A few days ago my friend Stanley Ming
gave me a disk with some photographs on it, now like me Stanley Ming is essentially
a businessman, so it is very doubtful that he, like me, would ever accept
political office but he is and has been giving of his enormous experience and
knowledge to help develop Guyana. We are a lot alike, Stanley and I, we both do
not think that the PPP have done a proper job of running this country, in fact
we both believe that our economy is close to, if not, already collapsed ant
that we are as the World Bank described us last year, a failed state. In my
other commentary this week according to credible polls 65% of you agree.
We are also victims of massive PPP
victimisation, in Ming's case he is the local agent for Mitsubishi motor
vehicles and it is an unwritten law in this country that any returning Guyanese
intending to bring back a vehicle is told, in advance, by the people who handle
these matters that if they are bringing back a Mitsubishi car, pickup or van or
truck they are out of luck since it will not be allowed in duty free. Of course
no government department will buy anything that Ming sells and it is also possible
that the PPP uses its political influence to prevent supporters from buying Ming's
Products and Services. So there is a deliberate policy to systematically pauperise
Ming just as there is one to pauperise me, the removal of the lottery draw from
VCT to NCN in October this year is an example, the government coerced and
threatened Canadian Bank Note that if they did not agree to take the draw away
from me and give it to NCN, their contract to conduct the National Lottery in
Guyana will not be renewed, the PPP made substantial concessions to Canadian
Bank Note to do this draw at NCN just to get at me ladies and gentlemen, imagine
denying the consolidated fund of money just to victimise and spite me. But
that's OK, because I don't think that the PPP will be around for long. I'll be
here when we place them in front of the courts for the massive corruption and
misdemeanours in public office they have been guilty of.
But how can the Canadian High Commission
stand by and allow a Canadian Company to be pressured in this fashion by a
third world country, simply to victimise me for telling you the truth. Where is
the Canadian Government's commitment to free speech? But all of this will be
handled properly at the right time in a court.
There is another thing that Ming and I
have in common; we both sustain deadly blows to our businesses as reprisals for
our political views and actions, there is a big difference between not getting
a chance to get your piece of the national pie compared to a deliberate,
systematic destruction of your business, but the people for whom we are
fighting really do not help us. I guess that you feel that we can protect
ourselves; nothing can be further from the truth, when a government decides to victimise
anyone and when they can twist the rule of law itself to do it, they can
destroy you, I don't care who you are or how incompetent they are, they can
destroy you and this PPP government is destroying Ming and they are destroying me.
So we are forced to ask the question why are we doing it? It is a question we
both need an answer to, and we need an answer not only from the local people we
speak up for, but the International Community as well since they are lending
massive amounts of money to a government which is too busy victimising me and
Ming and a few others and looting the national treasury to fill their pockets,
and are not doing what they were elected to do, which is to run your affairs efficiently
and honestly and to protect you.
So now we come back to the disk that
Ming gave me it contained photographs which Stanley took from an aeroplane and
from the ground along the coast from Onverwagt to Parika. Since I live in Region
3 I will deal it first, from these pictures which were taken from an aeroplane it
shows many areas where the sea defences are failing in a big way, what is
hilarious is that when Jagdeo was abusing the consolidated fund by using state
money to campaign in the guise of a cabinet outreach two weeks before he
declared an election, while he was speaking to the residents in region 3 what
you are seeing was going on behind him a few rods to the north of where he
stood, these pictures disclose that the sea defences have completely failed in
several areas and have left huge gouges in the coast where the sea walls have
collapsed and new dams have been erected leaving the old sea defences out to
sea just like the PPP, and only a few trees and a piece of high ground is separating
the residents from the Atlantic Ocean, these weaknesses can give way at any
moment, these pictures of the Vreed en Hoop to Parika area are absolutely
frightening, you can clearly see that the battle with the ocean is being lost and
the ocean is eroding the shoreline that exists now. You can also see that most
of these areas are heavily populated and the property of the residents are under
threat, I suppose that if you are living along the West Demerara coast you will
recognise your houses in the background. The oceans are rising because of
global warming how long will this incompetence keep the ocean out of your
backyards?
Some of the pictures show that the rip
rap fixes are also failing and are over topping in many areas, It is a very
sobering thought, the incompetence of this government is only now really coming
to light, of course we knew that they were messing up the economy of the place,
we could see that from tangible things everywhere around us, no jobs, poor
salaries, poor economy I listed some of them last night for you, but here is
what is going on in places where we do not see daily.
The next group of pictures are from
Buxton if you look carefully you will see that all of the sea wall concrete
show extreme signs of stress, there are fractures everywhere and one picture
shows the complete destruction of the sea wall.
Now tell me after wasting our resources
over the past 14 years where is this poor nation going to get the money to
repair these massive failures? It will cost billions; and it has to be done
properly whatever repairs you see going on in this picture seem to me to be
woefully inadequate given the pounding of the Ocean waves on these sea defences.
This other picture also from Buxton shows a completely collapsed sea wall.
These are very recent pictures as far as my information goes so this is the
situation today.
Look at this picture from Good Hope, the
old sea wall is some distance out to sea completely reclaimed by the ocean
actually it would be funny if the ultimate consequences were not so tragic, in
the next picture take a good look at where this old koker is now located, its
out to sea, telling me that the drainage and irrigation board and the PPP are
losing the battle with the ocean. And it was bound to happen, their corruption,
incompetence and inexperience guaranteed it and we were bound to pay the price
sometime. Now if the old koker is out to sea, has it been replaced? Or is
drainage non existent there now and has to be routed to overload some other
existing structure. This picture is also from Good Hope shows what is causing all
of the problems, it is silted up and useless outfall channels like this which
cannot drain the water from inside which cause flooding.
Now we come to my favourite pictures at
the Onverwagt pumps which relieves the MMA during flood, look at the size of
the original pumps, there Are 4 of them, none are working and when earlier this
year the Mahaicony area was flooded after only moderate rainfall; what we have
in this country which impersonates a Drainage & Irrigation Board put these
two pathetic little pumps to replace the 4 monster pumps that the original
design called for, but look closely at the condition of the 4 big pumps, they
are completely rusted and useless. Also look at these two kokers at Onverwagt,
now ladies and gentlemen I ask you, we designed a system with 4 monster pumps
and in the process these two kokers became useless and were abandoned, now however,
since the pumps are no longer functional, shouldn't these two structures be
renovated to help relieve the high water at Mahaicony after only a moderate
rainfall as happened earlier this year. I am not just talking and making wild
accusations, I am presenting you with facts and evidence which suggests that the
entire coast is crumbling, it is a situation which is fraught with grave danger
to those poor people living along the costal plain especially in the Demerara,
West Berbice and Essequibo counties and this government is doing nothing to
protect you from the disasters that can result from this criminal negligence.
They are too preoccupied victimising me and Ming and anyone who speak out
against them.
