Purchase of a “mango pelter” tells the sadness of a lost land

Jan 09, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I have always polemized in these columns that there has been over a long period of time, a psychic breakdown in Guyana. If people’s psyches are not functionally stable, you will have a collective irrationality and a national, psychological malaise. When a nation is possessed of a collective psychological malaise, then, straight-forward thinking becomes muted.
Maybe a stronger way of putting it comes from the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud. One of Freud’s great contributions to understanding the nature of mental behaviour is his description of the interrelation of motive and action. Freud wrote that the two are deeply and intricately connected.
When you engage in an action, it has to be preceded by motive. We go to a supermarket cashier, and we give her money with an item in our hand. The action is buying, the motive, is that you need a toothbrush to clean your mouth. If you present the money without a desire, then action and motive are separated, and psychological breakdown is looming.
In the thousands of columns that I have done, my polemics did not concentrate solely on the vacuum of leadership that we have since Independence and the deleterious vacuum that grew worse since Burnham and Jagan died. Visionary leadership transforms a country and makes its citizens think in philosophical ways.
Our leadership has let us down from the time of Independence right up to this point in time. But the psychic breakdown is manifested in ways that may be unrelated to our lack of transformational thinkers in power.
The dearth of philosophically thinking leaders has nothing to do with the way Guyanese drivers use vehicles on the roadways. In no other country in the world is there a horrible road culture as we have in Guyana. No other country has produced citizens that drive recklessly as we do; no other country has produced the morbidly uncouth minibus drivers and hire car chauffeurs as Guyana has.
This is what I mean by the collective damaged psyche. I honestly think it is too late to save this place. I think it can and young leadership can do it but the thought is frightening to know that Guyana has the worst population of uninspiring, resigned, un-philosophical, young citizens. Absolutely nothing galvanizes their psyche to act in humane and innovative ways.
We come now to a description of one of the latest manifestations of this national psychic destruction. I have a cell phone that in common parlance is jokingly nicknamed a “mango pelter.”
I was in the picket line in July 2015 protesting Jagdeo’s appointment as Opposition Leader, went to make a call and the mango-pelter was dead. Elton McCrae of ACDA recommended a good $4000 mango-pelter from GTT on Brickdam. We went and got one.
Last Friday night, I stopped by the AFC head office. One of its young activists, Arnold Sukraj, asked to be taken up the East Coast to pick up his car from the motor-electrician. When we were driving, I called my wife to let her know I may be out late. My mango-pelter was dead. Arnold’s smart phone had no credit. One needs to have a cell phone on them. Arnold told me he saw some nice mango-pelters at GTT at Giftland for $5000.
The next day, at 2:30 PM, I called GTT’s central operator for GTT’s branch number at Giftland. She gave me 225-1315 and said when prompted ask for extension 2441 or 2442. No voice answered that number. I called again. Another operator came on. I told her what the previous operator gave me and it is not answering. She said that was the number. I argued with her telling her it was not the relevant number. After back and forth, she told me that was a Monday-to Friday number that operates from 8 to 4:30.
I called back the Giftland operator. She gave me 222-2321. No answer. I called again. She gave me 222-9391. No answer. Those aren’t the numbers. It is 227-9294. I got that from the GTT booth. I went to the mall. I took my ID because under the law, they have to get your identity because all SIM cards must have the name of the purchaser.
GTT’s salesgirl at the bottom level accessed my data. I have two landlines – 222-2015 and 222-2016 and my cell- 614-5927. All registered at GTT with my home address which she brought up – 47 Area Q, Turkeyen. She then asked for proof of address. I told her that was not necessary because she has my data in front of her and I am retaining 614-5927. She insisted. I left her in anger and bought the phone at another GTT outlet.

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Purchase of a “mango pelter” tells the sadness of a lost land

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