Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 18, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
The president of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) uttered a statement that in terms of rational life is incomprehensible. I cannot understand the things that Guyanese say and do. It conforms to my theory that the Guyanese personality, the Guyanese character and the nationality of Guyana are inscrutable, and in the most negative and tragic ways.
With every passing day I see human action in this land that drives deeper into my soul the belief that the Guyanese national is ontologically flawed. Here are just a few examples. Ten, not two or three, but about ten times I have seen what I am about to describe. Drivers would have the green light. You would blow on them to just hurry a little bit to catch the green. They wouldn’t. Well fine! That is perfectly logical. Persons may just want to take their time.
But here is where the weirdness comes in. Instead of accelerating a wee bit to catch the light, they take their time and illegally drive through amber. Going through the amber is unlawful, for which there is a charge. How do you explain this weirdness? It is either you take your time and stop at the amber or drive up a bit and catch the green.
Do you know how many times I have seen drivers and motorcyclists enter a semi-desert parking lot and put their machine right behind a parked vehicle, thereby hindering the person from their exit action. How do you account for this type of irrationality?
Here are just two more examples. There is a sign located on the southern parapet on the Railway Embankment just a few yards west of the traffic lights at UG Road. I live just nearby.
The signs says, “No trucks and lorries; bridge under construction.” This sign was put up there four years ago. You are deliberately misleading lorry drivers and truck owners, because the bridge had long been dusted and dried. How can any government be so illogical?
Here is the one that takes the cake. President Granger, when asked how he could put an environment economist in charge of the oil sector rather than a petroleum specialist, quite calmly told the media, the man selected will find the relevant experts. So I guess the head of our oil sector is a clerk.
We come now to Mr. Boyer, the head of the GCCI. I really don’t know if this gentleman is the son or nephew of Eddie Boyer, who achieved national attention by being the close friend of then president, Bharrat Jagdeo. The Mayor of Georgetown told the nation that over 140 business entities owe the City Hall rates and taxes in the vicinity of over 8 billion dollars. Mr. Boyer and his friends in an organization that under football “genius,” Clinton Urling, the owner of German’s Soup Shop in Tiger Bay, had lost its voice when Jagdeo (Putin) and Ramotar (Medvedev) ruled Guyana, were annoyed with the Mayor.
The GCCI issued a press release telling the nation it was displeased with what the Mayor disclosed. Does this statement make any sense? It does not. And to say it is bizarre and macabre is to put it mildly. How can any person be so silly to be displeased with what the Mayor said? In making that statement, the elected mayor is fulfilling his obligation to the people of Georgetown.
The GRA has publicly lamented that property tax payment has been dismal over the years. The police commissioner has chastised bad drivers on our roadways. The Education Ministry observed over the years that teachers are going to UG while they should be in the classroom. Business owners have long voiced public dissatisfaction with the workplace competence of UG graduates.
In none of the examples I cited here, did I see any press release by the relevant organizations denying what was pronounced on? So how do you explain the displeasure by the GCCI? I don’t think it can be fathomed. This is Guyana, where nothing makes sense, and sense when it exists dies very quickly. This is a country where logical thinking hardly exists and when it is present in society, it quickly vanishes.
The one that I really like is the saga at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). They put an environment specialist to head the oil sector. They put an oil specialist to head the environment sector. Of course, expect more. I will not be surprised if one day we wake up to find that a botanist is in charge of the surgery department of the Georgetown Hospital and the hospital’s Chief Surgeon is assigned to run the Botanical Gardens.
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
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