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De rich nudging aside de poor
Kaieteur News – It’s a tale of two vendors in GT – a place where the roadsides are more saturated with vendors than a sponge in bucket of water. You see, there was once a time when vending was the humble profession of of those who needed it most, the real working-class hustlers. But, oh my, how the times have changed!
The rich have taken it upon themselves to cash in on the free-for-all which was allowed to develop by the authorities. They roll up to prime roadside spots early in the morning in and they set up shop. Some of them already have stationary caravans in place. It costs almost a million dollars to build one of those. Some roadside vendors do better business that some small shops.
Meanwhile, the poor vendors are catching hell. They started off with dreams of being their own bosses. But in their quest for independence, they’ve managed to make themselves paupers.
Some of them sit in the scorching sun and drenching rain, barely making enough sales to cover the price of a sugar cake. At day’s end, they pack up shop and trudge home. Their profits, or lack thereof, would make you laugh if it weren’t so painfully ironic. They’re living on credit, and their smile is as fake as a cheap knockoff watch. These poor vendors strut about as if they’re the entrepreneurs of the year, but in reality they’re balancing on the edge of the precipice of bankruptcy.
Now, the real business magnates aren’t far away. They have decided to join the vending fray, too, albeit on the paved pavements of wealth. Their turnover? Well, it’s in the tens of thousands of dollars. They’ve swept in, jostling aside the competition as if they were clearing crumbs from their dinner table.
And you look around, and you can’t help but think: the real poor folks in Guyana have been evicted from their own vending territory. Large swathes of the pavements and roadsides have been seized by the rich, leaving no space for those who genuinely need it. The divide between the haves and the have-nots has never been starker.
Talk Half! Leff Half!
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