Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 31, 2015 News
By Leonard Gildarie
I have had the fortunate experience of attending a few courses in management and it has been eye-opening. I learnt a few tricks. For example, if you have a bunch of things to get done, it would be good to get the tasks that take the least amount of time out of the way first. It has helped my normal, crazy days.
Every single day the newspaper is unpredictable. Things are always happening. There is never a dull moment. The management of time is therefore highly critical. I sometimes wonder how media folks find the time to socialize.
I could not help thinking about time and prioritizing things for Guyana as events continued to unfold over the past few weeks following the May 11 elections.
The city is experiencing a major change.
There is a frenetic cleaning ongoing by citizens, minibus drivers, the fire service, corporate Guyana, and even the Mexican Embassy I saw joining in.
People are smiling. They like what they see. There is a spring in the step.
I drove along the Avenue of the Republic and in the Stabroek Market area and could not believe my eyes. I cannot ever remember Georgetown that way. I always dreaded walking through the area with its garbage and stench. The change is happening.
I saw the Kitty/Campbellville minibus park and could only marvel about the possibilities.
But perhaps what was alarming for me is what the people of Georgetown, especially, have been living and working in.
I saw some photos of the firemen cleaning around their headquarters in the vicinity of the old Guyana National Cooperative Bank.
How did we allow the Garden City to sink to such conditions?
The drainage systems are all clogged with stuff that must have been there for decades.
I am being told that the sewage system, and I stand to be corrected, is almost non-existent.
Waste from the system (or lack of) are mingling with flood waters that have become part of the normal sights. I dread to think of the health risks.
I saw a video of one prominent business on Water Street blocking off an entire koker to create more space for its wharf facilities. The blocked koker was discovered by clean-up crews only recently. It appeared to have been blocked for years now.
Who at City Hall allowed this? How could one business dare do this, at the expense of the rest of Guyana?
Because of how Georgetown was configured, we have an aging sewage system that in addition to becoming non-existent, is being threatened by the floods that come whenever the rains fall.
Bearing this in mind, it is unthinkable that the experts at City Hall and the former Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development never saw it important to pull out all the stops to address the situation.
The officials involved should have been fired, starting from the Mayor down.
I keep saying it over and over again. There seems to be more concern about holding onto power and flexing muscles rather than getting the job done.
The authorities are not alone in the blame game. We have ourselves to blame too.
We drop our waste and styrofoam containers, thinking somebody else will have to pick it up. We keep our yards clean but the nearby roads and streets dirty. Let us start there – right in our neighbourhoods.
Where is the love for country? Where is the leadership?
Kudos should be extended to all the companies that came out. Even the Chinese saw the possibilities and came out.
The big question is – can we sustain the momentum? Can we afford to go back to the days when we could only shrug the shoulders and resign ourselves to the fact that this is Guyana? The clean-up thrust should not be limited to the city. We have hundreds of communities that are begging for the same initiatives.
Ways must be found for motivating our people. Maybe our contractors could take the lead.
How about the existing NDCs? Many of them worked hard using the councils’ resources to campaign for their respective parties in the recent elections. How about the same enthusiasm?
Let us spread this madness of cleaning right across the country. Let us have zero tolerance for illegal garbage dumping. Let us become watchdogs for our neighbourhoods. Enjoy the weekend.
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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