Dear Editor,
Do you believe President Jagdeo? During this time where so many matters need redress he is promising law to ensure all taxis are painted in one colour. Our leaders always seem to do the exact opposite of what is required of them. The media has acquired responses from members of the general public and also taxi drivers and suffice to say, most of the respondents clearly abhor this latest seemingly nonsensical decision by our President. He has gone overboard here. In our society so permeated and flooded with poverty and breeding corruption, there is no way people can afford to import a specific colour of vehicle neither can they afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars to repaint their vehicles.
Then, what if someone does not want to be a taxi driver for the rest of his or her life? Our society is not one which is static or where people’s standards of living are stagnant. Persons can and will at some time or the other move up the social mobility ladder. Or does our President believe and finally accept that Guyanese have to stick to one level (of profession) in terms of standard of living?
One would expect our President to ensure other pressing matters become reality before even thinking about a law that stipulates all taxis are changed to a standard colour. Perhaps he could have ensured the decentralization of services such as passport applications and delivery, birth certificate and marriage applications, revenue licence applications and collections, etc. Much of the business of applying for such documents and so on is done at post offices in other developing and developed countries. But if our post offices in Guyana can hardly deal competently with the mailing business, then it is highly unlikely that they can take on those added duties.
One has to still travel down to Georgetown to apply for a passport, renew same, and uplift same. One still has to travel to Georgetown, regardless of where the hell they live in Guyana, to do business regarding marriage and birth certificates, even death certificates. What utter nonsense! But our President wants to make all taxis one standard colour.
We still have plastic bottles strewn all across our roadways, trenches, riverbanks and canals as our country becomes a mega dumpsite for plastic. No one seems to be concerned about this latest detrimental act towards our environment.
Perhaps a recycling factory could solve this problem? But no, our President wants taxi drivers to paint their cars in one colour for the sake of “uniformity”; it will be good for tourism right? Nonsense.
There are even other issues that seem to be engaging little or no attention from the traffic officials in Berbice, like the quarter-mile stretch of road on the Palmyra Public Road (near to the Berbice River Bridge access road) that has been marked ‘No stopping for hire cars and minibuses.’ Persons in the area are complaining that they can no longer access hire-cars and buses in front of their gaps but have to walk long distances out of the area where the road markings end. Schoolchildren are also suffering.
It is the opinion of the residents that this situation perhaps does not exist anywhere else in Guyana, and they are calling on the relevant authorities to address it.
In sector as huge as transportation, it would be hard to accept that out of all that should be done or could be done, President Bharrat Jagdeo is going to move to get a standard colour code for hire cars.
In some other news from Berbice, I am shocked to announce that there is a very unusual occurrence.
I can safely say that Berbicians have not had a blackout for the past two weeks or fourteen days. It is so strange that this is what our days have come to in Guyana – measuring blackout free days. To date (up to the time of emailing this letter), there have been 13 days 9 hours 9 minutes and 9 seconds of uninterrupted power supply in East Berbice. But GPL, if you give out all the power now, where will you get more from to give Berbicians for Christmas?
On a more serious note, as a letter writer and a concerned citizen in Berbice, I feel good knowing that maybe all my writing on this issue has paid off. I’ve attacked the blackout issue like no other citizen in this country, like no media house in Berbice and Guyana, like no organization, and thus, I am savouring this moment in time in our Ancient County, as it may be a time marked in our history, and one that may never come again. It certainly means that a victory has been won but the war on blackouts is still very much yet to be won.
Yours faithfully,
Leon Jameson Suseran
Another comparable caption woudl be: “Given the size of the Guyana with so much potential and its small population it is hard to accept that all that should be done is require taxis to have a uniform colour!”
17 years after returning to power the government is only now trying to raise money for economic recovery and development, and we still don’t know if this LCDS experiment will work.
I also noticed Prince Charles lauding Emperor Bharrat on his leadership in the fight to combat climate change. Does Prince Charles know that Emperor Bharrat runs a corrupt government and refused to take help from the British to reform the police force because it might ‘compromise the sovereignty’ of Guyana (i.e. expose the entire government as corrupt)? Where is the emperor’s fight to stop corruption in government?
It makes no sense bringing in tons of money for LCDS ‘development’ and the money is being swiped and swindled because of endemic and systemic corruption in government. Even the IDB has just loaned Guyana US$5M to establish systems to ensure transparency. That, Prince Charles, is an indication that even the IDB knows Guyana is corrupt.
I too share your suspicions at the timing of this announcement by the PPP and am of the view that it was done to distract attention away from other scandals swirling around the administration.
However, since we have no choice, I do hope the PPP provides the Taxi companies with a tax discount so that they can recoup some of the cost associated with the re-painting. Additionally, all repainted taxis should have a traceable ID number displayed on the sides for added security.
Most of he taxis do not pay taxes.. This is just another area of Presidential decision making and not necessarily PPP.
“Given the size of the transportation sector it is hard to accept that all that should be done is require taxis to have a uniform colour”
Leon Jameson Suseran, this just gives you an insight into Jagdeo’s small-minded and vision-less approach to development in Guyana…
Now let’s seeeeee, Jagdeo gonna do this next:
Deploy Police at various locations in GT, spruce up the city and remark the roads because it’s Christmas…
Bigger issues than color of purple brothers to worry about!!!! PPP is a communist party, that the communist way…
Do not use that name. Your writing is an insult to it. Rodney was a marxist. Do you have any idea what that means. He was prwaching a replacement for the capitalist system which according to him was highly exploitative.
The PPP government practice pure and undiluted third world capitalism corruption and all.
Leon great letter, keep them coming.
Amen Ra, nothing is great about the writing, and it is not even a properly constructed letter addressing an issue that matters to the nation.Apparently you are easily hoodwinked by any sham.
I remember the government had once said it would import big busses,what happened to that idea?although I am not in favor of the big buses,i would like to see the importation of the 26 seater buses like those in neighbouring Suriname.The government and especially the president with all the talk about his LCDS should encourage people to import hybrid cars into Guyana.
Leon ! The President expects an influx of tourists as his LCDS project takes hold. Transportation is important and tour guides cite such as essential in the tourism industry.
rdman, burnham tried that big buses thing years ago and it didn’t work. private transportation is the way to go but the laws should be implemented.
The big buses (Sanos) were also tried in the mid 90s. Didn’t work too.
Quibian if Burnham tried something more than likely the PPP would have embraced the idea, they have embraced all that is burnham from Constitution to corruption so why should this idea be different?
Blackout today in RHT from 11:44 AM to 1:30 PM. Very high winds blew. Could have been that. Or the human factor.
MZQBH. Self help electricity. Go online and check out how to build a solar panel. Then make it. Powerouts solved.
There are so many other more important things to discuss other than to be obsessed to the point of childishness with some paint for cars. Really,such an array of dunces converging on a simple subject about paint,and making it a political issue, is truly a tribute to the power of the idiotic.
Agreed!
PPP priorities are backwards, but no big deal this just gives you more insight of what this government is concerned with and what is important to them.
Lets make sure the taxis all have the same colour so they can be targeted and robbed easier but also lets ignore the city infrastructure while that rots and use the PNC’s failures to again punish the people of Georgetown and tourists.