I mentioned above.
The water people are constantly digging up the streets of Georgetown (and other towns in Guyana) to repair or install pipelines.
When they do that, they destroy the roads. This destruction is unavoidable. How else can they get to the subterranean pipes? However, there is a way out of this situation. It is called modern management.
This country has some amazing ironies. When President Burnham moved the University of Guyana to its spacious location at Turkeyen, two of the University’s most popular programmes were Public Administration and Business Studies.
Today, they go under new names; Public Management and Business Management. These are still two of the most popular areas in the University’s curriculum.
So the country’s only University teaches students how to manage. But can the politicians who win power manage? In the world today, both government and the corporate world are guided by the textbooks on management.
You look at the way this country is falling down and you can see the incompetence in those who manage. You cannot get and should not expect a road-digger to be involved in the administration of things.
The guy’s job is to dig and repair. It is the task of the two relevant Ministries to manage pipe-laying and road repairs. Those two entities are the Ministry of Water and the Ministry of Works.
In a world dominated by modern management principles, it needs no vast experience in knowing what to do. The Ministry of Water puts on paper the number of streets that they will destroy.
They forward it to the Ministry of Works that will then know that they have to resurface a certain number of roadways that have become impassable.
This does not happen in Guyana. There are a large number of streets that have become rivulets because GWI dug them up; the Ministry of Works does not know about them, and they just disappear under the mud. Some of these streets are strategically located.
The latest victim is Winter Place where the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) is located. The NIS is one of the most visited buildings in this country.
These days, Winter Place can hardly be classified as a street. It is a mud-filled pathway unfit for vehicles to travel on.
A few months back, Winter Place was dug for the purpose of fixing the sewage lines. And that was it. It has been left in that state.
The rainy season has devastated it. Commonsense went out of the window after the sewage people had completed their task.
If you make an incision into a road, it will cost less to cover that aperture if you act right away. If the street is left unattended, the hole widens.
If the rainy season is on, then you are talking widespread damage. This is what happened to Winter Place. Where is commonsense in the running of a country?
The Government has to spend more money to resurface or repair these streets than if they had acted immediately.
The ruling clique tells its subjects about the disadvantage of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and urges Guyanese to reject it in its present form.
But look how these people manage a country eight years into the 21st century. Whatever is bad in the EPA, it cannot be worse than the other EPA we have lived under since Independence –Economic and Political Eburnation. Eburnation is a terrible disease that leaves you paralyzed.
Share this:
Discover more from Kaieteur News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.