The demolition of those homes at Sarah Johanna last week upset many people. They saw children being assaulted, parents being manhandled, and people being ordered to sleep under the stars. It was heartrending.
To hear the evicted residents speak was to understand their plight. Many had been living on the land for more than three decades. Some spoke of being born there and of giving birth to their children at the same location.
The demolition was not government-sponsored although the police were there. Most of the people had everything that needed to be in a home. There were refrigerators, televisions, and other household articles.
From what the displaced people said, a private individual had laid claim to the land. They said that this has been so for a few years. Some people who are now ministers of government actually visited the residents when the individual made a move to evict them.
The residents said that the current Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, actually told the individual to back off. The man did. As soon as the People’s Progressive Party returned to office the tenor changed. The man returned to evict the people.
The displaced people then said that whenever they wanted the police none was available. But there were many to see the wrecking crew at work. Men, obviously picked up from some depressed area, arrived with their faces covered to protect their identity. Some came with sledgehammers.
As can be expected, the people remained in their homes. They were assaulted. They were manhandled from the houses because they were resisting. None was spared.
This exercise was conducted during the rainy season. In the end, some kindhearted individual loaned the people a tent. How the people shared it is unimaginable.
Organisations visited the area with donations of food and other necessities.
Many questions abound. When did this individual acquire the land? Who sold him? One can only suppose that he did not need to go to court since the people were not his tenants.
When the government wanted to demolish the few shops that sprung up near the Cheddi Jagan International Airport it moved to demolish them. Some people had also built their homes. These too were to be demolished.
One heavy duty operator refused the order to demolish the homes. He sat in his machine, refusing to budge. Eyewitnesses said that there were tears in his eyes when he saw what the government was asking him to do.
However, for a few dollars there are people who would act against their mother. The people who knocked down those homes had no qualms. The fear on the faces of the children meant nothing to them.
What is more, they were able to steal cash and property from the already hapless people.
In this oil rich economy at a time when the country presented its largest budget, there are people who have been trying to dig themselves out of poverty. They are now forced even lower into poverty.
A similar situation occurred at Mocha when the government contended that the residents were in the path of the new road. To this day the displaced people are in no position to restart their lives. Some took money to rebuild their homes at another location.
The cost of a home when the government gave them some money by way of compensation has gone up remarkably. These people are left to ponder how they will complete their construction.
A few short years ago Guyanese were smiling. They had looked at Trinidad that was producing less than one-seventh of the oil Guyana is producing. They saw an economic boom. Today, they are wondering what is happening. Where is the money going and to whom?
And while these people are contemplating their future there are those who are accusing the Education Ministry of playing with their children’s future. There are complaints about the results of the recent National Grade Six Examinations.
One parent presented her daughter’s examination slip that showed that she should be top student. Instead, the daughter was not even qualified to be in the top one percent. The mother has taken up this matter with the Education Ministry.
However, the examination papers were graded by the Caribbean Examinations Council. In the past there were allegations that the marks were fudged to allow the children of certain people to be better placed in the secondary schools.
But what was startling about the results was the fact that the public schools were humiliated. A mere fifteen percent of the top students attended public schools. The story here is that those who are affluent would give their children the best chance at an education. They hisse.
At the same time, in the public schools the teachers are struggling for better hisse and working conditions. The teachers in the private schools came out of the public school system.
In an effort to victimize the teachers in the public schools, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo actually said that his government was contemplating the idea of giving some parents $750,000 to send their children to private schools.
Truth be told, some private schools set their entrance examinations. They only take the best of the lot. The public schools don’t have the choice of rejecting slow pupils. Never the less, committed teachers will always do the best for the pupils.
That was the case when the public schools ruled the roost. Poor hisse saw those dedicated teachers leaving, some for greener pastures.
The government through the Education Ministry keeps talking about increasing the number of trained teachers. What it is not saying is that the training standards have been lowered as have the entry qualifications.
And the government is building even more schools. Who will staff them is a mystery.