Death comes easily as the lights go out

Sep 19, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

When I was traveling to Berbice last Saturday, I was silent for long moments, oblivious to the conversations that were going on in the car. I was silent because my mind was burdened by what I was seeing. As I watched the garbage on the highways, for some unknown reason I kept thinking of President Ramotar’s assertion when he spoke to a gathering in Region Five two weeks ago.
In reference to the proposed Marriott Hotel, he told his listeners; “For the first time, Guyana will have a five-star hotel.” I kept thinking over and over of that remark as I looked at the dirtiness and miasma on the highway from the car window. I asked myself why would any government want a five-star hotel, be proud of it, show it off to the citizens while the entire country is overran with garbage
I did do a column in response to that statement of President Ramotar in which I manifested my deep mental anguish of a country having a five-star hotel but cannot stop and don’t want to stem the decay of the nation’s only university. So Guyana gets a five star hotel but loses its university. Which is more important? Here now is another column in response to Mr. Ramotar’s exclamation of the imminent five star hotel.
On Tuesday night, about 20.00 hours a horrible accident occurred at the junction of Brummel Place (northern continuation of Louisa Row) and Brickdam. My wife and I could write a book on the history of accidents at that spot. We have seen countless numbers. It is a very busy intersection in the day. Then traffic lights came. Every citizen who lives around that area probably jumped into the skies with relief.
But, since the advent of traffic lights in 2007, about eighty percent of them do not work. On Wednesday morning, I witnessed another bumper to bumper confrontation at the corner of Albert and Lamaha Streets. I devoted an entire column to this irrationality and occasionally made reference to it in other columns.
The Albert and Lamaha Streets corridor is one of the busiest junctions in the Caricom region when the rush hour is on. The traffic lights never worked at that site since they were originally installed. The madness will grow because a huge five-storey fast food outlet is about to open at that very junction. So what is my point?
Why should a nation be proud of a five-star hotel when in the 21st century the streets of a country do not have working traffic signals and people die because of primitiveness?
Humans do all kinds of crazy things like running a red light. Obviously, that is stupid because the vehicle in the other direction can smash into you. But accidents are reduced by a colossal level when you have traffic signals. Some humans are foolish but more than ninety percent of the people in this world are not. If the norm was for your average driver to ignore red lights then all countries would have a staggering death rate
I pass the junction of Brummel Place and Brickdam everyday; I would like to emphasize the world “everyday.” The signals there do not work. My contention is if they were, then that horrible accident on Tuesday night when a mini-bus conductor was crushed to death could and may have been avoided.
Yes. The bus driver may have been speeding but he would have seen a red light which would have acted as a deterrent.
I return to my two previous questions; which should a nation be prouder of – a five-star hotel or a country that looks modern and clean or a five star hotel or a top class university. I now add a third question – a five-star hotel or a modern country where traffic signals guide the nation’s driver?
In that column on Albert and Lamaha Streets I asked the question why is it that no parent has ever raised with the President or the subject Minister, Robeson Benn, the topic of repairing the signals. There are a substantial number of school children that are driven through that corridor daily.
Here is an interesting fact that I am almost a hundred percent sure a majority of Guyanese do not know. The surrounding area that borders the junction of Albert and Lamaha Streets has more public educational institutions (including all levels of schools) than any other area in the entire Guyana.
So which do you prefer; the Marriott Hotel or the University of Guyana? The Marriott hotels or traffic lights?

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