I can prove that Santa exists

Dec 21, 2008 Features / Columnists, My Column

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The rains are here and while some people actually enjoy the weather at certain times of the day there are others who use the rains to be as careless as they ever could. This past week I narrowly avoided accidents on the roads simply because I was ultra cautious.

Cars, buses, even cyclists tended to ignore my approach. It was as though I did not exist and they were the sole occupants of the roads. They made me cuss every time, and if I had to go for confession at the church, the priest would have given me a bar of soap to scrub my mouth.

Most of the road signs are carefully painted and where they say ‘stop’ people should obey them. During periods of heavy rainfall the road users simply ignore them, to the detriment of people like me, to the extent that whether I have the major road or not, I stop to allow for the continuation of the madness.

On Tuesday it began to rain so heavily that visibility was almost zero. I put on my lights and slowed to about crawling speed especially since the roads had begun to flood, and during such times it is difficult to determine road from parapet and drain.

Lo and behold a man sped past, obviously unaware that his brakes would have been all but useless had he been confronted with immediate danger. I cussed.

Not long after I saw a car kissing a lamp post. It was a new car and I said to myself that the driver certainly did not buy it. I later learnt that there were a series of vehicular accidents that day.

But cyclists also posed a lot of problems for me. Not only do they refrain from stopping at the major roads, but they also use the roads as though they are the kings of the road.

One man swerved from a large collection of water at the side of the road and into my path. I slowed drastically and when I managed to pass the fellow, I simply said, “Life is hard but it is sweet.”

The man told me how my mother made me then suggested that I do the unthinkable with my mother. I let his ignorance slide.

A few hours later there was this man with his umbrella that prevented him from seeing ahead so he was riding along, merely concentrating that he stayed on the road. He nearly rode into me. He must have soiled his pants when his limited vision permitted him to see the front of a car in his path.

He all but fell but he managed to miss me and save me the cost of repairing the plastic bumper that the cars carry these days. These remembrances came flooding back as I thought back to the start of the year.

Each year I am hit by some morbid thoughts. I sit and recognize that many who welcomed the dawn of the New Year would not be there to say farewell to it. I sometimes wondered whether I would be among the casualties and vow there and then to do everything to protect myself.

I avoid making enemies because these days guns come out at the drop of a hat. I do not walk with money because I cannot afford to be robbed and in any case, I simply do not have enough to live as I want to, although I am happy.

The victims of the Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek atrocities did not see the end of this year and the same can be said for so many others. More than 100 of them died on the roads, among them a young girl who called me Uncle Adam and who once worked with me.

The other day I went to a murder scene in West Ruimveldt where a 25-year-old woman called Bucky lost her life because a group of men invaded her home and used a knife with lethal effect on her. I said to myself, “So near and yet so far.”

There was the father whose son lopped off his head at a location on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway and the young fellow from Stanleytown whose death is still a mystery. So many people.

But it has not all been gloom and doom. The number of children who believe in Santa Claus was heartening. Somebody, I believe that it was the National Communications Network, announced that it would forward all letters from children to Santa to the North Pole.

The Guyana Post Office Corporation was inundated with letters from all over the country, some of the children making requests for friends whose parents had hit dire straits. I was surprised that NCN was surprised at the numbers and was prepared to deny some of these children their wishes.

Of course there were the exorbitant requests. One girl wanted a top of the line cellular phone; another wanted a Dell laptop and so on. Santa looked at the letters with minimal support from NCN. I can say that Glenn Lall stepped in and there will be many smiling faces, some 1,500, come Christmas Day.

NCN, I understand, will assist with 20. Children will wake up on December 25, firm in their belief that Santa does exist. And he does whether he is the chubby man who wears the red suit or he is a kindhearted businessman who decides to make children enjoy their greatest day in the year.

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