Never-ending…struggle

Your Eyewitness returns once again to the vexed subject of vendors in Georgetown – but this time with the ones in the area in front of the Stabroek Market. Now we gotta call it for what it is – vending’s gone beyond being a nuisance in terms of anyone wishing to traverse Georgetown on foot!! It’s a hazard that has been allowed to get completely out of hand, and as such today, it defies all efforts to bring some kinda order to the practice. If he sounds a tad hysterical, it’s because he was once robbed at knife-point in that locale – while vendors just snickered at his predicament!!
The problem is we don’t have proper rules and regulations to control vending: it seems anyone willing to pass a bribe to any city Constable can literally set up shop wherever he or she pleases!! Compare this with, say, NYC, which most of us consider to be lawlessness incarnated!! Maybe it is – but under rules!! Take vending – which we all know abounds in the Big Apple!!
Their rule is simple – every vendor gotta be licensed within the limits for every category of vending for every area!! Then about the specific spot – the rule is: “Vending is only allowed on a sidewalk that has a 12-foot clear path for pedestrians; No vending is allowed within 20 feet of a building entrance or within 10 feet of any subway entrance or crosswalk; Certain vending is not allowed on any ventilation grill, cellar door, or on the sidewalk abutting a no-standing zone that is adjacent to a hospital. There are limits on the size of vending tables, pushcarts, and vehicles. Additionally, MFVs are subject to various health, food safety, and sanitation requirements in the City Health Code and State Sanitary Code and enforced by DOHMH.” See??
So how come those insisting GT is their personal fiefdom – first the PNC and now WIN – don’t suggest that the “beautification program” of the Stabroek Market environs by the Local Government Ministry isn’t an opportunity to introduce such rules?? The approach by PNC’s Ganesh Mahipaul – the “shadow” of WIN’s “shadow” to Local Government Minister Priya Manickchand!! – is rather typical. He complained that “no meaningful consultation was conducted with the many ordinary Guyanese who earn their livelihood in this space – vendors, single mothers, fathers, youths, and small entrepreneurs – who rely daily on this area to make an honest living”!! They were being inconvenienced for two weeks while a concrete stage was being constructed for them to ply their wares!!
Now this is the lawlessness your Eyewitness is speaking about!! Which of those vendors are ‘making an honest living’?? Can they produce licences and certifications that they aren’t nuisances – but legitimate vendors??
Who’ll stop this confounded nonsense??

…mayhem
There used to be an old caution for drivers – “speed kills”!! But it’s clear that in Guyana another mantra prevails – “speed thrills”!! And it would seem that the risk that the speedsters – who emulate Formula One driving on Guyana’s roads as if we were the Monte Carlo tracks – court for being killed is part of the thrill. And they’re thrilled to death that the Government seems to be facilitating their death wishes by rolling out highways like mothers used to roll out rotis!!
The problem with this point of view is that in many instances the wannabe F1 drivers also kill those on the highways and roadways – who’re moseying around carefully complying with the speed limits!! Well, the Government’s trying to get some control over the carnage on our roads by finally using those cameras they’ve installed on the highways – to penalise those who habitually drive like maniacs on the highways!!
Can you imagine one person chalking up $412,500 in fines?? Jail them and throw away the keys!!

…standoff
Seems that Sanction Man’s learnt a lesson from his anti-extradition manoeuvres!! He ain’t going to court to break the 9-9 tie between WIN and APNU over the Region One chair. Says that would delay the vote!!