So at the last Bookclub Meeting of the year, we digressed to the awful banking service in Guyana and sat there deciding which was the least of the evils, when one of the members informed us that Scotiabank had introduced a standing charge per month on her Savings account in August and she promptly marched in and closed the account. They had introduced a ridiculous idea of an inactive account - surely that's a good thing you idiots - that you can use the customer's money to your heart's content at a measly rate of 1% you are still well ahead... so the new charge was $500 per month on an inactive account.
I had originally had opened the Scotiabank account to use as a primarily business one, but as I could never contact anyone by telephone I quickly nixed that idea: http://gtobserver.blogspot.com/2012/02/awful-service-at-scotiabank.html . I remembered seeing the $500 charge on my last statement and meant to get around to finding out about it -- as the charge was explained I resolved to close the account at the earliest opportunity.
I was taking the Staff out to Christmas lunch and decided to leave the office 40 minutes early, figuring it would be easy as I was told you just had to avoid the tellers and go straight upstairs to the business section. Ha! The young man told me that it was a teller transaction as I wanted to withdraw my cash-- I said I had a number in another bank that the amounts could be transferred to but apparently that still counts as a cash transaction and the tellers had to do it-- after waiting in the queue for 35 minutes, the teller told me it was complicated and would I mind waiting on the side as several supervisors needed to sign off the account. I said yes-- I minded very much and could she speed things up as I was taking everyone out to lunch. It took over an hour with me signing several A4 bits of paper looking like my bank statement and writing the reason three times why I was closing the accounts. After an hour, the time we were all meeting at the restaurant came and went and I impatiently grabbed all bits of paper and left. On arriving to the office after Christmas I discovered I had the end of a thermal paper roll with the final amount-- no A4 sheet showing any interest - maybe an inactive account means that you don't get interest but have to pay them to use your money? They are so ridiculous I regret I didn't close the damm account 8 months ago!
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Where all the Post Boxes gone?
Made a decision to not support the commercialization of Christmas by spending silly amounts on cards then the ever-increasing cost of postage in addition to being wasteful environmentally speaking, when in fact most people are contactable online.
So was surprised to be so pleased to get a picture of a friend's child in a cute Santa's outfit and hear from a long-lost cousin. As I scrabbled around to send off late cards, my girl Friday asked for 'time-off' to visit her family in another county. Was given a letter to post also and on a rainy day felt the main Post Office was too much trouble to get to; although only a couple of blocks from my office - the Bank of Guyana greedily fenced all pedestrian spaces and the shortcut to the Post Office (can they do that??) making the short journey more cumbersome than it need to be. So I stuck the post in the car and figured I would find a letter-box somewhere - no such luck! All the Post boxes have mysteriously disappeared! It brought back a deja-vu feeling of cycling to work in England and noticing all the Post Boxes in the City Centre removed following an IRA threat.
I figured with the increase of the 'mad people' on the street bored out of their minds - the GPO must have got fed-up with extraneous things being shoved into their letter boxes - I have that problem to a lesser extent with the one at work. I guess from a business point of view- they would be spending less on salaries to clear Letter-boxes and leave the onus on the customer to find the nearest Post Office?
So was surprised to be so pleased to get a picture of a friend's child in a cute Santa's outfit and hear from a long-lost cousin. As I scrabbled around to send off late cards, my girl Friday asked for 'time-off' to visit her family in another county. Was given a letter to post also and on a rainy day felt the main Post Office was too much trouble to get to; although only a couple of blocks from my office - the Bank of Guyana greedily fenced all pedestrian spaces and the shortcut to the Post Office (can they do that??) making the short journey more cumbersome than it need to be. So I stuck the post in the car and figured I would find a letter-box somewhere - no such luck! All the Post boxes have mysteriously disappeared! It brought back a deja-vu feeling of cycling to work in England and noticing all the Post Boxes in the City Centre removed following an IRA threat.
