INSIDE GRENADA JANUARY 01, 2008 By Sandra Ferguson I received a 2007 calendar, stuffed under my office door, featuring photos of the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister and the National Stadium with the above-referenced message. Ah mean….not even a 2008 calendar that would be useful next year!! Actually, quite comparable to the national stadium – AFTER CWC 2007, WHAT? I have interpreted this calendar to be some NNP token proclaiming or celebrating what the party considers an NNP triumph – reconstruction of the National Stadium and the hosting of Cricket World Cup 2007. To each his own! I make no apologies. I am one of those persons who DO NOT celebrate the National Stadium. In my opinion, it is an extravagance that our country cauld ILL AFFORD in the aftermath of TWO HURRICANES, a GREEN MONSTROSITY which will be a BURDEN on the backs of Grenadian people for YEARS to come. Lest we forget, PRIOR to this CHINESE TRIUMPH, we already boasted two stadia – a cricket stadium and an athletics/football stadium – both of which COLLAPSED LIKE A DECK OF CARDS during the passage of Hurricane Ivan. Prior to the passage of Ivan and JUST four years old, they were full of cracks and we understood there were STRUCTURAL DEFICIENCIES which required significant remedial work by the contractors and developers. Maybe Ivan was a blessing after all!! Following the passage of Ivan, I recall hearing on a GBN Focus programme, hosted by George Grant, an assessment of the damage to the stadium, from someone associated with Volker Stein. He informed the listening audience that the damage to the stadia was the result of significant engineering flaws. He confirmed what we the people had already known – that WE THE PEOPLE HAD BEEN GOOD AND PROPERLY RIPPED OFF BY THE DEVELOPERS AND CONTRACTORS. Big, big money had been paid for very shoddy work!! Key players were the Trinidadian developers led by Colin Imbert and the contractors, Emile Elias and Co. We remember being told by the then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sport that significant remedial work was to be undertaken by the developer in order to get the cricket stadium up to speed for Cricket World Cup. Papa God, the All Knowing, was not taking any chances! He knew that Imbert was pre-occupied with ministerial duties in Trinidad. He sent Ivan which blew the damn stadium down. His message seemed to be – Start from scratch and build properly!! But whatever happened to THE MONEY WE PAID TO THE DEVELOPERS - , money that is now owing to Grenada since remedial work was not undertaken. We the people recall that in 2002, Hon. Minister Boatswain negotiated a SPECIAL US$100 MILLION TO PAY OFF FOR THE STADIUM (AMONG OTHER THINGS) - thus ridding ourselves of onerous commercial debt, Hon. Boatswain explained to the nation. How much has the construction of the cricket stadium and the hosting of Cricket World Cup really COST the nation? Of course we know that the stadium was a CHINESE MIRACLE, largely financed by Chinese labour and materials. We know that the construction of stadium was a major aspect of the arrangement worked out with Grenada after Ivan. But what did the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister and our Minister of Foreign Affairs GIVE AWAY? What DEALS did they make on behalf of Grenada? Did we open up the way for private Chinese contracting firms to come in and operate in Grenada? Did we make any deals in respect of oil and gas? Nobody seems to have given our Chinese godfathers any directions. Grenada is a SMALL country with a SMALL POPULATION. What qualifies as small in China is out of place in a Grenada setting. The sad reality is that we have a structure that is VERY OUT OF PLACE in a Grenada setting. It is much TOO BIG. We have DESTROYED forever the unique AMBIANCE that was associated with Queen’s Park and our first stadia. WHO is this stadium designed to serve? Is it for the PEOPLE of Grenada? Is it for the region? Just recently I heard the manager of the Dominica Youth Team lamenting the fact the players in the tournament did not get an opportunity to EVEN VISIT the FAMOUS stadium much less have the benefit of practicing or playing there. I seem to recall that the stadium was identified as one of Grenada’s newest attractions sites. AN ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENT OF ALL SUCH LARGE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IS THAT THERE SHOULD BE EMPLOYMENT CREATION AND SKILLS TRANSFER. In the case of the National Stadium, the Chinese workers provided most of the labour but what about the skills transfer. Did our government make any provisions to ensure that locals could be employed on the site and be able to learn from their Chinese counterparts. Do we recall the skills transfer that took place when the People’s Revolutionary Government embarked on the most ambitious project that Grenada, up to that time, had ever undertaken - , construction of the international airport? Are we aware that nearly all heavy equipment operators who are today employed in road works learnt that skill when employed on the construction of our airport? We the people were told that the staging of the CWC 2007 event in Grenada was the BOOST our economy needed after the ravages of Ivan. We have been told about the SUCCESS of CWC 2007. Mission accomplished! The New National Party even held a celebratory rally at Progress Park in May but we the people are still awaiting a report on CWC 2007: 1. HOW MUCH did it COST the nation to get World Cup ready? Isn’t it ironic that while Grenada boasted one of the world’s ranked 400m runners, Alleyne Francique, and while our athletes are ranked among the top three countries in the region – ALL OF OUR ENERGIES seemed to have gone into the construction of this monstrosity. Has anyone seen the condition of our state of the art athletic track recently? What a SHAME?!! And irony of ironies, even our NATIONAL CRICKETERS had no place to practice while we prepared for CWC 2007. While we were preparing for CWC 2007, the rest of the country has gone to hell in a hand basket. How many times has the HOSPITAL PROJECT started and stopped even though we were assured several times that Phase 2 would be accommodating medical facilities for CWC 2007?! Look at the STATE OF OUR ROADS. The Western Main Road has become a death trap – Brizan, Woodford and Grand Roy. What about the state of our SCHOOLS? How many schools had their repairs postponed to after World Cup? How many schools are YET to be repaired? Look at the state of the St. Andrew’s Anglican Secondary School, for example. THREE YEARS after Ivan, children are STILL going to school ONE/TWO DAYS per week because the school is unable to accommodate all the students at any one time. 2. HOW MANY visitors did Grenada receive? On a visit to Canada, the Hon. Prime Minister pulled a number out of a hat – 500,000 visitors expected he informed his audience in Canada. 3. HOW MUCH MONEY DID WE MAKE? What we do recall is the giving away of FREE tickets to avoid teams playing to an EMPTY stadium. That is what I describe as BUSTING IN STYLE. 4. What was the performance of the HOME STAY PROGRAMME? So as we wrap up 2007, our question is mission accomplished for WHOSE BENEFIT? The National Stadium is clearly a MONUMENT to the Political Leader and Hon. Prime Minister – one that will BURDEN Grenada dearly for years to come. The burden is on the back of Grenada and Grenadians. But who cares? The Rt. Hon. Prime Minister got his DAMN stadium!!