What is the Problem with Guyanese Society Today?

Aug 11, 2022 Letters

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 Dear Editor,

Please allow me to address a few issues that I have been noticing for some time now in Guyana. Let’s start off by expressing my concern over the garbage problem that we have here in Guyana. This garbage problem is not a now problem it has been this way since I was attending nursery school. The problem has been this way for over 30 years maybe even longer but I can only speak from past experiences and boots on the ground dealing with this garbage plague we have in Guyana. I remember as a child when I was with the Scouts Group, every week when we had scout meetings at the Scouts Association Head Quarters on Woolford Ave, we would always engage in a cleanup exercise in some community in Georgetown or the sea walls. It was part of our responsibility to do what is right and lead by example as a scout within society. I participated in these activities for over several years and what I got out of it was that every time we cleaned an area, park, sea wall, community that the next day or a few days later the place returned to the same nasty, dirty, garbage infested scene that we had found it in a few days before cleaning. For years this continued and with no hope or solution in sight. Our only option back then was to just keep cleaning it up over and over. One good thing that I did learn about these cleanup activities was to be responsible in my own life and to act in keeping my own surroundings clean and not waiting on someone else or a group of people to come to my community to clean up my mess for me. A clean environment equals a healthy and happy state of mind. I had migrated to the US for several years where I was employed with the US Army and completed two combat tours to Afghanistan which collectively combined to three years spent in the middle east. I was part of a Police Mentor Team where we were responsible for training the local Afghan Police and National Army. I was a national advisor to the Afghan government at the time on counter insurgency which dealt with developing and implementing national policies for health, education, infrastructure and security both at the community and national level. When I returned to Guyana in 2013, I returned to the same garbage infested city and country that I had left behind eight years prior. It would have been amazing to see factories doing recycling in Guyana to help reduce the amount of waste that reaches the landfill site. The IDB had given the government of Guyana a loan of 18 million USD to build a state-of-the-art landfill site that was supposed to have a fully functioning recycling and sorting factory at Eccles dumpsite. The project was awarded to BK International group along with Puran’s Waste Disposal in 2006. How does a company with no waste disposal background get an IDB government contract for 18 million USD such as BK International? Even thou Puran’s Waste Disposal name is on the billboard at the entrance to the Eccles dumpsite road, Puran’s Waste Disposal was just a pawn in the mix to allow BK International to get the project because Puran’s Waste Disposal was the company with the experience in solid waste management and once that was done Puran’s was kicked to the curb. Part of the arrangement was that a recycling and sorting factory was to be built and operationalised at the dumpsite in Eccles. Money was allocated for this through the IDB loan of 18 million USD and yet in 2022 there is still no recycling and sorting factory at the dumpsite in Eccles. Along with this problem, residents living in the area for years have had to endure deplorable road conditions even up to present the access roads used in Eccles along the dumpsite road is like driving through an Afghan street after it has been bombed by mortars and IEDs. The roads look like a scene out of war. I would know I’ve been there two times. Along with the horrible roads the gut-wrenching smell of the dumpsite is unbearable. Imagine how those residents in the area feel? What is the problem with Guyanese society nowadays? We have become so emotional and sensitive when we point out people’s nasty habits, that seem to be culturally accepted as the norm here in Guyana. We need to be politically correct when speaking on certain issues or certain agencies and persons. To the people I offended by my words and for taking a more aggressive approach to dealing with our garbage problem please don’t be offended it’s not a now problem, it has been an all along problem with the garbage situation in Guyana. Whatever we have been doing as a society over the last 30 years is not working. CLEARLY IT IS NOT WORKING. We don’t check on each other and correct others when we see something wrong because we are afraid of the repercussions. How often do we do self-reflections at the end of the day to see what we did right or wrong and correct ourselves moving forward? How many persons see other people littering and turn a blind eye? I have seen this thousands of times. How many times we would see or hear someone breaking the law or doing something wrong that affects everyone else in the community but we don’t say anything? I remember some years ago the Mayor and City Council had hired a team of litter wardens to police littering within Georgetown. They had a wonderful name and shame campaign where persons who were caught littering their names and pictures were posted up on the media to highlight the issues. It acted as a deterrent to other persons from littering. In 2022 I don’t believe I have seen any litter wardens in the last two to three years. There is a theory used in the criminal justice system known as the Broken Window Theory. Broken window theory is the concept that each problem that goes unattended in a given environment affects people’s attitude toward that environment and leads to more problems. For example, if a window is broken on someone’s house within the community and the window is left unattended and not fixed, over a period of time you will begin to see more windows broken in the community. The reasoning behind this is that if we don’t fix the broken window then more broken windows will appear because it will become accepted by everyone in the community as the new norm which is to have broken windows and not fix the root cause of the problem as to why the windows are broken. Editor I would be humbled if those who read this letter can take away something positive about these issues. We cannot sit back and watch our lives go by and still keep living the same way for decades to come. There are a lot of issues out there that I have noticed and I’m sure everyone else has noticed it also because we are all sharing and living in the same society, we all shop at the same places, buy food at the same places, go to religious gatherings at the same places, we all fete at the same places.

All the issues I have highlighted are noticed by everyone else. I encourage others to take a stand just like what happened in Sri Lanka when the people came together as a collective to put an end to corruption and poor living conditions. We must fight for our environment and better quality of life for ourselves. Quality of life is the degree to which an individual is healthy, comfortable, and able to participate in or enjoy life events. Factors comprising an individual’s quality of life, based on the WHO definition, were physical health, psychological condition, independence, relationships with others, and the environment one lives in.

 

Most respectfully,

Mr. Simeon Taylor

 

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