Coil: Jubilee Love..

by Vidyaratha Kissoon

The young bus conductor said ‘Man, you gah fuh see Stabroek. It clear clear., dem cleaning it up’. His voice was kind of hushed. I asked a driver how tings? He replied’Tings half good and half bad’.. ‘Dem people aint getting to mek dey living.. de place like when I was a lil bai and yuh used to come to town and it look fancy’.

Another older man in shorts and vest, like a tourist.. shook my hand and said ‘it must be too early for you to tek a drink right’.. and he said, yeah.. this was like how place was mussee 50 years ago.. dem yellow bus used to be ovah deh. . ‘

“Ovah deh” is the space cleared of vendors to clean up in front of the Stabroek Market. Some vendors remain on the pavements. There is a tall black metal stand with three blank screens. There used to be fancy advertising on the screens. There is a Digicel Top Up Here sign. I remember the young person who used to do the top up  there sometimes. The Digicel Booth is still there on the square. Digicel is probably legal and doesn’t mess up the place. There is a man who is selling credit a few yards away from the red sign standing alone.

I always wondered what the concrete base was used for – very randomly placed. It has posters for a dance, and some graffiti on it. The old fashioned paste up posters at the base of the shell of the big fancy lit up advertising screen. The company that did the advertising, Impressions had partnered with the City for a Green City but maybe there is no advertising to be had any more as Guyana and Georgetown clean up.

The spot at the corner of Hadfield & Lombard Street is now open. This space – the “Old Royal Castle Site” has been fixed up. It is strange though, that there is no mention of the arrangements between the owner of the space and the City Council.  Why no bigging up of the kind benefactor and celebration of the public/prviate partnership as he helps helped to clean up Georgetown?

Demerara Waves and Guyana Chronicle  reported that the space is owned by Haresh Narine Sugrim aka Chiney.  The owner had apparently paid up the rates and taxes and padlocked the gates to prevent the City Council from trespassing until the arrangements were in place for the vendors.

In June 2014, there is a report in Kaieteur News which suggests that the space was going to be used for a “a car park, mall and a 60 room executive hotel with a bar and restaurant. Building of this complex is scheduled to start in February of 2015…”
In November 2015, Kaieteur News reported that Mr Sugrim was charged by the American Feds for alleged money laundering over a US500,000 transaction which was perhaps misunderstood by the authorities.
In January 2016, Kaieteur News reported the biography of Mr Sugrim as he refuted other money laundering allegations. Kaieteur News gives details of his humble beginnings, and his community service. There are no details of the US500,000 misunderstanding. In March 2016, Demerara Waves does an article which does not name Mr Sugrim about a man who is on US 1 Million Dollars for a US500,000 dollar transaction . In that article, Government claims that it will “leave options open” and do business with the man and purchase goods from his company.

Maybe the Jubilee cohesion success will be represented not only in citizens saluting Bobby’s flagpole, but also in the cohesion between the City Council and the man… Has President Granger endorsed  these arrangements ? What is the status of the misunderstanding over the US500,000 ?
These arrangements are ‘temporary’.  According to the Town Clerk “No one will be allowed to return to the Stabroek Market square to do business!”. There is no indication of what ‘Never means’ – until  August 2016 . At what point during the jubilee clean up will the vendors know what will happen to them after ‘Never’? In the daily struggle though, and perhaps in loving the President and the Mayor, the vendors probably have to worry about now, rather than three months away.

Are there hopes that Mr Sugrim will permanently donate the space to the City?

The Coalition Government has been smart about its introduction of changes. One brilliant young man who voted for the first time, and voted for change told me this “this government is a piece of s..t”

He has been involved on one of the jubilee events and is feeling more frustrated rather than patriotic.  Other persons start their cuss outs with the disclaimer ‘The PPP had to go.. “ which comes before or after ‘I did not vote for… “

Some like the young man, say ‘I not voting again in this blasted country’.

It is nice to walk on some of the pavements where pavements exist.  The rain water is draining off in many places. They are clean. There is one man in old clothes sitting on the fence outside Parliament.  He looks comfortable and he might even be happy in his own world.  Many people would want him removed. The police are charging people for crimes.

Change is disruptive. The salary increases of the Ministers caused some consternation which has died down.  The vendors at the Bourda Market and Merriman’s Mall seem to be happy now after the move and new arrangements. The renaming of the Ogle Airport is making people unhappy. The closure of Wales Estate is making people unhappy.

The Minister of Public Infrastructure opens up  and  talks about the soon to be nice Durban Park and mentions in passing “donations were made to a registered company, which is under a separate head outside of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure.”   The details are good. The Guyana Press Association encouraged journalists to use the Access to Information Act . There is not  much information though on how to access the Commissioner of Information (Justice Charles Ramson S.C . O R ) .
Maybe the Department of Public Information will publish this information before the Jubilee in case people want to know more. Or maybe they do not want to know more.

Some things remain the same. A few people from Red Thread have been picketing the President to ask him to change the Minister of Social Protection after her comments in support of Councillor Winston Harding.  There seems to be no change in terms of how the country will deal with domestic violence and sexual violence.

It is Friday afternoon , about 1pm. The lights are changing faster than the cars could move.  The traffic lights at the junction of Camp and Regent Street have lost control of the traffic.  The lights switch from green to red . The driver who talked about “tings being  half bad , half good “ was shouting and blowing his horn and pushing the bus into the junction.  A block or so after, the rage cooled.

Jubilee tings – half bad, half good.