Guyana 2020: Massy Supermarket, 007 and strange homosexuals
Kaieteur News – When I read that Massy’s Supermarket was opening across the road where I live, I jumped so high with joy that I got stuck and couldn’t come back down. The store would save me on gas and I could avoid the nightmare traffic that characterizes driving in Georgetown.
But Massy not only disappointed me but also caused me to crash my car. Maybe the company should repair my damaged door. This is what happened. Armed with hostility, I went into the supermarket called “Mega Mass.” I was struck by the word, “mega.” The car park was huge. It was bigger than Singapore. Then came disappointment.
It was not a retail outlet. You couldn’t buy one or two or three items of any product you like. You had to buy a carton of chocolate, a carton of cereal, a box of snacks, a two-liter tub of ice cream, a tray of three dozen eggs, a pack of six cucumbers, and the like. All products were sold in large quantities. .
So Massy was not for me. It was back to the traffic nightmare. Just bought a cheap refurbished car, called a Vitz. I drove into the Survival Supermarket jam pack car park and turned into the back of a huge truck and mashing in my left rear door. Seeing the damage, my wife stood silent.
As 2020 wore on, Massy bosses became alarmed. No one was shopping. Then one day, I looked out of my top verandah looking directly at Massy’s, and saw Massy bosses running out of the supermarket shouting; “Eureka, eureka, we discovered Guyanese society.” Today, Mega Mass is one of the most patronizing outlets, where you can buy one bubble gum if you want. It is now a retail supermarket.
What is the lesson to be learned from the Massy supermarket fiasco? How can any company venture into such an expensive undertaking without studying the economy? Massy did his homework. This episode is ubiquitous throughout Guyana. People are putting down shops in Georgetown that will flop because parking is a nightmare deterrent.
Massy’s mistake was minor compared to other egregious events in Guyana in 2020. Take the license to kill a man, James Bond? How can any citizen make G $ 220 million by getting some public land from an incestuous political relationship and selling it within weeks? How can that ever be justified in any part of the world? Now if a private landowner gets a silly billionaire to buy his cow pen for $ 220 million, then, that’s nobody’s business. But the land that Bond acquired belongs to the children of this country.
In 2020, the election was held, rigging was stopped, and democracy was saved but outside the political sphere, Guyana remained a sad country. Here is a sample of the clouds of sadness that blow over. A vicious criminal gang raided a home after they discovered a foreign visitor was in the house. They shot dead one of the occupants. One of the accused was found guilty but released for time spent on remand – three years.
A man murdered his three children and appealed against his 30-year sentence. The Court of Appeal should have extended the sentence. In what country could a man murder his three children without either being executed or given a life sentence? But this was Guyana in 2020. The courts continued to be a mess in 2020.
A teacher appeals against a magistrate’s decision of three years’ imprisonment. The High Court agrees to hear the bail petition, but the judge wants to see the magistrate’s written decision to guide them. The magistrate simply did not respond even after three weeks had passed. That magistrate was never called to give an explanation.
What about my own profession – the media? The year 2020 was one of the worst years for incompetent journalism. A woman walked into one of the oldest Caribbean retail stores. He published an allegation of discrimination in a daily paper. The editor allowed the cry of racism to be printed without the required investigation, which is fundamental to journalism. In the publication, the only evidence provided was that the woman said she had been ignored by attendees. Surely, in Guyana, where the accusation of racism is always conveniently used and where the cry of racism could be dangerous, this was a poor display of flawed journalism.
Finally, the homosexual and bisexual people never protested in solidarity with any other oppressed groups in Guyana, but suddenly discovered an interest in foreign policy. They protested the visit of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Guyana last year. Weird homosexuals!
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.)