On the street where Giftland Office Max lives

Jul 03, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I live very close to the Giftland Office Max complex in Turkeyen which is scheduled to be officially open today. If I walk up my street, scale the fence of one of the yards and pass over the lawns of the Caricom Secretariat, I will be at the mall. That will take about three minutes.
Wednesday morning, while driving on the Railway Embankment, I saw a large school of engineers and workers doing the road that leads to Giftland. I wanted to know if it was the owner of Giftland doing the road or the Government of Guyana. I stopped, made an approach and was told that the operation is a project of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure.
I rang my friend, David Patterson, Minister of Public Infrastructure. I asked if his Ministry was making an asphalted road for Giftland. He answered in the affirmative. Our conversation was short. I told him I will compile a list of roads where poor people live and give it to him for these pathways to be done. If you are reading this, please contact me at this newspaper and send me the name of your road.
Let me make one thing pellucid for which I cannot be contradicted – the road that the government built for Giftland this week leads only to Giftland. There is no other structure there except Giftland. That road serves Giftland only. After Giftland are plain bushes. Please don’t accept my word. Walk or drive on the road – it leads only to Giftland.
I went to see the Giftland structure. You don’t need to be an accountant to assess the cost. It is an impressive sight that must have cost billions. Yes billions. When I was looking at it and the road that was being constructed for it by the Government of Guyana, the thought of Bill Gates ran through my mind.
I couldn’t see Microsoft building a similar structure and the American Government constructing the road for Microsoft with public money. When you look at the billions spent on that mall, a tiny thought ran through your mind – why could the owners not build their own road?
Let me make another thing pellucid. I welcome the existence of Giftland where I live. I have been a long-standing customer of Giftland. I have a special discount card. Mr. Roy Beepat, the owner, and his wife see me in their shop millions of times. It is just the thought of why didn’t the owners do the entrance road themselves. And why did the Government build the road for them?
Let me make a third thing very clear. I have absolutely nothing against wealthy business people. They make their profits, they buy their private mansions, yachts and jets; that is no one’s business. I would not support an ideology or a government that is against private business. With my ideology, I have an inflexible position, and I cannot see myself moving away from it ever in my life.
I believe the role of the state is to protect and help the poor and the powerless. I raised the Giftland road issue while talking to Bert Wilkinson and Denis Chabrol and they agreed with me that there is nothing wrong with the road to Giftland, but the streets where the working people of this country live must be repaired.
So I will end this road issue with that agreement between me, Bert and Denis. And I hope I can get that list from other people whose streets are in need of the attention of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure. I know David Patterson very well and I would ask a small favour of him if it is allowed by the bureaucratic rules of government. Can he tell me how much it cost the Ministry to do the Giftland Street? Would I be wrong to say it would be in the millions?
I end on a note that could be related to the Giftland Street or may not be related at all. I leave readers to decide. Shortly after I spoke to David, I went to the AFC office on Railway Line, Campbellville to complain about a dilapidated bridge over a trench that connects Seaforth Street to the Railway Line.
Many AFC personnel ran off that bridge and almost ended up in the trench. I had to get a crew to pull Leonard Craig’s car from falling into the trench. I live in fear of that bridge. The office manager of the AFC, Mrs. Punalall told me she too lives in fear of it. I asked David twice to repair it. This time I will ask the owners of Giftland to ask David.

PS: Part of the agreement for the sale of 103 acres of land to Eddie Boyer is that the government will construct roads and drains on the property.