Coil: Pigeons, pawpaw and peace on the Merriman Mall

by Vidyaratha Kissoon

“Have one of my pawpaws, they were cheap” the man told me on the Mall. He had just bought them from the lady who had her stall on the roadside not far from the place where she used to sell.

“She keep watching and wondering. She move her stall to the road and she wondering if she will get move from there now”

The sky is kind of grey. The Mall which had been the scene of anger, despair and power the previous day was kind of quiet and calm.  On Wednesday, the City Council had banned the vendors from the mall. There was a protest outside the Ministry of the Presidency.  One man was arrested. Not the kind of thing you associate with the sale of fresh fruit and vegetables on Thursdays , Fridays and Saturdays.  The dispute seems to be over the rubbish of the mall, and the appearance of the stalls – 

“We told them that their stalls should be made to a specific height, colour and size”

There was the red tent of the Jerk food stand which stood out on the clear mall. There were some chairs. It was nice to sit there with the tasty jerk and watch the world go by, well at least the traffic,  though I kept thinking that every driver in the car passing on Cummings Street bridge was bad eyeing me as I ate.

The concrete is red, unlike the concrete on the mall so this might be what the City Council is referring to in terms of acceptable colours.

I asked the women serving if they had any water so I could rinse my fingers. They did not have at the time. It is no big deal really as many people buy food from places which do not have water. The roadside cane juice man I buy from tends to have a bucket or so nearby.

There are some men weeding the parapets. The North Road canal is clean and flowing. A man with bird seed grass in his hand is looking for something under one of the trees. One of the blue and white benches serves as a site for a nap for another man. There are pigeons around. One of them looks at me as I look at it and does not move.

I remembered feeding pigeons on my arm a long time ago  in Trafalgar Square in England.  This nice renewed Mall might have somebody selling bird seed to feed the pigeons as long as the Georgetown City Hall does not  declare pigeons a nuisance.

There was a green closed up tent on the other side of the concrete patch.  Some people were nearby. There was some action and smiles as news came that the vendors would be allowed to sell. It is not clear if City Hall listened to the measured tones of President Granger who said that alternatives must be found even as the laws must be followed.    The owners of the green tent structure raised the walls and revealed a plant stand. Peace it seems had returned to the mall.

The man who gave me the pawpaw told me that as a teenager, he had planted placards on the Mall when the plans were being made to convert the turf to concrete.

He was glad to see the place clean- “people have to respect authority and when they learn that it is good for them, then the place will not be so lawless” .

I winced a bit saying,whispering really, that I really don’t respect authority but the pigeons and the calm had me mellow so I was not going to disrupt the peace.

He noted “Of course , we have to break eggs to make an omelette” .

I wanted to break eggs somewhere.

The man and I have disagreed on many things in the years I have known him, and I have had to filter his comments on Facebook from time to time.  (For readers who do not know what Facebook is, filtering comments might be the equivalent of say, discretely wrapping up tissue paper and pushing in your ears when someone you disagree with speaks at a gathering ).

However, the gift of the pawpaw, and my acceptance I think was an important peace exchange this week.

In addition to encouraging City Hall and the vendors, the President might have been involved in other peace making this week. In December 2015, many citizens rallied behind Minister Simona Broomes after she visited Qualfon and revealed  the poor working conditions. On the day when the irate vendors from the mall were demanding to meet the President,  , the people from Qualfon, with the Private Sector Commission met with the President and the Minister of Business.  Neither Minister Simona Broomes nor her replacement Minister Keith Scott were at the meeting. The report says that Qualfon talked about its operations. There was no report that the Qualfon people had to protest outside the Ministry of the Presidency to demand any intervention after the disruption of their business as usual. There is no report about whether the working conditions have improved at Qualfon. Maybe Minister Scott or even President Granger himself will pay another surprise visit to find out.

The peace making continues. In September 2015 the Government reportedly said it will not be renewing the contract with Bobby Ramroop, for the Learning Channel this week the Government has decided to renew the contract for a few months.

There was an announcement that the Ministry of Tourism was going to be dissolved as the Minister Cathy Hughes assumed responsibility for Public Telecommunications. There was some outcry, well at least on Facebook,  and the Government responded and it was clarified that the Ministry would be called Ministry of Public Telecommunications and Tourism – or the place to go when foreigners come to Guyana and cannot get good quality wifi access in the beautiful Hinterland. The Government it seems does respond to stakeholders.

The story around the work Sergeant Robert Pyle was doing before he died in the traffic accident on 30 December seems to be wrapping up as the President has declared there is no need for an investigation.  This one might be tricky. The citizens who remember when in the bad old days, the police and army had them under surveillance are wondering about whether things have resumed.

So far, without any loud voices, it seems the  Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) will not have to tell the public what happened that night.  There are  lessons learned from the vendors on the mall, the tourism stakeholders, Qualfon and maybe the stakeholders with the vested interest in keeping the status quo around the Learning Channel contract.

With enough protest, it should be possible for SOCU to do an investigation into the circumstances which lead to the deaths of Sergeant Pyle, Mrs Pyle and Mr Eastman. With enough protest, SOCU might inform the public about mechanisms which are in place so that citizens’ do not have to die as SOCU sorts out the Marriott and the other investigations.