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A new meaning for an old word

Jul 23, 2008 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

I was passing by the Georgetown Prisons and it struck me that, for quite some time in Guyana, the gallows have been dormant.

We have not had an execution in Guyana for a great many years, mainly due to legal challenges that have given those on Condemned Row a respite from the hangman’s noose.

In an interesting coincidence just as I was passing the prisons, a friend of mine was sharing with us a joke about three women who were about to be executed for their crimes.

I share the story with you about the three women who were sentenced to death by a firing squad.
Two guards bring the first woman forward and the executioner asks if she has any last requests. She says no, and the executioner shouts, “Ready . . . Aim . . .”

Suddenly the first woman yells, “Earthquake!!” Everyone is startled and distracted and looks around. The first woman uses the ensuing commotion to escape.

The angry guards then bring the second woman forward, and the executioner asks if she has any last requests. She says no, and the executioner shouts, “Ready . . . Aim . . .”

The redhead then screams, “Hurricane!” Yet again, everyone is startled and looks around. She, too, escapes execution.

By this point, the third woman had figured out what the others did. The guards bring her forward, and the executioner asks if she has any last requests. She also says no, and the executioner shouts, Ready . . . Aim . . .”
The third woman shouts, “Fire!”

In the English language the word “execute” has a great many meanings. First, it means to carry out a task fully. Thus, a contractor can execute a contract requiring him to build a bridge. Second, it means to perform what is required to give validity to something.

Thus, for example, a person can execute a will, indicating who should inherit his fortune. Thirdly, as we know, to execute means to put to death under a legal order. Thus persons condemned to die by the courts are usually hanged.

However, it now seems that the word has acquired a new meaning in Guyana. This follows some strange developments whereby the registrations of some companies which were recently formed can no longer be found within the legal system.

This has caused some persons to indicate that it looks as if the companies have been executed.
Another word that has resurfaced in Guyana is metric.

I was listening to the radio when a public service advertisement came on urging Guyanese to go metric. I was surprised that we are going down that road again.

I would have thought that by now the authorities would have accepted that Guyanese are not comfortable with metres, litres and kilograms.

For the past twenty years, there has been a campaign encouraging Guyanese to go metric. We even had a Metric Man in Guyana. It never worked out, and it will not work out.

Guyanese are too accustomed to pints, gallons and miles. Even Government ministers speak about inches to rainfall, rather than millimetres.

Admittedly, we are now purchasing cars with speedometers in kilometres per hour, but there is almost in all cases another gauge that tells us at just how many miles per hour we are travelling.

At the petrol pumps we are quoted prices per litre, but there is also conspicuously displayed the price per gallon.

Even the Government, when it is in discussion with public transportation operators, refers to the price per gallon, and not per litre. National production is also measured in tonnes and ounces.

I am just hoping, therefore, that we will not waste a great deal of money with this metric nonsense. Let us stick to the old imperial system and forget about metric. Let us, however, try to find the registrations of those companies.

You can never tell, they may have to get duty free concessions, and you cannot give such concessions to companies which are legally non-existent.

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