Descending into darkness on May 26, 2016

May 07, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Here is the main point of the City Council, the central government and many citizens who support the expulsion of Stabroek Market Square vendors. Guyanese need to bring back the capital city to the beautiful sight it was long ago. It has to start with cleaning up the city. And that task becomes imperative now that the Golden Jubilee celebration is on.
Sounds good on paper. But that is where it belongs – in theory. The reality of Guyana tells a different story and I will deal with the question of removing poverty instead of paying for cricket to come to Guyana in another column.
Who will argue against the resuscitation of Georgetown? But who can be so stupid to deny that you cannot uproot over three hundred vendors suddenly without handing them an alternative spot? At the time of writing there is no alternative spot. We can therefore speak of the accusation of the City Council that vendors dirty up the place versus the crass incompetence of the City Council. If you know you were going to expel them from their niche then weren’t you thinking of a replacement site? From where are those people going to earn an income? Did our elected City Council and elected Central Government do a survey on how many of those vendors are single mothers?
Here is my problem with the removal of the Stabroek Square vendors. The essential reason is that the authorities want the place to look clean and beautiful for the Golden Jubilee. I am contending that the city of Georgetown will look terrible and atrocious on Independence Day because after 50 years of sovereignty there isn’t a street in Georgetown where at least twenty percent of its space has functioning lamps. This column will run out of space if we have to name all the streets. I am a Georgetowner who travels on the roads of Georgetown every night. Now, let me repeat that – every night
A cruise ship turned back last week after refusing to dock at Port Georgetown. I am contending that if the passengers had disembarked, they would have seen a dirty Stabroek Square. I am not denying that. But more shocking is when they went through Georgetown and saw the darkness. Nothing deters a visitor more from enjoying a city as the dark streets. They are automatically contemptuous of that country and they dismiss it as a tenth rate, banana republic.
The Government of Guyana has two official press officers who are supposed to respond to sensational fictions created by detractors. One operates out of the Office of the Prime Minister, the other from OP. I am challenging this government to name me one, just one street in Georgetown that has at least forty percent of the lights working? I am saying bolding that not even fifty percent of the lamps work.
I am going so far as to say they haven’t worked since the eighties. And what is sickening is that the roadways where these lights are supposed to be in any 21st century land, Guyana is the exception.
There are some of the places where less than ten percent of the bulbs have life. The Office of the President, both New Garden Street and Vlissengen Road is not one them. From the time you leave Irving Street and you enter J.B. Singh Road where the headquarters of the army is located, there isn’t a lamp post. It is an area of darkness.
This takes you to the pump station which is at the beginning of Clive Lloyd Drive. The lamps from Clive Lloyd Drive to D’Aguiar Turn or the Russian Embassy have lost their electricity for decades now. You are going east and you arrive at Subryanville on the seawall highway. The lights on the highway were installed in 2006. For more than a year, those bulbs from Subryanville to Liliendaal have died.
There are no street lights except a solitary one outside CID head office on Camp Road. I wrote about this five years ago. I am writing about it again. Not one, I repeat, not one Ministry is on a roadway where the entire street is fitted out with working bulbs.
Who can be so dishonest to say that such an area of darkness that Georgetown is will not attract derision and contempt from any foreigner? Imagine a South Korean or a German coming for the Golden Jubilee and driving on JB. Singh Road in the night and the tourist guide says; “This is our army headquarters.’ The German then puts his head out the window and says, “I can’t see a damn thing.” Some living countries actually don’t exist.

2 thoughts on “Descending into darkness on May 26, 2016”

Kenrick Mitchell May 7, 2016 at 10:02 am

Freddie, if the streets were not lighted in 23 years, do you expect them to be lighted in a year?
Surujpaul Rampersaud May 7, 2016 at 1:11 pm

Thanks, Freddie. This is what I expect of you. Look at the issue, analyse it and offer a solution. Do you agree that the problems of these stall holders are affecting business. Every time vendors are relocated a new group occupies the old position so the problem becomes never ending. The large stores are disappearing and we are becoming a nation of peddlers. We are thinking small and we remain small. People must be complimented for trying to eke out a living but there is a limit. Are these vendors filling tax returns? Do they legally comply with VAT? Are they registered with NIS as self employed. These are all revenue earners for the government. I am very puzzled. Everyone is complaining that the economy is not taking off yet they are so many sellers. Who are the buyers? Please have an article on my observations