My refusal to be ‘regimented’ by a silly-looking, anachronistic practice

Oct 25, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

Mr E.B. John’s letter in another newspaper of 24/10/19 titled: “Booker Group, Georgetown Club and stuffed pigeon” included the regimentation of wearing a tie before entering the Georgetown Club during the height of the Booker days in colonial British Guiana. This brought back memories of my unprecedented ‘bucking the system’ then by refusing to wear the ‘mandatory’ tie before entering the Georgetown Club. (Interestingly, I am currently a full member (with no tie) of the Georgetown Club)
At the time I was the Assistant Personnel Manager responsible for the personnel function at Rose Hall Estate. It is interesting to note, en passant, that I had just returned from successfully completing studies as a cadet in Personnel Management and succeeded an expatriate Personnel Manager: but up to then only expatriates were accorded the full title of Personnel Manager….it took a lot of persuasive work by my mentor, Mr E.B John, to influence the late, great Harold B. Davis, to correct this ‘colonial anomaly’. At that time I wore the ‘Shirt-Jac’ suit for work and official functions.
As my colleagues and I wended our way from the Headquarters of the Guyana Sugar Producers Association for lunch at the Georgetown Club next door, a man stood by the entrance with a stack of ties in his hand for the staff from the Estates to wear before entering the club. I refused to wear the tie he handed me and he blocked my way into the club. This held up the line of colleagues behind me and to add insult to injury, one of the expatriate Directors in the line shouted: “come on Nowrang, wear the darn tie”. I took umbrage at the attempt to impose the wearing of a tie, left the line and walked across the road to the restaurant run, at the time, by the ‘nemesis’ of the sugar industry, Mr Richard Ishmael (as Head of the labour union, the MPCA). I had a sumptuous lunch and claimed reimbursement from Bookers Sugar Estates.
…..those were the days …of serious work and fun… proving that Guyanese could run the industry…with or without the paraphernalia of colonialism!!!

Nowrang Persaud

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