I know this country. I study it. I interact with it. I write about it. Yet, I did not follow my instincts. When that happens, you could lose your life. My advice is always let your instincts guide you.
Freddie Kissoon
What is written here happened in a country in the 21st century. I appeal to my fellow Guyanese – if you are going to live here, let us come together and make Guyana a modern society of the 21st century. I believe that when our rulers read what I have written here, it would be ignored. It is left to us, the people, to use our pen and voice to civilise Guyana.
Literally, hundreds of people have said to me over the past ten years; “Freddie, you need a new car.” My 1995 RAV 4 that I had since 2000 was soaking up my money. I couldn’t go on spending money on a “cork ball”. I had to get another vehicle.
When I tell friends about my limited budget, I would often hear the words; “no, don’t buy it here, send for it from Japan, it will cost you way, way cheaper.” There was no way, with my vast knowledge of Guyana and its sadistic bureaucracy and backwardness, I was going to import a car. Then a random conversation took place and in situations like these, if you do not follow your instincts, you can lose your life.
I mentioned to a very close friend that I saw a small car I like. He exclaimed; “no, no, don’t buy it. I know a friend who will get you a good, cheap car from Japan.” I was introduced to her. She showed me different models of small cars and asked me to pick one. I picked a Vitz. When she told me how much I will pay for it, I agreed for her to bring it in. I regret that decision terribly.
I gave her just under a million Guyana dollars. Six weeks after the car came in. I paid about $800,000 in duty, based on the engine capacity. I went to the wharf to collect the vehicle. Please do not doubt me. This nightmare happened at the GNIC wharf. All the custom officers were on lunch. I protested and suggested that the GRA has to divide the lunch period because thousands of people use state services from places like the GRA, NIS, GPL, etc which should not close for lunch.
Everybody had to wait for one hour until the GRA lunch break finished. I went to the GRA official to collect my papers. She said, “Sir, the threads of your tyres are below the required standards, you have to pay a fine of $10,000 for each tyre. My decibels were deafening. “I shouted; “you have to prove that to me, I know four new tyres were fitted out of this car in Japan.”
I demanded they measure the threads in front of me. The measurement guy could not be located. I was warned that GRA tells every customer that nonsense, so I was prepared for it. It is a nasty exploitative conspiracy. Next stage was to give eight papers to the GNIC official. Only one woman was working and there was a long line.
Finally, time to drive out my car. My key was number 57. There were four other cars in front of mine. They couldn’t find the keys for my cars and the others. All the keys for the hundreds of imported vehicles are stored in three small boxes measuring 4X8 inches. At 3PM, a GRA official came up and shouted; “It’s 3 O’clock, I closing now.” I left without my car.
Next day, they still could not find the keys. Eventually, the keys were found but a container truck was blocking the path where my car had to be driven out. They couldn’t find the driver. Commonsense would tell you that you cannot put hundreds of keys in three boxes without labeling them according to numbers. So you have box 1-99. Box 100-199 etc. So my key could easily have been found if it were in box 1-99.
I sent a text to the Finance Minister’s cell phone to discuss the weird tyre thing. He has not responded to me. I don’t mind. He is somebody in Guyana. Maybe I am a nobody. Two mountains don’t meet but two humans do. One day, I will see Winston Jordan and I will tell him what I think of him. The head of the GRA is Godfrey Statia. They brought him from Florida in 2015 to run GRA. Is he running GRA?
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
