Cleaning up the city
WHERE there's a will, there's a way, they say. And who knows? If City Hall keeps willing it to happen, it may eventually succeed in cleaning up the city. In his latest weekly broadcast, Mayor Hamilton Green announced the launching of a $1.6M programme to enhance Georgetown. Work, he said, has already started in some streets and there's a promise to clean an entire stretch of parapet from Vlissengen Road to the Avenue of the Republic, removing all old encumbrances in the process. Citizens of the capital have heard it before but here's it again - derelicts (probably meaning vehicles and such like) will be removed, according to the Mayor. "All the increasing number of derelicts appearing on our roadsides and parapets are unacceptable", the Mayor proclaimed in his broadcast. He duly noted that not only do these derelicts obstruct traffic, but that they are ugly, breed mosquitoes and other vermin, conceal criminals and hamper the City Council's work. The Mayor also pointed out that builders waste and other materials are dumped in drains in the city and said these will be cleared. Nothing new in all these observations, except the fresh promise of cleaning up. Derelict vehicles and empty containers have been languishing for years on parapets, pavements and sometimes even on the greater part of some streets. Dumping builders waste any place handy has become the style in the absence of strong official action. Sometimes it seems that the City Council's greater success in clearing the streets is in rounding up cattle and other animals that owners try to graze on the lush grass usually so abundant on some road sides. But citizens should not despair. As long as there's life, there's hope for the amelioration of life, some wise person once pointed out and there's no reason why citizens of Georgetown should feel they are not covered by this scope for hope. Some may argue that the capital is in need of a cleaning up far more sweeping than getting rid of derelict vehicles and other obstacles at the sides of streets, stopping the dumping of builders waste in drains and tidying up stretches of parapets. But all should wish City Hall success in this fresh beginning and help in any way they can. Citizens, for a start, should heed the Mayor's appeal to "spruce up their immediate locations". Every little bit counts, and who knows where it can end? The important factor is keeping hope alive.
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