A large number of persons were directly affected by the protest actions over the murders of Isiah and Joel Henry and were unable to carry out their daily activities over the past few days due to the blocking of the roadways in Regions Five and Six.
The main access road in the regions was blocked with old machinery, pieces of wood and tyres at several locations, including at Number 5, Bellevue, Number 28, Number 40 and Hopetown, resulting in the disruption of traffic. The reads were cleared yesterday.
Rohan Oudit, a contractor said on Wednesday that he was doing some works to seal a breach at the Mahaicony sea defence and had been unable to work since Sunday since he could not move around materials nor could his employees travel to work.
Oudit said he tried a new strategy on Wednesday by having some workers travel to the site via boat. However, up to the afternoon, he said they had not arrived since the route was longer. “They are not on the site at yet. Then we does got to move boulders from Mahaicony Bridge, we does got to carry the boulders from there to the site. So the roads are all blocked up,” he said.
Oudit is also involved in farming. He said he has also been unable to attend to his fields since. “People got rice fah cut. It’s about rice cutting time, just about beginning,” he added.
Another contractor, Peter Lewis expressed that he too has been unable to ply his trade since neither he nor his workers could traverse the roadways.
Lewis said he currently has a client who has hinted at putting an ongoing project on hold until the situation subsides. “I doing some work right now and my worker can’t go because of this uncertainty. More or less it’s the uneasiness in terms of you may lose your business because of this. Persons want to get their work done. I working for a guy and if this thing continue, he say he will stop the work and just wait on and see when things will clear up,” Lewis explained.
“I been home all day when I got other things to do. I got servicing of machine and stuff like that, I can’t do nothing. I got some servicing to do in Linden, but nobody in their righted sense would want to travel. Since Sunday I ain’t leave home. I just come out, walk through the street and just exercise and come home back, that’s it. I prefer to stay indoors,” he added.
“Bad to worse”
According to rice farmer, Rabbie Ramdat, the situation on Wednesday had escalated from bad to worse.
“It’s like we are stuck. We don’t know what to do. It’s a situation where now as of this morning, it has gone from bad to worse…..it has boil down into now what was the original conflict into a full out blown racial issue,” Ramdat noted.
He said persons were traumatized and fearful to venture out of their homes. “….I can’t even, I am supposed to go access spare parts, I can’t go out on the road to go because I am in the middle of protesting on both sides, can’t even get to Rosignol, can’t get to Mahaica. Just have to stay inside,” he said.
Ramdat has rice fields at Mahaicony and Berbice. He said he has been unable to attend to his fields since Saturday. He said he tried to get to his fields on Sunday and was forced to use alternative routes to get back home after his path was blocked by the protests.
“We are farmers. This is hitting close to home. In Berbice we are not so greatly affected because we can use other access roads to get down to the rice fields but we have to traverse the ones at Burma, through Burma Road and the road is blocked at Beladrum, the road is blocked at Burma road and we can’t get to access our fields and with that now, even my staff can’t get to come to work because of this,” Ramdat related.
He said he has a number of tasks to complete but is incapable to do so. “We supposed to start reaping in the next week from now and we have to monitor the fields, we have to move equipment, we have to move machinery and we are at a standstill right now. The rice is at a stage where you have to constantly monitor it for paddy bugs and you have to be in the fields, now is a critical, crucial time. We can’t even move. Right now I am supposed to go spray and the men them not showing up because everybody scared,” he further noted.
Another resident, who owns and operates a grocery shop said many of his shelves are empty and he has been unable to restock because his suppliers are unable to get to his location at Golden Fleece.
“Right now most of the shelves are empty and customers need things like rice, flour and those kind of things,” he said.
The man explained that he has been opening for business but for shorter periods that normal.
He said some businesses in his area have been unable to operate because in one instance the supermarket owner lives in Mahaicony and has been unable to pass the roadblocks.
Additionally, he noted that sales have also declined because persons have not been coming outdoors to shop in fear for their safety. “Some people have been coming because they have to get basic items…..but most of the items are out because remember what we have already sold,” he said.
The circulation of the daily newspapers has also been affected since the suppliers have been unable to travel to the affected areas to provide vendors with their daily copies.
A Stabroek News circulation staffer noted that the company last delivered newspapers to the affected areas on Monday.
He said he managed to travel to these areas and only made his way back to Georgetown after blending in with a number of plain clothes police officers. “I had to hold behind them man like if I deh with them fah get to come back if not I woulda had to stay up there,” he said.