I figured with the increase of the 'mad people' on the street bored out of their minds - the GPO must have got fed-up with extraneous things being shoved into their letter boxes - I have that problem to a lesser extent with the one at work. I guess from a business point of view- they would be spending less on salaries to clear Letter-boxes and leave the onus on the customer to find the nearest Post Office?
Monday, December 17, 2012
South Africa and Guyana
An economist pointed out a recent article- Oct 2012 - in The Economist magazine about South Africa rife with parallels to Guyana:
http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21564829-it-has-made-progress-becoming-full-democracy-1994-failure-leadership-means
http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab/2012/10/week-print-0#comments
The headline seemed to confirm this observation:
http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21564829-it-has-made-progress-becoming-full-democracy-1994-failure-leadership-means
http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab/2012/10/week-print-0#comments
The headline seemed to confirm this observation:
It has made progress since becoming a full democracy in 1994. But a failure of leadership means that in many ways, South Africa is now going backwards.
and seeing as Guyana regarded the restoration of democracy as 1992 it was eerily in the same time-frame.
Naomi Klein in her book 'The Shock Doctrine' alluded to a beaten Mandela touted as a hero worldwide, out of touch with the reality in 1994 and who tamely allowed Mbeke to promote thinly-disguised right-wing policies to basically chuck The Freedon Charter out of the window - she describes very well the heady sensation of the nouveau-economists signing away ignorantly the rights of the country's people and creating a new black elite. Here the parallels to Guyana become frightening - a breakdown in Law and Order, a wrecked education system unable to produce graduates needed for the new economy- presumably cronyism being the order of the day, a president who ' He came to power promising to tackle unemployment and corruption, but has accomplished little. He owes so much to South Africa’s vested interests that it is difficult to imagine him embarking upon radical reform. If he is simply re-elected without promising anything new,' (This would definitely apply to the nouveau post-Jagan PPP!)
sigh - the list can go on - maybe all unhappy countries are alike in many ways(apologies to Tolstoy)-- the Multi-nationals and other countries contributing to supporting the exploitation of the country and people, will reap the negative outcomes in nastier ways of destruction of the environment, Public Health issues and inundation by migrating peoples....
Friday, November 30, 2012
2012 Edgar Mittelholzer Memorial Lecture
These Lectures were organised 2yrs after Mittelholzer's death in 1965 by AJ Seymour. They have been staged sporadically, since presumably there is a dearth of writers to maintain a good enough academic standard as a fitting tribute to the man who can be considered the first 'born-Guyanese' writer - Egbert Martin publishing poems in 1883 being in a different category ( he wrote the last stanza of the British National Anthem).
It was mentioned that VS Naipaul said that writers are necessary to record the nation's history and experiences- the actual quote from 'An Enigma of Arrival' : 'Men need history; it helps them to have an idea of who they are.' and I remembered that Chinua Achebe was provoked into writing his classic novel 'Things Fall Apart' after reading the derisive account of a Nigerian by an English writer and Chimamanda Adichie's thoughts: http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html -- so easy to stray off my subject...
Both UG lecturers who did presentations moaned that the town of new Amsterdam where Mr Mittelholzer hailed from showed no evidence of him-- not even a major street name? - but that New Amsterdam exists for perpetuity through his writings. Sadly like most Caribbean writer from that era, he was not appreciated in his lifetime and committed suicide in 1965. Interestingly he had to become a 'writer in exile' to be taken seriously-- there is a local writer who thinks ex-pat Guyanese writers writing about their Guyanese experience ought not to be considered Guyanese and be eligible for National Prizes and Awards!
So the topic of this lecture was Guyanese Literature, Magic Realism and the South American connection. Pauline Melville noted that we tend to align ourselves with the Anglophone Caribbean instead of tapping into the wealth of the South Ammerican connection. But interestingly in Mittelholzer's classic book 'My Bones and My Flute' - that tapped into one of 'the local spirits' - Dutchman and the even older pre-Columbian Amerinidan flute. She noted that the environment tends to influence writers in addition to what they have previously read. The Latin American environment and particularly Guyana where the popular 'hassar' or flat-headed armoured catfish has been known to walk at the speed of man towards a new pond for quite a distance, lends itself well to 'magic realism' but in fact could just be the realism of a different sort. She noted also that the language of the ancient/first peoples in the Americas lent itself well to explaining the Theory of Relativity as expounded by Einstein rather than the rational 'standard' languages and ended calling for more Guyanese writers and particularly women to express themselves.
