Regardless, some have a yearning to help Guyana

Nov 10, 2010 Letters

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Dear Sir,
I observed that of recent, over the past two years or so, a certain newspaper would not publish anything I wrote that is critical of the government and country, and another would not publish anything I wrote that is critical and at the same time offers feasible solutions to the problems I wrote about.
I guess this other newspaper, in its fanatical fervour to see the government (and country) fail, is only interested in criticisms, not corrections.
As a nationalist, and like all overseas-based Guyanese who desperately hurt to see the extent to which our beloved country hemorrhages, our nationalism supercedes our race and political loyalty.
We hurt terribly by the visible causes of this hemorrhage – the rising incidence of domestic violence, carnal knowledge, and road carnage, the carnival mini-bus culture, the loss of values in society whereby people blast their neighbors’ eardrums out, and thieves exterminate remorselessly for a few measly dollars, while so many hypocritical others prefer the dishonest dollar to the sweaty cent, and corruption reeks to the heavens.
But the anger in me exceeds the hurt when I hear the political rationalizations and hackneyed statements such as, “other countries have worse statistics,” or, “we will not stand by idly and watch this happen”, or that much abused one “zero tolerance”.
These are all stale leftover statements from the communist era and the people who continue to utter them are stuck in a time warp. And imagine some newspapers carry that as headline news. I would like to think that happenings are news, not vain, hackneyed speeches by politicians.
Recently a law was passed to the effect that officials will be held accountable for their offices and functions. But laws, policies etc are a waste if there is no potential to enforce them. This, like so many other good legislations and policies, seems just plain hypocritical or ostentatious.
If not, why were the QC teachers let off the hook for gross negligence in the Neesa Gopaul case? Or why did the government bend to the blackmailing pressure of the president of the teachers union? What about the law against noise pollution? Why is that law gathering dust?
One would think that for every complaint against excessive noise or domestic violence there would be at least one (or perhaps ten) persons charged. But no. All we hear is the sound of tinkling cymbals and stereotype statements from those who love to hear themselves bray.
Also, someone should remind our esteemed economists that development is not only measured by the growth rate of gross domestic product, but equally by the elevation of morals and values in society, the cleanliness of our environment, the increasing interest in aesthetics (fine arts, music and sports), the general mental and spiritual health of the people, and most importantly, a platonic regard for our fellow human beings. Development must advance us out of our primitive desires to just fill our bellies and pockets. But by all appearances, this government simply ignores the quality of life issues and only concentrates on macro infrastructural development of building schools, hospitals, roads and bridges. We need to build homes not just houses.
Recently, following the Neesa Gopaul tragedy, I wrote to the government stating that I was a social psychologist with nearly thirty years experience in the fields of education and social work, and as a retired writer of policy and procedures with the largest child care agency in the world, I was offering my assistance, free of charge, to help nurture their child care and protection agency to make it function more effectively and professionally.
I was not even favoured with the decency of a reply. Yet the President, soon after, came to New York exhorting non-resident Guyanese to participate in the country’s development process, while the Minister of Human Services went on a trip to the States seeking assistance from the Social Work department of a university.
Talk about lip service.
Not discouraged by their nonchalance, I followed through with a letter to a newspaper after that newspaper had reported an incident that I termed, “Neesa Gopaul déjà vu”.   I decided that since the government apparently did not want my assistance, I was going to give it anyway.
I wrote about the procedures and supportive steps that should be taken when removing an alleged abused victim. I wrote about empowering the guardians of society (social workers, police, nurses, doctors, members of the legal profession, justices of the peace, teachers, civil servants and journalists) with a mandate to report all incidents they witness or suspect of child abuse, and the consequences of their not doing so.
I wrote about the setting up of a foster parent bank whereby families volunteer and register to provide foster care services to these victims. I also stated that “I would like to contribute more on the procedures involved in setting up a functional child care system, the content of training for foster parents as well as child care workers, child counseling and protection of victims, rehabilitation of or legal courses of action against perpetrators and the role of the court in child abuse cases, returning children to rehabilitated parents or actions to take if they fail to
comply, and many other related issues”.
Sadly, that newspaper did not find my contribution worthy of publishing.
But I would like to say to that newspaper and to the people in power that we overseas Guyanese do not see our contribution in terms of race or politics. We sincerely want to contribute because even though some of us have lived overseas for up to five decades, we still call Guyana home. Like the ancient Jewish people by the rivers of Babylon, we yearn to return to a place that was dear to us when we left and we still see it as pristine and maternally beautiful as when we left.  We love Guyana because as they say, “our navel string chook dere.”
Gokarran Sukhdeo

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