Filaria tablets, bail money, and the face of the Finance Minister

Nov 02, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

A friend asked me to get the filaria tablets for him and his wife because he is working the night shift the past six weeks; his wife is sick at home. I went to three health centres and the response was the same – every citizen above age two has to be present in person to receive the tablets.
At Industry Health Centre, I was told when other people collect the tablets, there is no guarantee that the recipients will drink them so citizens have to come in person and be administered the drug. At the Campbellville Health Centre, I was told that the person has to join the line at the pharmacy when he goes there for the tablets.
Let us suppose an employer gives you time to quickly go and collect the stuff but the line is very long, then, you are out of luck because I observed that all three of the health centres that I visited in the morning hour were filled with many patients.
For every citizen above age two to go to a health centre to collect the tablets does not make sense to me. But wait, there is still hope! The Ministry of Public Health (don’t know why it was changed from Health to Public Health since the Ministry regulates the entire health system in Guyana, including private hospitals) advised us that teams are visiting your districts and the teams are at popular spots; like widely patronised supermarkets and places of entertainment.
At two supermarkets that I go to all the time, employees there told me no one came around distributing filaria tablets. They haven’t come to Turkeyen where I live. My wife is always at home and we have a working buzzer at the gate.
I rang the Ministry of Health (oops, Public Health Ministry, that is), but was told that the Minister was at a meeting. I then asked for the junior Minister Cummings because I know her. I met her when she spoke at a public meeting during the 2015 election campaign and her husband and I are friends. I was told that she was at a meeting too. The Permanent Secretary was at a meeting too. I was advised to speak to the filaria campaign head, a doctor by the name of Moses. He was at a meeting too (even God cannot save this country).
A few days after my enquiry, the secretary of Dr. Moses made contact. I received the call when I was driving and I was a couple of feet away from a cop regulating traffic. I couldn’t speak. Dr. Moses never called back. I bought the tablets (they are sold very cheaply at the private pharmacy) for the man and his wife. It makes no sense asking people who physically cannot go to a health centre and who did not receive a visit from officials but this is Guyana and that aspect of life here in this country is closed for me. I wrote about it; end of story.
In yesterday’s column, I wrote about trying to collect station bail, lodged at Number 51 Village Police Station on Sunday evening but couldn’t collect it the next day because a sergeant had the money locked up and only he could have signed for it and he was forty five miles away from the station at another police station. On that very next day, all bail money was being sent to Georgetown.
So if two neighbours of the station were put on bail on Sunday night and the matter was ended, those two persons in Berbice on Wednesday would have to travel over a hundred miles to Georgetown to collect their money. I don’t know the reason for this procedure and frankly I don’t want to know because the timing situation makes no sense to me. But if you read these thousands of columns over the years, you would know I have written countless times that Guyana does not make sense to me.
If you are travelling west on the Railway Embankment where I live, as soon as you pass Giftland Mall, there is a very huge billboard with a coloured advertisement with the Minister of Finance smiling broadly indicating that the 2018 budget will soon be here and it will be a good one. Does it make sense to spend so much money on these billboards just to inform people that it will be a good budget for the citizens?
Just one of those billboards has to be in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars. How can the government spend money so lavishly while we just give public servants and teachers a mere eight percent increase? Where is Nietzsche’s Ubermensch?

Latest News

Filaria tablets, bail money, and the face of the Finance Minister

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | January, 24th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Guyanese boxers shine at T&T National Boxing Championships

Dottin, Matthews star as Windies Women crush...

Young Windies Women end U19 T20 World Cup...

Young Eagles, Pride lock up as 4-Day action gets...

GBF hails historic $8B sports budget

GCB bats for Government on sizable $8B Budget...

Features/Columnists

A warning to President Ali on U.S. Overtures

OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus

Trump – Part 2

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Filaria tablets, bail money, and the face of the Finance Minister

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | January, 24th, 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 […]