Real Guyana's video: The Durban Park Development Project - Part 2 - The Brown Elephant

Shrouded in secrecy, riddled with lies, plagued by setbacks, driven by dishonesty, permanent and temporary, lacking in vision, poorly executed, an ode to slapdash, incomplete, corrupt, as transparent as a mango seed; these are just some of the terms you could use in all honesty to describe the D'urban Park Redevelopment Project, undoubtedly the largest public infrastructure project undertaken by the APNU/AFC coalition government since taking office last year. Follow me as I chronicle the rise of this brown elephant in the heart of the city over two months in the lead up to Guyana's 50th Jubilee celebrations. Here are just a few reasons why this work smells fishy with the stench of corruption. 0. They lied about the wood, it isn't all Greenheart. 1. The David Granger administration misled the populace about the plans for D'urban Park and the monstrosity currently erected on site bears little resemblance to the equally sloppy artist impressions. 2. The coalition govt has as yet failed to justify erection of the stadium costing hundreds of millions of dollars for a two day event lasting a grand total of 8hours when even execution of the event turned out to be poor. 3. The government lied about the cost of the project and by extension their commitment to transparency. They claimed 150million from the tax payer was being put in to finish the project and the rest of the facility was put up with donations. Why then are workers and contractors in the news complaining of not having been paid and materials taken on credit? We have not been given any figure related to total costs thus far nor have we been given total projected costs even as university students cry out for improved facilities on campus. 4.The government promised to end the culture of slap dash work yet have delivered an ode to slapdash, shoddy work in the heart of the capitol. 5. None of the promised park, go-kart or sporting facilities meant for the public have materialized. 6. The way forward seems unclear since all work has ground to a halt post Jubilee. 7. If you spend 5 months erecting a structure that is only in use for 2 days and afterwards the structure you built can serve no other purpose...then you just wasted a ton of money. Sometimes the best way to figure out what went wrong is a review of what happened step by step. Join me as I go from being chased with a truck to a providing you exclusive access to the luxurious VIP facilities complete with vinyl floor that would make your grandmother cry. Better must come and it surely will but not until more of us start demanding it as our right. Over to you...