Gem Madhoo Nascimento and Dr. Bassoodeo’s brother-in-law

Feb 06, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – I have been walking my dog on the sprawling grounds of Giftland and Movie Towne for years now. I would watch as these people come out of hugely expensive vehicles wearing costly apparel. I would stare at them intensely, sometimes failing to keep an eye on my dog.
Who are these people that make up this nationality? Why do they want to live like sheep? How can they accept that status in a civilised world? My vet, Dr. Bassoodeo, read my column on the permanent smell of sewage that permeates the ambience of the Movie Towne parking lot and said that I can quote him.
Dr. Bassoodeo told me his brother-in-law is building a house opposite the southern entrance to Massy Supermarket in the Movie Towne compound and the smell made him ill three times. He said the gentleman reported the matter to the City Council three times.
Guyana did not know this. The central authorities concerned with the eradication of health threats did not know this. Dr. Bassoodeo’s brother-in-law should have informed the nation about this ancient atrocity at Movie Towne. Hundreds of foreigners shop at Massy Supermarket weekly. Thousands of Guyanese patronise Massy each month and they are prepared to live with that scent. If there is a God why does he not help the Guyanese nationality?
For months, outside of NCERD on Battery Road, Kingston, opposite the head office of Transport and Harbours (T&HD), I saw an abandoned police steel barrier lying on the street occupying a parking space that is so much needed.
I take my dog to the Fort Groyne seawall each day so I passed that barrier for months lying there. No one from the Forestry Commission, NCERD, T&HD, Alfro Alphonso Enterprise, and the army, who has to pass that barrier each day, ever thought of putting that thing in a corner. I moved it eventually.
At Fort Groyne, there is a makeshift stelling where goods are transported to and from the interior. Right in the middle of the mud road, a GWI pipe ruptured creating a muddy crater that affected my car. That state of affairs continued for more than one year. The coast guard has its training office right there. I had to call Mr. Niles from GWI. The security light outside the coast guard office has been dead more than two years now.
I told the head of security for Giftland Mall, Mr. Baksh, that a light has been blinking night and day for the past year on one of the buildings. Surely, a colossal mall like Giftland has to have its maintenance crew doing routine checks. What about the role of the security personnel whose duty it is to make nightly checks? Mr. Baksh’s face betrayed complete bewilderment when I gave him the information.
Here are the words of Mrs. Gem Madhoo-Nascimento written on January 29, 2022: “Since 1981, I have produced and stage managed over 100+ productions at the Cultural Centre and almost all productions have suffered from various technical inefficiencies inherent at the Centre. It is 2022, 41 years later for me, and things are still the same.”
I became a columnist seven years after the lady began her work at the National Cultural Centre and since then (33 years), I have written about an inscrutable nationality named Guyanese. Shortly after the government changed in 1992, I wrote about what I saw in front of the Ministry of Agriculture. Do you know how long ago that was?
Right in front of the eastern driveway was a huge boulder that drivers had to manoeuvre from. For years no one had the common sense to move that boulder. Have you ever seen parents picking up their kids from school? They look like people running from an erupted volcano.
Each parent wants to park right at the school entrance creating traffic chaos. No one is prepared to park away from the school and walk towards their kid. Yet these very people are content to park hundreds of yards away when they shop after they go to live in Canada and the US.
Do you know how long the local television industry has been doing interviews? I have been interviewed countless times. Yet from day one, decades ago, they still cannot get the position of the cameras right. The cameras are never placed in front of the face of the interviewee, so you never see the full face of the guest. Don’t accept my word, check it out.
Mrs. Madhoo-Nascimento and I, and countless others, love Guyana. We stayed here. She stayed and worked under the trying circumstances she recently wrote about. Some diaspora persons want to come and work for big bucks after leaving Guyana, 30, 40 years ago. Funny eh! (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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