This young girl almost jumped into my car--Freddie Kissoon

JUNE 21, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

I was with my wife driving north on Irving Street last week and the car stopped at the traffic signal a few yards from the junction at Lamaha Street. This young African Guyanese girl, with size almost doubled my weight, approached the car with runaway euphoria. The driver’s window of my car has been out of order for years now, so it cannot go down (turned out be a blessing in disguise after the miasma that was thrown on me from that very window), so I opened the door slightly to greet her. The hefty lady almost came into the car. She put her huge arms around my neck, kissed my face and yelled out, “Thanks, thanks, thank you so much, deh kyaan touch we no more.” With my eyes on the signals, I told her that yes, no one can come and remove her, and that the Minster of Works is a personal friend who would never do to her what Robeson Benn did. Green came and I drove off. My quiet wife was in smiles and asked what that was all about. One day right at that junction, I saw Ministry of Works employees chasing that little girl to arrest her for selling bottled water at that very spot. She was breathlessly trying to evade them. I stopped her, told her to stay behind me. I took the bucket and dared them to arrest me. Their excuse was that Minister Robeson Benn ordered the arrest of the women who ply their trade on the parapet (see my column. “The PNC has to confront this horror show,” Sunday, September 7, 2014) This was life in Guyana under Robeson Benn, his PPP and his two presidents, Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar. What pushed me into uncontrollable rage was that two blocks away, at the junction of Sandy Babb Street and Vlissengen Road, BK Tiwarie had encumbered the parapet with a humongous structure he was building. You go east on the same Sandy Babb Street where at Middleton Street, Sandy Babb Street becomes Campbell Avenue and at the junction with Austin Street, there is an apple and grapes wholesale depot that has taken over the pavements and parapets with four colossal storage facilities. If you make a southern turn from Campbell Avenue into Middleton Street, you find Mae’s Nursery School. Not only has Mae’s taken over the pavement but has built a permanent steel canopy on the pavement. Literally, then, part of the school is on the pavement. Next to Mae’s is a scrap metal business. The entire pavement on both eastern and western side of this business consists of mountains of literal junk. It is a hideous sight to see. While all of this was going on (still does – the apple and grapes people, Tiwarie’s skyscraper, Mae’s school and the junk company are still there), Benn found time to chase and arrest a teenager selling ten bottles of distilled water. I went back the next day. She was there, but she told me her two friends were arrested while she ran away. She said the Ministry of Works people took the money and water of her two friends. The matter was reported to the Alberttown Police Station, since this was a case of theft. Since September last year, I have been unable to find the two detectives that recorded the complaint. Alberttown told me they were transferred to Brickdam. Brickdam told me they don’t work there any longer. This was the oppression poor people had to endure under the power of Robeson Benn, his PPP and Benn’s two presidents, Jagdeo and Ramotar. The little girl ran up to my car because she knew she was liberated. The bullies from the Ministry of Works can no longer take the bottled water and the money from her and her friends. She felt she was liberated. I don’t feel I am. As I type this column I can see the image of Nigel Hughes in front of me. We were in the studio of channel nine last Sunday, as guests of the Cuffy 250 Committee, to talk about Walter Rodney’s legacy on the 35th anniversary of his death. After the interview, we chatted in the studio and the election results came up. Nigel turned to David Hinds and asked if he could imagine such people like the PPP lost the election by 4000 votes. I understood the way Nigel felt because I feel this way every day and I tell people about it every day. How can a political party that hounded down that little girl, apartheid-style, not get uprooted in the 2015 national elections? Is this country real or surreal?