The Coil: Trying to be Guyanese at the mall

by Vidyaratha Kissoon 

The young man driving the shuttle to the mall asked “Uncle you aint coming” and I said “Nah man, I gun walk” and he looked a little puzzled. I wanted to experience the road my money had built “leading to jobs” , with the pavement which was slightly tilted. It is always nice to walk on a pavement in Guyana.

The mall is not far from the Arthur Chung Convention Centre where the draft Youth Policy was  discussed. There were intense discussions about Guyana and what it means to be Guyanese and youth entrepreneurship and employment. Two of the people who were part of the discussions had asked me about what the building was and they realised that they were not far from the new Mall which would probably be more attractive than the National Youth policy or any discussion on any policy.

Giftland used to be one of those Guyanese things which the tourism people probably would not have publicised – a place known for selling pirate DVDs and many other items with nice customer service.
I found myself thinking of things I could buy even though I did not come to buy anything really – yeah, consumerism drug.. but there were long lines at the checkout counters and I  did not bother.

The fluorescent light took effect with the black coloured roof which was not low but which seemed low. The American influences on me started to come to life.  I started  thinking about how easy it would be for  murderers and terrorists to come here and blow up everybody and body parts moving in slow motion like on TV and in those films which are popular.

I have never had these thoughts when in Stabroek Market or Bourda Market because there are places to run  and most people are alert for pick pockets and some choke and rob.

One of my Uncles used to say that Stabroek Market was probably the first mall in the Caribbean. Tourists are told to visit the place where you could buy a range of things from gold jewellery to live iguana and bird cages.

A young man showed me a nice spiral thing  with a point which he bought to use when he is walking his dog around and has no place to tie the leash. The mall like Stabroek Market does seem to have a wide range of items. We agreed, wow, this spiral thing could be a weapon.  Nobody came up to him. I know that my brainwashing by reading too much Jason Bourne has me wondering when the security will come up and arrest the young man. I did not look for the CCTV cameras to see if anybody would have me recording talking to the man waving his pointed spiral thing about..

Instead of seven films for a thousand, Gitfland has now brought one for a thousand or so in a nice air conditioned cinema environment with nice big screen and surround sound and comfortable seats and  where you cannot bring your food from outside.  So the cinema experience will not be Guyanese, no plantain chips, egg ball , red spot or lemonade on the menu but nachos and popcorn and Pepsi.

I chose an R rated film Spy.   I wondered if I was in the wrong theatre because people were bringing in children. I laughed along with the families at parts of the film. Then the cussing started.
Beating children had come up at the youth policy discussion and one bright young man wearing a jacket over his shirt was trying to talk about ‘two slaps not being beating’. I do not know if any of the children watching the film were beaten for things which they might learn from the film.  I laughed in parts; every time there was blood and cussing and so, I cringed.

Maybe it is a Guyanese thing that we do not bother too much about what is for adults only – Stabroek Market and beating children for what adults do are Guyanese things. (I asked on the Caribbean Cinemas Facebook page about how they plan to enforce their ratings policy and at the time of writing there is no response)

Caribbean Cinemas don’t normally show Bollywood.  I feel a bit sad since I really wanted a nice big screen place where I could watch all the singing and dancing and so on which has informed so much of my Guyanese identity more than Jason Bourne and nachos.

The mall’s spaces have not all been rented. A woman said.. “they better watch out that it dont’ end up like (another) mall where all the stores ended up belonging to the owner.”

There is a debate about the death of malls up North and how the spaces have been reused.
Who knows, maybe the mall owners might figure out and offer up the space in different ways to different Guyanese, especially young Guyanese and offer space for innovative business and so which are not related to fast food.

The road is bordered by the lotus growing in the trench. There is no green or colour in the mall apart from the items on sale.  I know other malls which use natural light and have places with some plants and so and try to look like public space.

The walls look like they could be good places for artists to hang their work for sale. The food court might not have the Stabroek Market cook chop smells.. maybe one of the local soup or food places will open a branch in the empty places.

The taxi man told me that it would take long to get out on the road that the Government built since ‘this man build a big big car park” Me and my Jason Bourne thing again, shoots, if we had to get out of here in a rush. The young taxi man said ‘ is nuff nice gyurl coming to the mall”.

Taxi money is good for him. “The mall get good wuk”  He had met a woman on Facebook who took him abroad for a few months. He also has a lot of sex.. in the car.. ‘when it had a tint all over, even pun dis road hey before it build’.. and all kind of women he had .”bank gyurl, etc etc”. “taxi wuk is good, you get good money, you deh pun yuh own and is nuff woman you meet”.

I asked…so the women enjoyed the sex too? He says.. yeah yeah.. but like he not sure if is a good thing or a bad thing that the women might have enjoyed the sex more than he did. I felt a bit responsible after talking for two days about ‘what should be done for youth’ and so I was in preaching mode.
Yes, he used condoms. And he goes home to his “mistress”.

The traffic is slow out of the road. Plenty people using the pavement and the shuttle passes looking slightly overcrowded. You know nuff nice coolie gyal deh would some ugly black man” I say, well people must be does say the same thing about you. “ that how dem nice gyal deh wid a Ugly coolie man’

He said “But I don’t like Indian gyurls”. But I could not ask why. He hailed up a lady. Conversation changed as he told me about “how she deh wid she stepson. He don’t like big women though.. but when he was younger because he could get “$20,000 instead of $10,000.” He had a chance to marry and go to the USA. “But I like Guyana, I like dis place”

The Youth Policy is to deal with identity, violence, gender equality, racism ,social cohesion.  I did not get to find out if the prosperous young taxi driver from the mall and who liked Guyana and would not leave whether he needed any policy.