Is this country jinxed?

Dec 29, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I have a daily corner in this paper, and if you search through my articles since the engineers from India installed traffic lights from a US$6M grant to the Government, you will see that there have been several condemnatory pieces on the non-functioning of these traffic lights. The ineffectiveness of these lights is over-bearing. Every country in the world, without exception, has days in the calendar year where the traffic becomes congested and dangerous.

In the US, they are preparing for a day when the traffic resources of Washington D.C. will have to be supplemented with assistance from other States in the US federal system. It is estimated that more than a million persons will turn up to see the historic day when an African-American will be sworn in as the US President.

Commonsense will be the major characteristic on display. It is commonsense for the police to make sure the traffic lights work. It is commonsense to know that you have to get your engineers on standby. It is commonsense to check the facilities to make sure they are working, so if you detect a fault you eliminate it right away. It is commonsense that will be on display, because commonsense has to inform the authorities that these things have to be done.

In other countries, they have their own national holidays. In Muslim countries, there will be more vehicular traffic when the birthday of the Prophet Mohamed comes around. In India, Hindu holidays will bring more people out on the streets. Any Government whose leading functionaries possess commonsense would know that, on these particular days, it cannot be business as usual.

The State has to assign extra resources to cater for the implications and consequences. In Guyana, it is no exaggeration to say that not often we find commonsense in the exercise of the administration of governmental business.

In the AFC column in this newspaper yesterday, the writer made the point that when it was time for a Guyanese to make her presentation at an international forum, there was open sneering from the audience. All of us know about this. People laugh at Guyanese all over the world, speaking in a comparative context, that is.

Among the Caricom countries, people befriend the Jamaicans, the Trinidadian, Antiguans, the Bajans far more than Guyanese. There seems to be a stigma stamped on our clothes whose manifestation is so graphically visible that when people see it they back off.

What is the reason? There are many, but one recurring decimal is the perception of a primitive country that exists among the people of the world when it comes to Guyana. Our rundown infrastructure is to be blamed. Is this country jinxed?

Since the traffic lights came, they have never worked on nights when the traffic build up becomes dangerous. I have recorded this failure several times on this page. The occasions include last year holiday season, including New Year’s Eve, the performance of Akon for Carifesta, the opening of Carifesta, Easter Monday last year and this year, Mashramani night in both 2007 and 2008.

I am saying most unambiguously that when there is a huge flow of traffic on particular nights, the lights go out. It is either a case of being jinxed or sabotage.

Saturday night I had to take a number of teenagers to different parties. I live at Turkeyen, and my itinerary included touching Sheriff Street, Vlissengen Road, the East Coast Highway from Celina’s Resort to Conversation Tree, Camp and Church Streets, Avenue of the Republic, Main Street, among others.

For Saturday night, December 27, not one single traffic light was working at 20:00 hours and onwards. There was confusion at Industrial Site, which is a terrible area. There was an accident at High and Lamaha Streets.
After my chores, I touched down at Kaieteur News and I met the publisher, Glenn Lall, outside. I told him not one traffic beam was working. I said the same thing to Adam Harris.

Now, do you understand why people laugh at us? On a holiday season, when the volume of vehicles on the streets increases tremendously, our traffic lights were not working. What is most depressing is that this scenario played out last year.

On New Year’s Eve in 2007, there were many brushes at Industrial Site. What kind of government do we have that, in a small city like Georgetown, we cannot have working traffic lights?

Why are young people going to stay in such a primitive cocoon named Guyana? I know I will be right on December 31. The lights will go out in Georgetown. I just hope there are no deaths. This country is jinxed.

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