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Post office, AFC, magistrates; what a shit-hole country!

May 25, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

How did we become like this? How did this nation become so asinine, moronic and primitive? In yesterday’s newspapers, the Guyana Post Office Corporation issued the requirements for posting a parcel overseas. You are not going to believe what is one of those requirements – a post office stamp on an envelope not older than three months.
An entire nation with two lawyers’ associations that cover 1220 attorneys knowing this is a constitutional violation will not lift a finger to stop this atrocity. Let us do some emphasis to bring into graphic focus what a shit-hole country Guyana is. I repeat what the post office authorities require in order for a citizen to post a parcel. Proof of address must carry the date stamp from the post office and it must not be more than three months old. This is what a nation in the 21st century has descended to.
To send a parcel to your sister or brother who is overseas, a teenager, who is a student and has never received a mail, has to get an envelope with a post office date stamp. There are hundreds of thousands of young people in this country who do not have an envelope with a post office stamp addressed to them.
Not one minister of the government who sits in the leadership of this country will utter even one word of disgust. When Trump referred to certain lands that are shit-hole countries, he was universally condemned. I ask you in all sincerity; is a country not a shit-hole territory if to post a parcel overseas you have to show the officials an envelope with a post office stamp date? This is a blatant and flagrant violation of the rights of citizens.
This repugnancy should be tested in court. I am suggesting that some of us pool some money and take a lawyer to request that the court knock out this ugliness that the post office has imposed. Let us meet, make the donations and employ a lawyer to do the writ. My cell is 614-5927; home 222-1615, 222-1616 and my email is [email protected].
The implication of this idiocy is clear – a citizen of Guyana cannot help another human being by sending aid package abroad if that citizen hasn’t got as proof of address, a post office envelope. That has to be a violation of one’s right to communicate and interact with other humans.
A lot of nonsense is going on in this country and the sheep that live in it that call themselves humans are happy to have their rights assaulted. The post office asininity was made public on the same day the AFC exonerated a magistrate when she sentenced a young farmer to three years in jail for possession of eight grams of ganja (my God, the legal limit is 49 grams in Jamaica).
While denouncing the law, the AFC said that the magistrate had to follow the law. The AFC has top lawyers in its hierarchy. They should have read the law before excusing the abysmal mediocrity of certain magistrates.
Justice Barlow has publicly advised magistrates that the law provides for special circumstances, meaning that the bench has latitude to waive a jail sentence. Here are the exact words in the reporting of Judge Barlow’s statement in this newspaper of March 18, 2018; “The Court nonetheless observed with some concern that while it was unfortunate that for too long, the Magistrates have thought themselves restricted to the two stated special circumstances within the legislation (young person and for possession of cannabis under 5 grams); there was nothing in the section, which limited the Magistrate’s discretion in applying a special circumstances to both the offence and the offender and applying a lesser sentence than three years.
She further noted that the only requirement was the magistrates should state in writing “the reason for giving a lesser sentence than the statute imposed.”
What abhorrent ignorance of the AFC in asserting that the party understands why the magistrate sentenced the main to three years because the law stipulated that. What the magistrate should have done before the farmer pleaded guilty was to inform him that a guilty plea involves an automatic jail sentence so if he would like to reconsider. Once he changed the plea, she had the power to put him on bail.
The AFC is talking putrid nonsense when its statement said it understands the restricted hand of the magistrate. Maybe the AFC should tell Guyana if it agrees with a magistrate who sentenced a man to three years for possession of a spent shell. This country has some of the most jejune magistrates but the AFC likes them.

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