Dear Editor,
The clearing of the roadway leading to the Public Hospital has been given a racist spin by the PNC and its supporters, like Dr David Hinds of the USA. For the PNC to take such a position weakens the credibility of the party, since people who live here know that there is nothing of the kind.
The true story is as follows: (i) About 20 vendors have been illegally occupying the roadway leading to the entrances of the Georgetown Public Hospital. This illegal occupation of New Market Street and East Street has blocked ambulances with sick persons and accident victims who were bleeding or had heart attacks and could have died before receiving medical help.
The Hospital Administration had been writing the Mayor and City Council for over a year, pleading with them to clear the streets, as it was their legal duty. The M&CC instead brazenly began to collect rent from the vendors, and ignored the Hospital. No one knows in whose pockets this rent money has been placed.
(ii) The ambulance medics have bitterly complained that accident victims and other emergency patients could bleed to death, since it only takes 4 minutes for one to die from bleeding, and those with heart attacks are usually at death’s door.
Dr Hinds and the PNC should show some compassion, concern and sympathy for these suffering sick people, since these are mostly poor African Guyanese people who cannot afford the private hospitals, instead of supporting the law-breaking vendors and attacking the Police by saying the Police are harassing African-Guyanese vendors!
(iii) At the Xmas season, the roads became more congested with cars and people crowding the stalls, and the Police had to act in this emergency; it was different during non-holiday season. At the Xmas season, many would have died because they could not reach the hospital.
(iv) The PNC, Dr Hinds, and other PNC supporters should stop the hypocrisy and cease defending those who reject the rule of law; and stop losing political support when they support 20 vendors against 2000 suffering.
Your sincerely,
Paul Validum
Ramlochan
