The Royal Flush

Part 2 of a short series assessing our readiness for Cricket World Cup

November 21, 2006

Even Guyana does not get a dime of the anticipated US$50M that is expected to be paid over to the region at the end of Cricket World Cup 2007, it is expected that with in excess of thirty thousand visitors to our shores to see the matches played here, Guyana is likely to benefit in excess of US$20M from this tournament, a sum that will exceed the shortfall in sugar export revenue.

Guyana therefore does not stand to lose from World Cup 2007. However, even if we did not make a dime from Cricket World Cup, Guyana would have benefitted from the experience because Cricket World Cup is more than a tournament; it is marketing event, a commercial product and a money spinner. In short, Cricket World Cup is business.

We must begin the process of learning from the branding, marketing and commercialization of Cricket World Cup 2007 so that we can apply it to the events that we host locally and regionally. I, for example, would love to see Guyana organize a regional 20-over cricket tournament that would outdo the one hosted this summer in Antigua .

I would love to see us take our football, cricketing and hockey tournaments and turn these into major commercial events with huge sponsorships, attractive fees for players and as major tourism products.

And this is why I feel the process of Cricket World Cup should force us to think big. We have to begin to out more money and sponsorship into our local tournaments and make these major public attractions, pulling huge crowds and also visitors from overseas. Cricket World Cup 2007 will therefore not just test our readiness to host this major event but also to test whether we can ride the learning curve.

One of the things that we have done is to build an impressive looking stadium. But as this series will reveal, all that glitters is not gold and there are some important concerns that need to be addressed if we are to demonstrate our readiness to host Cricket World Cup 2007.

Presently, I am contemplating a boat cruise along the Demerara River . I am however worried that I may choose the wrong day. You see, someone told me that there is supposed to be a royal flush of all the toilets in the stadium. This royal flush involves flushing all the toilets at the same time to see its effect on the overall system.

I am sure that when this royal flush takes place there will be no “obstacles” in the toilets. All that is going to be flushed is water. The problem is that I am not sure where all of this waste water from the royal flush will descend. Will there be underground tanks to hold the sewage and when, where and how will the storage tanks be emptied? I am hoping that the answer is not the Demerara River because if the royal flush has to be disposed in that river it could cause a tsunami.

I am asking where the sewage will be disposed of for a different reason. I am a cricket fan. I go to cricket often. I go into the stands where the fans sit. I see what they bring to the game in their food baskets. I see the type of stuff that they eat. I see the amount of liquor they consume at the games.

I know of the boiled eggs, channa and nuts that are eaten. I know of the frequent visits to the washroom and the toxic mixture than goes into the toilets when bowels and bladders of cricket fans are emptied.

And so I am asking where will it be stored during the match and where will it be disposed after the match? Will this sewage be treated? Is there a sewage treatment plant at the stadium or are we simply going to dump all this stuff into the nearest river?

Are we ready for the royal flush, the one before the games and the one that will come after the games?

Yesterday I wrote about the much-anticipated “royal flush,” as we examine Guyana 's readiness to host Cricket World Cup 2007. Today, I would like to look at Guyana 's water woes, and ask readers to decide whether they think that we can satisfactorily host the event, considering that for hours each day, water pressure is significantly reduced.

Thousands of visitors will be pouring into Guyana for the world's premier one-day cricket tournament. Not all will be staying at our four-star and three-star hotels, where water is available at a “decent pressure” 24 hours each day. Many a visitor will be staying at bed-and-breakfast accommodations scattered throughout Guyana . In some cases, there will be visitors staying in homes of private citizens.

Can you imagine a situation where, after a night out on the town, a visitor awakes to find a bucket in front of his bedroom door? When he or she enquires what that bucket is for, they are told that it is to fetch water to take a bath.

Am I exaggerating? After all, those places certified for bed-and-breakfast services must have a continuous supply of water. But will they? Will Guyana Water Inc be able to furnish an adequate supply of potable water to all places at which guests will be staying?

Presently, many communities are having problems sourcing an adequate supply of potable water. In many homes, the water pressure does not go above six feet, and these households are forced to rely on storage receptacles to collect enough water when pressure is available to supply their needs when the water is switched off.

