Can’t the new Council raise the bar on city management?
Dear Editor,
Driving along what appears to be the new route for Mashramani 2019, I have encountered the roadways defaced with some crude, oversized, dreadful numbers slovenly painted in a hodge-podge manner on the road surface. Initially thinking this was the act of some unhinged and deranged person, I was horrified to learn that it was the work of the Georgetown Municipality. I had to ask myself, does the Council really expect so many vendors? Why waste so much paint and so many man
try. Concessions previously granted to foreign companies were nationalised in the 1970s, with the Venezuelan government taking over all their assets sans compensation and subsequently forming a state-owned petroleum company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA). However, this was seemingly ill-thought out as there appeared to be either a lack of expertise at PDVSA or too much government interference, which led to Venezuela basically being unable to export oil. Part of the problem lay in the fact that Venezuela’s oil tankers had ceased to be upgraded to the point where they were no longer able to meet environmental standards. International maritime law meant that they could not sail. The country then racked up billions of dollars in debt, borrowing from its allies Russia and China, to obtain new tankers as well as purchase the necessary additives to refine its oil. But with oil prices still very low, it was spending more than it was making, which any first-year economics student will tell you is a recipe for disaster. This coupled with its President Nicolas Maduro’s dictatorial governing style set the stage for the current Venezuelan crisis. Citizens have been leaving Venezuela for at least 4 years now, because of shortages of food and other essentials. Hyperinflation drove the country’s currency into the ground to the point where citizens were paying 2.5 million Venezuelan Bolivars for one kilogramme of rice, if they could find it to buy. Just for context, if the Venezuelan Bolivar could still be converted to US currency today 2.5 million would be worth US$759. Meanwhile, the exodus from Venezuela ballooned. It is estimated by the UN Refugee Agency
hours? Why do the numbers have to be so big and obnoxious? Surely, they could have used a road marking stencil kit with pre-spaced numerals constructed from sturdy reusable Polypropylene boards with 200 mm font sized numerals.
that refugees and migrants from Venezuela number over 3 million and that 2.4 million of them are in countries in South and Latin America and the Caribbean. Many of them are virtually penniless, as even if they were flush with their country’s currency it would be worthless and they would be forced to beg or steal as the case may be, if there were no proper humanitarian systems in place to make their transition to a tenuous new life easier. At present, the 28 million-odd people, including babies, children, the elderly and the sick, still in Venezuela need aid. The UN had approved the release of some US$9.2 million in emergency relief funds since late last year and last month the United States said it would send US$20 million, but only if certain political conditions were met. Unfortunately, even the 2 sums combined would not be nearly enough, even if by some miracle they reached the crisis-hit country, where to compound the situation an opposition leader has declared himself president with a sitting president still in place. Venezuela’s turned tables is a crucial lesson in how not to govern, yet, shades of misgovernance are still evident in too many countries today, ours included. It stands to reason then that power must necessarily be doled out in small doses, not everyone can withstand its headiness.
Must the Georgetown Municipality be allowed to continue to behave in such a vulgar, unprofessional and unprincipled manner until the end of time? Can’t the new Council raise the bar on city management?
My question is - Can we ever truly have a developed capital city when our City Council has a third world mentality?
Yours faithfully, Sean Moniz