Dear Editor,
Some things are best described as senseless or insensitive, plainly lacking any commonsense. Then there are those instances, even when exploratory, that are so far out as to be beyond either comprehension or imagination. Those toll hikes announced for the Berbice Bridge fall effortlessly and jarringly into these realms. A mere fraction of those hikes, were it to be sanctioned, has the potential to unleash intense pain all over. The struggle here is to be temperate towards a toll development that is tantamount to aggravated battery on one’s consciousness; no rationalisation can neutralise this corporate repugnance engendered by prior political chicanery.
A 300-plus percent increase on anything, is more than unbelievable; it is crippling. A premeditated cold-blooded exercise it is. For residents of the ancient county, this is a proposal that could hurl them back into a Dark Age, economically speaking. When a facility is used frequently, as in at least weekly for many, 300-plus percent makes it prohibitive and way out of reach. It would still be so if the service had to be accessed once a year. Even if I were to pretend that cars (largely private), can manage the spike from under $3,000 to over $8,000, the same cannot be tried with pickups staring at over $14,000 versus the old less than $4,000 charge; or large trucks spiraling from under $13,000 to near $50,000.
No one should need any enlightenment as to the commercial nature of the cargoes being shipped in both directions in those larger vehicles. I assert that though the economic pain and injury would pierce Berbicians more, the accompanying malaise and contractions would not be limited to those citizens only. Berbice is not a state existing in a vacuum of its own; its’ hurting from the announced increases would be even more pronounced coming in the wake of still registering GuySuCo traumas. But I envision the hurt would be national in sting.
Editor, I submit that none could be so unwise as to believe that these increases (at whatever level finalised), would be absorbed by the commercial truckers and operators alone; I recommend sparing some consideration for the materials that are carted in either direction, and those who must pay to consume them. The economic pain is sure to surge downstream into the mainstream. I offer a separate point to ponder: parking meters are contemplated and white-collar guerilla warfare erupted in the uncivilised streets. For a few hundred dollars an hour, men railed against, and orchestrated canny protests. I wonder what is going to happen today when far more dollars (thousands) are at stake, and not just from the immediate ransom of the increased tolls.
In the midst of what is going to get real nasty and deteriorate even further, it is easy but pointless to denounce the political masters who were much in bed with the machinations that led to the monstrosities now being brought to bear on the Guyanese people. I observe the savage irony of these crass hypocrites braying today about no increase now and none in the future. It may make for good political theatre to the ears of innocents; but it identifies them all as betrayers and sellouts of the worst strain possible. The dirty deeds engineered at the inception are done; the loan sharks now circle to collect the vigorish owed. Investors they are called.
As if this is not anger-inducing enough, I urge citizens from all over to recall the ugly barbarities that washed over this particular bridge construction development in its still short lifespan: private sector people alleged job loss because of political vindictiveness; a national institution serving the nation’s workers is hobbled; and rich secretive arrangements involving insiders (and relations) at venerable private entities, sketch only a partial picture.
And now, there is the bill due, as embedded in this demand for a 300-plus percent pound of flesh. A landmark was celebrated back then; a menacing landslide today hangs over the head and threatens to bury. It is not limited by geography; again, this is a surcharge with national implications. I say that the clinical label of trickle-down effects falls way short; these toll hikes incorporate a tsunami of misery.
This is my final word; any toll increases finalised cannot be either 365% or even one-tenth of that. If an increase at all, it just might be a tenth of a tenth of what has been broadcast. It is time that a hard message is sent: dirty players who partner with venal politicians to gouge the unsuspecting must be made to pay. Just as the public is forced to do. And my very last word is this: I wonder if the minibus people were to do something related (100%) to their fares, how well that would be received?
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
