Guyana Observer News

By Freddie Kissoon

Surprise! Surprise! The biggest joke in town is not about the Guyana Government. The PPP boys and girls are always the source of amusement given their innate penchant for doing and saying the wrong thing. Could you imagine that the President of Guyana never told us that Ms. Varshnie Singh could not have been the First Lady because they were not legally married? How then did she get a diplomatic passport?

I am not saying the process was illegal. Guyanese should be given an explanation as to under what statute the document was approved.

Ms. Singh is damaging the good case she has by saying some awkward things. She needs to be advised about when she should open her mouth. Here is a contradiction on the part of Ms. Singh that is hard to accept. In one breath she tells the nation she was not legally married. In another breath she implores the state authorities to allow her to keep her diplomatic passport. By what logic can she be given a diplomatic passport?

Anyway back to the surprise. The joke in town is about Caricom. A number of small states that are poor, getting poorer and desperately need to stay alive in a world economy that is sitting on top of quicksand behave otherwise.

The Caricom region cannot be immune from the Shakespearian tragedies that will accompany economic chaos in many countries because of the American meltdown (for example, a man killed his five children, his wife then took his own life because of the financial crisis in the US; we have to feel for President Obama).
Some nations will not have to endure severe dislocations because their economies are not intricately intertwined with the US. But Caricom economies are. Look what happened to CLICO.

Yet these same small states behave as if they are large industrial territories. Why is it that Caricom countries are happy to prove VS Naipaul right?
The Caricom budget is up for discussion and it would be interesting to find out what will be the reaction to the rent being paid for the Caricom annexe which stands right opposite the main Secretariat. Let us see if we can do some schoolboy economics. According to the AFC Parliamentarian, Mr. Everall Franklin, Caricom is paying US$47,000 monthly as rent for the annexe. Actually it is US$50,000. That amounts to $10.2M.

Space was not a question when Nabi & Sons was building the Secretariat. Land space has never posed a difficulty in terms of locating industries and head offices. I wanted to use the term voodoo economics but I will refrain because Eusi Kwayana chastised me in 2004 for the use of that word in a derogatory sense because as the elder statesman showed me, it is a cultural form in Haiti. The cultures of the peoples of the world should be respected.

It is zombie or jumbie economics to pay $10.2M in monthly rent when a bank loan could have been secured to create more space for the Secretariat. That rent could have gone to paying off the debt.  Something is wrong or eerie or fishy about this arrangement.

The Caricom Secretariat was built on land in Turkeyen that, (to use a Rasta term) is bountiful. Why have the Heads allowed this strange occurrence to continue? But more importantly, why has the Opposition in Guyana not complained to the Secretary-General about this “decadent” expenditure?

V.S. Naipaul once wrote that the Caribbean cannot create anything. Naipaul didn't go on to say what he should have said. To invent something you have to possess commonsense.

The second issue is not a joke. It is deadly serious and deadly wrong. How can the relevant authorities permit an entertainment centre in the suburb of Subryanville? This is not right. It cannot be right. What we don't like for ourselves, we must not wish upon others.

All countries, I say without fear of contradiction, that all countries have residential districts and suburbs that are strictly zoned to prevent commercial and entertainment enterprises. I did four essays in support of the nocturnal enjoyment of citizens on the Sheriff Street seawall every Sunday evening.

Subryanville residents persuaded David de Caires to editorialise against these escapades. You cannot stop people from enjoying the Atlantic once their music is not disturbing. But an entertainment centre in the heart of a suburb cannot be justified.

There are residential districts in Guyana (not Georgetown alone) where the retail trade is not allowed and the CHPA maintains that policy. Why has Subryanvile become the exception? Fishy business as usual! This is Guyana!