I’m fed up with things that do not make sense in Guyana

Oct 20, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – I live on the Railway Embankment but you can say also on UG Road. This is because there is no direct access to the Railway Embankment. I have to use UG Road to go onto the Embankment. It means I use three streets all the time – UG Road, the Railway Embankment, and a new road currently without a name but commonly referred to as MovieTowne road. It is opposite to where I live so I take that pathway often.
The forest-like appearance of MovieTowne road has been featured in my columns before because of its over-grown bushes which are never weeded thus damaging the paint on your car as you seek to maneuver from oncoming traffic. See my column of Wednesday, January 29, 2020, titled, “Government should fund the removal of scratches from my new car,” for a description of the nightmare that street is.
The MovieTowne road is fetid, stink, and is one of the embarrassing sites in Guyana. Currently, it is overrun with garbage. So with wild bushes and garbage, MovieTowne road looks like a scene out of the popular 1973 sci-fi movie Soylent Green.
This is what I saw last Saturday afternoon. You are not going to believe this but I saw this thing right in front of me. What I am about to describe to you does not exist in the real world. I would like to hear your defense if you have one. What I saw last Saturday is simply more evidence that something deeply nightmarish and surreal haunts this land.
I saw the UG Road that runs parallel to the MovieTowne pathway being weeded, cleared and cleaned by a four-member crew from the Atlantic Highway to the Railway Embankment. I turned to my wife and yelled out, “did you see that?” I couldn’t believe it. UG Road is not even one percent as dirty and bushy as MovieTowne Road yet they were landscaping it after which they left. This article is being typed on Sunday afternoon at 2PM. I saw the MovieTowne roadway on Sunday morning. It was not cleaned.
Now read this. That roadway is used by most of the foreigners living and working here because most of these people shop at Massy Supermarket. One can safely say that Massy Supermarket is the store where you can find White shoppers and Caribbean staff from CARICOM. What impression these people have of Guyana?
Remember the bigoted, foolish New York Times journalist who came to report on the petroleum industry and severely disparaged Guyana? What if he should come back, go to Massy to buy his imported lobster and see the road he has to drive on? I don’t know if the weeders were from the Ministry of Public Works, City Council or the particular NDC. But wherever they are, what they were doing does not make sense.
I can understand if a country has overbearing rules and restrictions and anachronistic bureaucracy. You may hate them but still there are explanatory dimensions to their existence. For example, public institutions preclude entry to women with sleeveless tops and dresses. It is completely wrong in the 21st century but there is an original logic to it. It was an imposition of Victorian values which were part of the then prevailing zeitgeist.
In modern day Guyana there are ubiquitous things that do not make sense. I conclude with three examples. You have to pay a fine if your vehicle does not carry a certificate of fitness. It is a document issued by one of the most vital, important and security oriented institutions in Guyana – the police force.
The commercial banks do not accept as proof of address a certificate of fitness. The very banks require you to have a certain document if you are accepted for employment at the banks – police clearance certificate. Why one police document is precious and the other has no value?
As was recently carried in one of my columns, the banks are now accepting as proof of address driver’s license but only for six months after the date of issue. Why six months? Why not 10? Why not for one year? Why not for two years.
Finally, I will never, never understand how in Guyana we can remove traffic lights and replace them with something called a roundabout in the hope that those in opposing traffic will have the decency to stop. I use those two roundabouts more often than most people in Guyana. Very few drivers stop. If the signals were still there, people would be compelled to behave like civilised humans. Help me understand my country!

(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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I’m fed up with things that do not make sense in Guyana

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