Lindeners must wake up to these clear cases of injustices

Oct 08, 2009 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Jocelyn Morian wrote recently, thanking whoever was responsible for the work being done on the Linden – Ituni-Kwakwani Road.
Well, that road, has been in bad condition for several years, particularly, after the benefactor, Linmine began seeing hard times and deferred on many of the services it provided as a truly, corporate citizen.
It is a fact that the loggers and others have been the main culprits damaging the road but being more than stingy by not helping in the repair as they cream the best of the “forest gold”.
Efforts to get the large loggers and others to work with government and the Region have not gone down very well. The same can be said of the Linden-Rockstone-Anarika and Mabura Roads.
However, there is a more deep–seated and underlying issue that I am forced to highlight. During last year when the global crisis was burrowing into our collective anxieties, government quite understandably promised a multi-billion-dollar stimulus package for roads throughout Guyana. The Linden-Ituni Road was earmarked for $200 milliom and it was agreed that Linmine Secretariat should spearhead the exercise using the force labour method. Here they would have:
(a) Hired Linden-based trucks to transport road-building material to site
(b) The labourers would have come from Linden and as much of the money as we possibly can, would have circulated in Linden.
(c) A grader would have been purchased to use exclusively on this road. (This was the reason for land rovers taking one hour driving from Linden to Kwakawni waterfront in those days).
A little over a week ago I journeyed with a group to Kwakwani in a minibus and it took us 3 ½ hours to get there after a severe stomach churning, head bumping and roller coasting ride in the leg – between Linden and Ituni.
That leg took at least 2 hours 15 minutes for that 36 miles journey. The leg between Ituni and the turnoff to Aroiama was much better and thereafter it was torture again to the Kwakawni Water front.
It appeared to me that the contract for the road work had started. They had started from the Linden end as we did not see the workers on our upward trip but they were there on the return end.
I asked Mr. Horace James (CEO, Linmine Secretariat), how the project was coming along and how many persons from Linden (trucks and labourers) were employed.
He stated that he did not have that information but he was going to Ituni on Friday (2nd, October, 2009) and he will do an investigation. Mr. James was trying to be safe and polite. I saw no truck from Linden on the road and at the time they were using a front-end loader to do the grading work.
I learned later that a grader is now working on the road. The stuff I saw them using was not all appropriate and as soon as the first rain comes it will be puddles again. So in summary I still expect the bad road scenario to continue. Lindeners, Aroiama and Kwakwani residents as well those persons working in the intermediate savannahs should note and agitate for the following:
* The contract to carry out the work goes to Mr. James and the Secretariat Pool. Who knows how to find, use and fix capping material better than people from the community?
* More Linden based trucks/labourers to be deployed.
*A grader should be purchased from the $200M and be used exclusively for this road. There are approximately 20 major depressions between Linden and Ituni, which require considerable amount of road building material. If we pay an average of $10,000 a truck load of material, the amount of material to be deposited will be 10,000 loads, if 50% of the package goes to this material. This will be more than enough to fix the entire road because the material is indigenous to the area. Fuel for the vehicles should amount to 20% of the project. (20% of the total sum – $40M) We expect that the road will be a good, fair weather road. It should be noted that nearer Ituni much lateritic material can be found which will ensure the integrity and strength of the road.
* Prime Minister as the other Parliamentary representative for Region #10 should say and do something in this matter, and if my memory serves me right, he was the architect of this document (stimulus package)
How is it that a project which was earmarked as a stimulus package to the community gets taken away? Is it because people are being decent and absorbing the struggle in a mature way that they are being taken for a ride? Do people have to “behave bad” to be heard and get their due? Is this baiting?
This matter is like déjà vu as in a recent matter with the signboards, where a Lindener was given the “hustle” to tear down the billboards but a contractor from out of the community was contracted to construct the road signs at Millie’s Turn, bringing his labour and lumber to do same. What message is this sending?
One does not need secondary school education to decipher this. Lindeners must wake up to these clear cases of injustices on them and their children.
Orrin Gordon

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