Coil: Change and Drains
The man and I noticed the water in the drains which had been weeded.
We talk.. there shouldn’t be water in the drains, there has been no rain.
The man is an APNU supporter and his grumbles about many things have fallen on deaf ears.
There is a futility about high water in dry weather in drains, in the city and in the outlying areas.
Outside Bourda Market, 24 hours after a sporadic shower, there is still a nasty puddle in front the City Constabulary office.
A lot of focus is on bringing down the old building and getting rid of the documents which might have had value. No one is certain if the drains near Bourda will be blocked by prosperity as has happened in other places.
Something about the cleaning, important, but top top. Like the rumblings of change. People say give time for the change and it is easy to believe that things might have changed on the surface. Rain fell heavily after days of intense heat and dryness in parts of Georgetown. And streets flooded. It isn’t clear whether there are any repair and construction works going along with the cleaning of drains.
There is a lot of money to desilt and clear away rubbish, but there is little talk about underlying repairs, redesign and fixing the infrastructure.
The man and I talked about how every block or ward should have a team of people checking that everything works and prioritising what needs fixing.
In Subryanville, a resident Damian Fernandes led the mapping to identify the problems. The drains were not the problem , the culverts in many places needed replacing or repairing. And representation had to be made to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure to shift their budget to deal with the priorities which had been analysed.
There is a conflict in many areas between the prosperous and not prosperous. An elderly woman asked me about the prosperous vehicle maintenance place which is using parapets as almost permanent parking lots – what can be done?
She wonders if she will have to block her parapet to prevent people from parking on it when another enterprise opens in the residential area. The parapet of the proposed enterprise is already ‘encumbered’ by apparently fixed concrete blocks.
This is repeated throughout the country, with or without the permission of the authorities. It is not clear how soon the change/transformation will take place to ensure that parapets remain free and clear so that the drains could be cleared regularly.
A lot of the beauty work seems top-top. Facelift. Clean up for a few days for a celebration and then back to normal. The state continues though with the pursuit of beauty.
The Government is sponsoring a beauty pageant “ Miss Indigenous Heritage Pageant 2015 “, this is a left over from the PPP days. Change of name to the pageant though, from Miss Amerindian Heritage to Miss Indigenous. The recently appointed Minister of Social Protection , responsible for gender equality, was also a judge in the Miss Emancipation Pageant. In 2011, the Minister then responsible for gender equality also judged the Miss Guyana India Worldwide. That Minister’s term ended with two of her colleagues being condemned for their sexism. The sexism of beauty pageants must have bypassed the supporters – apparently there are no Amerindian, black or coolie men who could promote their heritage and culture or whatever it is that is claimed.
The town of Chivilcoy in Argentina recently banned beauty pageants from their municipal heritage celebrations. No state involvement in “a discriminatory and sexist practice”, and “acts of symbolic and institutional violence against women and children.” Great irony in Guyana in how the state has been involved in promoting the sexism against Amerindian, black and coolie women. Where is the transformation in the Government response to dealing with the sexism which fuels gender based violence?
Citizens have agency. They will host and participate and support beauty pageants as a wonderful idea and defend choices. They will litter or not litter. They will block drains while building prosperous businesses. They will buy vehicles which are too big for the roads to crowd out other people, including those walking on the roads.
A drunk driver in a big vehicle killed Mahendra Sugrim. The drunk driver reportedly has connections – big like the weapon he used to kill the 23 year old. Transformation in the justice system would be that there will be a trial and conviction of the drunk driver. Cynics are waiting to see what would happen in this case -including cynics who voted for the APNU+AFC.
The issue of alcohol use in Guyana seems not to be a big deal. There are encouraging headlines for the alcohol industry “12 yr olds drinking rum, using ganja and cocaine – according to new study on drug use in schools. The children are encouraged to drink legally made alcohol which is advertised everywhere.
Never mind the Vice President’s “shame and outrage”, there are more billboards and marketing strategies designed to attract children and young people to consume liquor, than there are not to do so especially in “sports … “ where liquor companies are allegedly “committed to holistic development” and where, according to an Australian study “Child and adolescent exposure to alcohol advertising in Australia’s major televised sports” , children are exposed to a ‘tsunami’ of alcohol promotions (and Guyana is probably not much different).
There are few prosecutions of sellers who ensure that the children do not have to delay their first consumption.
Radical transformation in Guyana would mean acknowledging the problem with alcohol and other drugs and withdrawing all the additional incitements to drink from a culture which already encourages children and adults to drink.
Hopefully though, the cultural transformation to value each other’s humanity and development, and valuing the physical environment, might not take as long as ensuring that Bourda Market and its environs drain rapidly.
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