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Citizens must learn and appreciate the good graces of life and living

May 08, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
The inherent deficiencies in our whole country come from a general lack of pride, civility and common good graces, which state dominance and Party politics have helped to destroy over the years, since independence.
Before independence, when the British ruled Guyana and we were growing up, there was a feeling that we belonged to a country which was going places and independence meant that we would be free to manage our own affairs, but that we would still maintain our pride, civility and good graces.
Today, after 45 years of independence, our environment which we live in is gone to pieces in many respects; just look at Georgetown with grown men urinating openly in our streets, garbage strewn all over the place (even our beloved seawalls), stray dogs in packs roaming our streets, bums and dope addicts sleeping on our pavements, beggars all over the place, streets broken up, lack of proper street lighting, terrible flooding in rainy season, drivers of automobiles rude and impatient on our roads, minibus drivers driving down our city streets at 70 -80 mph., drug dens on many streets, businesses polluting our environment with garbage and plastics, and the list can go on and on and can be repeated all over this country.
Mr. Editor, pride in our country means that whether one is rich or poor, we must all contribute to the feeling that our country is ours and ours alone and thus, we must, by necessity, take good care of every single section of it, regardless of politics, race or religion. We must, first of all protect and defend Guyana from all of those who want to turn it into their own personal fiefdom to plunder, misuse and misdirect our national interests because pride in our country means staying here to make it a better place for our children and their children.
Pride means demanding from our leaders the maximum effort in beautifying our whole country and enacting laws and regulations designed to stop and deter anyone living in this country from interfering with those goals.
The Guyanese nation must learn to engage in civility, and there is good cause for arguing that many of our citizens fail to live up to even modest attempts in being civil to their fellow citizens; minibus drivers need to monitor themselves whenever those who are guilty, continue to show a callous disregard to their passengers and to other vehicles on the roadways and don’t even let us talk about the horrific accidents involving minibuses; certain private and public institutions employ people who are not too civil to the Guyanese public and leave bad impressions behind.
Mr. Editor, the people, the regular citizens, learn from the ‘big shot’ politicians who are rarely civil to their opponents, leaving the citizens who should learn from the example of the leaders, with no real regard for civility in their daily lives.
Mr. Editor, good graces are something the leaders of this nation need to cultivate and maintain for the good of future generations, who will inherit our country. A peaceful environment, socially and politically, is a precondition for the citizens to learn and appreciate the good graces of life and living; the religious leaders have to take a leading and dominant role in this regard and in the peoples’ churches, from the pulpits of Guyana, the citizens need not only learn about their good graces to the almighty but to each other also and to society in general.
Good graces mean standing in line patiently instead of pushing and shoving; being considerate to one’s neighbours; not parking in spaces which are kept for the customers of businesses or in citizens’ driveways; letting pedestrians cross a street instead of speeding past; and the list could go on and on.
Mr. Editor, we as a nation have to come to grips with the fact that many things in our society are not right and we as citizens can start to help fix our country by starting with the basics of having pride in our beautiful country, bringing civility to the fore with human bonds of respect and humility and transferring selfishness and self gratification into good graces; a strong nation is served best by making those intrinsic qualities dominant among it’s citizens.
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr.)

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