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Mexican divorce: Please don’t argue against common sense!

Nov 13, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Two things I never got to discuss with David de Caires, the reason being that I never really got to know him and hardly had a conversation with him.

Last year, in the coolness of the early morning, I saw him strolling in the National Park, and when he came into my path, I wanted to chat with him but I didn’t.

First, why did Stabroek News so harshly editorialise against the introduction of casinos? Was it the church people that wrote those editorials?

I couldn’t believe David would rant against casinos. I could understand the perspective of religious persons but not someone like David de Caires.

Church people use their arguments based on the teachings of their religious texts. It is hard for them to see that with changing times, some religious principles become irrelevant.

In what ways would Guyana become a worse place to live when casinos become a reality? I am contending that there cannot be a logical argument against it. One response was that it would compel working people with limited money to throw it away in gambling.

The word “asinine” is not too strong to use here because this is what such an approach is. The Government of Guyana bought into that non-logic and has inserted into the legislation the prohibition of Guyanese playing at the table. Who says poor people would pass within a million miles of those fancy hotels?

The second thing I wanted to ask David was why the fuss Stabroek News made about citizens enjoying the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday evenings between D’Aguair’s Turn and the Texaco service station.

A unique characteristic of Georgetown is that the Atlantic Ocean runs across the city. In most countries citizens would devour that attraction.

For over a century that part of Georgetown didn’t have lights. When they came, the desire to have fun came with them.

There is a Greek student who left Guyana last week. He is doing a doctorate on Guyanese politics. I asked him about night life in Greece. His answer was; “There is more night life than day life in Greece.”

I could understand the way the folks of Subryanville feel but modern times have arrived in Guyana and people want to romance the Atlantic. Let them do it.

In this life, every human being has to understand that time passes on and old reality gives way to newer ones. One shudders to think what is inside the head of a person who doesn’t understand that logic.

Countless values had the legal backing in the era that they were formed. Time has rendered many of those values irrelevant.

The two most egregious ones I can think of are: the second-class status of Afro-Americans in the first half of the 20th century and the recognition of women being inferior to me in the 19th century. No one can be that crazy to still have those beliefs.

I remember I had a very bitter argument with attorney, Bernard De Santos, over the role of changing times.
When the University of Guyana was formed in 1963, the statutes prevented a lecturer from sitting in as a trade unionist in the renewal of lecturers’ contract.

At the time, it was a universal norm that workers be present to defend their employment rights. After more that forty years that statute remained at UG until one night, I got up and asked that it be removed.

Mr. De Santos said we must leave it because the people that put it there knew why they did that. He was right. At the time they had a reason but the passage of time made that motive obsolete. It was removed.

Our divorce laws came into existence ninety-six years ago. Laws were not made to be written in stone. If a person wants to leave a marriage that is a fundamental right that he/she is entitled to. The proposed change in our divorce laws is a commonsensical approach.

The hope is that every citizen supports the change based on common sense. More importantly, the reform must be seen within the contexts of rights.

Why should a person that feels that his/her liberty, freedom, mental tranquility will be jeopardised if he/she remains in a marriage be compelled by a century-old law to remain in the covenant?

A few things in this country have become overdue for change. The old divorce laws must go. Guyanese are leaving en masse and they settle in countries that have far more modern laws than us.

Can you imagine you can end up in jail for possession of a smoking utensil even if you have not even a marijuana leaf on you? That is stupidity!

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