Change vs Decay

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHANGE AND DECAY.
For Simona Broomes, a former government minister in the David Granger administration, the
current dilapidated state of the nationally-famous Durban Park falls with the latter even after that
government plugged more than $1B (US$5M) to upgrade the facility to host national events
Now Durban Park is convenience for dumping garbage; a home for the destitute; a place for
washing private vehicles, and of course a lovers’ nest, complained Broomes.
“You go to exercise in the morning…and it’s not Durban Park anymore, it’s Durban Hotel; Its
Durban garbage site; its Durban wash bay.”
“I mean you name it because…when you go for a jog, you have the elderly and cars turn off their
headlights driving down the pitch. Come on people you wouldn’t even go Trinidad (and Tobago)
and see them doing that,” Broomes said.
The former Government Minister expressed deep disappointment over the massive deterioration
of the facility once deemed a place of security.
“We have become a place where frustration has become the essence of the day and it's happening
from all sides because we ourselves as a people are just going after each other. Even if you do a
good thing the amount of frustration that it is causing have you wondering if you should do it or
not,” the former Minister explained.
The 1763 Monument, memorialising the struggles of African slaves in Guyana for freedom from
their oppressive colonial masters, stands in the midst of the physical deterioration and moral
decadence overrunning Durban Park, which, ironically, is in close proximity and full view of the
Office of the President (OP).

To be left to rot is an indictment on all Guyanese, Broomes reasoned.
“People let us look at ourselves in the mirror. It’s not the government that is the problem;
It’s not the leaders that are the problem; We (the people) are the problem. It’s the people
that propel the leaders, the ordinary people,” Broomes emphasised.