-reviving a spirit of community in Guyana

By Dr Ken Danns
DURING a recent visit to Guyana, I was struck by the rapidly emerging sprawl of new housing development, both in urban and rural areas. This gentrification is a good happening. It is an empirical indicator of restless development in the country which is burgeoning ahead of the nation’s existing capacity to manage. An atmosphere and a reality of progress and well-being is emerging in Guyana. The Guyanese people are building new and bigger homes made of concrete and adorned, within and without, with the trappings of modernity. They are also acquiring automobiles as a measure of their improved socio-economic well-being.
The progress in new housing construction is seemingly characterised either by an element of narcissism, or the absence of or failure to enforce building regulations. Dream homes are seemingly being built without concern for any community concept of architecture and aesthetics. Notably, some of these communities are devoid of adequate infrastructure. Of course, there are notable exceptions with developers building high-end housing in organised and gated communities.
Two-flat buildings and three, four and five-storeyed buildings rise up from the ground — seemingly overnight — alongside smaller cottages and older structures. Business and residential properties intersperse without order. The architectural designs and colour schemes of many of these properties are generally self-indulgent and visibly out of kilter with everything else around them. It is as if residents do not talk with each other. Or else they are oblivious that the sometimes outrageous colour schemes on their own properties may devalue the aesthetics of the homes of their neighbours and the community. Do regulations exist, or have these developmental changes in the society outstripped them?
It is not unusual to see beautiful homes in communities with clogged and weed-infested drainage, incomplete access roads or pot-holed streets, which make driving or even walking home to these “mansions” decidedly stressful, if not a downright nightmare. The Guyanese people are using their properties as symbols of progress, even though they may have to traverse muddy and pot-holed streets to get home. Beautiful homes constructed in indulgent isolation do not make a good community. Many of these homes are iron-grilled with high fences and walls that keep home residents from the community and the community from home residents. While the threat of crime may inspire such protective designs, it is imperative that residents do not allow the homes they build to imprison them from their communities.
The narcissism displayed within communities, manifested in the ways in which homes are built and some lives are lived, is further reflected in the discourteous, reckless and selfish manner in which many drive on the public roadways. It is just plain crazy! Drivers disregard lanes, stop signs, speed limits, pedestrians. They keep going with deliberate and reckless discourtesy to drivers in front, behind or at the side of them. They create in the process a constant chaos of traffic. Even well-intentioned drivers are caught up in this contagion of chaos and contribute to the melee. It is a miracle that more accidents are not happening everywhere and all the time. Driving in Guyana is freedom without responsibility. Self before others. Chaos rather than community. The end result is that discourteous and reckless drivers induce unwarranted stress and fear in others and also themselves. They often do not get where they are going any sooner than if the established norms for using the roadways are followed. In addition, it seems as if almost everyone is having or acquiring a car and driving it with the same mindset with which they build their homes — acting indifferently to others and to the community. Perhaps more attention should be devoted to effective traffic regulation.
A good community that is organised and endowed with proper roads, drainage and other infrastructure amplifies the value of the properties within it. A good community is one in which residents create and sustain forums to sort out matters of common interest. Communities are being built without playgrounds and recreational spaces for children. Local governments that collect property taxes have an obligation to build and maintain community infrastructure. Where resources are inadequate or non-existent, homeowners can mobilise in self-help activism to realise such resources. The community’s development and well-being impact individual and family’s well-being and is a shared responsibility.
Residents need to talk with their neighbours and local governments to make a difference. Do not accept poor roads and drainage as normal and unchangeable. Insist on standards. Neighbours can do something about it starting today. Do things together to promote the community and your personal well-being. Enough of the discourtesy and recklessness on Guyana’s roadways. Courtesy on the roads will relieve stress if not also save time, life and limb. What is needed in Guyana now more than ever is a revival of a spirit of community; and, the retention of a sense of order, even as the nation is catapulting down the path of new development.