Dear Editor,

WATCHING the aftermath and devastating consequences of recent hurricanes in our region, including Hurricane Maria (the fourth named storm since Irma) and well aware of the significant overstaffing and complete bankruptcy of the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown, I would like to make a proposition that would ‘kill two flightless birds with one giant stone’ as they say here in Guyana.

With thousands of Caribbean people, including a significant number of Guyanese with no shelter, clothing, food or water, with animals stranded and pets abandoned and left behind, with many buildings flattened, roads ripped up, bridges damaged and other public infrastructure destroyed, there is an urgent need for engineers, architects, surveyors, draughtsmen, public health workers, plumbers, electricians, masons, carpenters, tinsmiths, labourers, mechanics, welders, painters, crane and excavator operators, landscapers, security officers, etc., all of which the Georgetown Municipality has.

I would therefore like to suggest that the City Council sends roughly half of its approximately 1,000 workers to the islands to help with the rebuilding of the services and structures needed for people in order for them to resume some semblance of ordinary life in places such as Cuba, St Kitts & Nevis, Dominica, St. Maarten and Barbuda.

In this way these employees would have meaningful work to do for the next couple of years as currently they are not being provided with tools nor materials to work, and if funding could be obtained from international organisations to pay their salaries whilst they are rebuilding these countries infrastructure it would save the City Council tens of millions of dollars each month, savings which they could use to pay off their creditors, including the garbage contractors.

Of course Pat and Roy, who we all know love to travel, could travel between these islands ferrying supplies, supervising their workers and providing nursing care and PR services.

Best regards,
Sambu Jacobus