Movie Towne, Mark Benschop and the death of Guyana

Jan 07, 2020 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

It is simply one of life’s saddest places on Planet Earth. Maybe it is the saddest. Guyana, my own country I am referring to. For the third time in less than a year, the management of MovieTowne at Turkeyen rented out the car park to hold an event in which humongous music instruments pierced the environment of several districts in which lies MovieTowne thus disturbing thousands of residents.
The latest episode was Sunday. The serenity of the Sunday afternoon was shattered by what in common parlance is called the boom box. No one in my compound could believe it.
Some residents called each other enquiring what could it be because the 2019 Christmas season was dead and gone.
I live maybe less than two minutes drive from MovieTowne. I drove across. There was a set of young people tending to the arrangements. It was almost impossible to speak to them because of the insane decibels.
I was informed that Massy company rented out the car park for its 2019 Christmas staff party. My initial reaction was to tell them that there are thousands of nearby residents that will be affected.
They gathered around me and decided to film my presence. One of them yelled out we will put you on Facebook. I ran my fingers through my uncombed hair and began to pose for the phone camera.
I then addressed them with the camera rolling. I informed them that they will lose the battle on Facebook when people read their case against mine.
I asked why any sane person would leave more than a dozen places where the ambience is beautiful to hold a Christmas party on a Sunday afternoon in a car park disturbing thousands of residents.
As soon as I said that, one of them took the phone and said, “stop recording.” They all told me that MovieTowne owns the car park and not the people of Turkeyen and I should leave.
I left, contacted several senior police officers who soon after sent down some ranks. I did tell the officers that for an open air affair, they will need police permission. The music was then lowered considerably. Two hours after, they turned it up and crazy decibels penetrated Turkeyen, Pattensen, Liliendaal and Cummings Lodge until midnight.
This is what MovieTowne has brought to Guyana. The aberration has started. Only three events have been staged so far so it is not too late to extirpate this sarcoma.
The Guyanese people can stop it before it festers; but will it happen? The body to intervene is named the Anti-Noise Taskforce based in the Ministry of Public Security.
The committee is headed by none other than the Minister of Public Security who is on record as saying loud entertainment music must be played indoors. It consists of representatives from GRA, City Hall, the police, the fire service, Ministry of Communities, Ministry of Public Security among others.
Since the formation of that body and the Minister’s statement, MovieTowne car park hosted three terrible explosions of loud music.
Here is the disturbing dimension. In all three events that I monitored, the speakers were not turned northwards but southwards. Why? This is a stipulation of MovieTowne. You see all the commercial units and restaurants and cinemas are located north of the car park.
The structure named MovieTowne lies to the north of the car park. So the music will affect patrons there if the speakers face north. The residents of the nearby districts become expendable.
This is where this country has lost the energy and protest of Mark Benschop. The owner of MovieTowne lives in a resplendent mansion in Trinidad in a secluded suburb. No one disturbs him with loud music. Benschop would have rented out a mobile pushcart, the type that sells CDs all over Georgetown and go right outside the home of the CEO for MovieTowne and Massy company and unleash those decibels.
He would have been arrested. He would have spent the night in the lock-up and the next day he is outside their homes again.
I will end on an irony but then again, Guyana lives an ironic existence. Massy supermarket in the MovieTowne compound has a “save the environment” policy. They do not give you plastic bags for your purchases.
You either have to a buy an environmentally friendly green shopping bag for $500 or carry your purchases openly in your hands as I and other customers do. But isn’t noise nuisance a violation of the environment? So what is my prediction? The madness will go. This is dead Guyana.

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Movie Towne, Mark Benschop and the death of Guyana

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