Latest update May 12th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 23, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
It is such a pity that Guyana is so poor that there isn’t a research foundation with billions of dollars so that Guyanese who want to write about their country can get money from the foundation to do so. Research is an expensive business, very expensive affair.
If you are going to ask a teacher or UG lecturer or civil servant to write about some aspect of Guyanese history, the funds have to be enormous because that person will have to pay junior assistants, will have to request no-pay leave from his or her employer because of the time involved, and there are other important expenses.
It does not seem in the foreseeable future that we will get such a foundation. It was the President himself who told Nobel Laureate, Derek Walcott, that money isn’t there to fund the arts and the literary establishment in Guyana.
Despite the resuscitation of the Theatre Guild, the Kingston Playhouse is far from being what is required of a modern theater. A theatre in today’s world must have more than two revolving floors.
In the absence of such funds, Guyanese from all walks of life will miss out on understanding where their country came from.
Last Saturday evening at the birthday celebration for Yesu Persaud, which took the form of a religious service at the Peter’s Hall mandir, Mr. Pat Dial, former UG historian and now Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting, joined my wife and me at our table. Mr. Hans Barrow, insurance businessman, sat in too.
It was an immense relief for me to go to a function and join other Guyanese and talk about everything except politics. What Pat Dial had to say about the evolution of Albouystown was absolutely fascinating.
I think a majority of Georgetowners, even those in their sixties, would not know of some of the nuances of life in Albouystown in the first half of the 20th century.
After telling us that he came from that ward, Pat began to describe what Albouystown was like sixty years ago. He explained that it was only in the sixties that the place became a part of the Georgetown municipality. He said it emerged as an urban suburb in the late 19th century, separate from the city of Georgetown.
According to Pat, Albouystown was essentially populated by Portuguese Guyanese and to a lesser extent, Chinese.
He told us that some of the most popular names in the Portuguese community came from that south Georgetown district. Here is the part that is going to cause you to open your mouth and never close it.
Pat claims that the first non-white conductor of a world famous symphony orchestra was an African Guyanese by the name of Dunbar who came from Albouystown.
Dunbar conducted the Berlin Symphony. I forgot to inquiry which year that was but it couldn’t be when Adolf Hitler was Chancellor of Germany.
Hitler was a rabid racist. He refused to shake the hands of African American sprinter, Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Look at Albouystown today! It is one of South Georgetown’s most economically immobilized areas.
Albouystown today is a place of unemployment and poverty, a place where you find members of the lower working class.
Of course, it does have a few upper working class people. But it would be stretching it to the point of absurdity to say that Albouystown has a noticeable middle class.
Why would the middle class stay in Albouystown? Why would a middle class family bring up their children in Albouystown? Unfortunately that is not the way class mentality is shaped.
The story of a fancy suburb in the early 20th century becoming what former Police Commissioner Laurie Lewis describes as a depressed community should make for intriguing reading.
Pat informed us that he would like to write about the evolution of Albouystown but time is his enemy. Can’t some rich business place out there give Pat a few million dollars so we can read about the descent from wealth to poverty in a Georgetown district?
Mr. Hans Barrow also told us about some buildings in Georgetown that I didn’t know about. They are no longer in existence.
Before I close, let me correct one of the Peeping Toms who wrote yesterday that I was at Yesu’s birthday celebration with the elites at DDL sports club at Diamond Sunday night.
I do not go to such things. I spent last Sunday evening with Rawle Welch, Dale Andrews and Mike Baptiste, three Kaieteur News staffers, eating fried fish at a working class restaurant in Campbellville. Oh, the things people write about me! But I guess it comes with the territory.
Listen how to run an oil country
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