Freddie getting high on fruit cake

Dec 30, 2008 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Freddie like he used too much black cake over the holidays. He seems to be in a stupor.

In Guyana, we usually soak the fruits used to make the black cake in rum. It would seem as if Freddie got drunk on the black cake because he is complaining that last Saturday night none of the traffic lights was working.

I could show him a few lights that are working, but he would still question whether they were working last Saturday night.

I do not know if Freddie knows that many of the traffic lights in Guyana, as they have been since the sixties, and as they are in many parts of the world, are usually deactivated after hours so that all that motorists see upon approaching these lights are the flashing of either the red or yellow lights.

If the light is flashing red it means that you should stop when approaching. If it is flashing yellow, you are obliged to slow down. In both cases the law is that you should proceed with caution.

There is a reason why some lights flash after hours. The traffic is less and therefore it makes no sense to have motorists wait at these junctions when the simple exercise of caution, guided by the flashing lights, would suffice.

I know for a fact that Freddie would not wish to be waiting at a junction for close to 110 seconds when there is nothing coming in the opposite direction.

There is also a safety element in deactivating the lights after hours. You do not wish to have motorists stalled for any extended period waiting for a light to change when the roadway is lonely. You can be preyed upon by bandits, and this why at some junctions you will find that the lights may be flashing.

The lights also usually flash at most junctions on Sundays since there is usually light traffic. The lights are usually programmed to do this automatically on Sundays.

A few Sundays ago it was as busy as a weekday. It was Sunday shopping in the run-up to Christmas and Freddie would have known that the lights on those days flashed as if it were a normal Sunday.

I do agree that on days like this the technicians should readjust the programmes so that the lights operate as on a weekday.

However, there was no need for the lights to work last Saturday night since the traffic was generally light.

I can however understand Freddie’s concern as to Wednesday night at the Ruimveldt Bypass. Wednesday is Old Year’s Night and Freddie has to be on the prowl to investigate the fancy dresses that will be worn by the rich and famous. He is sure to pen a column afterwards, wondering how come he cannot afford one of the fancy suits that will be worn by some rich person at one of the swell parties that night.

Whatever the case, Freddie has a point in that Wednesday is New Year’s Eve and the lights flash at that junction after dark. Since a great many persons will be on the road that night, it is suggested that the technicians make an adjustment to the lights at this junction so as to avoid the problems that Freddie said developed in 2007.

I take this opportunity to wish Freddie a Happy New Year. I hope that in the New Year Freddie will try to regain some balance and greater objectivity, since he seems to have simply gone overboard in his tirade against the government.

His article of Christmas Day was ridiculous.

He claims that the blackouts had forced him to stop buying ice cream. Yet he admitted than on Christmas Eve Day he went ahead and bought ice cream only to be hit by an extended power cut. He had no reason to believe that the spate of blackouts had ended, yet he went ahead and bought the ice cream.

Freddie you have to accept the blame for the loss of your ice cream. You were dumb to go and buy that ice cream knowing very well that the electricity situation is still on tenterhooks.

His questioning two days later of why the government awarded the building of the sugar factory to the Chinese was preposterous. He seems to have forgotten that this was an international tender which had to have a no-objection from the funders before the contract was offered.

The fact that the Chinese had to import parts from Australia is irrelevant to their ability to construct this factory. The same Chinese firm built a similar factory in Australia and Freddie did not question why the Australians did not use another company. He is being critical for the sake of criticism and is losing his objectivity.

Stop eating the black cake, Freddie. Yuh getting drunk.

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Freddie getting high on fruit cake

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