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King Kong’s bridge in the news

Sep 15, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

If you are at Skeldon in East Berbice and you want to go to Rosignol in West Berbice, you hop on a number 63 minibus and it will take you directly from Skeldon, crossing the Berbice River Bridge (that ugly un-modern structure) into Rosignol.
If you are in Hopetown, West Berbice, and you want to go to see the Canje Bridge in East Berbice, you take a number 50 bus but it will not cross King Kong’s bridge. The bus has to stop at D’Edward. This wasn’t the arrangement before.
The number 50 bus could have taken you across the bridge into East Berbice. Some fool, one of the little dictators whose visa was once denied him by the US Embassy in Guyana, last week decided that number 50 buses going to East Berbice cannot traverse the ugly thing that King Kong built.
This is a stupid scene in which a little dictator has become a little fool. When you talk about the official practice of racism, the little dictators rush to the courts. But the little dictators are mentally incapable of understanding the ethnic sensitivities of the county over which they preside.
What logic is there in a situation where a passenger can enter a bus from East Berbice and go straight into West Berbice but the reverse is not allowed? We are not talking about mediocrity here but downright asininity. But is it asininity or racism? One has to be careful, especially me, when the topic of racism comes up.
Alright, suppose there is no element of racism, the little dictators cannot see that in sensitive situations they must tread sensitively. But when dictators become fools they lose commonsense. A majority of bus owners from East Berbice are from a certain section of the population. A majority of bus owners from West Berbice are from a different part of the Guyanese cultural make-up.
When you allow number 63 buses to cross King Kong’s bridge but you prevent number 50 vehicles from going on Kong’s structure, you run the risk of being accused of racism. And this has happened. Some of the owners of number 50 buses spoke to me at their demonstration at the Square of the Revolution yesterday and have openly charged the Government with racism. Can you blame them? Maybe it was just an imbecilic, idiotic act on the spur of the moment by one of the little dictators. But this is Guyana where you must tread carefully because of the ubiquity of the ethnic eyebrow.
The little dictators cannot and will not understand this. The owners of number 50 buses are extremely livid because their livelihood is threatened. Here is why. When the number 63 bus crosses King Kong’s ugly bridge into West Berbice, they can pick up passengers from West Berbice going to East Berbice. This puts number 50 vehicles at a tremendous financial disadvantage.
The number 50 bus owners told me they approached two Ministers with their complaints. One was Minister Bruck Up. The man who travels all over Guyana looking for people who have encumbrances on the government’s parapets. The other was Minister Visa. This was the man, of course, that the US Embassy in Guyana had under investigation and while the probe was going on, he couldn’t get a visa to travel. It is a pity the money ran out. I loved that place on the Atlantic. I used to go there often. Glenn Lall cannot deny that I was the one who first introduced him to that joint
The drivers told me that both Minister Bruck Up and Minister Visa were rude to them. They had to be. When Ministers believe that they possess permanent power, they do not have to come across as or even try to be accommodating. Arrogance takes over their personality.
So what is the answer? Is this a case of favouring one community over the other? One must bear in mind that we are into the election season. The subtle practice of reason is very much on the bandwagon because the little dictators fear that their community may not turn out in large numbers to sustain their permanent hold on power. Oh, by the way, as soon as I finished with my typing, I have to run this by the lawyers. I normally ask three of them to look over it. I don’t want to be accused a second time of naming the Government as a racist, bigoted regime. Talking about bigoted. Who did His Excellency have in when he referred to bigoted academics? Not me buddy! I have never practiced racism.

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