Rise of the rubble rousers
business since 2008, the unknown ACE names Derek Wilson, of Greenheart Street, Mackenzie, Linden, as its owner, SN reported. The firm may have aced into the big-time industry but their performance is anything but an ace, except perhaps of spades.
Chairman of Region Six, East Berbice/Corentyne, David Armogan quickly distanced himself from it all saying, “The region has nothing to do with this project, only the site is in our region, it is completely funded, completely supervised, all the tenders were done in Georgetown…” Armogan claimed that the region on numerous occasions attempted to engage the contractor’s attention while complaining that Ministers never contact, inform or even seek advice from the regional officials even as similar reports surfaced of the lack of proper consultations with the designing artists and crucial deviations from the original design.
In March, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and the Indian High Commissioner to Guyana, Venkatachalam Mahalingam, unveiled a signboard depicting the monument at the site, with the PM disclosing that $97 million had been allocated for the venture. Proposed by the former People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government, the undertaking was launched in 2013 with a national competition in which five entries were submitted and the outstanding duo of artist Philbert Gajadhar and sculptor Winslow Craig won for their collaborative maquette, judged by a panel including the esteemed carver Ivor Thom and historian Tota Mangar. The Indian Government committed to having the model cast as life-size statues in a US$150 000 donation, with the pieces of the 12-foot long portrayal shipped to Guyana, delivered last year, and temporarily stored in crates at the National Stadium.
Obviously A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) did not wish to scrap a politically sensitive proposal that sought to create an important memorial in an Opposition stronghold no less, given the ugly record of racial tension and internecine division, yet the latest imbroglio has launched another round of controversy that we could well do without coming at a time several sugar estates are being dismantled. Originally planned for the Highbury Plantation, East Berbice the famous first landing point for East Indian immigrants in the colony, the monument was instead shifted by the previous rulers to a “more visible” and “travelled location” at the head of the junction, east of the Berbice River Bridge.
Depicting six elegant, elongated bare-feet individuals disembarking from the British ship, the “Whitby,” the scaled model captures the group of three ordinary men, two women and a child clad in traditional dress and carrying a symbolic “jahaji bhandal” or ship bundle crammed with the essentials of a new life be it food/spices, herbs, religious texts and figurines, a drum representing music, a “karahi” - a deep cooking pot, a “tawa” or roti griddle, grass knives, a cutlass and rice plants.
Led by the first two Indians to set foot in Guiana, the first, Ram gestures “Behold!” even as the second, Khan with his hand resting on his friend’s shoulder looks back urging the others on. Gajadhar had explained that “The relationship of the figures becomes increasingly complex as the viewer’s eyes move from the base to the heads. The rhythms of the figures are parallel and give a sense of quickening motion which conveys strong emotion.”
Hopefully, with this ace opportunity to review the project and make it right, Guyanese will ultimately get to see the real diorama on a fitting foundation even if it means waiting another year for the 180th arrival anniversary.
The authorities then face having to hire security to guard the valuable bronzes that could incongruously end up hawked as scrap metal, as happened to vandalised icons and religious property, at least one founding head of the Non-Aligned Movement monument, and the historic Smith Memorial Congregational Church which lost the bronze bust of the abolitionist Reverend John Smith to unscrupulous dealers. In history there are sadly few sacred places and no aces left.
ID recalls the classic construction joke “they are still working on it,” and the apt admission “I know we are months behind schedule but it’s the darndest thing, every time we complete a section it disappears!”