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In a state of denial

Jun 24, 2008 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
It seems as if some leaders in the Afro-community in Guyana will go to their graves in a state of denial. Basic logic demands that, for someone to treat an ailment, the ailment has to be clearly diagnosed; for someone to move forward positively, he must be positive in his thinking. Denial will get the black collective nowhere.

I have said in several pieces in the letter columns that prosperity and poverty are not handouts of nature or based on ethnicity. They are deliberate acts committed by and upon ourselves.

For instance, why are India, or China, or Japan, who were all subjected to British tyranny for centuries, now being ranked among the most prosperous nations?

And why are African countries, subject to similar earlier occupation, always in wars and ethnic cleansing, and keep anchoring themselves in the distant past, and are literally the begging bowl of the world?

Therein lies the answer for the black collective. The intellectualization by many black academics and leaders is intent on their own self-worth and recognition: they capitalize on the psyche of the black (less intelligent) mass, who parrot their viewpoints and follow them unquestioningly.

The current issue of children in ‘Fine Man’ Rawlins’s gang has evoked defensive, even justifiable, comments from many black academics.

They want (someone, not them) to ascertain why black youths are being sucked into crime, why the Police chase after black youths.

I make bold to say that, under the PNC regime, black youths were killed; under the PPP regime black youths are being killed; and were there to be an AFC regime, black youths will be killed.

Why are not Indians, or Chinese, or Portuguese youths being pursued and killed? For starters, they were not lookouts for criminal groups; the numbers of those astray are nowhere near black youths who are astray.

Indian parents have a stronger hold on their children; Indian communities report and otherwise isolate criminal elements in their midst. Black communities hide their criminals.
Then there is the question of single parentage. In which ethnic group is single parentage more prevalent?

I was in a formal meeting one evening when a black single parent (proudly) announced that she was a single parent of four children for three fathers, has to work as a security guard, cannot supervise her children, and Government has to provide for her children.

Can we get more ridiculous than that?
We are blocking the Wismar/ Mackenzie Bridge because of proposed increase in electricity charges.

Will we be bold enough to accept that many of us in several black villages are not paying for the electricity we use? We steal it. Will Lindeners accept that they enjoyed free electricity for decades and that they are now required to pay less for electricity than the rest of Guyana?

Fellow blacks, Obama will not change our lot; your local black politicians and academics will worsen your lot. Leaders in the Caribbean and in Africa will not better it. Only we, by our hard work, can bring us back to be a proud and respected (not feared) collective.

The truth, my brothers and sisters, is as simple as that. However, it would not surprise me that our politicians and academics will continue to blame everybody else but themselves.

That is how they make a living. They are not interested in building our country; they are interested in how much we bloat their egos at our expense.
Godfrey Skeete
(Ex-soldier)

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