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Lament for the second class trees residing in Parliament compound

Nov 17, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
A few weeks ago I was riding in a minibus headed east along Brickdam. The light was red at the corner of Avenue of Republic and Brickdam and I decided it was a great time to take a quiet moment as this bus was not playing music. But it wasn’t to be.
The silence was pierced by a most disturbing sound. However, while disturbing to me, it also was quite unique for we were in the middle of the city. It was the sound of a chainsaw cutting down a tree. This is where things began to get tricky.
For some strange reason, I began wondering if we had accidentally entered into someone’s logging concession in the middle of Georgetown.
I realised that we were still on Brickdam and Avenue of the Republic. However, upon closer observation I noticed that a man was busy cutting down the tree that stood west of the Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow statue. Oh the horror! This tree is not close to the statue, the building or utility wires. Why was it being cut down?
The other tree south of the statue had already been stripped of all its limbs and stood naked in the blazing sun. Again this tree is not close to the statue, the building or utility wires. Why was it cut down?
The Guyana Government has taken the on ramp to Low Carbon ‘Expresss Way’. so I find it beyond comprehension that in the Parliament compound of all places, men are running wild with chainsaws.
Exhibit A showing the obscene extent to which this clear cutting has gone is the western side of Parliament.
Every few weeks, men with chainsaws chop all the limbs off these trees. There’s one problematic behaviour – I see these defenceless trees engaging in – they provide massive amounts of shade on hot sunny days for customers and passersby around the Linden and Timehri bus parks.
I could only speculate that it is for this grave offence against sensibilities they are being punished by the forces that be. There are times the lawns of Parliament approaches intermediate savannah levels as it was the day I saw those trees being punished and this seems not to bother anyone. Why not pen some of those Georgetown free-range bovines during high grass season on the compound?
On another occasions I’ve seen the eastern fence decorated with coconut water shells, coke cans and beer bottles. On yet another occasion I thought the Le Repentir dump site had been relocated on the eastern portion of Parliament grounds.
I have not determined if the chainsaw loggers are also responsible for ground maintenance.
To keep this short I won’t deal with the western drain that is the defacto male urinal or the numerous homeless and mentally ill persons who sleep out front.
Are these trees expendable because they are not part of the standing forests? Are these trees lesser trees since they’re not in an LCDS designated zone? Or are these trees on titled Amerindian land and the community decided to opt out of the LCDS?
If there’s anyone out there who could bring an end to this clear cutting activity, please do so post haste. Don’t do it for Mark Jacobs, do it for the trees. Better yet, do it on behalf of the Low Carbon Development Strategy.
Concerned Citizen

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