For all the reality that the protracted closure of the City Mall has created hardships for people who ply their trade inside the facility (the same can be said for other businesses across the country), not everyone will be particularly comforted by its sudden re-opening.
We must be clear on one thing. The difficulties associated with vendors not being able to earn and the consequences that attend that circumstance cannot be overstated. Those who are not affected by that problem cannot, arguably, fully appreciate the dilemma of those who do. There is, however, as we say, ‘the bigger picture.’ The re-opening the City Mall at this time has other equally weighty implications that have to do with the likely impact of such a decision on the behaviour of the COVID-19 pandemic in the period ahead. To rule out that consideration entirely would be an excursion into recklessness!
Two points should be made at this juncture. The first is that it is being constantly suggested (and there appears to be some amount of evidence to support that assertion) that Guyanese have not been responding to the sustained official exhortations regarding social distancing in the approved manner. We have been, some of us, at least, indifferent to the protocols associated with social distancing. The second point, a related one, is that the Regent & Camp Streets entrance to the Mall is customarily heavily populated by taxi drivers, vendors and ‘limers’. It should be added that the City Mall hall, particularly the food court, usually attracts among the largest concentrations of both shoppers and ‘limers’. Contextually, the question arises as to whether the re-opening means business as usual or whether strictures will be put in place against the backdrop of a strictly controlled re-opening. These are questions that need to be answered now.
It has to be said, further, that not enough is being said by the various private sector bodies on the matter of the timing for the safe re-opening of businesses in order that we can be better-assured that the re-openings are not occurring unilaterally and without the appropriate consultation and concurrence by the relevant authorities.
Assuming that the reopening of the City Mall is consistent with official clearance and private sector acquiescence, the public should be suitably notified. That way, we are at least aware, that the re-opening decisions have been subject to some measure of responsible contemplation and that the actions of the business owners are attended by some level of official imprimatur. That, as far as we are aware, has not been forthcoming.