It was mentioned that VS Naipaul said that writers are necessary to record the nation's history and experiences- the actual quote from 'An Enigma of Arrival' : 'Men need history; it helps them to have an idea of who they are.' and I remembered that Chinua Achebe was provoked into writing his classic novel 'Things Fall Apart' after reading the derisive account of a Nigerian by an English writer and Chimamanda Adichie's thoughts: http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html -- so easy to stray off my subject...
Both UG lecturers who did presentations moaned that the town of new Amsterdam where Mr Mittelholzer hailed from showed no evidence of him-- not even a major street name? - but that New Amsterdam exists for perpetuity through his writings. Sadly like most Caribbean writer from that era, he was not appreciated in his lifetime and committed suicide in 1965. Interestingly he had to become a 'writer in exile' to be taken seriously-- there is a local writer who thinks ex-pat Guyanese writers writing about their Guyanese experience ought not to be considered Guyanese and be eligible for National Prizes and Awards!
So the topic of this lecture was Guyanese Literature, Magic Realism and the South American connection. Pauline Melville noted that we tend to align ourselves with the Anglophone Caribbean instead of tapping into the wealth of the South Ammerican connection. But interestingly in Mittelholzer's classic book 'My Bones and My Flute' - that tapped into one of 'the local spirits' - Dutchman and the even older pre-Columbian Amerinidan flute. She noted that the environment tends to influence writers in addition to what they have previously read. The Latin American environment and particularly Guyana where the popular 'hassar' or flat-headed armoured catfish has been known to walk at the speed of man towards a new pond for quite a distance, lends itself well to 'magic realism' but in fact could just be the realism of a different sort. She noted also that the language of the ancient/first peoples in the Americas lent itself well to explaining the Theory of Relativity as expounded by Einstein rather than the rational 'standard' languages and ended calling for more Guyanese writers and particularly women to express themselves.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Open Spaces
So I was being driven home past the Parliament Buildings last night and noticed the the open space right opposite the said building fenced off with metal railings (it also registered recently that the Non-Aligned monument down the road also had metal railings to prevent people from removing the stone busts out of sheer 'worthlessness').
While I admire an acquaintance trying to change things that didn't seem right to her, I reflected sadly that loss of open spaces within an urban environment can affect us subtly in ways we might not be aware of. I digress to remember being in Halls of Residence in my fourth year after leaving Guyana to study and how I became aware I was grateful that I was high enough and on the 'right' side to look out directly onto a patch of open space while surrounded by the concrete jungle of the Barbican. That patch of green remained through the winter months and it was the first thing my eyes looked at and unconsciously looked for while looking out of the window. Now that I think about it Parks in England have had to fence off over the years to prevent the indigent from camping out and sadly likewise in Guyana where it seems the amount of people unable to cope with the 21st Century have increased.
I mentioned my acquaintance because having a high social awareness she was active in leading the 'camping outside' Parliament and 'deter Chris Brown from coming to Guyana' protests. Unfortunately she is also convinced that the HPV vaccine is not a good thing and her next pet project is to get Medical Terminations of pregnancies done through the Public Health system. As trained personnel don't just drop out of heaven this would realistically not be feasible until another 3-5yrs or so but there ought to be some sort of Forum where citizens can voice their concerns and direct all that energy and passion as my view is I prefer to hear them rather than the horrible apathy at seems to pervade and suck all the Life Energy out of you.
