National facelift should be one of the first oil revenue projects

In the first one to two years after 2020, what will we be able to point to in our own lives, our communities and in our country to say we are a very rich nation? Construction of large Infrastructural projects? Deposits in the Sovereign Wealth Fund? Larger than usual salary increases? Each of us could answer differently.

I wish however to single out one feel-good and transformational idea. It is this: the country needs a massive physical facelift. Guyana’s built environment (our human-made surroundings) is mostly dirty, untidy, primitive, and plain ugly. We get touchy when foreign journalists write to say so, but it is true. I am proposing, as one of the first projects at can-see transformation, that the government launch a multi-million-dollar multi-year action plan to refurbish and clean up the appearance of our towns and villages. Such a plan can be implemented through several centralized and decentralized strategies and mechanisms.

A national facelift reaches beyond the cosmetic. It can lift the national mood, spur community economic growth and spirit, and rekindle respect and care for our surroundings.