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May 05, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Kaieteur News – I saw a fire one evening moving in a westerly direction three houses from the annexe of the CARICOM Secretariat. My daughter and I went to investigate. I went up to the security at CARICOM to ask them to call the fire service. The security rank came closer to me, looked at me and yelled out, “you’re Freddie Kissoon,” and she became angry.
For more on what happened next see my column of Tuesday, October 13, 2020 with the headline, “A fire next to CARICOM building, Freddie Kissoon and Guyana’s curse.” So angry was I that the next day, I lodged a complaint with the CARICOM Secretariat. I met with Mr. Kenneth Williams, Deputy Programme Manager, Administrative Services Dept. After not hearing from Williams, I made contact by email.
Here is the reply of Mr. Williams of October 28, 2020, “The investigation has been completed and a report submitted to management. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to disclose the findings of the investigation.” I am the virtual complainant yet I have no clue what the CARICOM Secretariat did. So I journeyed to the security company that provides services to the Secretariat, Federal Management on Peter Rose Street.
Brace yourself for the psychic breakdown that has, from decades ago, enveloped this country. The managers at Federal Management were only now hearing of the incident. Guess why? Either the Secretariat had no contact with the place that employed the incompetent guard or there was no investigation by the Secretariat.
I was spoken to by one Mrs. Pearson who told me the company will investigate and I will be asked to testify at the hearing. I never heard back from Federal Management. Six months after I was in the café owned by Federal Management and I made a casual inquiry of Mrs. Pearson. Now read this because this is Guyana. Here is Mrs. Pearson, “Oh my God, Mr. Kissoon, we didn’t get back to you because we lost your number, would you like to proceed with the matter?” If I was younger, Mrs. Pearson would have had the full blast of my scatological vocabulary. I never saw Kenneth Williams again to tell him what I thought of him.
Williams is Guyanese. The CARICOM Secretariat is based in Guyana. Federal Management is owned by Guyanese. This is just one manifestation of how tragic this nation has become since Burnham killed it in 1980 with the assassination of Walter Rodney and the population left legally and illegally for foreign pastures.
There is no rationality among humans that inhabit Guyana. The Minister of Home Affairs said persons in Sharon’s Mall had smelt smoke hours before the eruption. A simple spark could have being tended to if people in Guyana had a functioning soul.
Guess what happened? No one was interested in making a huge fuss over the smoke. Smoke being smelt in a large shopping complex has to bring anxiety and concern thus widespread alarm. I believe rational humans react this way in all situations. But we are dealing with Guyana. I have seen this horrible, unimaginable attitude literally millions of times the past 40 years.
I would go to the seawall and national park each day with my dog. There are times when you go the next day, a large stone appears, maybe, from some construction activity and you have to move it to park properly. No one would move that object. They would park around it. If there is a large piece of wood on the road right in their pathway, they would drive around it rather than moving it into the corner.
When I think of how psychologically disheveled the Guyanese nationality is, I think of Dale Andrews, famous crime journalist from the Kaieteur News who died a few years ago. Dale said, “Freddie I count it, I dimmed 32 times and the oncoming drivers didn’t.” I did two columns of how uncouth Guyanese drivers are. They do not dim their bright lights.
You think it is semi-literate drivers from poor areas of Guyana who do not dim? You can’t be that stupid. Many of them are wealthy folks who have money but no culture. In its 2019 report, the US State Department lamented the curse of Guyanese drivers not dimming. I end with a story that will never happen in any other country no matter how small, how poor. I told one of the supervisors that in no supermarket in any other country, the newspaper stand is at the back. It is always in the front section, right near the cashier. In a forthcoming column I will return to the absolute craziness of two beggars who thousands see and do nothing about it.
(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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