Guyanese have, however, grown accustomed to this situation, and in many households there are storage vats. Guyanese have also grown accustomed to sparingly using this water in the storage vats, because you can never tell when the water will be cut off for extended periods.

As such, not many people today whistle when they are bathing. Not many people spend as much as half and hour in the shower. There is simply not the water available to spend this long each day, three times a day in the bath. We have mastered the art of taking a “quick shower.”

Unfortunately, many of those visiting Guyana for Cricket World Cup 2007 are not accustomed to our hot, steamy weather. Not many of them will be accustomed to the searing heat, so there will be the inclination for these tourists to want to have three full baths a day. And when they do, they will want to spend a great deal of time in the shower lathering their skins with soaps to get off the grime caused by the dusty and dry climate.

Take my word for it! Many visitors will want to spend at least half an hour each day bathing, especially since the pressure they will get through our taps will be far less than what they are accustomed to. This means that on any given day during the tournament we can have as many as 30, 000 persons soaking for half an hour under showers. Will the home owner be able to refill the storage vats in time to ensure a ready supply of water, considering that most days Guyanese only get about six hours of water at low water pressure to fill their vats?

And, of course, we would expect the water to be treated and colourless. It would be to the country's disrepute if a visitor turns on a tap and finds mauby- coloured water flowing from it.

A scientific assessment should be done of the overall water needs of the country during the one-month period when we will be hosting Cricket World Cup, bearing in mind that persons will be staying, not only in Georgetown, but all along the Coast, and at times will be visiting different communities, the assessment must not only cater for the needs of the visitors, but for all of Guyana.

From this assessment, we should able to decide whether we will have sufficient to take the royal shower most of us have not had for some time. I, the Peeper, for one, would love to return to the days when I could sing out an entire Frank Sinatra album while taking my daily.

I do not have the luxury of a Jacuzzi or a bathtub, in which to soak my tired body at the end of a hard day on the farm, but I would sure love to return to the days when I could enter the bathroom on the second storey of my home and take a shower for one whole hour, without having to bother whether the vat will run out of water, or whether the supply will be cut off while I am soaping my face.

Two years ago, if you had asked any Guyanese what was the greatest threat to their country's hosting of Cricket World Cup 2007, the overwhelming answer would have been the issue of security. That threat, however, is not now as potent, even though security remains the most important challenge to Guyana .

It is not that the security situation has improved to the extent that we can all take comfort. It is not that we expect that the security forces will be on top of the situation.

The security forces are on top of the situation, and especially in the case of the army, there are major question marks over that institution's credibility.

What makes the security threat less potent than it was two years ago is the fact that a major element of that threat, namely the political environment, lends itself to greater stability than it did two years ago when everyone was expecting that the 2006 elections would have been marred by violence and instability, and this would have spilled over into Cricket World Cup 2007.

As an aside, I am not going to raise a pulse over the claim that there was a miscount in the elections and that the Justice For All Party is entitled to a seat based on the top-up system. I shall leave that matter for the Courts to decide, because as far as I am concerned, I find it difficult to comprehend how the JFAP could win a top-up seat at the AFC's expense, and not at the expense of the TUF. Based on my understanding of the largest left-over formula, I find it puzzling that the claim is being made that both the JFAP and TUF would each gain a top-up seat. It makes no sense to me, and I would rather the courts deal with this matter.

The elections are behind us. The results of the elections can be lawfully challenged at this stage only through an election petition. The AFC and the others have filed petitions, and it is for the Courts to decide whether the AFC should have six seats or five seats in the National Assembly.

The fact that there have been no major upheavals after the elections has improved the security climate, because it is an established trend that political strife breeds increased criminal attacks and violence. It is also felt, in some circles, that some of the gangs that operate with a criminal agenda are also politically motivated.

Where I think the major problem lies in preparation for Cricket World Cup 2007 is in numbers. I simply do not think that the Guyana Police Force has the number of ranks to adequately provide security for Cricket World Cup 2007.

Normally, when there is cricket, a number of ranks are required to be deployed around the cricket ground to ensure order, both outside and inside. This stretches the resources of the Guyana Police Force.

When it comes to Cricket World Cup, the security requirements are more demanding, and especially since there is an extended no-fly and no-traffic perimeter zone around the ground, it means that three times as many ranks will be required. This will stretch the Guyana Police Fore thin, and can therefore affect security plans elsewhere in the country.

