NA is being sacrificed

Oct 13, 2010 Letters

---

Dear Editor,
Have you or anyone from Georgetown visited the Town of New Amsterdam recently?
If you did I am sure you must have been surprised or shocked at the state of the town and its rapid deteriorating conditions. It is fast becoming a slum town and a depressed community.
Ever since the ferry service was replaced by the new Berbice River Bridge and the bulk of the traffic diverted away from the town there has been a steady decline of both the physical appearance and the morale of the town people.
Recently I was having a conversation with some relatives when I found out that the inter schools athletics championship for the New Amsterdam Zone was being held at the Edinburg community center ground. Not that it should not be taken there as a matter of course but the sad situation is that the town no longer boasts any proper functioning sports ground.
The Burnham Park was demolished years ago and the fence material removed; the Fort Canje hospital ground is worse than a pasture after it was flooded by sea water and left unattended. Not even the inpatients have any area for recreation any longer; the Bermine ground has not been properly maintained since the collapse of that company and is more often a bushy pasture not fit for any sporting activities.
Word was that it was to be upgraded by the Berbice Cricket Board with the Stanford 20/20 money but that has suffered the same fate as Sanford; the Berbice High school ground is small and it has no facilities except that of a cricket pitch and the Scots School ground has been upgraded and is used occasionally for football and other events but this is totally inadequate for such a major sports event.
Then what does a town with a population in excess of 35,000 persons do…NOTHING! The people have been so beaten, down trodden and demoralized that they have been quietly accepting their fate because as they say they supported the PNC.
I do not know if that is true but actions speak louder than voices but what I see is enough to make one worry and even get angry.
New Amsterdam was once the cream of the urban communities in the entire Berbice region but today it is not even a shadow of its former self. With the collapse of Bermine in the late 90’s the down grading and downsizing of the Rose Hall sugar estate and the closure of the new Amsterdam ferry service all that is left in New Amsterdam are clothing stores, hardware stores, restaurants, rum shops and hair salons.
This is besides the New Amsterdam market and a few other commercial entities such as banks and insurances.
Unemployment in New Amsterdam and the surrounding communities of Edinburg, Glasgow, Sheet Anchor and Number Two villages is in excess of 75 per cent. The other 25 per cent works for those business places that I mentioned earlier.
Mostly store/shop attendants, teachers nurses, policemen and postmen, some itinerant vending and that’s the town. No other economic activity goes on all day, and every day the young people with nothing to do and nowhere to go just “hang” or “lime” and try to make themselves happy.
Those who are fortunate may get a job on a cruise ship or migrate to families abroad.
Another issue is the state of the roads. In the past two years the government have repaired and resurfaced all the roads from Esplanade Road to Crabwood Creek and all the little villages in some key areas, including Gangaram all with very good bituminous surface. To date the three main roads in New Amsterdam are the same as they were when I was attending High school in the seventies. The Backdam or Republic Road has not been touched since it was built.
The size and number of craters would make it easy for the astronauts to see them from outer space. This has caused lots of road accidents some even fatal as well as damage to vehicles. The main street, solid as it was over the years, has started to show decline and lots of holes are now appearing throughout its length. The same can be said about the Water Street or Strand portions have been dug and redug by persons laying pipes and other utilities. It is deteriorating at a fast rate.
Then there is the issue of street lights. Some time ago New Amsterdam boasted lights on the corner of every street, they are there no more. It has been rumored that the Guyana Power and Light has disconnected all the lights in the town because the Town Council cannot pay its bills. This action has plunged the town into darkness except where private citizens have allowed those lights in their immediate vicinity to be reconnected at their expense.
Hence, if the citizens want street lights individual citizens must pay for the connection and the metered cost will be added to the individual citizen bill.
This, to my mind, is very strange and confusing, considering that when one travels along the East Bank, East Coast, and West Coast and see all those lovely street lamps brightly lit and illuminating the communities one asks the question, “Whose money is paying those light bills?”
I have heard another rumour that the Government plans to put street lights along the Corentyne highway especially the various communities where people are residing as is the case previously mentioned.
I am sure those communities or individuals would not be the ones paying those bills. Now if that is the case there can be no justification for stripping the town of its lights. After all it is taxpayers’ money that would be footing the bill and that means it is my money also that is going towards such payments.
If I were to choose where my tax dollars should be spent I would want it spent in the town where I live so as to take care of me and my family and my community. So if the
rumour is true then I am certain they will reconnect the lights in the streets of New Amsterdam the same time they power up the lights on the Corentyne.
If there is such a high level of unemployment in New Amsterdam then correspondingly there will be an increase in criminal activities this is further compounded when the streets are dark and allows for the criminals to move freely.
So in case you never knew this is a synopsis of the once proud town of New Amsterdam, the Ancient County so old now that it can only move around on its knees. The town that had given Guyana  so many of its scholars and statesmen, outstanding educators, lawyers and literary persons is now a dying town , no sporting facilities , no social or recreational facilities, the worst roads in the entire region, no street lights , and no jobs for our young people.
Soon all New Amsterdamers may be travelling to Port Mourant for many of their regional services. Let us hope that the town can rise from its knees and recapture those glorious days and a promising future?!!!
Peter Benny

---

---