Gay Paris comes to the Atlantic in Georgetown
Freddie Kissoon column
Kaieteur News
January 8, 2007
What is really wrong with us as a nation? Is it that after half of a century of the failure of our social structure, economy and political evolution, we are psychological prisoners of melancholy, incapable of sublimating our angst for existential temporality where we inhabit our own unique world and find meaning and authenticity in the realm we dwell in? And the human condition as we know it in Guyana no longer exists?
I was moved to write this article after the thousands of lovely Guyanese I saw last night on the Sheriff Street seawall. The sight conjured up visions of poetry in motion.
Last year and the year before, the Stabroek News made three adverse commentaries about the abandonment that about three thousand Georgetowners or more engage in every Sunday night along the Atlantic Ocean stretching from D'Aguiar's Turn to the Conversation Tree at Bel Air.
One editorial quoted from a condemnatory letter which the paper published and which lamented the ocean of vehicles and people on the Atlantic between those two points. The letter-writer was given to exaggeration. This writer passes there many Sunday nights.
I haven't seen any donkey cart and there are no boom boxes. Some cars have large speakers and the music emanates from that source. We are told that there are about fifteen vending vehicles or trolleys that have moved in. Again I challenge those numbers. But can Guyanese ever be pleased? Is it that we are hopelessly clinging to the past or we are inflexibly class prejudiced?
What is wrong with 15 vending houses on the Atlantic each Sunday night? When vending started, there was a tumultuous outcry from both the business community and the society.
Some of the complaints were justified. One - they were blocking legitimate restaurants.
Two- the city was made dirtier by the careless street selling. Three- it took away from the aesthetic appearance of Georgetown .
The City Council moved in, and now there is a lessening of sporadic food-selling. The itinerant food-sellers do come out at night. They have set up shop at the printing location of the Stabroek News at John and D'Urban Street ; I pass that spot daily to get to Kaieteur News.
Now they have set up business every Sunday night on the seawall at Sheriff Street ; we are still complaining. Where do we want them to go? Into the ocean itself? What is wrong with 3,000 Guyanese and visitors converging on the Atlantic Ocean every Sunday night? What is wrong with 15 food-handlers offering their services there? What is wrong with leisure and pleasure every Sunday night along the Atlantic Ocean ?
Let's quote from one of the Stabroek News editorials: “The seawall between the Russian Embassy and Conversation Tree, in particular, runs along the perimeter of a built-up area. Many people from the nearby homes go out onto the seawall or its accompanying grass parapets to jog, to exercise, to stroll, to enjoy the sea breeze, to spend quality time with their families.”
Something is wrong here. This reminded me of when I was in Barbados in the late seventies. There was a subtle movement to prevent Bajans from enjoying the beaches where luxury hotels were located. The reaction was swift and uncompromising.
Bajans argued that a part of the Caribbean Sea fell into the lap of their country and they had a right to enjoy it. The same logic is applicable to Guyanese. If there is anything good that has happened to this jinxed country is God's gift of the Atlantic Ocean that sits right on top of Georgetown . Georgetown is below sea level, so the Atlantic overlooks the city.
Are we to understand that the long stretch from D'Aguiar's Turn to Bel Air is to be enjoyed only by the citizens of Subryanville? And why should they object to one night in a week? The ocean of cars is not there from Monday to Saturday. The maddening crowd is not there for six nights of the week. The 15 food-sellers are only there on Sundays. Why must 3,000 persons from as far as Grove on the East Bank to Lusignan on the East Coast be prevented from having nocturnal revelry on Sunday evenings because the Sheriff Street seawall is in physical proximity to Subryanville?
But something wasn't right. Was someone or some group trying to recapture the zeitgeist of the fifties when Guyana was a colony? We see a trend emerging that is deeply troubling. First, it was resistance to moving the dilapidated Dutch burial site located on Regent Street .
Even though the arguments in favour of moving it are water-proof, we are being told that it is an historical site and its pristine self must be preserved. But what about modernization and development?
I have already penned a column supporting the removal of the burial ground so there is no need to return to it.
Even Subryanville itself has changed. It now has a large school that houses nursery, primary, and secondary sections. In the mornings and afternoons the traffic situation there is frustrating. When the school was first formed, there were no complaints. There are still no complaints.
What is wrong then, if 3,000 persons seek fun every Sunday night on the Subryanville section of the Atlantic Ocean ? But Subryanville's landscape keeps changing. Directly facing the Atlantic on the Subryanville public road was housed a business selling hamburgers that was owned by one of the Mekdecis. This was unrelated to the JR Hamburger vehicle on the grass parapet right next to the ocean and that has moved to Shell Road , Kitty.
Subryanville is not its pristine self anymore. Why should that part of the Atlantic Ocean remain unchanged?
Looking at the Atlantic Ocean between the Russian Embassy and Conversation Tree is a vivid reminder of the resilience of the Guyanese psyche. We as a nation deserve to be free. And Sunday night escapades make us free.
All types are out there. You name it – teenage lovers; mature lovers; adult couples; family entities, youthful group assemblies and just people enjoying themselves. The Atlantic Ocean runs through Guyana. Let's enjoy it. Let us do things that will tell the world that we are not a melancholy, depressed nation.
One of the things we must remember when we condemn Sunday night escapades on the Atlantic is that 75 per cent of Guyanese are under the age of 35. Secondly, the society must have modern recreational centres for them.
Where are the outlets for clean, healthy, public fun for young people? A new phenomenon has arrived on the Atlantic. It has to do with the street lights that we now have on the Rupert Craig Highway. Young people are enjoying the ocean as the past generation never did before. I hope in 2007, we leave them alone.