Saturday July 09, 2016
PAGE 9
Kaieteur News
TIGER BA Y SHOULD BE TURNED INTO A BUSINESS DISTRICT BAY One of the areas that the government has not addressed is ghetto communities. A lot of attention was paid in the past to regularizing squatter settlements. But not much attention has been paid to existing communities that have over time been turned into ghettos. These communities have become infested with criminal activity. Drugs and other forms of criminal activity are part of the sub culture of such communities which have attracted a negative stigma. These communities are invariably overcrowded. Many people live without basic social services. Water and electricity are not paid for. Living conditions are horrible. These communities are sometimes described as ghettos, not because of the people who live in it but because of the stigma that is
attached to these places. Businesses in these areas cater mainly for residents because persons do not wish to venture into these communities which end up being neglected. A solution has to be found to deal with the mushrooming of slums within cities. A solution is necessary because you cannot have tourism in an area where there is a slum. Tourists are going to be mugged and this will destroy the tourist industry. In some countries there has been an attempt to reclaim slum areas by turning them into business districts. It is called slum upgrading and where the upgrade is substantial it is called urban revolution. It is different from regularizing. It involves a complete makeover of these areas. In some countries, the rich are moving in to buy up
property in slum areas. They buy the property, hold it and then eventually begin to develop an entire area into businesses. Slums are bad for any city. They are bad for the image of any area. They are often overrun by criminal gangs. They are hotbeds for illegal activities. The Central Housing and Planning Authority should designate Tiger Bay and Albouystown as commercial zones. In this way, they will be able to save these two areas from becoming ghettos, if they are not already so unofficially classified. The idea may seem at first outrageous. You may ask why would anyone go into low-income communities and establish businesses given the fears about crime in the communities. There is good reason why businesses will want to
buy up property in such communities for future business use. For one, the property can be had very cheaply. Property values in ghetto communities are extremely low and many property owners, once they get a decent price would willingly part with their properties. It makes good business sense to buy cheap and then have the value of the property appreciated by converting a ghetto into a commercial zone. It will do no harm for the central planning authorities to assist this process by designating areas considered as ghettos as commercial districts. The real estate value would immediately rise. Owners will sell and businesses will buy. The homeowners will sell and move on to better communities. Many of them would like to love to get out
of the ghetto. There is a lot of brotherhood and sisterhood in the ghettos. The people are genuine and helpful to one another. If you live in a ghetto and have a problem, people will help you and not expect a favour in return. They will help you in ways that rich folks would never do. But life in the ghetto is still harsh and brutal. Parents do not want their children to grow up in the ghetto. They want a way out and if by selling their properties for sufficient to give them a better life elsewhere, they will do so. One of the things about slums in Guyana is that a lot of persons live in them illegally. Squatting on private property is widespread in slums. Most of the squatters in Tiger Bay are living on lands owned by private individuals. These individuals do not know
whether they will ever regain their properties. They do not know where to start. They cannot even go and inspect what they own because the properties are overrun by squatters. One way to regularize slums is to give those who own properties in slums, an incentive to sell. But they can only sell if those buying have an incentive to buy. The incentives for both buyers and sellers are to turn these areas into business districts. Property values will rise and the slums will disappear faster than you think.
Defective $350 M Hope Canal Bridge now being addressed Patterson
The sinking of the western approach leading up to the bridge has resulted in a depression which is aggravating commuters and vehicle operators.
Police prosecutors… Questions have recently been raised about the need for the state to bring on board experienced State Counsel i n o r d e r t o p r o s e c ute complex, high profile cases. This especially came to the fore with the prosecution of former Public Service Minister, Dr. Jennifer Westford and her assistant Margaret Cummings. Westford, who is a current Member of Parliament (MP) for the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and Cummings, are facing 24 simple larceny charges. The charges allege that between August 2011 and April 2015, while being employed in the Public Service of the Government of Guyana, they stole the sum of $639.4M belonging to the state. They allegedly received
The two-year-old, $350M Hope Canal Bridge which has been causing headaches for the commuters, vehicle operators and even Government engineers is now in the hands of the Minster of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson. The Minister was contacted last evening to inquire what his plans were to rectify the bridge where massive sinking t o t h e western and eastern approaches were occurring. The Minster stated that the Hope Canal and the bridge design and construction did not fall under his Ministry but rather, under the Ministry of Agriculture.
Patterson pointed out that this was “just another” strange thing that the former regime – the P e o p l e ’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) did to justify the building of the canal. He continued that he is now looking at the bridge on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture to resolve the problem. Meanwhile, an Engineer when contacted yesterday, provided several theor i e s about what might be causing the problem. One that he elaborated on was the possibility that the approaches were “now settling”. He pointed out that rectifying of the problem will cost millions of taxpayer dollars. However, this engineer
said that he will expand more on the topic after he does a complete assessment of the bridge. A plaque plastered on to the bridge shows that it was constructed by Dipcon Engineering and was commissioned by former President, Donald Ramotar during the tenure of former Ministers of Agriculture, Leslie Ramsammy and Alli Baksh. The name of former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lionel Wordsworth, was also inscribed on the plaque. The supervising Consultant was labelled as CEMCO, SRKN’gineering. There are many projects like this one that are being plagued by defects throughout the country.
State Counsel needed to prosecute big cases- Ram the money by virtue of their employment. The duo, whose trial started on Wednesday, is being represented by a panel of seven Attorneys- at- Law Rex McKay, SC; Keisha Chase, Eusi Anderson, Dexter Todd, Neil Boston, Bibi Shaddick and Brandon Glasford. The state is being represented by Police Prosecutors. Yesterday, former President of the Guyana Bar Association Christopher Ram was asked about Police Prosecutors. Ram stated that indeed, there was a need for greater use of special prosecutors in high profile cases. The Attorney-at-Law pointed out that state appointed Special Prosecutors brought special expertise to such cases. It was
also pointed out to him that the case had been adjourned after the defence raised objections about the Prosecutor’s files being in disarray. After the first witness, Chief Accountant of the Ministry of the Presidency’s Department of the Public Service, Andre Dazzell, took the stand on Wednesday; the defence team drew the court’s attention to a mismatch of files among the opposing teams. Following objections by Defence Lawyer, Neil Boston, City Magistrate Judy Latchman gave the Police Prosecutor until July 26, to present to the court, copies of the files in proper order before the first witness continues to testify. Ram said that there should not be any reason why
a Special Prosecutor cannot be brought on at this stage of the proceedings. Back in January, the Government of Canada, through its Anti-Crime Capacity Building Programme (ACCBP) had come on board to help train local police and State Prosecutors. The group had provided funds for the Justice Education Society (JES). The JES is a Canadian non-profit organisation that has been visiting Guyana since last year. The allocation was to the tune of C’dn$750,000. The project was touted to “develop the technical capacity of the Police and State Prosecutors to collect analyze and present forensic evidence.” What is not clear is if such training is enough to make up for the legal qualifications,
Director of Public Prosecutions Shalimar Ali Hack skill, experience and tactics needed in individual Prosecutors handling high profile cases such as fraud, which might also involve
them having to liaise with investigators and forensic auditors. Back in 2011, after the collapse of cases in the courts which were attributed to poor police prosecuting, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud in defence of the Prosecutors had been quoted in sections of the media as saying that Police Prosecutors were not trained lawyers. Yet, they are tasked with the responsibility of leading the state’s case, sometimes against battalions of experienced defence lawyers who would have not only acquired their Bachelor of Law (LLB) degree, but would have also passed the Guyana Bar examinations. Efforts to make contact with Director of Public Prosecutions Shalimar Ali Hack yesterday were futile.