Instant holidays Editorial Stabroek News February 22, 2001 So Guyana finally has a boxing world champion. Everyone is surely happy about that. And everyone is surely happy that the President has announced that the new champion will be given a house and land on his return to Guyana. In addition, everyone will surely be happy that a national holiday has been declared in his honour - he deserves it. But amid all of this happiness there is one niggling question which insinuates itself, namely, did it really have to be an instant holiday? Here we are struggling to move into the technological age, with all that that implies. We haven't reached there yet, but the society is still not the leisurely community it once was, and sudden holidays granted without advance notification can cause untold disruption to businesses, and even to domestic arrangements. In addition, the closure without warning of commercial outlets, not to mention the public service can have all kinds of ramifications in terms of cost, as those engaged in import and export activities, to cite but one example, will know only too well. It is not as if there have not been complaints in the past when an ad hoc free day has struck an unsuspecting population unprepared. It has not been unknown, for example, for the Ministry of Education to grant pupils a sudden furlough following good examination results, causing great inconvenience to working parents who at short notice have had to make alternative arrangements for children on what would otherwise have been a school day. It might be noted in passing, that technically, the Government is supposed to gazette any incidental holiday. The Public Holidays Act (Cap 19:07) states as follows in section 6: "The Minister may by notification in the Gazette appoint any day to be observed as a public holiday in addition to or in substitution for any day mentioned in section 3..." Not just common sense, therefore, but even the law requires notification. While one can understand the sense of euphoria which motivated the decision to make Monday, February 19 a national holiday, there is no rational reason why it had to be that particular day. Why not when Mr Lewis returned to Guyana, for instance? Or, if the date of that was uncertain, why not next Monday, giving the public an extended Mashramani weekend? The point is, the date selected did not have to be so proximate in time to the victory; the effect of the day would have been the same if warning had been given. Modern commerce requires planning, and if the Government is serious about encouraging investment and economic development, it will, perhaps, bear that in mind in the future should an occasion present itself requiring commemoration with a national holiday. Follow the goings-on in Guyana in Guyana Today If you do not see the 'Guyana: Land of Six Peoples' drop-down menu on the left then please click here to enter through the front door which will give you additional options and information.