Gerhard Ramsaroop, GWI, the National Park and White man redemption

Sep 03, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I would advise readers that as they take in this column paragraph by paragraph, they must bear in mind we are referring to a country that achieved Independence half a century ago. We must bear in mind too that since Independence, many of the Cabinet members and policy-makers of Guyana have been people who came from very ordinary backgrounds with working class income.
Part of this column is on Robert Persaud’s Ministry. This columnist knew Robert Persaud when he was a poor seventeen-year-old kid, selling milk for his father. You would think a person like Persaud would understand the need to improve the lives of working people. I don’t think he does. Let’s begin the main descriptions of this article.
The last thing my wife said to me Monday morning when I drove off after driving her to work was, “Don’t forget to go to GWI for the bill.”
Straight to GWI on Vlissengen Road I went. GWI has told the Guyanese people that they must pay even if they don’t receive a bill. GWI no longer sends out bills. This is fifty years after Independence and this is in a world where it is normal for a company to send your monthly bill.
Parking is a nightmare outside GWI. There is a huge piece of parapet that can hold many cars, but it has huge craters.
Simply filling up the craters would facilitate parking, which is what the White colonial would have done when he ruled us. Since 1992, Roger Luncheon has been in charge of the NIS. Parking outside the NIS is impossible. And guess why? The large parapet just needs to be graded.
I entered the GWI office and there were about thirty persons in the queue, one of whom was Gerhard Ramsaroop, executive member of the AFC. His number was 70.
My number was 72. We begin to chat. While in conversation, I asked Gerhard what he was there for. He said to pay a bill. I told him he didn’t have to join the line. The queue is for people who want to make enquiries.
Gerhard said he didn’t know that since there is no information to guide customers. The cashiers’ wickets were empty and Gerhard paid his bill within one minute.
If I didn’t direct him, Gerhard would have waited for three hours before paying his bill. As I waited something struck me. Each person in the line takes about twenty minutes with the GWI clerk. I figured that at number 72, I wasn’t coming out until hours after. All I wanted was the bill that would take a minute to print.
I demanded to see the supervisor. She informed me that you don’t need to join the line for a bill. The queue is only for people who have queries that need to be sorted out. With disgust in me, I enquired of her as to how I was supposed to know that. How was Gerhard Ramsaroop supposed to know that he was in the wrong section? Brace yourself for this woman’s explanation.
According to her, when you enter GWI’s office, you must go up to the security and inform her of the reason you are there. That is silly and nonsensical.
All over the world people go into an institution and they take a number and wait for it to be called. No one reports to the security. It just doesn’t happen in the real world. Only in a mud-hole named Guyana.
I paid my bill and left for my customary exercise in the National Park. When I started out at the Park, it had a middle-sized administrative office. Some guys robbed the place of its payroll, so they fenced the compound. Over the past three years, that administrative office has been extended to four times its original size and now is a posh, first world- looking structure.
After my bitter experience of post-colonial failure that morning at GWI, I took a walk-about at the sections of the National Park where the workers toil away. Brace yourself for the horrors of post-colonial failure. Every building where the workers have to function has a dilapidated roof or the roof is falling down.
In the stores where workers have to function every minute of the day, the sewage pipes have collapsed and are lying on the ground. I pointed that out to the General-Manager. Robert Persaud, the former milk-seller, is the Minister in charge of the National Park.
I am convinced in my mind that the white colonial would have treated us better. I repeat in this column for the third time, Guyana needs a revolution and the Samuel Doe treatment for those who have destroyed this nice country.

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Gerhard Ramsaroop, GWI, the National Park and White man redemption

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