Painful Mistreatment of Essequibo pensioners

Nov 26, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
Disrespect for the elderly was very much evident on Wednesday last (2016-11-16) when some 120 pensioners turned up at the Amerindian Hostel at Suddie to uplift their new book for next year but it was not all that easy for them, better needs to be done. Not even for the sake of courtesy or out of decency was there an indication from the Ministry of Social Protection office at Anna Regina as to what time the distribution would have commenced when this was necessary for the sake of convenience.
From my own observation as a pensioner by 7:30 a.m. scores of pensioners had already converged there with the expectation to get early attendance. Some of them being disabled had to pay special car fares to reach there by that time as well. As the number increased to in excess of 100 they just kept waiting in suspense with their frustration mounting from the long wait when a female official arrived shortly after 10:00 a.m. By this time some of the pensioners had gone away to return another day. It is a common occurrence for some Government employees to go to work conveniently late.
With the bottom flat of the hostel not having enough seating accommodation many pensioners were kept standing outside and Thank God it was not raining as many were also using the stairway of the hostel to sit on. After being given a number and taking a seat, the use of the dress down system was very poor as it caused a lot of discomfort by shifting from one chair to another so many times before being able to get their book.
Like me and many others some of whom were aided by walking sticks the “getting up” from one end to the other was no less than thirty times with higher the number the shifting becomes more to further aggravate their plight. My humble opinion is to do away with this system and implement one in which the pensioners on being seated with their numbers can be called upon to come forward in a chronological order. This means they have to get up only once for their book. Once the implementation is done, it will be much better and easy for them. Some pensioners had to wait as long as four hours to get their book.
Persaud (one name only)

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