Reference is made  to the Kaieteur News, 22.12.10, captioned “Freddie Kissoon and Mark Benschop confined to lockups”, with specific mention of a paragraph which reads: “I believe that  in all my  years as a political activist this is the biggest indication that Guyana is a failed state, this cannot happen anywhere in any other part of the world”, Kissoon’s sentiments  in reference to the untenable situation that presently exists at the Mandela Avenue dumpsite, to which he and social activist Mark Benschop, made a recent visit.

Well, the sad affair of  this seemingly never-ending situation is well known, and therefore needs no explanation, except that it must be reminded that thanks to the inept management of the City Council, citizens of the immediate environs of the dumpsite has had to endure years of suffering.

It must be noted, too, the advocacy of both Benschop and Kissoon in this matter. This is their civic right, and no one must have issue with such. But it is the sentiments of the mentioned  paragraph that holds my attention.
Plainly, Kissoon is stating that garbage pile-up is a definite indication of a failed state. Some political analyst he is!

Does he remember the winter of discontent in England that preceded the defeat of the Labour party government? And does he recall that one of the enduring memories of this unprecedented period of contemporary British politics was the pile-up of garbage throughout this Kingdom? Then what about a similar scenario, not so long in Italy, as a result of a political protest? Surely the garbage debacle at the current dumpsite; in Britain as it then was, or anywhere else is untenable. But there was no describing those states as “failed” because of their garbage piles.

How can he describe this state with all the transformative programmes now underway, as “failed”? This is a tune that he has been humming for quite awhile but, there is no audience to listen to its sterile and tasteless melody. Even the seats are booing!

There are problems that do exist in this country, as in all states. Such will always be. But, Guyana can attest that its institutional framework, as to the regulation and management of the state’s affairs, do exist and is functioning well. What obtained, especially in the latter years of the PNCR regime more suits such a definition, even though with some difficulty. Yet, I do not ever recall such a description of those horrible years being made.