I am sure that the Guyana Police Force is aware of this situation and will be seeking the assistance of the army with the situation. I wish to underscore here that the army is constitutionally required to assist with the internal security of the nation; the army is not an elitist organisation, and therefore cannot refuse to give support to the Guyana Police Force in maintaining security during Cricket World Cup 2007.

The army must therefore be deployed fully to assist with security. We cannot afford to have an army in barracks during this important tournament. We need an army that earns its keep, and we have to ensure that the army assists with security at a time when the police will be fully stretched.

I also urge the Guyana Police Force to ensure that community policing groups are on full alert during the tournament, and if need be, to have reserves enlisted to assist with certain tasks that are within the competence of these recruits.

I think it will take some effort, but if we begin to plan, and plan strategically, we should be able to bring off our leg of the tournament without any major security hiccups.

Uncle Adam would have still been at university when the Jonestown tragedy occurred. He would therefore have missed the hundreds of journalists who descended on Georgetown to cover what was at the time the world's greatest human tragedy, in which over 900 persons met their deaths in a mass murder-suicide on local soil.

Many local journalists, accustomed at the time to obtaining still photographs of the local newspapers via a wire photo service, were left with their mouths open in surprise when they saw the type of equipment that the invading journalists and photographers brought with them from overseas.

The paraphernalia that accompanied the foreign press would today be considered as Stone-Age equipment. However, Guyana was being ruled under the heavy hand of authoritarianism, and was isolated from adequate international exposure, thus causing those gadgets to be viewed as cutting-edge technology. Come April of next year, it will be déjà vu. Hundreds of media personnel will descend on Guyana to cover the world's premier cricket tournament. From the television cameramen to the still photographer, from the live radio commentators to the feature journalists, there will be equipment brought to these shores that Guyanese would never have seen before, even though in recent years quite a sizeable media crew have tended to accompany touring teams playing international test and one-day matches. I can assure all Guyanese that what we will have is some of the cutting-edge technology being used to record and report on this mega-event.

It is, therefore, important that we have in place, especially at the Stadium site, the sort of infrastructure that would allow the foreign and local media to do their work with the sort of efficacy that they desire. Media boxes at the playing venues for Cricket World Cup must have the required infrastructure to allow the journalists to send real time images, reports and feed to their respective media houses. This means that, at the minimum, there must be adequate and reliable high-speed internet access at the stadium. It also means that there will have to be hundreds of telephone lines with overseas access available exclusively for the media at the ground.

Of course, not all the reporting will be done at the ground, so it means that we must also have similar facilities available at the various locations at which the media will be staying. This is all the more important if we expect the foreign media to provide coverage of Guyana , its many places of interest, its wonderful mix of cultures and its beauty.

One would have expected that by now there would have been in place at the stadium the communication infrastructure, so that there would be sufficient time for it to be tested, just in case there is need for upgrading or moving to a different cyber platform; in which case, the necessary equipment can be ordered and installed in time for the opening of the Guyana leg. A few days ago, I saw the coverage of an international football match between Manchester United and the top team in Brazil . It formed the basis of a Discovery Channel feature that examined the work of a photojournalist covering a big event and the sort of work that goes into the job.

It showed a clip of half time, when the photographer was trying to send the images he had taken because these needed to be sent right away in order to keep up with the global competition involved in the coverage of the match. Unfortunately, the photographer experienced problems with “timing out” of his internet connection at the site of the match.

This is a problem that I think many Guyanese can identify with, because at one time or the other they would have had a similar experience with “timing out” while accessing the worldwide web. It is not the type of problem that we want to happen in Guyana during Cricket World Cup 2007. As such, we cannot wait until the last moment to test the communication infrastructure that should be in place for coverage of this event. The infrastructure should have already been in place and subject to tests, at least at the stadium, and there should be some form of back-up in case — like what happened last week — there is a disruption of the service provided by the Americas 2 cable.

At the same time, we know of the problems with cellular congestion, which occurs when too many cell phones are being used at the same time. Is our national cellular grid capable of handing a large volume of calls at the same time? Suppose we have a situation where one of the matches goes down to the last ball and there is dramatic conclusion to the game, and hundreds of thousands of cell phone users are on their phones at the same time excitedly telling their friends and relatives of the match. Can our grid handle this sort of traffic? I do not wish to be negative, but I recall that once, during a PNCR protest that went haywire, the telephone system was besieged by so many calls that it could not accommodate the traffic. Many landline owners found that they could not make calls from their phones during this period. This type of assessment about the capacity of our telephone grid to handle the anticipated volume of calls should have already been made.

