Drury Lane is evidence of the PPP’s mind-set

Jan 31, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Drury Lane is a small street that runs west to east or east to west, depending on how one’s sees it, in Campbellville. It begins from Middleton Street and cross over Sherriff Street where it runs right into the Campbellville Fire Station at Stone Avenue; that is where it ends. If you are travelling east on Drury Lane, you will pass one of my favoutite “watering holes,” Nicky’s Fish Shop.
You would also pass Austin, Delph and Seaforth Streets which intersect Drury Lane. You come to Sherriff Street. When you cross over that street to the other part of Drury Lane, then the Faustian journey begins. There are only northern buildings on Drury Lane. There are no southern structures. The road is southern bounded a major trench. And across the trench is Dennis Street.
There are only three northern buildings on Drury Lane as you cross over from Sheriff Street going east – Carmelita Nursery School, Campbellville Government School and Saint Theresa Catholic Church, then the street runs into the fire station. You cannot drive a vehicle on Drury Lane, east of Sherriff Street.
You can negotiate it with a bicycle or maybe a motor-bike but not a vehicle. The reason is not the dilapidated condition; it is not in such condition at all. It is a physically good roadway.
You can’t drive on it because from Sheriff Street to the fire station, it is a mountain of stink, rotting garbage that includes rubbish of all types among which are carcasses of dead animals. And from all appearances, it looks like the miasma has been there for years.
When you look at that street, as a stranger coming from another planet, you would think that Guyana is in the throes of a civil war or that the country went through a war and has died. When I looked at it, I remember a scene out of the sci-fi movie with Charleston Heston, “Soylent Green.”
Right next to that filthy mountain, are two schools where hundreds of small children play. We in Guyana have no natural catastrophe at the moment so why is Drury Lane in this unspeakably horrible state? Imagine a perfectly normal road has been abandoned to be used for dumping rubbish. And this road leads to a major fire station in the city.
Politics inevitably runs through your mind when you stare at the horrible sight on Drury Lane and bear the stench as you contemplate the sociological implications. This roadway’s unimaginable filth is not the work of the new APNU+AFC government. From looking at the debris, including the rotting trees, the stuff was there for ages. Immediately, I thought of the long years of neglect of the capital city and the leaders that brought on that uncivilised condition.
We are living in bizarre times in Guyana. I read the other day where Anil Nandlall wrote that the sugar industry is being victimised because it is an enduring area of support for the PPP. I will reply to the propaganda in that polemic but it makes you wonder how Nandlall, Jagdeo, Ramotar, “Bruk Up” Benn and the rest of the PPP leadership feel about Georgetown.
Why was Georgetown left in that semi-civilised state in the fifteen years of Jagdeo/Ramotar domination, a period in which Nandlall was a senior member of the Cabinet?
Georgetown historically has never been an electoral comfort zone for the PPP, and we are talking about since the fifties. In the 1957 poll, the first one since the 1953 suspension of the constitution, the PNC won Georgetown and won it in every subsequent election. So Jagdeo and Ramotar allowed it to be overrun by miasma. The PPP leadership would not accept that. And the reason is obvious – the PPP never did anything wrong or bad or when it was in power.
Whatever we may think of Nandlall, he is honest in speaking his mind even though what he speaks is sometimes morbidly silly as in the following words; “Whenever the PPP is in Government, there is economic progress and freedom in this country; and whenever the PNC is in Government there is economic decline and authoritarianism.”
This is an extract from his letter titled, “PPP Government in the 50s and after 1992 developed Guyana,” KN, December 16, 2016. See my column of December 23, 2016 captioned, Anil Nandlall sent Kaieteur News a coin with one of its two faces rubbed off,” in which I replied to his nonsense.
Drury Lane was left in that state when the PPP was in power because in Campbellville, the PPP hardly picks up votes. This same PPP wants to rule Guyana again.

3 thoughts on “Drury Lane is evidence of the PPP’s mind-set”

Ashwan Singh January 31, 2018 at 1:40 am

What about the G/Town city council that was run for years by Forbes Burnham’s cousin Hamilton Green? What was he doing with all the funds being given to the municipality by the Central Govt.

You continuously blame the Central Govt. when you say nothing about the incompetence of the Municipal Govt.
If the running of Georgetown’s affairs was taken over by the Govt. of Guyana there would have been riots by the PNC thugs who saw that jurisdiction as their personal fiefdom.

The Municipal Govt. is responsible for seeing to the business of that area, and is also responsible to use the funds allocated to it to do diligence for the people, not give the monies to their friends as “loans” as the former Mayor was doing.
Come on Freddie, be fair now !
Ashwan Singh February 1, 2018 at 12:15 pm

Absolutely Pam !
Gtloyal February 4, 2018 at 2:54 pm

The Guyanese public would agree that to “clean up the mess” the apnu/afc government would have to begin by bulldozing certain structure on Robb street if they really want to do a good job. Don’t you think so Palm?
The mentality behind this street’s condition is the same one that prevailed when they were cleaning the trench in front of Mr Freddie Kisoon’s house. Right Pam?