For the want of a nail…

Sep 03, 2013 Editorial

The saying that a stitch in time saves nine holds true in every aspect of life. Everyone knows that if, for example, a weakness appears in a structure, once that weakness is unattended then the structure worsens.
In Guyana, many homes have gone the way of becoming derelict because the occupants ignored the first board that fell from the building and continued other signs of collapse.
Vehicles are no different. Should a driver hear some strange sound coming from the engine, once he does nothing then the situation worsens. Many a vehicle has gone to the graveyard because of neglect. It is the same with the social infrastructure in Guyana and with attitudes that prevail in the nation’s schools.
Recently, the government has been spending money to rehabilitate some of the nation’s schools but even this appears to be haphazard, since the contractors are often keen to make maximum profit and therefore do shoddy work.
We have roads that are so bad that motorists ignore them. One roadway in Lodge has a large refrigerator in a hole to warn motorists. This hole was at one time a dent that was ignored. It grew and kept growing to the point where it could not be ignored. But the authorities did ignore it so it is now a pond in the middle of a roadway.
Squatting is a prime example of neglect. People began to occupy any piece of open land and set up structures that were little more than cardboard shelters that barely kept out the elements. One man set up his structure and the authorities ignored him. Pretty soon others emulated him and the authorities did nothing.
Such situations now exist all over the country. With a sense of determination, the government managed to clear the people who once occupied the railway embankment. They had been allowed to live there for decades so that when the time came, they actually challenged the right of the government to remove them.
It took force and a piece of carrot to get them to move; the carrot came in the form of compensation to those who claimed that they needed money to replace the material they lost when they were bulldozed from the embankment.
We now have the situation in the vicinity of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport where people simply moved on the land and set up homesteads. Today the government wants to expand the runway at the airport but finds that the squatters are in the way. The squatters in some cases do not believe that they are in the way of the expansion project. Others feel that they should be given land to move.
These things tell of a government that is prone to neglect serious issues. At the turn of the century when the life of the Soesdyke/Linden Highway came to an end, the government in place negotiated a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank to resurface the highway. The elections came and there was a change in government.
The new government opted to scrap the resurfacing programme, choosing, instead, a patchwork situation that now has people scared to drive on a wavy surface that is life-threatening. In fact, people have crashed and died while driving on the roadway.
Why would a government neglect such situations? The reason is that the political system does not afford any politician the need to be accountable to the people. The result is that people complain but many ignore because they could not take the time to listen to people. The result is most painful.
Parents are also in the category of people who foster neglect. These days, we complain about parents who do not take time to guide their children or to even support them in the pursuit of their academic education.
Just recently, one school noted that some parents could not take the time to capitalize on the after school programme that would help them work with their children. And the nation complains about a decline in academic standards.

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