This government has gone out of control

May 13, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I am convinced that there was no exception in the Cabinet’s reaction when members were told of people’s anger over the nightmare the traffic chaos caused, due to the construction of an arch on the main highway at Cummings Lodge. They all would have said; “man they couldn’t bear up with a few hours wait in the traffic; it was for a good cause.”
And what is the good cause? Post-colonial frivolity. If Naipaul was in his younger days he would have used brilliant insults to heap scorn on the post-2015 Government in Guyana. It began with the D’Urban Park construction. And it hasn’t stopped since then.
The post-2015 regime in Guyana is chasing post-colonial inconsequentialities like stadiums, arches and related constructions while this country, after 50 years of Independence, does not have a school of engineering that deals with sea defence, climate change, manufacturing science, aquaculture etc. But we soon will have our own law school and school of business
When I see the post-colonial psychology of the Granger/Nagamootoo administration, my mind goes back to my youthful days at UG, my time as a radical youth in the WPA and who I am today. I think of Clive Thomas, who had a strong positive influence on me back then. Did Thomas agree with what this government did to its people on Thursday morning on the East Coast between Cummings Lodge and Subryanville?
I will describe for readers my ordeal. The night before, the right headlamp of my car wasn’t working. I made sure I was at the auto-electrician at 8.30 on Thursday morning so I could be the first to be served. I put my dog in the car and went to Middleton Street in Campbellville. After that I took my dog to run at the bottom of the seawall by Turkeyen. It was a normal morning. There was nothing unusual with the traffic.
When I came up from the wall onto the Turkeyen parapet, what I saw was unbelievable. The traffic was backed up westward to Liliendaal and was not moving eastward. These were untold numbers of vehicles that were not there when I took my pet down to the ocean. I figured it was a bottleneck somewhere, so I continued to walk my dog on the parapet going east. When I reached the traffic signals at the UG access Road and looked towards Ogle, I saw a huge crane in the middle of the highway. From Turkeyen going east, the highway had become a ghost town.
Something was going on by Industry village. Traffic was barred going east or west. You had to divert into UG Access Road. Up to that point, I knew nothing about the erection of an arch at Cummings Lodge. It was after one hour in the traffic I found out about this. This was one of the most psychotic decisions any crazy government could make. Not at that hour of the morning and not when the Railway Embankment is closed off at Liliendaal. A nightmare for drivers had to come and come it did for me. The fools that run our country did not know that there are only two roads to use from the East Coast to Georgetown – the old highway and the Embankment, and the Embankment route stopped at Liliendaal.
I called Adam Harris immediately and told him to send a journalist to cover the psychosis. My dog was my concern. I was getting worried, because she was there in the car for two hours. I did the unthinkable. I did what I know I should be ashamed of, but I was shaking with fear of my dog falling ill. I came out of the car and tried to use the Freddie Kissoon name. I never do that. But I was desperate. I apologize to every Guyanese for so doing. I begged the two traffic cops to create a space for me to return to Georgetown. I live one-minute drive from the signals at the UG Access Road and the old highway, but the UG Access Road was total madness. I drove to town to let my dog run free and to feed her.
I used the Sophia Road at the back of UG to go home to Turkeyen but when I reached UG, traveling north on UG Access Road, the traffic psychosis was there too. It was another long wait. When I reached home, we had blackouts. That night at the dinner table, I told my wife and daughter, I fear the PPP coming back to power, I don’t want it to but I may not vote again.

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