Latest update December 4th, 2024 2:40 AM
When I was young, I would have kicked that thing down
Kaieteur News columnist, Freddie Kissoon
Youth is uncontrollably rebellious (if you believe in God then maybe you can ask him why Guyana has the most sheepish, silly, youth population in the entire world). When you are young you are impatient with societal backwardness. You scream and kick against the wrong things you see in your country. If I were the rebellious youth I was when I was a UG student, I would have kicked that thing down on Friday morning on the Camp Road seawall, instead of gently removing it.
On Friday morning, Guyanese drivers woke up to the news on radio, television and in the print media that a number of roads would be closed because of the engineering of Guyana’s first roundabout in the vicinity of the Kitty pump station and adjoining areas. One of the closed roads was Carifesta Avenue. So the advisory instructed drivers travelling east on Young Street to make a right detour and use Thomas Road or a left detour and use the seawall road.
My matutinal walk with my dog on the Eve Leary seawall starts at the bandstand. I go eastward. On Friday morning when I reached Camp Road outside the Eve Leary police headquarters, there was evidence of vehicular confusion. Drivers knew they could use the seawall road to go east. But there was a barrier at the junction of the seawall road and Camp Road blocking passage to go east with a huge sign that says, “Road closed for construction ahead.”
How do you explain this contradiction – an advisory to use the road because Carifesta Avenue is closed to eastbound traffic and a barrier that prevents you from using it?
Here is the answer, and I know this because I am a matutinal fixture at that site. Last week, they stopped traffic going east on the seawall road because of the roundabout, thus the barrier. A few days ago they completed what they had to do, so drivers could now go east. But the cordon and sign remained. Now the police and the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (some smartass in the Cabinet thought he/she was being innovative in changing the name from Public Works) knew that travel was now allowed eastward on the seawall road, but they didn’t remove the sign.
As I reached Camp Road, I saw the confusion. Some drivers were going through, others turned back. I stood on the wall and shouted; “it’s okay, you can go through; there is a notice in the newspaper today.” But some drivers were confused. A man and his wife stopped to ask me if I was sure. While the man was talking to me a lady behind him was annoyed and she kept blowing. I think she knew the road was opened. Quite a number of cars were deterred by the sign. I jumped off the wall, moved the barrier, and braced it against the wall.
When I was young, I would have kicked that thing down in anger, in protest against the incompetent people that administer my country. Countless drivers were put out by the misleading sign. What about the 4-year-old misleading sign at Young Street and Camp Road? I mentioned the Ministry of Public Infrastructure above; read what is to follow.
A year ago, I told senior editor of this newspaper Leonard Gildarie about a conspiracy. Massy built an arch as a gift to Guyana at Cummings Lodge at a cost of forty million. The same company is opening up a massive supermarket on the old highway I call the Atlantic highway. That is on the same site with Movie Towne’s cinema structure. You could only get to the supermarket by travelling west on the highway.
I told Gildarie I heard that the government will construct a brand new road to link the supermarket and the cinema complex being built right there by Movie Towne on the one-way highway to the Railway Embankment, as a return gift to Massy. There is no road link between the Railway Embankment and the Atlantic highway where I live. The supermarket is going up directly opposite my home. The three connections are Sheriff Street, Conversation Road, and UG Road. Those roads allow you to go north and catch the Atlantic highway allowing you to go east or west.
The government is currently building a new road opposite my home. It leads right into the Massy supermarket and cinema complex. There is no other building or house on that road. It serves the supermarket and cinema complex only. I guess an arch for a road was the name of the game.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Deeply concerned about political dysfunction in society
Dear Editor The Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) is deeply concerned about the political dysfunction in society that is... more
Haiti: Tragically Descending into Deeper Crisis
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- As gang violence spirals out of control in Haiti, the limitations of international... more
Weekend Cartoon
