Dear Editor,

Two major news items arrived in the public sphere in the past few days.
One was a potent feel-good story of progress and the other a downright dirty shame. While the government was singing its own praises and rightly so for its infrastructural triumph with the completion of the Berbice Bridge and its endless transportation and logistical possibilities we have been greeted with deafening silence regarding another dastardly and shameful triumph of transportation and logistical achievement; the shipment of 40 million Canadian dollars worth of cocaine from Guyana to Canada, the largest ever such shipment ever busted in Canada. As bridges are being built to transport goods and people in Guyana bridges are being built to transfer goods of a different and dangerous kind to countries. One can safely bet that this catastrophic embarrassment will soon become water under the bridge and the lines of transportation will continue unabated.

A 40 million dollar bridge and a 40 million dollar bust. It is staggering that a shipment of cocaine worth 40 million dollars hidden in hot sauce could not be detected by authorities before leaving Guyana. Indeed, it seems that Guyana is indeed improving its transportation and logistical
capabilities. Who knew that we had shipping links from Guyana to New
Brunswick, Canada, which is not a major Guyanese resettlement region.

Kudos to those marketers of our pepper sauce who have tapped into hitherto unknown markets. While users of the Berbice Bridge pay tolls the image of Guyana and Guyanese pays the price in North America.

The very next Guyanese leaving Berbice via the Berbice Bridge for North America should prepare himself/herself for some very intrusive inspections and searches by customs authorities in North America after this fiasco.

Yours faithfully,
Michael Max
Toronto, Canada