On Saturday there was a squall over Bath on West Coast Berbice that took the residents by complete surprise. A few roofs were blown away…a couple houses were flattened and electric poles fell to the ground. We get these every now and then on different parts of the coast. So, while it had to’ve been traumatic to the affected residents no need to panic. Ain’t that right? Well, not necessarily. Look around right here in our dear mudland. The floods are coming with increasing frequency because of the increased rainfall and we’ve been assured that rising seas will put our entire coastland under water in a few decades. Living in a trench between a Seawall and a back dam, how long can we literally keep our head above water?
How high can we raise the sea walls? How many 7-gate sluices can we build? And it’s not just us…the same dynamics’ been playing out across the world. Read about the heat-wave-of-all-heat-waves that just swept across India and Pakistan? The drought in California? One March study says, “The world has experienced 350-500 medium- to large-scale disasters every year over the last 20 years. This is five times higher than the previous three decades…And the world will face about 560 disasters every year by 2030.” How does that sound to you??
So, what do we do, dear reader? Your Eyewitness will tell you what he thinks. Even though we’ve all gone through that mill called the “plantation” – in which it didn’t make sense to look too far into the future – it’s time we get with the program and dump that attitude! The colonial powers could rule us for centuries because they planned for centuries into the future. Ever seen those parks in England? Those trees were planted centuries before and those who planted them were long gone!! So what’s the plan for our “tree planting” that our descendants can enjoy in hundreds of years to come??
Well, let your Eyewitness make this clear. While we look far ahead we still gotta keep an eye on what’s right in front of us. Lest it be a hole in which we plunge and break our necks!! So we still hotta continue trying to keep out the seas and drain our coast, OK? We still gotta improve our infrastructure…create those industrial estates etc. We still gotta eat, no?!!
But in addition, we literally also gotta move to higher ground!! And it’s in this vein we gotta hand it to Pres Ali with his proposal to create “Silica City” way up into our Hilly Sand and Clay Belt.
That’s a real “see far” move that’s a game changer!!
…but it’s been done
On this move, we should start small – as the Pres has proposed. But the plan must strategically cater for Silica City to become the capital for our new One Guyana. We can’t pretend that Georgetown isn’t going to be underwater within a few decades. Have we forgotten that in 1960 Brazil built a new capital – Brazilia – as its capital in the middle of the jungle?? Even as Rio and São Paulo were already two of the most vibrant cities in the world?
So, we must think big. Have you even wondered how come Washington DC has such wide boulevards and open spaces when it was built over 200 years ago in the age of horse and buggy?? They built for tomorrow, baby!! Our country’s is as big physically as England? And all they started their WI empire with was a dinky little island in the Caribbean named St Kitts!!
And we now have oil to join our gold, diamonds, bauxite and forests to put us on top of the world!!
…voters’ lists
To tye BP’s suggestion on cleansing the deceased, a Gecom PNC Commish says some migrated deaths might still linger. So isn’t this just a variation on how the migrated sb handled?
His suggestion?
