The Botanic Gardens, the National Park, the 2017 telephone directory and all that jazz

Feb 06, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I was in the Botanical Gardens yesterday morning and what I saw was shocking in the context of the ideological leadership of David Granger. I saw a three level concrete structure going up right in the middle of a green environment. I thought it was a left over from the philistinism of the Jagdeo/Ramotar presidencies.
Remember the PPP regime constructed a concrete building for police intelligence right next to Castellani House. At that time, there was national condemnation of that building which was incongruous with the green ambience.
I took a closer look and inquired from some of the security ranks in the vicinity and was told it is a state security building going up. Construction started last December. There are (to use a Rasta term) bountiful land space available to put up security buildings.
Right in the vicinity of the Eugene Correia Airport, there is land accommodation. There is also space right at Eve Leary. I haven’t done the search but I would like to think out of one’s head, one can cite about twenty pieces of state land where a three-level concrete carbuncle (a word the late David DeCaires once used in one of his editorials) can be placed. I live next to the CARICOM Secretariat. There is space at the back there, Giftland Mall, Arthur Chung Convention Centre, Eddie Boyer gated community. Why do you want a three level building that is in the centre of a beautiful green ambience?
That question becomes pungently pertinent because of two positions of the David Granger administration. First, Mr. Granger has enunciated a green economy with its attendant green environmental requirements.
Secondly, central government has warned the City Council not to convert green spaces in the city for construction purposes. The last time I read the Gazetteer of Guyana published by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Botanical Gardens is in the heart of the capital city.
I do believe in the deep recesses of my mind that power possessors in Guyana do inexplicable things. From Burnham to Hoyte to Jagan and his wife, to Jagdeo to Ramotar to Granger, things have been done by these presidents that are simply strange and incomprehensible and absolutely illogical.
I consider that three-storied carbuncle going up right now as one such. When the PPP was in power by some strange, psychic contortion, it wanted to do the crazy things the PNC government did. The PNC boys and girls are now in power and by some mysterious psychic corrugation they want to emulate the philistinism of the PPP era.
It is impossible at times to understand how a government that was given so much good will and embrace by the population could throw it all away so quickly by insensitive, incompetent but also uncaring attitudes. Take the National Park.
If it was a private entrepreneur that had a guard without the protection of a hut from the elements, then we would have said that is the way private business operates but surely, not the government, not the state.
In the National Park, they have built a paid parking lot at the eastern side adjacent to GTT and in close proximity to the park’s head office. A security rank is assigned there to keep an eye on the vehicles of joggers. The hours are from 6AM until 8PM. The park closes at six but users leave until eight especially athletes.
The security has no shelter from rain or sun and eats his lunch in the open air. How much will it cost to build a hut? One of those 2018 budget billboards with the Finance Minister’s visage emblazoned on them cost little less or little more than half a million dollars. The cost of one billboard could have gone into building a guard house for those ranks who have to be on that parking lot.
Sadly, I think this government has lost its way. I spent almost an hour last week chatting with Khemraj Ramjattan in his office. I really do like Khemraj. He is a friend but I couldn’t help asking him, what has power done to him? I know what power has done to so many of them including the President himself and his Prime Minister.
Finally, the never-ending story of Guyana. Check the 2017 telephone directory and compare it with its 2014 counterpart. You will fall off your chair when you see how many important numbers are missing from really important institutions. I will do an entire column so I will not expand right now. But trust me please when I say it is an unadulterated mess.

1 thoughts on “The Botanic Gardens, the National Park, the 2017 telephone directory and all that jazz”

RLSG February 6, 2018 at 2:37 pm

Granger should change he name to Mr. Green .. he painting everything in green .. I wonder if he paint he own house that he own in green … all taxis should change color from yellow (Jagdeo’s choice) to green .. then when another administration takes over they will make color changes to suit themselves .. assininity continues wholesale in Guyana while the important little things get left behind.