simple farmer

Dear Sir:

I write to congratulate Mr. Errol Hannoman and the Guysuco board for their latest innovation, just in time payroll. I am of the opinion that they have not received their just accolades and praise for their pioneering and innovative efforts in keeping king sugar alive and kicking.

I was fortunate to observe the system at work at Wales Estate last week as workers lined up for hours waiting on the payroll to arrive. It wasn’t just in time, but it’s understandable that you will encounter hiccups in the early stages of implementing a system as complex as just in time payroll.

It was such a momentous occasion; market day was brought forward one day. The previous week there was market day but the payroll did not arrive. We can call that a trial run of sorts. The shifting of market day is
significant as it shows the entire community demonstrating great flexibility in embracing this new innovation.

It would be of great value if Mr. Hannoman could provide ship arrival and departure schedules. This would greatly assist those of us who have fortunes tied up with Guysuco in fine tuning our inventory levels.

Sticking with the theme of deception, I recently received an email update from the Guyana Consulate in New York. In this latest dispatch from the Big Apple the headline screamed ‘Investments this year surpass expectations – Head, Go-Invest’

This email was extremely long as it was a recap of 2009. I made myself comfortable and settled in for one of my favourite hobbies – gem spotting. For the record let me admit that I am no gemologist but I was able to recognise a few Guyana semi-precious stones.

Paragraph one opens with what I thought was brilliant red Jasper (“420 projects for this year thus far”)

Three paragraphs later brilliant red jasper morphed into blue soapstone (“So far we are working with over 420 projects; I would say about half of those rolled over from 2008″)

For the next 15 paragraphs I spotted a magnificent Amethyst (Greek for not intoxicated), two Agates, a couple Black Pearls and a Green Quartz. Upon reaching paragraph 21 my status as a gem neophyte left me crudely exposed. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

“In the financial sector, two banks have been constructed in the Lethem area, while another is being encouraged in Region One.”

This gem is a rare one and to date the Consulate General in New York has not replied to my email querying it origin or nomenclature. I’ll give them some more time as it is a long journey from New York to Lethem.

Mr. Editor I recently returned from Lethem and had there is only one bank visible to the naked eye. GBTI has a branch located at Lot 121 Lethem, not far from the Regional Office. As it relates to Region 1, I will do additional research on how I can encourage a bank into existence.

For now I await a response from the Consulate which could determine whether I need to visit DaSilva’s House of Optics, a business which does exist in Lethem. And for the skeptics who may question my methods, this is how I go about determining existence. First the entity must be visible to the naked eye and second it must render a service.

I know for sure GBTI exists because I’ve seen the entity, spoken to two employees about services rendered by the bank. For additional confirmation I spoke to someone with an account at GBTI Lethem.

Additional elements worthy of consideration: a shifting series of phantasms, multiple illusions, deceptive appearances as appearing in a dream or as created by a person with an imagination.

There’s a common thread that binds the two acts together (just in time and gem spotting), in both cases the banks simply disappeared. Welcome to the age of phantasmagoria.