I noticed that following my article about whether we would have a reliable supply of water during the tournament, a spokesperson for the water utility explained that they would be making the necessary assessments. I would have thought that with just four months to go for the tournament, this would already have been done.

As a postscript, let me make a correction to my article of yesterday, where it was stated that the security forces have the situation under control. From the general tenor of the article, readers would have recognised that this should have read that the security forces do not have the situation under control.

So long as Georgetown was destined to be the epicentre of attraction for Guyana's leg of Cricket World Cup 2007, our ability to be ready represented a Herculean challenge.

Georgetown is a living nightmare when it comes to aesthetics. It is nasty, overcrowded, mismanaged, and lacking in so many things that it will take a major effort just for Guyana to have the capital city in a presentable order by April of next year.

Let us not delude ourselves. We will pay millions to redo the walkways in Thomas, Main, Carmichael and East Streets, but it will take billions to restore Georgetown as the pride of the Caribbean. And we do not have the billions that it will take to be ready for April.

We can try to improve the physical condition of the city without traffic lights; we can try to clean a few drains and keep some greenery; but we cannot return Georgetown to the Garden City it was in the Fifties. We simply cannot! And we should not try to be too ambitious in our plans to make our capital presentable.

Georgetown will have a facelift for Cricket World Cup. It will be like the facelift we had for the Caricom Summit many years ago. We will present to the world a mirage; except that the world will see through the cosmetic touch to make things better.

If we were really serious about making Georgetown ready for Cricket World Cup, we would have ensured that it was ready for Christmas 2006, which would have represented a dry run. That will not happen.

We have to face up to the reality that Georgetown will be a national embarrassment come April 2007. Compared with the other cities of the Caribbean, Georgetown will simply not shine, and a great deal of effort will have to be made to prevent the droves of tourists from seeing the true face of our capital.

Our capital city is, to put it mildly, a stinking hole. It is dirty, overflowing with rubbish, the drains are silted up with plastics and food boxes, civic discipline is lacking, and there is not the public will to bring about a reversal of the habits that have left us in this condition.

Do not get me wrong. We can try to clean up the place, but the root causes of the neglect of the city are strongly embedded. And whatever changes are mustered will only be temporary, until Guyanese wake up to the realities that tourism benefits everyone, and that for Guyana to benefit from tourism, we have to be serious about the enhancement of the communities in which we live.

Public campaigns calling for an end to littering and to keep our surroundings clean is not the answer to our problems. The authorities must have a sustainable plan to put Georgetown in order, and they must cost this plan and then ensure that it is borne equitably by all the citizens of the City. Presently, there is an onerous burden being placed on the business community, who bear the brunt of the taxes required to run the City, and who will no doubt be besieged by calls to make voluntary contributions to the soon-to-be-launched clean-up campaign.

The management of City Hall leaves much to be desired; but, also, we must bear in mind that even with good management, City Hall simply does not have the financial resources to do what needs to be done. Therefore, if we really want to prepare ourselves for Cricket World Cup, we should begin the process by ensuring that, as suggested before by the Peeper, economic service charges are instituted for services that directly benefit households and businesses, and there must also be a general charge for the indirect services, such as repairing roads and maintaining public areas.

A few days ago, I saw a man sprinting down Robb Street. He was being chased by a stray dog. In a modern city, you would not expect to find stray dogs on the streets. There are services provided by municipalities that catch stray animals and impound them. In Georgetown, such services are hardly visible.

In Georgetown, vagrants can be seen openly sleeping on our pavements, even though the government provides a night shelter for those without a roof over their heads. There is no law that would allow these persons to be removed from off the streets and institutionalised.

Some of these vagrants can be seen cooking outside the St. Roses High School. In the heart of the commercial district, I have seen vagrants, in full view of the public, defecating on the grass corner. Is this the Georgetown that we want to present to the thousands of visitors who will be spending hundreds of millions of dollars next April?

