A man and his bicycle

Jun 05, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

A local newscast, News Room, featured a man who bought a ‘Rudge’ bicycle forty-five years ago and has been riding it ever since. He has kept the bicycle in excellent condition, still sporting silver chain guards and nickel fenders. It has to be the oldest item in his home.
How many people, today, can point to something in their homes which is forty-five years old? Not many people are able to do this. How many of them can point to something that is fifteen years old.
There was once a man who had a pair of shoes that was forty years old. It was still in good condition because the owner wore it only on special occasions – which was far and in between.
Kaieteur News should run a feature about people’s old possession. It should invite readers to identify their oldest possessions. There is a lot of history in these items. The feature should make for very interesting reading.
What is your oldest possession? And did you buy it or inherit it?
The older generation used to take good care of their material possessions. Like their marriages, when it got broke they fixed it. Personal possessions used to cost a fortune and this is why they attracted so much care and attention. People valued what they had because they knew if it was broken it would cost a fortune to replace.
People cared things because they appreciated their value. You knew back in the old days that if you bought a record-player that it had to last a lifetime because you could not afford a second. When you picked a piece of furniture, you were interested not so much in comfort as in sturdiness. It had to last a long time. A refrigerator was a luxury. If it could not last twenty years, it was a bad deal. A pair of dress shoes was selected both for style and longevity.
Consumerism has changed all of that. Material possessions are much cheaper. The fashion, fads and technologies have changed so rapidly that people look more to functionality and ease than longevity. An average TV now is disposed within four years; a computer can be changed every few years. As for cellular phones, the upgrades are so regular that, once you can afford it, people change them every few months.
Things are not valued as much as they used to in the past. And therefore things are not kept for as long as they were in the past.
Items are not as durable today as they were in the past. They are not made to be durable. Capitalism can only survive if it constantly expands. Therefore there has to be creative destruction. Items go out of vogue as quickly as they are born so that new purchases can be constantly made. Otherwise capitalism will collapse.
It is for this reason that items are made with short shelf-lives. They are made to be replaced, because it is replacement which keeps industry going.

That man with the 45-year-old bicycle has been working at GuySuCo for over 40 years. His cycle is older than 30% of Guyana’s population. He has not only kept it in pristine condition, but has managed to keep it secure from thieves. Many people who bought Raleigh cycles in the past were victims of theft. Others would steal the cycle and this required another hefty investment.
Guyanese must learn to care things. We have become a consumerist society. We buy things these days for their look and appeal rather than their durability.
Christmas makeovers are the order of the day. Christmas is a time when some families decide to get new blinds and new appliances. This, of course, is good for business, but not good for those who have to find the money for these internal home makeovers.
If we learn to care things the way that man cared his bicycle, life would be happier.

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