There are some things of which we speak not and do not wish to hear as Guyanese. We are so far gone with those priorities that stir and excite that even the COVID-19 pandemic and its relentless creep in Guyana fails to bring the appropriate response. The pandemic’s continuing alarming number of confirmed cases and its steady trickle of unnerving deaths are shrugged off almost as if they are non-events. It is a snapshot of the major things in local life, the things that are so needed here, but are rarely touched, against those ingredients that trigger joy and close identification.
Look at us and listen to us. There is neither pause nor place for either inclusive governance nor the truths of racial understandings that could lead to some form of partial mending. Because the conversations and connections on these are so lacking, there is nothing that could help towards vitally imperative social and national reconciliation. Nobody cares for such visions, or any of their related ideals, or what they hold as promises for a better Guyana. There is a lot of talking and jawing, but no real listening or moving.
Nobody at the top and in the places where self-congratulation flow like champagne have time for inclusion of any kind. Somehow, it is believed that this will pacify and build, while close to half of this heaving society is filled with anger, even malice incalculable. As usual, the people at the bottom will vent their viciousness on each other while their leaders and the surrounding casts seek comfort behind bodyguards, bulletproof protections, and the usual carefully scripted platitudes.
Then, there was constitutional reform that enjoyed its shiny moment in the sun, only to fade into oblivion after the cries that were raised on that score. Now it feels like the day after a funeral. It is where everybody is gone. The house is empty, with the drapes pulled down. Everything and everyone are trapped in the freeze of a standstill.
Most of those, who were guardians of this or that, and railed against everything that was not, have gone on to green pastures. This is what men and women existed for in this country: what is in it for them, and on this they learned from the major players, who are experts at the self-serving enriching. The racial masses will just have to fend for themselves, while they fend off those on the otherside from tearing out their throats.
The big boys and big girls go to their big jobs with big cars and big rewards. What is there not to like about the rewards of the political and racial sweepstakes played in this country. In the meantime, the little people wonder, yet again, what happened to the visions and aspirations of those tricksters that now enjoy upward political mobility, while they are left behind again. While they deal with the meager crumbs that come their way.
These are presented as the partial sum of our dispiriting truths, and on that we erect building blocks for reconciliation. The knowledge comes that such things mean nothing here, since they are made of sand only and will crumble under the slightest tension. This is where the peoples of this society exist, where they claw and clobber one another. That is the reconciliation of our streets and villages, the ledger of our contradictions fueled by politics and elections, and ambitions over oil, of course. We do not have to journey to the United States to compete in its crab barrels and join in the rat races, we have those two right here. It is why we barrel down on each other with unrestrained rancor, with hearts full of hate. That is our truth, and it remains unaddressed and untouched.
The big boss of this land did pontificate about transparency. He should look at himself, and see what all of the world sees, as to the transparency of his hypocrisies. Last, there is that supporting cabal of newcomers, who were loud and proud in their dissertations about constitutional reform and clean governance, and inclusion. Where are they now? They are in political heaven having collected their silver for betraying those who believed.
