Sad story on Christmas Eve Day

Dec 27, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I am not going to state which location the conversation took place. I am not going to identify the gender of the complainant. This is done to avoid victimisation visiting the rank of a private security firm. But I will name the company – “Radar Security Service and Supplies” on Church Street.
I was told on Christmas Eve that salaries for the month of December have not been paid. It is customary all over the world for December salaries to be paid between the second and third week of that month. The obvious reason behind it is to give people available funds and space to shop for Christmas.
How can Radar be so sadistic? I chose that word because in my opinion, that is what it is. I rang Radar and the person that answered the phone refused to offer the owner’s name and mobile number. I got the information by a circuitous route, for which I make no apologies, and will not, even if you think I shouldn’t have done so. I informed the lady that I am a businessman that would like to employ the service of Radar.
I was told Mr. Terry Thomas is the CEO. I assume he is the owner. Mr. Thomas offered no explanation as to why on December 24, his security ranks were not paid as yet. He said cheques would be ready later in the day. I complained about the hours they would have to spend at the commercial banks. He indicated that for Georgetown, a vehicle will take the cash to the stations where the ranks are based.
But even this arrangement could not be acceptable, because where was Radar going to get extra hands to fill in for those persons who have to go to the banks? And when would they get time to shop for foodstuff, toys and gifts?
The call to Mr. Thomas was made at 9am. Radar paid the particular person that spoke to me, but he/she intoned that the transaction was done by cheque and thus long hours were spent at the bank. I can only conclude that the ranks were all paid by cheques. This is what happened on Christmas 2019 to people from the lower income groups. But this is not all. Radar earns its income from contracts awarded by the state.
There are several guard services that are rogue outfits and employed by the government. Some of these guard services are making millions by actually robbing their Latin and Haitian employees.
I spoke earlier this year to a Haitian who said he planned to leave the job, because at the time of conversing with him, he wasn’t paid for three months. If hundreds of guards in several services leave after not being paid, it means that these rogue companies are earning millions from collecting monies from resigned employees.
What is unbearable in this country is how these overnight guard services rise up and rob their employees without any criminal procedures enforced against them. But public servants and clerks in the private sector are hauled before so-called trained magistrates for stealing a few thousand dollars. Where are the voices to speak on behalf of these people?
I really find Clive Thomas an amusing man whom I am not deterred in referring to as a jaded, faded superstar. He got up in Buxton (fully aware that his demagoguery will find acceptance given the ambience in the room which he was speaking in) and advocated 5000 American dollars from oil revenues for each poor family.
When I heard about that advocacy, I honestly thought that Thomas, after being quiet since 2015 on the neoliberal political economy pursued by the government of which he and Rupert Roopnaraine are part, was beginning to speak up on the economic injustices his government perpetuates on the poor and powerless.
But since that opportunistic outburst, Thomas has not uttered or written one word about the four neoliberal budgets of his government and the continuing deteriorating economic well-being of the lower classes.
His WPA colleague, Roopnaraine, is even more invisible. In a soon to be released column, I am going to quote the words of both Thomas and Roopnaraine about revolutionary politics and revolutionary economics. When one looks at the pathetic politics and pauperized praxis of these two men since 2015, the lessons of Guyana’s ongoing tragedy must be studied by the young ones who have to stay here and live out their lives.
In 2019, four and a half years since the political formation of which Thomas and Roopnaraine came to power, poor men and women working as security guards were not paid their December salary up to the 24th of the month.

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

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Sad story on Christmas Eve Day

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