Incident at Smiling Restaurant in Triumph tells of psychic death

Dec 07, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

In my column yesterday I described several things I have seen and continue to see that graphically indicate that the collective psyche of the Guyanese nationality has been severely damaged. On the day of the publication of that column, I witnessed an incident that I feel will not happen elsewhere on Planet Earth.
I looked at the situation, was disgusted, but my anger was under control because I know that the Guyanese nationality is in, and has been in deep, psychological trouble for years now. Here now is what I saw on Friday morning.
My cat’s favourite tin food in the Friskies brand is “turkey and cheese dinner – shreds.” Only one place I know has that variety – a Chinese outlet in Triumph, up the East Coast, named Smiling Supermarket. None of the small and large supermarkets in Georgetown has “turkey and cheese dinner – shreds.”
So Friday morning to Triumph I journeyed, looking for my cat’s favourite dish. The time was 11.05. It was a lazy, deserted Railway Embankment. There was hardly traffic on the road. I pulled up in front of Smiling Supermarket. There was no vehicle on the premises. I was the only driver that pulled up.
I came out with my cat food, only to find a car parked in front of mine, and exit was impossible. No one should have that experience. Smiling Restaurant is large. There is parking for about seven vehicles in front of the building. I enquired from the armed security rank where the driver was, after making my adverse comment on the stupidity of that driver.
This man had available to him space larger than a Caribbean island, yet chose unnecessarily to block my pathway. The security rank shook his head and said; “Something is wrong with him.” Something is wrong with the Guyanese people, a sick characteristic that you do not find in other 21st century societies.
My only option was to see if I could use the tiny space available to me to exit. While doing that, a gentleman came up and yelled out; “Aah leaving, aah leaving.” He entered the vehicle and drove away. I looked at the guard with the big gun in his hand to see his reaction. He smiled, shook his head again. I drove off with my cat food.
What explanation do you have for what that driver did? I have described such illogical parking many times in these columns. Last year I wrote about what I saw in the car park of Survival Supermarket. It was identical to what happened at Triumph yesterday. It was an early morning. I normally go to the supermarkets early in the mornings after I finish walking my dog on the seawall and my exercise routine in the National Park.
Make no mistake; this psychic collapse permeates the entire society. It is a national disaster. It does not affect different classes of people. From grass-weeders to municipal workers to market vendors to public servants to young professionals to teachers to moneyed people, to politicians in and out of power, the Guyanese nationality has deep psychic scars that have devastated the ontology of the entire Guyanese population.
Go to the MovieTowne cinemas and you are greeted with a long sheet of things you cannot do – no eating, no foot resting, no talking etc – while in the cinema. But the very people who posted those rules rent out their car park to entertainment companies to host open air concerts that affect thousands, including older folks and young school children.
I’ll leave with two examples of the psychic decapitation of this nation. GECOM issued an edict adopted by the Minister of Public Security, that your name will not be on the register of voters for the 2020 poll if you have not collected your national ID. There is no law that prevents a citizen from voting because he/she does not have an ID. The minister actually said it was the most sensible thing required of people. It turns out that the sensible thing was an idiotic thing. GECOM has backed down.
Finally, there is no more glaring manifestation of psychological descent of a nation than what the president of the country did. He actually said that one judge in the CCJ singlehandedly changed the Guyana constitution. President Granger told the Guyanese people and Guyana’s foreign diplomats that Justice Adrian Saunders, the President of the CCJ, had empowered him to get around the Carter formula for choosing the chairman of GECOM, which is part of our constitution.
The President said that based on what Justice Saunders said, he could submit a list of nominees to himself and chose from his own list.
It’s bizarre, but Granger said it.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)