“Boardroom,” the gift in nature and myself in 2020
Kaieteur News – Every human being has things they hate. There is no exception. I am a husband and father and I know my wife and daughter have things they hate. I have friends who I know have things they hate. One aspect of human nature that I hate, and prepared since I was little to fight, is forcing people to embrace laws, more, values, attitudes, morals, and behavior that don’t subscribe to them and don’t pays them respect.
Just as 2020 had about a week to go before it faded into history, I was part of a small event with major implications for philosophy. It was about one of the things I hate about humans. I walk my dog every morning in a part of Guyana that no one in Guyana knows better than me – a Georgetown / Eve Leary barrage.
On countless mornings, on my way home, I would pop into Giftland to pick up an item from the Giftland pharmacy or supermarket quickly. We will park on a no parking area as you enter the Gift compound. There is an area with a long canopy for vehicles to drop off their occupants. The security personnel don’t bother me for two reasons – they know me as “regular.” Since Giftland started operating, I have been walking my dog down the back, just in front of Demerara Estates. Secondly they believe me when I tell them I’d be less than 10 minutes because I have my dog in the car. The head of Gift security, Mr Baksh, told me that it is fine once the stop is fast.
Days before Christmas, I parked to rush to the pharmacy. My dog was in the car. The new guard did not know about the arrangement so he asked me to move and I suggested that he contact Mr. Baksh. A woman came out of Giftland rocking me. She was aggressive and demanded that I have to move. I know Mrs. Beepat to talk to and not Mrs. It was Beepat. I know a lot of Giftland’s female managers and they wouldn’t talk to me like that. So in a sense, it was clear to me that I was facing the “Freddie Kissoon thing.”
It happens all the time. I live with him alone. I was allowed to walk my dog at the Aquatic Center and this gentleman kept telling management last year that Kissoon should not be allowed that privilege. I found out he hated me because I was a critic of the APNU + AFC government. If anyone else fed a stray cat in the National Park, management wouldn’t have stopped them but they did it for me last year.
By this woman’s antics, I knew I was facing the same thing. She was furious and took out her smartphone and started filming my car. He then went into an alfresco restaurant called the Boardroom and started chatting with the staff. I followed her to the “Boardroom” and described her double standards for her.
She was not wearing a mask and did not adhere to the six-foot distance policy. In other words, she was worried about not observing a simple car park instruction but was in breach of COVID-19 regulations. I told her that I was going to bring the police. When the policeman got in my car, he didn’t come out because she and the staff were wearing her mask.
On Christmas Eve, the traffic into Giftland was a nightmare and complemented on the Railway embankment past my home. It’s only a couple of minutes walk from my home so I took my dog with me to check what was happening inside the Gift compound. Do you know that the Boardroom restaurant is at its peak after midnight? Curfew COVID-19 starts at 10.30pm. A few days after, I parked in the same place.
I saw the woman in the Boardroom. I went up to her about her crimes. She told me that she owns the Boardroom and if I saw that she had breached COVID-19 restrictions, I could call the police. I asked her if she wasn’t filming her own restaurant for breaching regulations like she did with my car. She was annoyed and asked for security to move me. I removed myself.
So here’s what I’m going to do for 2021. I walk my dog every night in Giftland as stated above. Once I find that Boardroom staff are not wearing masks and the entertainment there goes beyond 10.30 pm, I bring the police on management.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.)