Communities need improved access to playfields

Oct 01, 2008 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

If there is to be the sort of Cabinet reshuffle that is now necessary, then based on my own calculations, it will seem inevitable that the Director of Sport, Mr. Neil Kumar will become the next Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport.

There is the possibility that at least four Ministers can demit office in any cabinet reshuffle and in this scenario and given the limited pool from which the PPP has to choose, then we can very well see Neil Kumar take over the sports portfolio.

I hope in the interim that he does not do any further damage to his chances. Just a few nights ago, I heard him on television bemoaning the fact that sports facilities are not being fully utilized in the country.

He cited as examples the Burnham Court and Parade Ground as well as to the many playfields in the Thomas Lands area.

I do not know if Mr. Kumar is fully aware of the arrangements in relation to these playfields in Thomas Lands but I wish to edify him, in case he does not know, that the vast majority of these grounds are owned and controlled by clubs and therefore youths simply cannot go to these grounds and use them.

Even in the case of the former National Service Ground which is now run by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, you simply cannot walk off the road and use that facility. You have to have permission.

The same applies to all the club grounds on Carifesta Avenue. These clubs are controlled by the executives of these clubs who have rules and regulations.

In the case of the Burnham Basketball Court and the Parade Ground, I do not know who is in control, whether it is the ministry or the Mayor and City Council. I wish to assure Mr. Kumar that the Parade Ground is used for first division and premier league football in Guyana but I am not sure whether the basketball court is used.

Whatever the case, there needs to be a better system of management of these facilities since, if for example some youths were to take up the Director of Sport’s call to use those facilities, only to find that on the said day there is a scheduled football match, it will cause some confusion as to who should give way.

The same problem persists at times in the National Park. There are some Brazilians who play football in a section of the park. They are what we call “regulars” and therefore anyone playing there knows that by convention they should give way to these “regulars”.

However, this is not always the case when it comes to the softball and tape ball cricket in the park. Often it is a case of who comes first gets possession of the pitch and this is why I will continue to insist that we need a more regulated system within many of the playfields and parks in the country.

I recall once being nudged aside one afternoon by some athletes who were using the athletic track in the park. They somehow felt that they had some special rights to use that facility which others did not have.

The Director of Sport promised to make public the list of all the playgrounds in the country. I hope that he does and when he does that he also publishes the population of the surrounding areas so that persons can gauge just how many playfields we have per citizen in this country.

Every community should have not one but more than one community. In fact there should be a ratio of one playfield to every one hundred houses.

Guyana has a great deal of land space and if we are serious about promoting sports, the development of our youth, the development of recreation facilities and reducing social pressures, we should work towards having this ratio.

In many parts of Georgetown, in fact in the most densely populated areas of the city, there is hardly any playfield for residents.

When the government privatized the land which is now being used to build a bank opposite the American Embassy, there were concerns that the government was acting without regard to the history of Eve Leary and was also oblivious to the need for more public playgrounds in the city.

I would urge Hammy to get up a history of Eve Leary and send it to government so that they will first appreciate how the area got its name and secondly what it was intended to be.

Instead of increasing the number of public playgrounds in that area, a school has been erected and now a bank is going up. Perhaps, if that history was more widely known the school and the bank may never have been built.

(To be continued)