– farmers forced to bribe West Berbice protesters to pass roadblock

By Telesha Ramnarine

WITH ‘greens’ trucks unable to pass through the protests at Berbice, prices for fruits and vegetables have skyrocketed over the past few days, and vendors are now hopeful that the situation will be brought completely under control in the new week.
With no ‘greens’ to sell, some vendors have had to rely on what they personally planted at home, bringing such produce to the market. Without the required quantity, the prices were not set as normal.
A bag of boulangers, for example, which the Berbice farmers normally sold for $4,000, was now going for $7,000. Eschalot, which was bought for $300 a pound, is now at $700. And many more items either doubled or tripled in price, according to vendors.
Zureena Rohoman, who has been a ‘greens’ vendor for 15 years, told the Guyana Chronicle, on Saturday, that after days of not coming, some of the trucks came down Friday night, and some early Saturday morning.
“Because of the situation at Berbice make our ‘greens’ get so expensive. Bora, celery, all those things come from up there. We plant our own produce and bring down, so we have a little to sell, but the prices went up. The prices raised because the things can’t come, so the li’l bit that deh; like celery, was selling at $1,500 a pound from $700,” Rohoman explained.
Another vendor, who only gave his name as Mark, has also been vending for the past 15 years. He said the sellers in the markets are not receiving goods to sell, and whoever braves it to bring some, would offer the goods at very high prices. “People are scared to come down. ‘Greens’ are hardly on the market; it’s only a few things that come from Parika that you can see on the market.”

PAY FOR PASS

According to Mark, only those persons who know the protesters in Berbice have gotten their vehicles to pass through. They would pay money to the protesters to be allowed safe passage. “So when they come, they raise their prices to cover what they would have had to pay. They jack their prices up because they had to pay to come over,” he noted.
He said he could not afford to buy some of the things. “How I sell here, I don’t exploit customers. So I prefer to not even buy it, because I don’t want the customers to tell me the prices too high.”
Dhanraj Ramsamugh has been vending for 30 years, and related how the protest actions have negatively affected his business. “Everything cost double or triple the price. Most of the stuff comes from Berbice; I would say about 25 per cent come from Parika, and 75 per cent come from Berbice.”
According to Ramsamugh, tomatoes that were going for $360 a pound are now $500 a pound. “I don’t have racism, but I feel it’s wrong what the people are doing. If somebody kills somebody, they have to look for the person; and the police have to look for them.”
He said he observed, too, that the protesters have only been attacking and targeting persons of a particular race.
Another vendor, who preferred to speak on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation, told the Guyana Chronicle on Saturday that his business has been adversely affected due to the protest actions.
“We don’t know what’s their next move and if they will start up in Georgetown. Every single thing was doubling up because people were risking their lives to pass,” he expressed.
According to him, he has to pay the City Council $1,800 a day to land his truck on location, whether or not he did any business. Other bigger trucks would have to pay more, around $4,000 and $4,500.
This vendor was particularly upset about the situation in Berbice. “Innocent people cannot pay for the two deaths. No one knows how the boys died, because the police did not say clearly that they find the murderer; they are still running their investigation. You cannot stop innocent people, beat them, break up their vehicle, rob them, and then say that’s protesting.”

‘GREENS’ VENDOR ATTACKED

One of the bus drivers who was attacked, Deosarran Ramotar, said his life flashed before his eyes when he had to speed away from a protester who smashed his bus window and continued pelting big bricks on the vehicle.
It was last Tuesday morning around 06:00 hours when he was in the process of coming to town with his squash and tomatoes. “We were stuck in the middle, because we couldn’t pass to come to town nor to go back home, and so all our load would spoil right there.”
Ramotar said that had it not been for the debts he has, he would not have even been in town on Saturday to do business. Another farmer who was travelling just behind Ramotar suffered even more losses, as his truck was full of ‘greens’. He said he suffered about $450,000 in losses.
Ramotar said he and this truck driver had to be assisted by Public Works Minister Deodat Indar, who helped them pass through the protest in his convoy.
In an invited comment, subsequently, Indar told the Guyana Chronicle that after he learnt that many persons were trapped at different spots in the Berbice area, he left the convoy, which was made up of several other government ministers, and went in search of the stranded persons.
The minister said the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) Chairman of Bath, Krishna Sewlall, assisted him in reaching out to those persons.
“The NDC Chairman drove me to a house where we found about five business persons who were not getting police escort out of the area. I realised we had some police in our convoy so I was able to use them to help these and other individuals to pass,” Indar explained.
The minister said he has since sent a team to the area to install some street lighting, and also to rehabilitate those that were damaged by the protestors.