Latest update November 1st, 2024 12:59 AM
A description that is an act of depravity
Dear Editor,
The continued reference by the Mayor of Georgetown and the Town Clerk to the jumbled tent city type shanty town arrangement south of Public Buildings at Hadfield and Lombard streets, where the vendors have been crammed into by the Council as ‘Parliament View Mall’ is pure and simple disrespect and disregard for the vendors and shoppers in our capital city.
These two individuals have been travelling all over the world and know what a shopping mall looks like, which is a large retail complex containing a variety of stores and often restaurants and other business establishments housed in a series of connected or adjacent buildings or in a single large building. Apart from the average mall being simply a place to do some shopping, grab a snack and catch a movie, some malls such as Giftland Mall, offer a spectacular selection of shopping, entertainment and dining options.
To refer to these rows of flimsy and porous tents most of which are already damaged, under which there are pallets, rickety tables and chairs made from old bits and pieces of wood strapped with scraps of tarpaulin and sling rope with insufficient facilities and conveniences such as poor drainage, non-existent lighting, potable water, and few toilets as a shopping mall, is just depraved. It suggests that they are of the view that Guyanese are unaware of what a shopping mall is, or that we should all pretend that this facility is an acceptable part of the landscape of the city.
Do these individuals or their families shop there? I’ll bet not. They will more likely than not shop at the upmarket malls when they frequently travel, and when compelled to purchase items locally go to the real malls with a retinue of bodyguards and other support staff in tow. It is time for the Mayor and Town Clerk to stop trying to fool the vendors who were forced to occupy that area that they have their best interest at heart, when they don’t. It is time for them to stop coming up with these foolish and impossible pie in the sky ideas of installing a double-deck at the Bourda Green and extending the Stabroek Market to accommodate these vendors, as they have not the financial resources to do either. Most of all they should stop making these ridiculous pronouncements that they are trying to organize the city that will make it comparable to modern cities and which would allow it to stand shoulder to shoulder with the great cities of the world, which is an insult to the intellect of Guyanese.
City Hall with its present human and other resources cannot make good on such a promise. Lacking within the Georgetown Municipality is the technical and political capacity to provide even the most basic of cultural, environmental, social and sustainable living needs for present and future citizens of Georgetown. Especially when one checks on the background of the Mayor and her Town Clerk.
Debra Gibson
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