While I admire an acquaintance trying to change things that didn't seem right to her, I reflected sadly that loss of open spaces within an urban environment can affect us subtly in ways we might not be aware of. I digress to remember being in Halls of Residence in my fourth year after leaving Guyana to study and how I became aware I was grateful that I was high enough and on the 'right' side to look out directly onto a patch of open space while surrounded by the concrete jungle of the Barbican. That patch of green remained through the winter months and it was the first thing my eyes looked at and unconsciously looked for while looking out of the window. Now that I think about it Parks in England have had to fence off over the years to prevent the indigent from camping out and sadly likewise in Guyana where it seems the amount of people unable to cope with the 21st Century have increased.
I mentioned my acquaintance because having a high social awareness she was active in leading the 'camping outside' Parliament and 'deter Chris Brown from coming to Guyana' protests. Unfortunately she is also convinced that the HPV vaccine is not a good thing and her next pet project is to get Medical Terminations of pregnancies done through the Public Health system. As trained personnel don't just drop out of heaven this would realistically not be feasible until another 3-5yrs or so but there ought to be some sort of Forum where citizens can voice their concerns and direct all that energy and passion as my view is I prefer to hear them rather than the horrible apathy at seems to pervade and suck all the Life Energy out of you.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Show them how it's meant to be New York!
I note in today's Stabroek News that the teenager who performed exceptionally well at High School and was rewarded with a car by his parents had the book thrown at him up in NY where the family had migrated.
A brief recap of the story - the 17yr decided to go driving in Long Island at 3am with three other friend after they had smoked marijuana. As a provisional driver he needed to have another licensed driver in the car with him. Of course a cocksure young male would speed and subsequently lost control of his vehicle at a tricky turn - the three friends died. The papers reported that last Friday he was charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, vehicle manslaughter and driving while impaired with drugs (Ha to Colorado who just passed State Laws allowing personal use quantities of marijuana!) and could face 25yrs in jail-- unlikely to have to serve the full sentence in America's overcrowded jails- AND the parents were both fined a small nominal fine with the possibility of jail-time.
Now I didn't read of any protesting, burning down buildings etc-- the people accepted their penance for their stupidity meekly. Not so in Guyana where it seems the more aggressive you are on the Roadways 'you win'. It is de rigueur for ignorant males ( usually) to be cruising along with a cell phone here on the Streets of Guyana, frequently past a Traffic Cop-- I have heard of instances where people have been charged but it's usually the ones the Police think they can bully - shame the same treatment is not meted out across the Board, in a small country-- it's usually who you know who can get you off the hook.
Ironically in the same papers - very next page in fact-- there was a photo of World Day of Remembrance of road traffic victims. With the Government being proud of the fact that they have no viable Public Transport Policy and that carownership has exploded within the last two years while no planned major improvements on roads designed for limited traffic plus the perception that the general level of intelligence seems to have dropped inversely proportional to aggressive behaviour - as exemplified by the current lot in Parliament on all sides, we are all set for a SERIOUS rise in Traffic Accidents.
It's not like we don't have sensible Laws, simply that they are not enforced and the Courts are a joke - you get the feeling that the mice are in charge, the cats gave up and migrated leaving just the Fat indolent ones!
A brief recap of the story - the 17yr decided to go driving in Long Island at 3am with three other friend after they had smoked marijuana. As a provisional driver he needed to have another licensed driver in the car with him. Of course a cocksure young male would speed and subsequently lost control of his vehicle at a tricky turn - the three friends died. The papers reported that last Friday he was charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, vehicle manslaughter and driving while impaired with drugs (Ha to Colorado who just passed State Laws allowing personal use quantities of marijuana!) and could face 25yrs in jail-- unlikely to have to serve the full sentence in America's overcrowded jails- AND the parents were both fined a small nominal fine with the possibility of jail-time.
Now I didn't read of any protesting, burning down buildings etc-- the people accepted their penance for their stupidity meekly. Not so in Guyana where it seems the more aggressive you are on the Roadways 'you win'. It is de rigueur for ignorant males ( usually) to be cruising along with a cell phone here on the Streets of Guyana, frequently past a Traffic Cop-- I have heard of instances where people have been charged but it's usually the ones the Police think they can bully - shame the same treatment is not meted out across the Board, in a small country-- it's usually who you know who can get you off the hook.
