I have two neighbours— a ghost and a noise-maker

Feb 18, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I live two minutes walk from the Convention Centre and the Aquatic Centre on the Railway Embankment at Turkeyen. You can say both places are my neighbours. In 2012, along with Mark Benschop, David Patterson, Gerhard Ramsaroop, Michael Carrington, all of the AFC, and Malcolm Harripaul, at the time with APNU, we staged a picket exercise in front of the Aquatic Centre.
Our demand was that this large swimming pool should be opened to the public because it just lies there unused. This atrocity was furthered exposed by the fact that there are two other Government owned pools – Colgrain and Castellani – that are not for public use. The Colgrain is for swimming clubs. The Aquatic Centre is for swimmers who are training as competitors. Castellani is exclusively used by the elites in Government.
This is one of the worst vulgarities in the post-colonial world and the population accepts it. The state owns three swimming pools and none are opened to the public. Now a fourth facility is being built. It is referred as the warm up pool. This abomination has two sickening dimensions.
First, at least one should be a public recreation as in the days of the PNC Government with the Luckhoo structure at the Kingston seawall. At least open one to the public.
Secondly, the asininity of governmental and PPP elitism are nakedly exposed when you examine the population, economy and nature of this country. This is a nation that has never excelled regionally and internationally in swimming competition.
Cricket, football, followed by basketball, track and field, cycling, hockey, rugby and horse-racing and motor-racing attract far more attention and participation than swimming.
You take a poll and ask Guyanese to name their favourite sports. Swimming may be second to last or last on the list. Look at the thousands that attend motor racing and horse racing events.
How then can the state construct an Olympic size pool and reserve it for swimmers who are in training? How many are they and how many days they train at the pool? How many swimming clubs Guyana has to offer the Colgrain exclusively to these organizations?
There are not even six swimming clubs in Guyana.
After we staged the protest outside the gates of the Centre, the Minister of Sports, Dr Frank Anthony, publicly responded that the reason for the exclusion of the public is because the Aquatic Centre does not have a lifeguard. However, one will be employed. This was two years ago.
Can someone find a lifeguard for Minister Anthony? I know one who is presently working with a guard service. He will not be employed because Freddie Kissoon recommended him. The Aquatic Centre is a ghost town. I pass that place three, four times a day and it is always completely deserted.
Last year for November and December not a soul swam there. One evening, after midnight, I was passing there and I saw hundreds of people swimming. But when I looked closer it was like a scene out of the famous movies “Ghost Ship” and “The Shining.” All the revelers were jumbies. The Aquatic Centre is a ghost.
Finally, the Convention Centre has become a noise nuisance to persons who live nearby. There have been three wedding there – Government boy, Shyam Nokta; cricketer Ramesh Sarwan; and the son of a fish exporter who is close to the PPP cabal. There have been countless festivities there including Diwali and Phagwah celebration and several birthday bacchanals (plus a funeral). The noise is unbearable
My understanding is that two more weddings will be held there this year, plus the big birthday bash of one of the untouchables plus this year’s Pagwah and Diwali festivities. The music reverberates on the walls of your house. To think that poor folks are being placed before the courts for noise nuisance and State institutions are the biggest culprits.
A small entrepreneur selling fish and plantain chips on Dury Lane in Campbellville was twice slapped with noise nuisance charges. This probably led to the closure of this wonderful hang-out. The Chinese Government funded the Convention Centre. When the request was made, were the Chinese informed that the holding of extravagant parties would be one of the functions of the Centre?
In which part of the world, a convention centre is used for bacchanalian escapades? It is just amazing the things the Philistine rulers do to this country and we meekly accept the daily immoralities that are heaped upon us. How about a party for the Champion or De Donald on the lawns of the High Court? It is large enough.

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