A SIGNATURE with the name Charles Sohan appeared in the newspapers yesterday, asserting that the mechanical integrity of vehicles in Guyana should be in question because we import second-hand cars. When I read the letter, I thought it was one of the most unadulterated manifestations of human ignorance I have seen in my entire life, and I am getting on in advanced age.

My publication for today should have been a review of the second volume of the autobiography of a man I truly love and who has done for me what my own father could not. I owe a lot to Yesu Persaud, and, by extension, I owe his children an obligation to respond to any request.
When I read the idiocy of Sohan, I immediately shelved the intended column to respond to him because all of us in Guyana need to comprehend the ignorance of some people who happen to exist in this world. We help young minds when we expose such damning limitations of the soul.
The gentleman says that since we import second-hand vehicles from Japan, we should ascertain the road usefulness of these vehicles. There are two forms of insane ignorance at work here. First, the term second-hand applies to every bought item except when the things are sitting brand new in the store waiting to be sold.
An item becomes second-hand once it has been purchased and used. The acquisition of second-hand status does not render the item suspect. Three examples should be used to instill commonsense in the letter-writer. First, there are people in this world whose mentality is based on an obsession with modernity.

So when a banker buys a chair and puts it in his office and he sees a new model that is on the market that is eye-catching, he buys it because he wants investors to see how attractive his office is. He gives that “second-hand” chair to a junior colleague. The “second-hand chair is still good.” Wall Street people change their office furniture all the time.
The second example comes from the world of wealthy people, even here in Guyana. They change their household items maybe once or twice a year. The drapes, stoves, and fridges are done away with for new ones. Those household items remain in very good condition. Absolutely nothing is wrong with them. It is just that the wealthy person wants the latest models.
The third example is from the world of entertainment. Singers and actors, because of the nature of the pretensive and superficial world they live in, do not wear skirts, tops, and shirts more than once. They discard very expensive clothes after one wear. But those clothing is as good as new.
The second form of insane ignorance of this gentleman relates to the car industry in Japan. The car industry in Japan is a huge income earner because of the success of its export market. Japan makes three brands that are marketable throughout the world: Toyota, Honda, Mazda.

The Japanese middle class and upper classes do not keep their vehicles after three or four years because within the space of one year, Japan will produce about four different models. Japan has a thriving car industry in which newer models are born at a rate like the mosquitoes in Guyana.
These are the vehicles we import from Japan and they are in top-class condition. I know what I am talking about because I have owned many of them, and they have given me fantastic service. My Rav 4 began to die after good service for 12 years. The ignorance of Sohan is that he is saying that once a car is imported from Japan by the recondition car- dealer, it is a second hand car whose mechanical fitness should be questioned.

Why such an attitude constitutes horrendous ignorance is because Chris Gayle, Virat Koli, Lionel Messi, Christiano Ronaldo, Sharukh Khan, Michael Jordan, Lebron James and others drive second-hand cars because they are not brand new once they are on the road. Is Sohan telling us that the fleet of expensive motorbikes that Mahendra Singh Dhoni has are not roadworthy because he had them for a few years? Is Sohan telling us that the massively expensive, specially designed cars the rich footballers own are second-hand and not road worthy because they owned them for more than three years? Which singer, actor, footballer, or cricketer is going to change his unspeakably expensive Bugatti after three years? And even if he does and buys a Ferrari, why is the Bugatti unusable? If there is a god, why does he allow some Guyanese to write such appalling ignorance?