Many of these visitors will want to see some of the old heritage sites of the City. One of these is the historic Stabroek Market. But just look at the congestion in that area! How inviting is it to a tourist?

I have seen some of the drains and alleyways of the City, and they are simply depressing. I can just imagine the sort of germs and viruses that exist within those drains. It will only take one glance at the dirtiness of the City to remove any favourable impressions visitors may have had of Guyana.

When it comes to aesthetics, and when it comes to sanitation, Georgetown simply does not make the grade.

I notice that the Minister of Finance is touring the country's wharves to ensure that systems are in place to deal with the clearance of goods as we approach the Christmas season. I congratulate the Minister on this initiative and hope that he can inspire his colleague, Mr. Maniram Prashad, to do the same at our main airport because like the wharves, the airport will be kept very busy over the next month.

Before I comment further on how important airport services are as we prepare for Cricket World Cup 2007, let me establish the need for us to get things right. There are many things to be fixed as Guyana prepares to host Cricket World Cup 2007 and it is something of a major disappointment that despite having a national organising committee, some of these things have not as yet been righted.

The hosting of Cricket World Cup provides opportunities for Guyana to make an important leap forward in the tourism sector. While the 120,000 tourists that we get each year is not bad considering the size of our economy, almost all of our hotels and resorts suffer from very low occupancy for the greater part of the year.

Cricket World Cup it is hoped will reverse this situation by providing the impetus and exposure that would allow Guyana to have a sustained rate of arrivals of twenty per cent each year. This would certainly allow for the feasibility of many of the investments made in the hospitality sector, and of course bring a great deal of benefits to Guyanese.

When therefore there is a call to create a favorable impression and establish the conditions for a desirable level of hospitality, this call is not just about preparing for Cricket World Cup 2007. It is also to place us in a position of readiness for sustained expansion in a sector that is vitally important to the economy and to the livelihood of our citizens.

We should therefore see the challenges faced in preparing for this tournament as helping us to fix once and for all the many things that have to be fixed and that are necessary for Guyana to be a prime tourist destination. We should not be fixing these things just for Cricket World Cup; we should be fixing them permanently so as to enhance Guyana 's tourism product and improve the quality of life in the country.

One of those things I believe is the level of service at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport , Timehri. I often wonder what would happen if a passenger arrives from some far Eastern country speaking other than the English language. How will our immigration authorities cope with this situation whereby they would be unable to communicate with this passenger without an interpreter?

The Guyana Police Force should have a long time now been freed of having to provide immigration services at our major airport. A specialised unit with persons trained in foreign languages should have been established to provide immigration officers at Guyana 's main airport. The staff should also have been trained to make a good impression and to be courteous but firm in dealing with passengers.

The second problem relating to immigration relates to the need for adequate staffing. We cannot allow a situation where the best efforts of those in the hospitality sector are sabotaged by the shortage of staff. We cannot have a situation where passengers are forced to stand a long time in line simply because there are only a handful of immigration and Customs officers on the job.

Christmas is coming and this is the peak season for visitors' arrivals. This season would be a good time to test our readiness at our main airport. Two main problems develop at this time of the year and are likely to recur during the hosting of Cricket World Cup 2006.

The first of these problems is congestion in the arrivals' area at the airport caused by extremely slow processing. This is often especially the case when flights arrive soon after each other. Since we have only one terminal at the airport, there is often a build up of passengers in the arrivals' area.

Obviously the solution cannot be to build another terminal. This would become a white elephant after the tournament. The solution therefore is to improve the level of services presently provided within the arrivals' area so that there are no bottlenecks come next April. One way of ensuring that there is no congestion is to have systems in place for the quick processing of passengers.

The second major problem that occurs over the holiday period is left-back luggage. This is a problem that occurs when the airlines are besieged by too much traffic and problems develop with the transporting of baggage, especially with in-transit flights.

The local authorities should in such instances work with the airlines to set up a separate location where baggage can be collected as soon as they arrive. Passengers should be contacted to provide specific information on their baggage.

I know this is the responsibility of the airlines but I think that in the interest of tourism the Tourism and Hospitality Association should establish a special task force to coordinate this aspect, and I think this would be most welcome by passengers who expect some problems with their baggage when they come home during the peak season but who would really appreciate if when the baggage comes they are informed in a timely manner.