GUYANA is an amusingly sad and a sadly amusing land. I love my country. I chose to stay here despite offers to go to other countries after the American invasion of Grenada in 1983, where I was working with the Grenadian Government. I would not have it anyway. I am in advanced age, so I will die in the country that gave birth to me, my family and my relatives.
I am writing about this sadly amusing and amusingly sad country of mine. Here we go. My daughter was visiting last year. I was driving her around. Before we reached the junction of Mandela Avenue and Homestrech Avenue, I put on my hazard blinkers because a woman was on the pedestrian crossing. A minibus just ignored my hazard light and went through.
My daughter freaked out and yelled out; “take his number!” I showed her where the pen was but by that time, she said he was no longer within view for her to get his license plate. I told my daughter what she just witnessed I see daily on the roadways. Here is where you and the police can see it too.
On the northern and southern sides of the Rupert Craig Highway, there are pedestrian crossings right in front of Movietowne. The crossing serves the workers and employees of the business places in the Movietown compound. Nine out of ten times when I stopped with my hazard flashing, the other drivers ignored it and went through. Someone is bound to get killed there.
In Berbice last week, a truck stopped for a woman to cross the road. Another truck just flew past and killed the woman. I believe if any driver in Guyana ignores the hazard light of a vehicle in front of it and kills someone on a pedestrian crossing, once found guilty, there should be an automatic imposition of a 15-year prison sentence. The term should not be ten years because in Guyana’s prison system, a year is 9 months. A convicted person who killed someone by ignoring the hazard lights of the vehicle in front of him on conviction should serve and must serve 10 years in jail.
I always wonder what purpose the public surveillance cameras serve. Right at the junction of UG Road and Rupert Craig Highway, there are cameras. Hundreds of culprits could be caught ignoring the pedestrian crossing outside Movietowne. I also wonder what kind of work the traffic ranks do in this country.
I live on the Railway Embankment directly opposite the sprawling car park where Movie Towne and Massy Supermarket sit. I look through my binoculars and I see everything that happens in that space. I will probably see clearer once I change my old pair of binoculars.
Last Sunday, at about 10 PM, I heard familiar sound outside -the usual scrapehead motorbike gang. Always about 20 of them and they never wear helmets. When I look through the window and see them, I believe that is the same gang, Azruddin Mohamed financed on the night of April 28 last year after the post-mortem results for Adrianna Younge.
This Sunday night was different. The drag racing on one of the country’s main highways went way into midnight. That was two hours. Here is what they did. They travel south of Movietowne Road from Rupert Craig Highway, turn onto the one-way of the Railway Embankment going west, catch Sherriff Street going north, then, go east onto Rupert Craig again and onto MovieTowne Road again.
The exhaust has been modified, so the noise is unbearable. I looked through my window at midnight and saw these scrapeheads behaving as if civilisation had come to an end. This gang went on a noise rampage for three hours right in the heart of one of the busiest highway systems in Guyana.
I looked at the space they enjoyed without police intervention and suddenly the sweat of the fear of nihilism ran down my back. No one could stop these SCRAPES and they just went on and on for three hours. What I was seeing, you only see in movies. At the rate they were going, it would have taken them at least 25 minutes to reach a desolate spot in Mahaicony where no one would have been bothered with what they were doing because no one lives there.
The SCRAPES decided to use an extremely busy highway and were scaring drivers because they were having fun on the one-way. This thing went on for three hours and no police rank was in sight. I looked through my widow at midnight last Sunday and what I saw told me that the words “sad” and “amusing” easily fit the description of Guyana.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.
