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FM
Former Member

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.)

Replies sorted oldest to newest

ONY in Guyana ! This happened under PNC and then PPP and now again under PNC. Very unfortunate. 

I would like to seek permission from Cain to us his patented word:

This is "Ipass"

FM
Last edited by Former Member

For Guyana to get better problems like this have to be addressed.  Freddie should continue attacking the government until they do something about it. It will better for the Government in the long run and the people. I hope they can see it that way.

Billy Ram Balgobin

That’s the good life promise by APNU / AFC. 

The way the bribery wok .

- the woman gone get her share to pass Freddy car. 
- the man who testing the thread - his share .

- them hide his keys - lunch money for the man to pull it from his Arss . 

Them get wise - their family coming to your home to pick up the bribe ... the conversation is different.. no trace. 

May be Djanjo can spend some time researching how to cure this disease. 

FM
Last edited by Former Member
Dave posted:

May be Djanjo can spend some time researching how to cure this disease. 

When C.B.Jagan came to power , he tried his best reduce the type of corruption, after his demise , the problem re-started, i am sure you know some of the culprits who participate in such activities.

There should be stiff penalty , for government  employees  who tried to extract bribes , from citizens transacting business with the gov't.

Django
Django posted:
Dave posted:

May be Djanjo can spend some time researching how to cure this disease. 

There should be stiff penalty , for government  employees  who tried to extract bribes , from citizens transacting business with the gov't.

The stick alone will not work. You have to penalize for wrong doings yes, but also put rewards for doing the correct thing!

Dr Irfan😁 had mentioned a few incentives and I believe there could be additionals.

I had discussed with the AFC and and ran it by a Guyanese lawyer who said it was a good idea but may require legislation to make it happen!

I believe in the good of people and they should be rewarded for being good!  You people always looking to beat up on people!

FM
Last edited by Former Member
Django posted:
Dave posted:

May be Djanjo can spend some time researching how to cure this disease. 

When C.B.Jagan came to power , he tried his best reduce the type of corruption, after his demise , the problem re-started, i am sure you know some of the culprits who participate in such activities.

There should be stiff penalty , for government  employees  who tried to extract bribes , from citizens transacting business with the gov't.

It was happening under him but he never had the vision and insight to address!

FM

All the Guyanese politicians are a bunch of corrupted fast money-making machines. This is a culture handed down from generation to generation. The fish rots from the head and it's time to replace the dead fish. If this is not possible, then it's time to chop the head of the venomous spitting cobra.

FM
Baseman posted:
Django posted:
Dave posted:

May be Djanjo can spend some time researching how to cure this disease. 

When C.B.Jagan came to power , he tried his best reduce the type of corruption, after his demise , the problem re-started, i am sure you know some of the culprits who participate in such activities.

There should be stiff penalty , for government  employees  who tried to extract bribes , from citizens transacting business with the gov't.

It was happening under him but he never had the vision and insight to address!

he looked the other way. compensation for the pnc years. 

S
Dave posted:

That’s the good life promise by APNU / AFC. 

The way the bribery wok .

- the woman gone get her share to pass Freddy car. 
- the man who testing the thread - his share .

- them hide his keys - lunch money for the man to pull it from his Arss . 

Them get wise - their family coming to your home to pick up the bribe ... the conversation is different.. no trace. 

May be Djanjo can spend some time researching how to cure this disease. 

These are the kinds of nonsense that cause Guyana to start being a shithole country since the late 70s but got worse in the early 80s. People working in those positions and having so many people at their mercy doesn't take any time to consider how their behavior is affecting regular Guyanese especially those who travel from afar and have to overnight to compete their business which could have been avoided by some commonsense approach as mentioned by FK and some integrity from those seeking to bleed others to satisfy their greed.

FM

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