It was a sad, sad thing to see

Apr 01, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Last week after another session of the Jagdeo libel trial, Leonard Craig asked me to accompany him to the bottom level of the High Court, a place Guyanese dread, a forbidding place where if you don’t have a contact and if you don’t like to use contacts, then you must accept that Guyana is a hell hole and endure the semi-civilized life. That site is the Deeds Registry.
We entered and there were about a hundred persons sitting. I told the security that I needed to pee and if I could be shown the washroom. She said there was none but that there are several in the courtyard. In the courtyard, there are five facilities for females, five for men plus a urinal for males. All were locked and an employee indicated that they are reserved for the employees of the Deeds Registry and the High Court in general.
I had to do without peeing.
I reentered the Deeds Registry and was informed that Craig wanted to see me and he is in the Chief Accountant’s office. There was a heated disagreement in progress between Craig and the Chief Accountant. The issue was that Leonard was contending that he was in the line with two cashiers in service but only one was working.
The Chief Accountant’s explanation was the two cashiers performed different roles and maybe the non-functioning cashier had completed her tasks. What was shocking was that in the Chief Accountant’s office was a young lady about twenty-two writing out hundreds of receipts with the carbon copy. You had to feel for this young girl. She was a thin-boned human being whose hand had to buckle under that pressure.
This was in the year 2014 when computer printed receipts are perhaps used by sea creatures under the world’s oceans for their transactions but in a Caribbean country in the 21st century that boasts it will soon have a five-star Marriott Hotel, we have hand-written receipts.
This poor girl will spend hours and hours, daily writing receipts because of the nature of the work at the Deeds Registry. It was a really sad thing to see
So I turned to the Chief Accountant who was pleasant and professional at all times and told her that this very receipt-writer will never come back to Guyana if she goes abroad and sees how receipts are issued. The thought of coming back to primitive Guyana will daunt her. And this explains Guyana’s huge exodus.
Make no mistake, young people are running from this country not only because of its politics and poverty but at the shocking level of its technical, technological and scientific backwardness. People die in this country at the Georgetown Public Hospital from injuries that would be considered minor scratches on the battlefield in war like being shot in the buttocks. Yes, there was one such case at the hospital.
In which country in the world could a pension book or a NIS life certificate only be signed by a medical doctor, secretary of a trade union, justice of the peace, commissioner of oaths or a senior police officer? Surely that narrow list started over two hundred years ago and in 2014, it is still the convention in Guyana. Surely, the people who run such a country and accept these primitive, foul-smelling sores must know that they are unfit to be administrators in the 21st century.
Something is deeply wrong in this country where people in public service employment have to retire at age 55; where to obtain a legal divorce the law stipulates one of three explanations must be offered– suppose none of the three is the truth; where women cannot wear sleeveless tops to enter most public offices; where you cannot wear denim jeans to sit in the public gallery at Parliament; where you cannot wear denim trousers to attend shows at the National Cultural Centre; where policemen and policewomen who hardly possess five CXC certificate are the sole arbiters at the High Court on what constitutes a sober colour.
It comes as no surprise that it is in Guyana that a Minister can boldly get up and announce; “We will not change the laws on marijuana.” I refer to Clement Rohee. And while we expect that from Rohee who will never learn anything about life, make no mistake many of his colleagues share his anachronistic, ancient mentality. It is called “colonial genes.”
“Colonial genes” refer to the permanent psychological destruction of the “colonial subject.” One day, we will wake up and find Guyana empty. Gone to Europe and North America. That would be good. The colonial genes don’t survive in civilized, modern countries.

Latest News

It was a sad, sad thing to see

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | February, 3rd, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

EBDCA/D&R Construction 40-Over Cricket Competition continues

GFF announces final squad for Concacaf U-17...

Cricket West Indies announces exciting 2025...

BCA, GCB to attend CWI meeting on February 9

Bolstered Harpy Eagles eyeing perfect home record...

Hockey PAHF Junior Challenge schedule released

Features/Columnists

Land, taxes and penalties

OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus

Helping a brother traveling against traffic

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

It was a sad, sad thing to see

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | February, 3rd, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]