Busts lessons
Guyana Chronicle
January 20, 2007
OUR startling page one photo and short item yesterday about the three stolen busts from the Non-Aligned Movement monument in Company Path Garden, in the heart of commercial Georgetown, was followed with the good news yesterday afternoon that they had been found.
The Government Information Agency (GINA) did not say in what condition the busts of the three eminent world leaders had been found or where, but revealed that the removal was the work of a person of probably unsound mind.
Following the good detective work of the City Constabulary, the busts were recovered and the agency said these are in the possession of the City Council and will be restored to their original positions with the aid of the National Trust.
According to GINA, the Chief Constable and the Town Clerk are now considering raising the fence around the Company Path Garden to block vagrants from getting in there so easily.
The removal of the busts must have been a shocking wake-up call for those entrusted with the care of such national monuments and sites.
The Non-Aligned Movement monument is a site often on the itinerary of visiting foreign leaders, especially those from the developing world who take time off to go there to lay wreaths in honour of those fine men who gave so much for the liberation of peoples from colonisation.
Several distinguished heads of state have been there to pay tribute to the four leaders.
It is a disgrace to the memories of the four key figures in the Non-Aligned Movement that a site and monument in tribute to their sacrifices and to serve as an inspiration for those living and generations still to come should have been so easily desecrated.
The removal of the three busts had to take some doing, and, regardless of who did it, the dastardly act could not have been accomplished in mere minutes.
That no one noticed the dismantling and removal of the three busts and plagues and felt compelled to alert the Police or other authorities, is a damning sign of how much care is being given to important national monuments and sites.
These are key aspects on guided tours for tourists and the desecration of the busts in the Company Path Garden, which have stood there so proudly over the years, is surely a sign of the times and an example of how much is yet to be accomplished to make Guyanese conscious of what they have to offer visitors.
The situation demands a serious re-examination of the state of supposed national monuments and sites.