Ironically in the same papers - very next page in fact-- there was a photo of World Day of Remembrance of road traffic victims. With the Government being proud of the fact that they have no viable Public Transport Policy and that carownership has exploded within the last two years while no planned major improvements on roads designed for limited traffic plus the perception that the general level of intelligence seems to have dropped inversely proportional to aggressive behaviour - as exemplified by the current lot in Parliament on all sides, we are all set for a SERIOUS rise in Traffic Accidents.
It's not like we don't have sensible Laws, simply that they are not enforced and the Courts are a joke - you get the feeling that the mice are in charge, the cats gave up and migrated leaving just the Fat indolent ones!
Friday, November 9, 2012
Trekking to the Top of Roraima -1
Strange how sometimes the most incredible things that we do, we do without thinking too much of it -- like producing a child (women), met a guy who casually said he designed a water system to move water from a stream about 70m to a house above in the interior and I trekked to the top of Roraima from the Venezuelan side with my unfit self complete with weak knees and ankles!
The top of Roraima is said to be one of the wettest places on earth due to the almost constant billowing clouds and frequent rainfall. Standing at the highest point of Guyana where the borders of Venezuela and Brazil meet, it is roughly 2700m high, being flattened on the top - called a tepui in these parts (mesa in the US, table-top in South Africa) which means temperatures often fall below freezing when the sun is not present.
The adventure started in Lethem where we got conned/persuaded to change money into Rials being told that it was a better rate of exchange here than in Venezuela (wasn't) but as we had the Time and now Brazilian money we eschewed a taxi directly to the Venezuelan border for the Public Transport bus from Bom Fim to Manaus where, we were told that we could get another bus to the border. Mich chatted up an Amerindian man and his family to find out how we should pay and we were blown away at the low cost! Unfortunately when we got there we discovered that we had JUST missed the Bus to the Border which apparently decided to leave early. Spirits still up we booked into a hotel near the station whose charges ate up whatever we saved on the taxi (and more!) and wandered out into the rainy night to one of the open-air eating places-- Brazilians love to eat al freso.
Opting for the easy way out-- we agreed to pay Carlos to lug our main backpacks up the mountain - money well spent I may add - and then wandered around to check out the shops - walked to someone's home that was a living museum of the some of the Crystals found on top of the mountain - depend whether you believe they have mystical properties or not but we took turns to stand in the Circle and absorb some energy - nothing like making sure you have all bases covered for coming down in one piece!
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| Odd Rock formations and ever-present mist |
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| The top of Roraima on the Guyana side-- too rough for even a helicopter to land |
The next day we got the bus to the Brazil-Venezuela border and the scenery was pretty spectacular in places once we got off the savannah lands so I was glad we travelled during the day. The bus was freezingly cold! A quick snack and then we walked to catch a couple of taxis to get into Venezuela with another Brazilian/Guyanese Amerindian family. Our main thought was to not get conned so we pretended to be part of the family-- the border Guards obviously need spectacles because we obviously didn't look like the family in ANY way but I can now sleep easy knowing how secure the Borders are from the Druggies and Terrorists. The taxi dropped us off to the hotel in St Elena which was tightly locked - we tried calling at the family house opposite but the woman had apparently gone out. Not wanting to look like the obvious tourists that we were we booked into the competition next door-- Hotel Michelle then wandered up the road to the Square, took some pictures of the inevitable Simon Bolivar, chatted with a Spanish woman selling trinkets to finance her 3yr South American tour and collapsed gratefully into a Chinese Restaurant for a meal.
Siesta time over, we made contact with our Tour Operators and found out that one of Mich's previous work colleagues was one of the Porters!
Opting for the easy way out-- we agreed to pay Carlos to lug our main backpacks up the mountain - money well spent I may add - and then wandered around to check out the shops - walked to someone's home that was a living museum of the some of the Crystals found on top of the mountain - depend whether you believe they have mystical properties or not but we took turns to stand in the Circle and absorb some energy - nothing like making sure you have all bases covered for coming down in one piece!
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