THE PROPOSED FENCING OF THE 1763 MONUMENT GARDENS

Sep 04, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

A series of advertisements in one of yesterday’s dailies caught my attention. They raise more questions than they provide answers.
First, there was the amusing advertisement placed by the Ministry of Finance advertising for the position of a driver. Now it is not hard for anyone to contemplate what are the duties and responsibilities of a driver. Yet the Ministry of Finance’s ad indicates that details of job description/ job specification for the above position may be obtained from the Ministry’s Personnel Department. Beats me as to why anyone would want to have details of the job description/ job specification of a driver! But perhaps those who placed the ad know better.
Next, were Invitations for Bids by the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, for the construction of Call Centres at Enmore, East Coast of Demerara and at Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo. Now, why is the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce building Call Centres? Is the government going back into commercial businesses like it did during the period when Guyana Stores, Guyana National Trading Corporation etc. were owned and operated by the State? Who is going to run these Call Centres? If the running is going to be undertaken by a private company, why not let that company or those companies build or rent its/their own facilities? Beats me!
What also beats me is why is it that the same Ministry is inviting Expressions of Interest for a feasibility study for the establishment of a bottle manufacturing plant. What nonsense is this?
Unless this plant is going to be run by the State, the government should not be financing any feasibility study to benefit the private sector. Those who want to establish a bottle plant should undertake their own feasibility study. Why is the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, undertaking such a study?
Well, according to the advertisements, it is part of the policy of the Ministry to aid packing of agricultural products? What are we talking here? Pepper sauce? Achar? We need a bottling plant for these products?
The 1763 monument lies on a large expanse of ground. This area has always been an open, unfenced area. Now the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport has sent out an Invitation for Bids to fence that area. Why? Why fence the monument grounds? Come on, where in the world is that done? I do not see the monument on the Georgetown Sea Wall being fenced. What is going on here?
In the meantime, the National Library is launching the Gillian Thompson Reading Challenge. This competition encourages persons in two age categories to read four books selected by the library. The challenge runs for two months. I hope none of the four books are like War and Peace because it would take the average reader more than two months to read and digest four books of that length. The notice of this competition does not state what one is supposed to do after reading these four books. More importantly, it provides no reason why persons should enter this competition or what are the prizes, if any, for those who succeed in this challenge.
With Chikungunya cases being detected in Guyana, a great many persons are reading under their mosquito nets. In the meantime, the Ministry of Health has released a schedule of fogging for vector control. The schedule released is for Georgetown. The city has the largest population density in Guyana and it ought to be one of the areas that fogging takes place. But has the Ministry done any mapping of the areas in which the Chikungunya outbreak has been the highest? And is East Canje not one of those areas? Is any fogging being done there? Just asking!
How effective will be this fogging exercise? Previous fogging exercises have failed to reduce the mosquito population. Back in the day, health inspectors used to go around with their spray cans spraying the drains, alleys and other areas where stagnant water could be found. It was far more effective, because it directly targeted the breeding sites for mosquitoes. These health officers are no longer around.
Instead of fogging, should the Ministry not identify for each village one person to go around daily with a spray can and spray the drains, alleyways and breeding sites for mosquitoes? Just asking! Seems to me this would do more good than these irregular fogging exercises that hardly seem to bother the biting insects.

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THE PROPOSED FENCING OF THE 1763 MONUMENT GARDENS

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