My Person of the Year for 2016

Jan 14, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Last year, I had to make direct contact with the Chief Executive Officer of GTT to get my internet service reconnected. This was after days and days of promises. My nephew had visited for the holidays. Going back, he had to pass through Trinidad to see his in-laws. He requested Chinese cakes to take to them. I travelled personally to all the Banks DIH outlets only to find they had none. He was leaving the next day.
Only one other Banks DIH outlet I didn’t touch; the one at Quamina and Main Streets. This was because I was far from that site.
I called more times that I can count but there was no answer. I was dining at the new Chinese restaurant on Albert Street, “Kamboat,” and I keep calling the number because I wanted my nephew to take the pastries to Trinidad. I know that outlet closes at 9 P.M. so I interrupted my dinner and went down there. I saw hundreds of Chinese cakes in the glass case. I said to them that I called dozens of times, and asked, “Why didn’t they answer?”
I was told; “Oh, Mr. Kissoon, de phone is till at de back and we kyaan hear it.” Come on man, it is commonsense that if you have three attendants serving people at the front desk, a phone should be placed near to them for when a customer calls. Really man! This cannot be happening in the 21st century. But it happened to me. What I just wrote actually occurred.
My daughter was told by Republic Bank that she has to produce two pieces of proof of address. No problem. She produced them. My daughter’s name is on the same account with me and my wife, which means she is an account holder. Republic Bank would send our quarterly statement with the address, “Frederick Kissoon, et al”. Now if an insurance company or one of the government ministries asked my daughter for two pieces of evidence of proof of address, they will not accept, “Frederick Kissoon et al.”
Surely, if the bank wants proof of address, they must put my daughter’s name on their statements. I guess you know what happened next. I don’t have to describe that for you.
These are just snippets of living in Guyana that make life difficult. It is for this reason I chose the small entrepreneur as my person for 2016 in Guyana. Do you know GWI does not have to provide public service on weekends? Let us say a small business person is setting up his/her infrastructure and the workers are functioning on weekends, what happens if a main is ruptured and water is cascading down his construction? He cannot call GWI.
Go to the telephone directory and see if there is a listing for the Guyana post office. None of the post offices in Guyana are listed. They have been inadvertently left out. Please do not accept what I as saying here. Go to the latest (2014) directory and look up Plaisance. There are only three listings under Plaisance and the post office is not one of them. Let’s say that you are setting up a business and you want to write the NDC at Pouderoyen and you need to spell the place, naturally you go to the Gazetteer of Guyana.
All Georgetowners and countless Guyanese know that village as Pouderoyen. But the Gazetteer does not have Pouderoyen. It has Klein Pouderoyen. Well fine. That is its correct name. What they do all over the world is to list Pouderoyen and then you will see a wording that says, “See Klein Pouderoyen.
These are the irritations that make life onerous in Guyana but the investor and the business person brave this situation as when we brave a storm, and they invest. The Beharry Group of Companies said that for almost a year they heard nothing about their application to City Hall to open their Kentucky franchise. They persisted though.
Take “Smallie.” He is my mechanic. I share the same mechanic as Editor-in-Chief of KN, Adam Harris. “Smallie moved out of Wortmanville where I knew him for “donkey” years and invested in a workshop in Bel Air Village. These small investors are not daunted by the failure of their country; they persist.
There are small investors all over Guyana, putting their savings into business ventures in this land. They are courageous souls and we must recognize and admire their efforts. These are resilient humans that fight against the odds. Against the background I described in the first section of this article, these people are great souls and they deserve our respect.

Latest News

My Person of the Year for 2016

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 7th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Allicock, Amsterdam named in GBA training squad 2025 Caribbean Boxing...

Interesting transfers, Clubs secure firepower...

North East beat Back Circle B; set up semi...

DCC executive laud Savory, Imlach for champion...

Dozens of young chess players participate in...

Shai Hope claims Green Belt and Dispatch of the...

Features/Columnists

Forward to the past

OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus

Process, procedure, political people and public servants

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

My Person of the Year for 2016

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 7th, 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 […]