Development is doomed because of the lack of discipline

Sep 12, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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A few nights ago, I heard someone make a very profound statement. He hinted that you can know about the society in which you live by the way its citizens use the roads.

It was a very insightful statement. Not only can you judge a society by the way its people use the roadways but you can determine its prospects by this metric.

Discipline is the key to development. Just look at some of the more ordered and developed countries which were poorer than Guyana 50 years ago. They are at the stage where they are at today because they are disciplined societies.

In this regard, Guyana’s prospects are not good. We have some of the most undisciplined drivers on our roadways. Our pedestrians, drivers and cyclists are among the most reckless in the world.

But the lack of discipline is not only confined to the road users. It is evident also in illegal vending and squatting, all of which have now become symptomatic of the deep malaise which is afflicting the country.

There is a business on King Street, in the heart of the city, which has now taken over the pavement. You cannot use the pavement in front of that business.

On Regent Street there is an early morning food vendor who erects a tent that intrudes onto the cycling lane of the road, forcing those who use this lane to divert into vehicular traffic. No one is doing anything about it.

At the corner of King and Regent Streets, coconut vendors are creeping closer to the edge of the roadway at one of the country’s busiest junctions. And all across the city, mobile caravans from which food vending takes place are popping up all across the city

At another section of the city, a man drives up each morning with a canter filled with millions of dollars in snacks. He parks it and has a stand next to it from which he sells.

These vendors are not poor people. It cost millions of dollars for one of these mobile caravans. It cost millions for a canter. Yet, these millionaires are allowed to vend on the verges without paying commercial rates. The amount of coconuts which some pavement vendors have in stock contradict the claim that pavement vending is for poor people.

At many junctions, there are young men selling motor vehicle accessories. Some of them change your windscreen wipers for you without your request or permission. They are franchising for rich agents who supply them with the accessories which they peddle.

On the Merriman’s Mall the Georgetown City Council has allowed one of the few remaining green spaces in the city to become overrun with small kiosks. You can bet that despite the Central Housing and Planning Authority not indicating whether they have given permission for such land use, that those structures are going to eventually be equipped with water and electricity just as how illegal squatters obtain these same services.

Investors are spending millions of dollars to build hotels and no sooner they are finished the outside of their buildings are going to be swarmed by illegal vendors. How can this amount to development?

A few months ago, the President of Guyana returned from Rwanda. He must have seen the sort of progress which that country has made and cleanliness and orderliness of the capital, Kigali. Without discipline and order, that development would not have taken place.

Guyana has been touted as a future Dubai. However, Dubai does not have the degree of illegal vending which exists in Guyana.

But there is another fundamental reason why Guyana can never become like Dubai. Our people are circumspect of immigrants, despite the fact that Guyanese immigrants can be found in almost every country, including Iceland. We bemoan the presence of the Cubans, the Venezuelans and the Brazilians in our country, despite many of these immigrants being prepared to do work that Guyanese do not want to do.

Dubai is a city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE has a population of about 10 million persons, more than 8 million of whom are immigrants.

Guyana does not have the workforce to develop the country to that standard of Dubai. It means that Guyana has to import immigrants. But do we want immigrants in this country?

We want development but many of our people do not want to work. We want Guyana to become the next Dubai, but we will not support the sort of large-scale immigration which is needed.

In the meantime, our Governments are building four-lane highways which are used not only by motorised vehicles but by pedestrians and cyclists many of whom are indiscipline.

Development is doomed in Guyana.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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