I guess they think of poor people the way the Nazis did

Oct 26, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

We ordinary folks would never understand what goes through the minds of humans who possess power. How can you in one swoop demolish the houses of very poor citizens; people who are at the lowest rung of the economic ladder? How can you give them one week to move?
What exasperates me about this government is the way they see the poor in this country. It may be an exaggeration, but they probably perceive them the way the Nazis did – an embarrassment to the country.
Why did the Housing Ministry demolish those squatters’ dwellings? I think it goes back to the Golden Jubilee Independence celebration, when central government needed the parade to move off from Stabroek Square. The nation thought it was the usual City Council cruelty that became more pronounced under Royston King. The justification for moving over one hundred Stabroek Square vendors was the usual – City Council needs to beautify Georgetown.
The nation found out the truth when one last wagon was standing – a photography shop. The Town Clerk wrote the owner requesting him to move, because the government wanted to have the Golden Jubilee float parade move off from Stabroek Square. It was through that letter, Guyanese knew why the City Council bulldozed those vendors.
If there was any reason to withhold your endorsement of the APNU+AFC coalition in 2020, it was the sly and subtle salary increase in July retroactive to June, when the APNU+AFC came to power in 2015. But if you were still wavering, then that eviction to make way for a float parade while the government had constructed D’Urban Park, should have influenced your decision.
Now we have the demolition of the squatters’ houses in Sophia. What I find unconscionable is that the APNU+AFC regime with its counterpart in the Georgetown municipality, has this contempt for the lesser endowed classes, while at the same time in comparison with other countries in this part of the world, Guyana is very underdeveloped. So why doesn’t the APNU+AFC regime demolish its own government, seeing that it hates to see poor people? Does it hate to see poor governments?
A business icon, a few years back, referred to Guyana as ‘piss poor’. Since then, we got a new government, but I would like to think that we are still piss poor. Did you see the bond to store evidence that was donated by Canada to Guyana? It is actually a container, not a constructed entity erected with building materials. It is a small container with a zinc roof. Please don’t take my word for it. See it for yourself through a Google search. I am not joking when I say that from the photograph I saw, the thing looked like a huge dog kennel.
After this little thing, came the donation of 200 bicycles by the US Embassy to the Guyana Police Force. So we are indeed piss poor (I went to a GRA vehicle auction and didn’t see any car fit to bargain for, but when the police put those bicycles on auction, I am buying one to replace my bike that I use in the National Park). But despite government’s lack of finance and resources, the state goes about evicting vendors and breaking up the modest dwellings of squatters.
So there you have it; another reason (demolition exercise in Sophia) to ask if the APNU+AFC coalition will get your embrace in 2020. But I had decided before the salary increase in June 2015, and before the large scale removal of vendors for the Golden Jubilee, not to campaign anymore for the coalition in 2020. The reason was the humongous extension of the barriers around Parliament Building when the House is in session.
In 2012, as separate entities, APNU and the AFC used their majority to pass a motion to do away with the metal prison that enveloped Parliament. When it got into power, APNU and the AFC not only retained the barriers, but extended them to streets beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. Do you know that the cordon now extends to Princes and Lombard Streets?
The dilemma people like me face is that we do not want to see the PPP back in power, even if they have new leadership and the dinosaurs are shipped out to sea. If there isn’t a third party, I may not go to the polling booth. Outside of that, I may do what the gentleman did during the Russian Revolution; he was enjoying his water in his bath tub while the revolutionary forces were in the streets. He told his wife; “they will win with or without me.”

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I guess they think of poor people the way the Nazis did

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