…flooding of the coast
So here we are, smack in the onslaught of the rainy season, and once again we’re caught with our pants down – and the water up to our waists! And judging from the pics in the papers, this is NOT a figurative expression!
Let’s start with Georgetown, where one-quarter of our population lives, and for them and most of the elite, they’re “Guyana”. Now, everyone and their uncle know that if the town folks all spit at the same time, the city would become inundated! It’s been like that since the 1960s, so nobody can say they didn’t know.
The question, of course, is: what have the powers been doing about it? And the answer, of course, is: the same as it’s been for most of the time since the 1960s, when the British left. – NOT A DAMMED THING! The PNC, of course, took over running the country then, and inherited an intricately woven network of drains, canals and sluices that kept the city dry even though it was five feet below sea level.
Back in the 19th century, when it was the responsibility of the sugar plantations and villages along the coast to deal with flooding, the central Government had built the first concrete sea wall in front of Georgetown, and the canals within.
Subsequently, the Government always maintained the sea wall, but it was the responsibility of the City – run by a Mayor and City Council – to clean those drains and canals. And that’s where they’ve always failed – even though they collect billions in rates and taxes year after year. Their perennial cry is they don’t have enough money, yet they have one of the most bloated payrolls in Guyana – and possibly the world. What are all those people doing?
Back in the day, Burnham used to take senior civil servants to clean the canals at Hope Estate. Why can’t the Mayor have all the staff at his disposal to assist the sanitation workers clean out the drains the moment they know the rains are coming?? The Mayor himself has been spied on several cleaning expeditions…he just has to be joined by the top-heavy staff. Or else he can simply fire a quarter of them and use the money saved to have the drains cleaned!
Now, to the rest of the Coast. Back in the colonial era, it was the responsibility of each plantation to keep its canals and drains – AND THE SEA DAM – clear, so that its lands weren’t flooded. The Govt now takes care of the sea wall…and the PNC shut down the EC estates.
So why be surprised that the East Coast is flooded?
…March of Trump
All of the pundits – political and otherwise – had predicted that Biden would’ve led an avalanche of voters to sweep away Trump and the Republicans. At the time of this writing, they’re all in a deep funk that the race is now a dead heat!! As your Eyewitness has been saying is that he still believes Trump would emerge as the winner. But even if he doesn’t – by some strange manoeuvre of the democratic state machinery – he’s already won a great moral victory.
For good, bad or indifferent, America has been altered in a fundamental way, which is irreversible and which will send shock waves through the world. Trump was able to activate a pool of voters that had traditionally been ignored by the elites that ran the country – politically and economically – but they’re now aware their votes matter. Those elites can’t keep them barefooted and pregnant down on the farm any longer!
The same in now true for Guyana. No longer will the PNC and the Georgetown elites be given a free pass.
…Silence
Now that the PPP Government had cancelled BK’s $826M contract for the school at Yarrowkabra, your Eyewitness was expecting the usual deluge of criticism about a “vindictive PPP going after PNC supporters”.
But the silence has been deafening. One wonders why.
